(03-10-2020 06:47 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote: (03-10-2020 09:40 AM)EagleSam Wrote: (03-10-2020 09:28 AM)eastcoasteagle Wrote: (03-10-2020 09:18 AM)EagleSam Wrote: (03-10-2020 08:59 AM)FrankAnderson Wrote: Division 1 college football and college basketball are fundamentally different. The levels of investment you need to succeed in FBS football are several orders of magnitude greater than college basketball. That's why it took so long to have a coach to get us to a consistent, decent level of play. It's much harder to do in football.
There are MANY conferences in Division 1 basketball that are smaller than the MAC. Smaller budgets, smaller coaching salaries, smaller alumni bases, worse facilities, etc. There are probably 150+ D1 programs that have fewer resources than we do. And we can play as many of those as we want in the non-conference, but people say that's equivalent to an FBS football season?
The MAC is in the bottom two of FBS, and always will be a bottom tier conference. Consider this: FOUR Ohio State assistant coaches will be making more than $1 million this season. ASSISTANTS. And that's the same level we play in!
We can only play one game against lower conferences (FCS) at a MAX per season. 1 FCS game is 8.3% of the football season, while Murphy is playing 4 games against non-NCAA, which is 12.5% of the season PLUS he gets to play worse conferences in the OOC that still are Division 1.
I’m not talking about anything OOC. Both Creighton and Murphy have largely been very good over the years against similar D1/FBS teams from other conferences (Creighton more so lately). When it comes to MAC results, neither has been able to get us over the hump, and they’ve both had GREAT chances to do so.
I would gladly trade all 3 of those Big Ten wins that Creighton has just to even play at Ford Field for the MACC, just as I would gladly trade Murphy’s win over Michigan to see them in the championship game in Cleveland. That’s what is important. You don’t hang a banner for beating Illinois or playing well against Pittsburgh.
It does feel like Creighton is pushing to get this program to the next level and has the skills and drive to get there. I haven't felt the same about Murphy's program in a long time.
At the very minimum, the football team is competitive in 90% of their games and I can't say the same about basketball. They just look totally lost out there sometimes.
Murphy’s results this year should warrant him being fired. Not arguing there. We had too many games where we weren’t competitive.
I would’ve agreed about Creighton until this past season when we got dismantled by Buffalo (at home) and CMU, who weren’t exactly world beaters. Those type of results hadn’t happened since 2015, and I’m worried they’ll happen again in 2020 with the state of our defense. If we have a poor year, then Creighton’s seat should be hot in a make-or-break 2021 season, but I’m not sure it will be.
Sam I am only going to respond to this post but on this thread all that you have proffered has been dead spot on. I share your exact concerns about the upcoming season.
Now for the Creighton bias with respect to Murphy. CC has in his tenure coached against U-T Matt Campbell (ISU), WMU PJ Fleck (Minn), NIU Rod Carey (Temple), and CMU Jim McElwain (FLA) in the MAC West, all obviously revered competitors. By contrast Murph has been matching wits with an obviously less than talented list of opposition. The ONLY two MAC West coaches with a better than .500 career conference record are Hawkins and Kowalcyk. Toledo has ZERO NCAA bids under Todd in ten years. Hawk has only won eight MAC games in the last two seasons. Unlike MAC football, there are no upper echelon programs looking at the MAC West basketball for potential replacements. Creighton and Murphy are clearly swimming in different pools.
Jerry that was a great post!!
From a macro perspective, Creighton and Murphy seemingly are similar in performance; however, a micro perspective would indicate they should be graded differently for these reasons:
1) As posters stated earlier in the thread, football is simply more difficult to be successful in vs basketball partially due to the fact it takes more skilled
athletes to win. For example, in football there are 85 scholarship players vs 13-15 for basketball. In football, you need two deep in offense and defense which translates to a minimum of 44 very good athletes not to mention special teams. In basketball, if you have two stars and 5 role players, you can be pretty competitive. Much more difficult to manage football.
2) Football has made it to the post season 3 of last 4 years. Although these are not Championship games, I think they’re comparable to a basketball NIT game. Murphy has been to 0 NIT games in 9 seasons. The CIT that basketball played in was a purchased tournament.
3). I’ll reiterate Jerry’s point on MAC west competition because it’s very credible. Creighton has competed against football coaches from the west that move up to P5 jobs. I’m contrast, this is the worst I have ever seen MAC west basketball. EMU, CMU, WMU, NIU & Toledo all suck! I mean if Mark Montgomery can win the MAC west, that clearly demonstrates how bad the basketball is in the division. Montgomery should have been fired several seasons ago.
4) Creighton has a great reputation around the state and is finally starting to knock down the negative recruiting walls the previous incompetent football coaches built. Plus he markets EMU and the program very well in contrast to Murphy. Murphy, for the most part, paints a different image for himself and EMU. He has publicly stated that recruiting to EMU is like recruiting someone to Afghanistan. He doesn’t live in the area. I’ve heard him talk to his players in a less than flattering manner. He has publicly admonished his players on social media.
I could go on, but the bottom line is MAC Football is more difficult to succeed in when compared to MAC basketball. For these reasons I believe Creighton would always have a job at EMU if he consistently hovers between 6-7 wins.
I predict 7-8 wins for this football season!!