Quote:If EKU tried to win as much as they try to join a bowl subdivision conference, maybe they’d have semis appearance or two since their last one, which happened during The Great Depression. Not even John Grass would go on an 8 game playoff losing streak
You're not entirely wrong. I often wonder what would have happened if Roy Kidd's successor, Danny Hope, had not gotten the job offer to go straight from EKU to the Big 10 (Purdue). He was a loyal guy, went out of his way to talk about how it wasn't a stepping stone job. And he was telling the truth. I don't think he would have left for anything of the jobs you can normally get straight out of FCS...but his mentor Joe Tiller wanted him to succeed, and he got the offer he couldn't refuse.
No one blamed him, and Purdue treated him like garbage. Coach Hope later returned to coach our offensive line AFTER being a head coach in the Big 10, and still attends nearly every home game despite living in Florida a lot of the time.
But when Purdue swooped in with that offer things were really starting to get rolling again. His last team steamrolled untouched through the OVC, and though they did lose in the first round of the playoffs, it was to the eventual national champion Richmond Spiders. At the time there were no seeds or buys in the FCS playoffs, and regionalism worked against us that year.
After him we brought in Wake Forest DC Dean Hood who did win a second straight OVC title with Coach Hopes players. Hood's teams were usually solid, often good, but never great. He had a policy of not wasting any recruiting resources on players with interest from FBS programs in the name of efficiency. Hope had frequently gone to battle with Sun Belt and MAC schools for players, and he sometimes won.
Hood is now the head coach at Murray State after spending time on the staff at UK.
Things have largely stagnated since. For a while you could say it was due to lack of resources, but that has changed. This is as all in as I've ever seen our administration on athletics, including football. In some places you're seeing the results, but it hasn't translated to top tier football...at least not yet. Our current staff has recruited well, but I think our defensive coaching staff just isn't getting the job done. We had one of the best passing offenses in FCS, but we couldn't stop anyone from scoring. I'm afraid we're about to lose four year QB starter Parker McKinney to the portal. Watch out for him where ever he ends up (or pursue him...he'll make you look good for it).
But I'm ultimately less concerned with the playoff losing streak than I am with how infrequently we've been there. If you get there often enough the momentum will snowball, and the wins will come. We need to visit more often.