(10-24-2016 09:41 AM)AimHigh Wrote: I dont buy the theory they been around longer so their better off then us. Georgia State started football after us and went head to head with #9 Wisconsin this season 23-17. In basketball FGCU has passed many of schools who have been playing basketball longer then them. FGCU became a full division 1 team in 2011-12 season and made the NCAA tournament the following year. I get it, its a different sport.
After every big lost BW says on the radio "we were out coached"
Georgia State also lost to Charlotte and Liberty last season and looked as lost as ever until, to their credit, they got their feces together in the second half and got to a bowl. Up to that point, they would have done cartwheels through a field of flaming dog doo to have a 5-7 record as an FBS program, which is ODU's
low-water mark. All praise due to them for showing themselves well against prominent opponents (they kept it close with a strong Oregon team last season, I think), but I don't think one result says anything about the development of their program, or our program, or anyone's program.
There's definitely something to having a brand and tradition and long-established relationships with high schools when it comes to transitioning to FBS. Georgia Southern and Appalachian State had a decided advantage and exploited it to their benefit. But even that's no guarantee of success. UMass won a I-AA title in 1998 and went to the final two more times, but they've been struggling to keep their heads above water since moving up. Western Kentucky won a I-AA title in 2002, but it took them two and a half seasons to beat an FBS opponent after moving up, losing 26 games in a row.
ODU, and I think people here and elsewhere easily forget this, is actually doing pretty good for an FBS program that, 10 years ago, didn't exist on the field. This is the Monarchs' third season as full FBS members and as of this week, even after taking a switchin' from said Hilltoppers, their record as an FBS program is 15-15. That's pretty good for any FBS moveup, but particularly good for a young program that moved up. I'd take ODU's development over Charlotte's, Georgia State's and UTSA's -- and as a cherry on top of the not-as-bad-as-it-sounds sundae, the Monarchs are 7-0 all-time against those three.
People can make the case that ODU recruiting should be better, but as jumpshooter said, being in a fertile area for high school talent isn't as gamechanging a benefit when a) ODU has less-than-ideal facilities and b) the top level, or perhaps two levels, of top high schoolers are going to P5 programs and East Carolina. That stuff takes time, too -- putting out the football welcome mat doesn't mean that 4- and 5-star locals are going to put ODU on their lists between Alabama and Virginia Tech.
ODUCoach nailed it -- the rapid evolution of ODU football has been a blessing and a curse. Few people at Foreman Field for the first game against Chowan reasonably could have expected to become one of the top programs in the CAA two years later, or that they'd be in FBS with an expectation of a bowl and home games against Virginia Tech, Virginia and East Carolina on future schedules seven years later. But since we as fans never had to deal with the growing pains of transitioning from playing tomato cans to CAA teams, and only muted pains of moving to FBS, we're disillusioned that they haven't done to CUSA what they did at every other level of competition. And no matter how poor CUSA is this season, that's not reasonable to expect.
Sure, I wish ODU had been a lot more competitive against Western Kentucky. I don't expect miracles against Southern Miss (the UTSA loss was their floor, not their median). I'm worried about UTEP (because it's 50,000 miles away) and Marshall (they could lose to NSU, Virginia Union and a cobbled-together collection of Virginia Wesleyan kids and it's still Marshall, a program that has never so much as been mildly irritated by the Monarchs in two games thus far). FIU and FAU are beatable, but they're also lose-to-able. I expect a bowl bid and wouldn't be surprised if we all have to sweat it out until the bitter end, but unless ODU 0'fers the rest of the way, the momentary anger and frustration of getting waterboarded by App and WKU don't affect the 50,000-foot view, which is this: Things could be a
lot worse.
There may come a time when ODU must consider whether the coaching staff, soup to nuts, is appropriate for where the program is now and where it thinks it should be in the immediate future. As of now, I don't think we're there just yet.
I reserve the right to put For Sale signs in Bobby Wilder's front yard if they lose to UTEP, of course.
