Sconnie fans kind of give off a Nebraska fan lite vibe. They think their program is special or deserves a spot among the top teams in the conference when the reality is they are firmly in that second tier of programs in the Big Ten.
99% percent of college football programs are just one coach away from winning national championships
Huh?
Assume he is referring to the way fans think. Just like how the backup QB is always better than the starters and the offense would be unstoppable if the coaches called the right plays.
This is actually a misconception about longo (not saying it’s what you’re saying exactly). He actually ran the ball more times while at UNC during all his years there except one (Mayes first year as starter when they tanked down the stretch). They’ve down that again the last 2 years in their personnel, their qb and WRs just suck and so teams don’t have to respect you on the outside and deep as much to keep 2 safeties back and they come up and run fill hard. It’s why their YPC on the ground has come down to in the 4.5 range from the 5-6 range prior to Fickell (coupled with that Longo offenses need a qb who can run which both Howell and Maye could definitely do) and this is a personnel issue. It’s part of why I expected this would be a huge failure because it’s not what WI recruits well at all and why I thought the Van Dyke experiment especially would be a colossal flop
I think firing Chryst was correct. He let their recruiting staff fall apart and after his top 2 classes, he essentially stopped recruiting it seemed. The cupboard wasn't as bare as Fickell fan boys make it sound, but Chryst had a ton of misses on the recruiting trail. The actual mistake was hiring Fickell who I believe retained 0 coaches from the previous regime. The full scale offensive change was an obvious misstep anyone within the program could have told him wouldnt work. Leonhard may have failed, but I think he knew what Wisconsin needed to retain a strong hold of that second tier of the big ten with the occasional outside shot at the playoffs every 5 years. Shucks. It will be a sad day when they have to fire their goony AD for the terrible hire.
Great post! Yes, the inside chat was Chryst was only coaching kids and game prep.
I have to root for WI in this one - starting out 5-1 and still missing a bowl would be awesome to see.
I'm kind of in the same boat. I'm not cheering for Wisconsin, but will have a good chuckle if Nebraska blows this one & Iowa next week.
Paul Chryst will end up going down as sane Bo Pelini
Especially because Wisconsin is going bowling regardless via APR
Chryst was once a very good HC, but I think those days are behind him.
I don’t know if Chryst is a good fit for the new era of college football
It may have been time to move on from Chryst but it is definitely possible that Fickell has a lot of Scott Frost in him.
Truer words were never spoken! Root for a tie!
No. Nebraska fans are mildly annoying/sometimes arrogant, Wisconsin fans are a whole different level of terrible.
I didn't know that. How high on the APR list are they? Wonder how many teams they will need that don't get 6 wins.
Don’t track it as much once the gophers get to 6 but last I saw projections said 4-6 teams short and Wisconsin is like 2nd on the list if you exclude teams already at 6 and teams that can’t get to 5
We remember this 2-step process all too well when Maturi fired Mason.
And it was the correct decision. Maturi screwed up on Step #2. Mason had checked out and made it known he wanted to be at OSU. He was 64-57 overall, 32-48 in the Big Ten while at Minnesota.
Mggoph above said it well. Mason's time was done. He was an OK coach but that was about it. It was time to try something new. Unfortunately, Maturi failed miserably in finding a suitable replacement.
For sure - Maturi screwed up big time making a rash decision. He should have been figuring out the replacement for months prior to that.