11/17: @ Southern Miss

[johnnylightnin]

As a bystander, I'll try to give you the 50 cent tour to all of this. An honest view. Very few people on this board or in the fanbase want a coaching change. Skip is a good guy who has built a solid G5 program. We have depth at most positions and have had solid recruiting classes. But most of us know Skip - at some point - is going to have to change the offensive philosophy he's adopted in the past few years.

I just don't see how that is going to happen. Is TMac supposed to mandate a change in philosophy? That's an honest question for the folks that don't think Skip should be fired, but they demand change...how is that going to work out? What would you LIKE to see happen?

[sportdawg]

I just don't see how that is going to happen. Is TMac supposed to mandate a change in philosophy? That's an honest question for the folks that don't think Skip should be fired, but they demand change...how is that going to work out? What would you LIKE to see happen?

I'd like to see the 2014, 2015 & 2016 offenses back (with the current defense)!

2013 Points/G: 19.2 (112th of 125)
2014 Points/G: 37.4 (14th of 128)
2015 Points/G: 37.5 (19th of 128)
2016 Points/G: 44.3 (2nd of 128)
2017 Points/G: 30.5 (48th of 130)
2018 Points/G: 25.0 (97th of 130)

[johnnylightnin]

I'd like to see the 2014, 2015 & 2016 offenses back (with the current defense)!

2013 Points/G: 19.2 (112th of 125)
2014 Points/G: 37.4 (14th of 128)
2015 Points/G: 37.5 (19th of 128)
2016 Points/G: 44.3 (2nd of 128)
2017 Points/G: 30.5 (48th of 130)
2018 Points/G: 25.0 (97th of 130)

I think that even in those years we tended to move like the best O in the country between the 20s, but have struggled in the red zone to get 6 instead of 3.

[T1]

Your expectations can be better served by the school 30 miles to the east...

I think my expectations are similar to the USM fan's expectations. Bowl game every year with minimum 6 wins. Really good every once in a while when all the parts come together for a championship run on a special team.

[sportdawg]

I think that even in those years we tended to move like the best O in the country between the 20s, but have struggled in the red zone to get 6 instead of 3.

Those teams scored on big plays and we didn't need a redzone offense

One great year (2014, 2 horrible 2013/2017, 3 pedestrian)

Redzone Offense

2018 40 Att/26 TD (65% - #47)/9 FG
2017 54 Att/28 TD (52% - #115)/18 FG
2016 69 Att/44 TD (64% - #49)/15 FG
2015 56 Att/35 TD (63% - #53)/14 FG
2014 55 Att/40 TD (73% - #7)/9 FG
2013 43 Att/21 TD (49% - #113)/13 FG

[Blue Dawg]

I think my expectations are similar to the USM fan's expectations. Bowl game every year with minimum 6 wins. Really good every once in a while when all the parts come together for a championship run on a special team.

The point that many of us are trying to make is that the floor should really be more like 7 or 8 wins thanks to the extreme weakness of CUSA.

[T1]

The point that many of us are trying to make is that the floor should really be more like 7 or 8 wins thanks to the extreme weakness of CUSA.

I'm cool with that too. I don't sense that that is okay around here though. Certainly not this year or last year. It's okay to be disappointed by losing to UAB and USM, but the level of anger around here is insane to me.

[T1]

I just did some Googling. Tech is #31 in the nation in total wins from 2014 to 2018. The last time we had 5 consecutive winning seasons in a row (before this year) was '74, '75, '76, '77, and '78. It's good to step back and look at the big picture from time to time. Relax. Dang. We've sucked a lot worse than this.

[PawDawg]

I just don't see how that is going to happen. Is TMac supposed to mandate a change in philosophy? That's an honest question for the folks that don't think Skip should be fired, but they demand change...how is that going to work out? What would you LIKE to see happen?

This is a HUGE undertaking that he has allowed to happen over his tenure as AD.

- Start in MBB by aggressively marketing and selling tickets at affordable prices. (what he will do it give equal time to WBB and it will be the SOS)

- Reach out to the lower levels of LTAC givers who've given over the past 10 years. BEG them to come back!

- Change those stupid tail gate policies

- Reach out to the students. Begin in MBB by offering incentives to be at the games. This silly 500 Tshirt crap and pizzas is for Jr High. Let it bleed over into baseball and football in 2019.


None of this will happen because he already knows and has been advised of his screw ups. He will continue to kill the crowds while Skip will continue to kill the crowds.

[dawg80]

And he shouldn't be fired. Going to a bowl every year is great and competing for the conference championship every 3 or 4 years is the best we (C-USA teams) can expect. Y'all seem to think Holtz should be competing for the conference championship every year. That just isn't realistic. We thought we should be Boise State and fired Jeff Bower and we are still trying to recover. I have learned to be realistic of what to expect.

Conference championship every 3-4 years? If only! Holtz is completing his 6th year and he hasn't won one yet. The best he can do is win one in his 7th year...but he won't because we're stuck with Smith at QB. So, the best he'll do is win one in his 8th year. That's twice that the 3-4 year cycle. Oh! you said "competing for." Well, then given we have lost twice in the CCG already, Holtz has "competed for" a championship in that every 3-4 year window. Okay then. We're good to go!

[johnnylightnin]

This is a HUGE undertaking that he has allowed to happen over his tenure as AD.

- Start in MBB by aggressively marketing and selling tickets at affordable prices. (what he will do it give equal time to WBB and it will be the SOS)

- Reach out to the lower levels of LTAC givers who've given over the past 10 years. BEG them to come back!

- Change those stupid tail gate policies

- Reach out to the students. Begin in MBB by offering incentives to be at the games. This silly 500 Tshirt crap and pizzas is for Jr High. Let it bleed over into baseball and football in 2019.


None of this will happen because he already knows and has been advised of his screw ups. He will continue to kill the crowds while Skip will continue to kill the crowds.

That’s fine, but none of it has anything to do with how Skip gets from where he is to where you want him to be without being fired.

[HogDawg]

Another example is that ULM beat Saban at Alabama before he got his elite players there. Saban is a great coach, but at least half the reason why is that he recruits great players.

Bad example. In Alabama's worst year, they would still have much better players at all 22 positions (and on special teams) than what ULM fielded that day. Coaching MATTERS.

[The Historian]

I just don't see how that is going to happen. Is TMac supposed to mandate a change in philosophy? That's an honest question for the folks that don't think Skip should be fired, but they demand change...how is that going to work out? What would you LIKE to see happen?

I'd like to see what's happened in the past where we've had an AD step in and assess the program along with the philosophies on offense and defense.

It's been done before. In fact, over the past 40 years we've fired head coaches and coordinators as part of those processes. We could start by privately raising the money to pay for a consultant to take an outside look at what we're doing and why it worked or didn't work in today's game.

How did our offense devolve to a point where we're running a handful of plays out of a only a handful of formations. If I were the AD and president I would want to know.

[HogDawg]

As a bystander, I'll try to give you the 50 cent tour to all of this. An honest view. Very few people on this board or in the fanbase want a coaching change. Skip is a good guy who has built a solid G5 program. We have depth at most positions and have had solid recruiting classes. But most of us know Skip - at some point - is going to have to change the offensive philosophy he's adopted in the past few years.

The frustration is two-fold.

First, we have had in-game decisions from 2014 through last season that have cost us P5 wins and either conference championship game opportunities or a shot at hosting a conference championship game. We had 4th quarter leads over Marshall in the championship game in 2014; at Kansas State in 2015; at Arkansas in 2016; and at South Carolina in 2017. And blew them all. We have a history of going into a shell. Where the players actually look like they're playing not to lose late in the game. Then last season we had a series of coaching mistakes that cost us a number of conference games. We were easily a 9 or 10 win team that struggled to post a winning record because of those blunders.

Then beginning in 2017 we adopted a philosophy on offense of going conservative in an attempt to limit turnovers. We are now so conservative that we only run a handful of formations on offense each game. Against FAU we ran the run option roughly 28 times on 33 called running plays. That isn't going to beat good football teams. Many in our fanbase, including some close to our program, wonder if our head coach realizes how conservative and predictable his game plans and play calling have become. While he is not the offensive coordinator, he insists on calling his own plays.

Winning ugly is one thing. But losing the way we've lost at times during his tenure is something entirely different.

.....and in your response to the USM fan, you didn't even bother to mention LA Tech blowing a 4th qtr lead to his Eagles in 2017 & 2018.

The crap we put up with as LA Tech fans should be outlawed!!

[T1]

Bad example. In Alabama's worst year, they would still have much better players at all 22 positions (and on special teams) than what ULM fielded that day. Coaching MATTERS.

So Bama would be better off with Charlie Weatherby?