billstudabaker
Bench Warmer
Posts: 191
Joined: Dec 2014
Reputation: 3
I Root For: Rice
Location: North Carolina
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RE: 2019-20 College Football Coaching Carousel
(11-28-2019 10:41 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: (11-28-2019 02:13 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: (11-28-2019 12:02 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: Boise State:
Houston Nutt: 4-7
Dirk Koetter: 6-5, 10-3, 10-2
Dan Hawkins: 8-4, 12-1, 13-1, 11-1, 9-4
Chris Petersen: 13-0, 10-3, 12-1, 14-0, 12-1, 12-1, 11-2, 8-4
Bob Gregory: 0-1
Bryan Harsin: 12-2, 9-4, 10-3, 11-3, 10-3, 10-1
Just a reminder that, during that stretch, Boise State is 17-22 (.436) against teams from P5 conferences (at the time the game was played), and 220-35 (.863) against everyone else.
tl;dr: It's all about the money and little else matters.
Fine print:
Imagine how far ahead we'd be from where we are now if we had done even half as well in those two categories. They have done an excellent job in their hires over time, not just a single hire, and developed a reputation where potential head coaches know: 1) they can win there, 2)they can recruit there (despite the remote area and harsh climate) and 3) they can get proportionally bigger time TV publicity from there
They are spending the money now, but at one point, they had ambition (they kept moving their program up the ranks from lower conferences/divisions) and similar, but different to TCU, at one point their school leadership collectively made a firm and unequivocal decision that being good in football was the number one way they could improve their standing as a school as well as marketing what, essentially, was something similar to, say, Montana, Idaho, Idaho State, etc...
While the Boise example is not a direct corollary to exactly what Rice has to do, both Boise and TCU inform in one important area (and one could also argue this for former peers (and bottom dwellers) Baylor and SMU) Their University Leadership Teams made a public and unequivocal decision to be a lot better, which came with a lot of financial dollars committed by the universities themselves, as well as an unwavering commitment to invest in what eventually led to greener pastures over time, although it took a decade or two (or more) for each school to really even begin to show a significant return. So...more than a one-time or a one or two year bump in commitment.
Rice has one HUGE advantage over all these schools in that it has the financial wherewithal to make that kind of a commitment any time it wants to...but is doesn't want to. Rice's leadership team has shown near-zero commitment, near-zero leadership, and near-zero courage. The only thing Rice's participation in D-I sports markets to the nation is near-consistent failure and ineptitude, which increasingly tarnishes the national respect its academic endeavors otherwise might engender.
To wit: People who don't follow Rice sports more than casually still will tell you that Rice is excellent in baseball, which we know at the moment and in the recent past is no longer true.
This seems to show two things: 1) Making a big splash nationally in a major sport, enters the national consciousness at some point and sticks there long after the actual success, thus shaping the school's general image in the collective national mindset, and this works for better or for worse (hence the need for a string of ultra-successful seasons over time, a la Boise and TCU vs the one lone CUSA championship that even some Rice folks don't remember anymore) Heck, most folks still remember and associate Appalachian State as a winning program because it once went into the Big House and beat Michigan.
2) D-I sports success on the field (i.e. winning at a much higher rate that Rice has in the last 50-60 years) has marketing value far beyond the gridiron or court or field and is more worthy of the investment than our current or past leadership teams has cared to acknowledge.
Will Coach Bloom be the answer here? Despite his poor performance so far, he still has a chance because he has won these past two games and will definitely get another season. But in order to be that answer, in season 3 he has to break out beyond just a Who-cares-bowl; otherwise he is only more or less equivalent to what we have already had, which doesn't change much if anything at all.
Boise's string of coaching successes moved the needle for them. They will for a long time still be a glorified commuter/community college. But everyone in the Top 25 won't mind having them play in their home stadiums, and every other year they are in contention for and will often play in, the Access Bow, with an outside chance of getting in the CFP final four if the cards fall right in a season. Compared to where Rice is, they have handled their hand extremely shrewdly and their millions invested prudently. They can get a LOT of quality head coaches to come coach them, because they kept their investment up over decades far above what their current or past station/success told them they could do.
tl;dr: It's all about the money and little else matters. Spend it consistently over time with a decades long commitment by the U leadership team to Publicly declare we intend to get out of the mess/conference we are in and it will eventually happen.
Hmmm. You responded tl;dr to a one-sentence post, and proceeded to write a nine paragraph reply.
Just sayin'.
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