Thank You Skip--since1990 4 out of 8 bowls were with Holtz and about to be 5 out of 9

[Rama Jama]

Dawg80, your reputation precedes you. You were demanding that Holtz be fired four games into his first season. You haven't relented since. To you, the glass is always half empty. If Holtz went undefeated one season, you would find something to complain about. It appears that you are one of those people that are happy only when you criticize, condemn or complain. Have you ever considered reading The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale?

The thing I like most about Skip is there have been no big scandals regarding his players. Either he is doing an outstanding job of recruiting young men of character, or he is doing a good job of convincing them to behave while on his team. Perhaps it is some of both. I also hope that he is inspiring his players to perform in the classroom. Wins are always welcome, but I hope Skip is helping the young men to prepare themselves for the reality of life after football.

Now, the thing that I like least about Skip is that he insists on calling the offensive plays. The coaches on the field have some of the worst seats in the house. Our university president and athletic director spent $22-million on a new press box. Skip should let an offensive coordinator use it to his maximum benefit. It sure as heck did nothing to improve my game-day experience.

Great points pro and con. No scandals, word is his players love him, and seems I heard Tech players' graduation rate is very good. I'm sure this is high on the list of "have to haves" with the key Ruston decision makers. And while we don't know every factor that went into Jaylon Ferguson's decision to put off the NFL dollars to come back, it says a lot of the bond that is a reality within the locker room.

Including T1's excellent analysis regarding Holtz thinking too much, Holtz admitted this in a press conference after the UAB debacle. I just hope that part of the course correction is to allow a young gun gunslinger to start calling plays. He can still manage the game, manage it even better IMO. Are you reading this Skip??

Honestly, all Skip needs to do is schedule a Google Hangouts/Facebook Live session ONE TIME with the LouisianaTechBBB crew here and we will give him the master game plan, right? Yeah, you right.

It's game day brothers. See you all on ESPN+. GO DAWGS!

[sharky]

I'll wrap this up for me (hopefully) with my subjective opinion of Holtz. I think he is a thinker, and it hurts him. I think he overthinks this game. It's the opposite of Tony Franklin. Franklin has 5 plays and runs them until you can stop them. It's all about catching the defense off guard with his pace and executing his system and it's up to you to stop it, but I'm going to stick to my system regardless of what you are doing to try to stop it. Holtz examines all this stuff... he bases his game plan on what the other team's tendencies are. He will have a different game plan every week to suit the opponent. We may try to run on UAB and throw on LSU, but that's what we are going to do. If they throw a monkey wrench into what he's seen on film all week, we are screwed (see USM in 2016, second half of ODU game, perhaps UAB this year). He observes what the defensive coordinator is doing during the game and plays chess with that. "He's in a cover 2 this series, we are going to throw crossing patterns, oh crap he moved to a cover 0, we need to throw deep, oh crap he's dropping his safeties deep, we need to run the ball." I'm not as smart as Holtz, but I like Tony's system better... do what you do best and stick with it. Our only strength on this offense this year, is our WR's... get them the ball in space somehow. Drop trying to run the ball, we can't. (I'm sure he would tell me I don't know what I'm talking about and I probably don't).

Another flaw is that he doesn't want to make a mistake to hurt the team. If he's up by 3 points with 6 minutes left, he does not want to call a play that may result in a pick 6 and the loss being his fault (and his dad calling him and telling him how dumb he was after the game). He wants to manage the game and play the odds. What sucks about that is that we usually have a terrible defense, so punting the ball with 4 minutes left usually results in a loss. He needs to remember that our defense usually sucks and maybe being aggressive here and trying to score again would be the best option. It's a tough job and there are many different approaches; his has kept him employed and going to championships and bowl games for a long time. It can be frustrating at times, but odds are, he is going to field a good team. He can be out-coached, but if he has the better players (execution), he will win almost all the time.

First 4 games under Holtz:

Routed by NC State
Lackluster win over Lamar
WTF loss to Tulane
even bigger WTF loss to Kansas

1-3, really 0-3 since FCS shouldn't count.

Nah, I see nothing but great things in those results. Anyone should've been happy at that point...

Your reputation has been cast in concrete. You are the poster-boy for the C3 mindset. Critize-Condemn-Complain. Perhaps you expect Tech to consistently win the money games. If so, how can you be so negative almost all the time, yet be so optimistic when we play the power 5 schools?

Please try to focus on the fact that Tech football has been much better under Holtz than prior to his arrival.°

[latech]

Your reputation has been cast in concrete. You are the poster-boy for the C3 mindset. Critize-Condemn-Complain. Perhaps you expect Tech to consistently win the money games. If so, how can you be so negative almost all the time, yet be so optimistic when we play the power 5 schools?

Please try to focus on the fact that Tech football has been much better under Holtz than prior to his arrival.°

Say what

[SicemDawgz]

We are building something special here in Ruston.

[T1]

Here's how I'm approaching it now: I'm not on this team. I will not let it affect my life. I hope they do well. Against UTEP today, I'm expecting a sloppy Tech win... probably 24-17, or something like that. I know that a tough game like that can go either way if we make more mistakes than they do... it happens every week in college football. NOW... if Tech wins 52-0, I'm thinking, "Wow, that was a great game; they exceeded my expectations! I'm happy with that." But if my frame of mind is that Tech should beat UTEP 52-0 and they barely win a tough game 24-17, I'm probably pissed and thinking Holtz sucks and J'Mar sucks, etc... and I'm pissed until Tuesday and not being a good father, husband, and employee because this stupid game affected my life.

See? I'm a happy guy. 5-2 baby! 😀

[SicemDawgz]

See? I'm a happy guy. 5-2 baby! 😀

COMPETE!! How do you think we were able to contain their QB? I honestly think Jones had his coming out party, and NFL scouts are taking notice.

[T1]

COMPETE!! How do you think we were able to contain their QB? I honestly think Jones had his coming out party, and NFL scouts are taking notice.

I took last season off and didn't see a play. I've followed the team this year. The obvious problem is at QB. A good QB would have put 35 points up by halftime in this game. He's killing this team. Otherwise, this is a good team.... but we can't run the ball, which makes the QB problem that much greater. I want to see what the backup can do.

[latech]

I took last season off and didn't see a play. I've followed the team this year. The obvious problem is at QB. A good QB would have put 35 points up by halftime in this game. He's killing this team. Otherwise, this is a good team.... but we can't run the ball, which makes the QB problem that much greater. I want to see what the backup can do.

you are just about a year late to the party

[T1]

you are just about a year late to the party

Sometimes Sophomores get better in their Junior year. I thought he had a good first 4 games this year. He has sucked in the last 3. Terrible!

[SicemDawgz]

On the “trick play” that Smith scored on, my wife said “why is he turning around and talking smack? Just score!!” Nah babe, he was looking over his shoulder to see if he needed to slide or not.

[SicemDawgz]

That one play tells you one of the things that’s wrong with our offense. They never even looked at him once. Just like on 95% of the read plays we run, but he’s too scared to keep it.

[Bone_afide_Dawg]

Tech has been setting up that QB keeper for half the season... brilliant, NOT! Holtz is really not a very good coach; he doesn’t prepare his team, he doesn’t demand a higher level of play from his QB (the single most important player), he doesn’t adjust to game situations and he can’t change his style of play... he doesn’t dictate what’s going to happen, he just goes with it good or bad. I don’t see him ever over achieving.

[Amos Moses]

On the “trick play” that Smith scored on, my wife said “why is he turning around and talking smack? Just score!!” Nah babe, he was looking over his shoulder to see if he needed to slide or not.

The way he was carrying the ball, like a dirty #2 diaper, I was cringing and just hoping he wouldn't drop it like he did earlier.

[BruceWillisDawg]

In 1990 we went to a bowl game 1 of only 19 total with an 8 win season
In 1990 onky 35% of all D1 teams got a bowl bid
In 2018 a whopping 65% of all FBS teams will go bowling
I’m glad we have established a winning program but going bowling is the least we should do every year; otherwise we are in the 35th percentile which is like making a 15 on the ACT
Certainly not TOPS excuse the pun

[olddog75]

What big game did Sonny win? I can only think of at Nevada in 2011 (#48) off the top of my head. His 3 P5 wins were against #133 Illinois, #84 Virginia (barely), and #110 Ole Miss. 0-7 versus teams in the Top 35 (A$M x 2, Boise St, USM, Houston, Miss St, TCU). That dude's been garbage since he left Tech.

So Dump Ass Dykes didn't have any big wins; so he is in the same boat with Skippy sitting at 5.5 years of trying.