(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-24-2022 11:08 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  A big issue I have is the low key gaslighting by the athletic department and media of Rice fans with any semblance of higher expectations for the team. It’s like they are shocked that there are some people that aren’t over the moon going 4-3…in fact, apparently Rice going 4-3 so far should be something akin to landing on the moon.

Here are two facts. Through his first 49 games, Bloomgren is 15-34. Through Bailiff’s first 49 games he was 19-30. And yet we are supposed to believe that Bloomgren’s worse record against lower rated competition (to be fair, I’m guessing here) is somehow an improvement.

Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

I mean, these 2 comments, after today...

(10-29-2022 05:26 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-24-2022 11:08 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  A big issue I have is the low key gaslighting by the athletic department and media of Rice fans with any semblance of higher expectations for the team. It’s like they are shocked that there are some people that aren’t over the moon going 4-3…in fact, apparently Rice going 4-3 so far should be something akin to landing on the moon.

Here are two facts. Through his first 49 games, Bloomgren is 15-34. Through Bailiff’s first 49 games he was 19-30. And yet we are supposed to believe that Bloomgren’s worse record against lower rated competition (to be fair, I’m guessing here) is somehow an improvement.

Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

I mean, these 2 comments, after today...

The Owls traded season-to-season inconsistency for game-to-game inconsistency. I think the latter is even more frustrating than the former.

Classic Rice.

(10-29-2022 06:10 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 05:26 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-24-2022 11:08 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  A big issue I have is the low key gaslighting by the athletic department and media of Rice fans with any semblance of higher expectations for the team. It’s like they are shocked that there are some people that aren’t over the moon going 4-3…in fact, apparently Rice going 4-3 so far should be something akin to landing on the moon.

Here are two facts. Through his first 49 games, Bloomgren is 15-34. Through Bailiff’s first 49 games he was 19-30. And yet we are supposed to believe that Bloomgren’s worse record against lower rated competition (to be fair, I’m guessing here) is somehow an improvement.

Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

I mean, these 2 comments, after today...

The Owls traded season-to-season inconsistency for game-to-game inconsistency. I think the latter is even more frustrating than the former.

+1

(10-29-2022 07:06 PM)Owlman49 Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 06:10 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 05:26 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-24-2022 11:08 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  A big issue I have is the low key gaslighting by the athletic department and media of Rice fans with any semblance of higher expectations for the team. It’s like they are shocked that there are some people that aren’t over the moon going 4-3…in fact, apparently Rice going 4-3 so far should be something akin to landing on the moon.

Here are two facts. Through his first 49 games, Bloomgren is 15-34. Through Bailiff’s first 49 games he was 19-30. And yet we are supposed to believe that Bloomgren’s worse record against lower rated competition (to be fair, I’m guessing here) is somehow an improvement.

Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

I mean, these 2 comments, after today...

The Owls traded season-to-season inconsistency for game-to-game inconsistency. I think the latter is even more frustrating than the former.

+1

I mean I did say IF the ceiling happened to be 6+ wins. Doesn't matter if we beat good teams if we're losing against bad teams too. I agree that the game to game inconsistency is more frustrating. This is a horrible loss, but that doesn't take away the grit in our wins against la tech and UAB, a resilience we didn't have a few years ago. It's just that none of that actually matters if being competitive against against better teams doesn't translate to beating the bad teams. This team could beat any team in the conference based on how we played UAB, and lose to any team based on how we played today. And that kind of inconsistency won't get us to 6+ wins each year.

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Exactly.

I mean, yes, Bloomgren did get a couple of wins that I firmly believe a Bailiff team would not have gotten. That is because Bloomgren's teams occasionally - and I do mean occasionally - outperform expectations. But there is zero consistency. And with all due respect to our opponents, I'm sorry, but Rice just lost by 33 points to a 1-7 team at Homecoming. And this wasn't a 1-7 team from the SWC. This was a CUSA 1-7 team.

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Win totals and offense this year. And the wins against better teams than us would make one THINK we could be better than 6-6 because one would assume that beating UAB twice, a ranked Marshall, the Rajin cajuns would translate to beating the bad teams we should beat. But obviously that's not the case. We're wildly inconsistent from game to game

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Exactly right. What constant overall improvement? The big difference this year is that he has a better quarterback than he has had until now. What we are seeing now is as good as you're going to get from Bloomgren. How many more years of evidence is needed?

And I'll take a 10-win season, thank you. Then we can deal with what comes next

(10-29-2022 10:47 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Exactly right. What constant overall improvement? The big difference this year is that he has a better quarterback than he has had until now. What we are seeing now is as good as you're going to get from Bloomgren. How many more years of evidence is needed?

And I'll take a 10-win season, thank you. Then we can deal with what comes next

Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire. And maybe it would be for the better if the new coach eventually gets us to the promised land but do we trust that we would hire that great coach?
I dont think Bloomgren is the right guy, but getting rid of him would just set us back to the team that couldn't compete against anybody. Right now we're inconsistent but occasionally competitive against better teams and sneaking some wins like the UAB wins.
And you're right, I would take a 10 win season in a heartbeat. My comment was based on a hypothetical scenario where the two options are get a 10 win season then a lot of losing seasons, or get consistently decent seasons. And I think the latter would help us build the program and help with both recruiting and getting fans. As we saw the 2013 season didnt help much with recruiting. Consistently decent season might

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:47 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Exactly right. What constant overall improvement? The big difference this year is that he has a better quarterback than he has had until now. What we are seeing now is as good as you're going to get from Bloomgren. How many more years of evidence is needed?

And I'll take a 10-win season, thank you. Then we can deal with what comes next

Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire. And maybe it would be for the better if the new coach eventually gets us to the promised land but do we trust that we would hire that great coach?
I dont think Bloomgren is the right guy, but getting rid of him would just set us back to the team that couldn't compete against anybody. Right now we're inconsistent but occasionally competitive against better teams and sneaking some wins like the UAB wins.
And you're right, I would take a 10 win season in a heartbeat. My comment was based on a hypothetical scenario where the two options are get a 10 win season then a lot of losing seasons, or get consistently decent seasons. And I think the latter would help us build the program and help with both recruiting and getting fans. As we saw the 2013 season didnt help much with recruiting. Consistently decent season might

If not now, when?

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire. And maybe it would be for the better if the new coach eventually gets us to the promised land but do we trust that we would hire that great coach?

Number one, I'm hearing rumors that some 18-20 players are planning to leave if Bloomgren stays next year. That would pretty well kneecap the program for several years, so departures probably no worse if he goes than if he stays. Get somebody in quickly and give him time to work hard on building respect and confidence of players. That would be a big reason, IMO, for dumping Bloomgren immediately.

Number two, I think we can get some idea of what would work from what has worked in the past. I think we need to look for a coach with:
1) Schemes that can be implemented by the kinds of athletes that Rice can recruit (Fred, Ken).
2) Substantial Texas HS recruiting connections (Bailiff), plus connections in adjoining states, particularly LA, AR, and OK (Ken), and connections in talent-rich areas (CA, GA, FL) from which Rice can attract true student-athletes (Fred).
3) Willingness and ability to implement contrarian schemes that are hard for opponents to prepare for in one week (Fred, Ken)
4) "Gets" Rice and builds outstanding relationships with players (Bailiff)
5) Philosophy of play sound defense, win the kicking game, and do something better or different on offense (combination of Fred and Ken)

I don't think prior coach-hiring decisions were made on the basis of those factors, and that is why I think the success rate has been poor.

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:47 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Exactly right. What constant overall improvement? The big difference this year is that he has a better quarterback than he has had until now. What we are seeing now is as good as you're going to get from Bloomgren. How many more years of evidence is needed?

And I'll take a 10-win season, thank you. Then we can deal with what comes next

Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire. And maybe it would be for the better if the new coach eventually gets us to the promised land but do we trust that we would hire that great coach?
I dont think Bloomgren is the right guy, but getting rid of him would just set us back to the team that couldn't compete against anybody. Right now we're inconsistent but occasionally competitive against better teams and sneaking some wins like the UAB wins.
And you're right, I would take a 10 win season in a heartbeat. My comment was based on a hypothetical scenario where the two options are get a 10 win season then a lot of losing seasons, or get consistently decent seasons. And I think the latter would help us build the program and help with both recruiting and getting fans. As we saw the 2013 season didnt help much with recruiting. Consistently decent season might

Hoo boy- I don't know how long you've been an Owl but that's an argument I've heard for 30 years- and it's still defeatist and terrible.

Just because we haven't made the right hire since Goldsmith doesn't mean we can't. And Rice- while unique- is not some special case that can't win and can't attract a coach. Bottom line is we have done a terrible job or hiring. Since 2006 we have hired Graham, Bailiff, and Bloomgren. In each case there were many other options of guys that we could have hired. Willie Fritz was a SHSU, Jeff Taylor was an asst. at SMU, Billy Napier took the Louisiana job the year we hired Bloomgren. Just off the top of my head. The point is that there are great coaching options out there that could succeed at Rice with the support we have provided Bloom.

The problem with changing right now is our AD. I have zero confidence he will make the right call.

Whoever is in charge when it does happen needs to get input from Rice people that are an have been tied into the coaching community- both at the CFB level and Tex HSFB.- and less input from the big donor(s) that have had outsized impact in hiring for the last 30 years. Get Goldsmith's input along with the many alumni we have in the HS coaching ranks. JK had Bloom handpicked a year before he hired him- so there was no process there- but prior to that the process we have gone through to hire a coach has been completely flawed- and the results illustrate that.

ETA- I agree with the factors that Owl #'s listed above- with some more important than others.

(10-30-2022 12:23 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:47 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Exactly right. What constant overall improvement? The big difference this year is that he has a better quarterback than he has had until now. What we are seeing now is as good as you're going to get from Bloomgren. How many more years of evidence is needed?

And I'll take a 10-win season, thank you. Then we can deal with what comes next

Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire. And maybe it would be for the better if the new coach eventually gets us to the promised land but do we trust that we would hire that great coach?
I dont think Bloomgren is the right guy, but getting rid of him would just set us back to the team that couldn't compete against anybody. Right now we're inconsistent but occasionally competitive against better teams and sneaking some wins like the UAB wins.
And you're right, I would take a 10 win season in a heartbeat. My comment was based on a hypothetical scenario where the two options are get a 10 win season then a lot of losing seasons, or get consistently decent seasons. And I think the latter would help us build the program and help with both recruiting and getting fans. As we saw the 2013 season didnt help much with recruiting. Consistently decent season might

Hoo boy- I don't know how long you've been an Owl but that's an argument I've heard for 30 years- and it's still defeatist and terrible.

Just because we haven't made the right hire since Goldsmith doesn't mean we can't. And Rice- while unique- is not some special case that can't win and can't attract a coach. Bottom line is we have done a terrible job or hiring. Since 2006 we have hired Graham, Bailiff, and Bloomgren. In each case there were many other options of guys that we could have hired. Willie Fritz was a SHSU, Jeff Taylor was an asst. at SMU, Billy Napier took the Louisiana job the year we hired Bloomgren. Just off the top of my head. The point is that there are great coaching options out there that could succeed at Rice with the support we have provided Bloom.

The problem with changing right now is our AD. I have zero confidence he will make the right call.

Whoever is in charge when it does happen needs to get input from Rice people that are an have been tied into the coaching community- both at the CFB level and Tex HSFB.- and less input from the big donor(s) that have had outsized impact in hiring for the last 30 years. Get Goldsmith's input along with the many alumni we have in the HS coaching ranks. JK had Bloom handpicked a year before he hired him- so there was no process there- but prior to that the process we have gone through to hire a coach has been completely flawed- and the results illustrate that.

ETA- I agree with the factors that Owl #'s listed above- with some more important than others.

Been an owl for less than ten years. And I've checked these threads for only about a year. If I didn't join the Parliament I might actually believe we could make a good hire. But the pessimism I see from everyone here about how our AD can't make a good hire makes me think that getting a new coach would just be restarting a cycle. So I'm trying to stay optimistic about Bloomgren while he's here and getting us some wins against decent teams. But it is hard to stay optimistic when we lose to bad teams. There's a lot of inconsistency from week to week, but seeing us win games against strongly favored opponents is an improvement from when I first started watching.

(10-29-2022 11:38 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:47 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 10:01 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 11:45 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Main difference is that we're seeing constant overall improvement with Bloom. Bailiff's seasons were all over the place. 10-3 one year then 2-10 the next. If Bloomgren reaches his ceiling and it happens to be 6+ wins every year it will be better than the unpredictability of Bailiffs years

Are we? How so?

Have we seen anything in five years to indicate that Bloomgren's high-water mark would be anything better than 6-6?

Exactly right. What constant overall improvement? The big difference this year is that he has a better quarterback than he has had until now. What we are seeing now is as good as you're going to get from Bloomgren. How many more years of evidence is needed?

And I'll take a 10-win season, thank you. Then we can deal with what comes next

Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire. And maybe it would be for the better if the new coach eventually gets us to the promised land but do we trust that we would hire that great coach?
I dont think Bloomgren is the right guy, but getting rid of him would just set us back to the team that couldn't compete against anybody. Right now we're inconsistent but occasionally competitive against better teams and sneaking some wins like the UAB wins.
And you're right, I would take a 10 win season in a heartbeat. My comment was based on a hypothetical scenario where the two options are get a 10 win season then a lot of losing seasons, or get consistently decent seasons. And I think the latter would help us build the program and help with both recruiting and getting fans. As we saw the 2013 season didnt help much with recruiting. Consistently decent season might

If not now, when?

If not us, who? (hoo?)

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire. And maybe it would be for the better if the new coach eventually gets us to the promised land but do we trust that we would hire that great coach?
I dont think Bloomgren is the right guy, but getting rid of him would just set us back to the team that couldn't compete against anybody. Right now we're inconsistent but occasionally competitive against better teams and sneaking some wins like the UAB wins.
And you're right, I would take a 10 win season in a heartbeat. My comment was based on a hypothetical scenario where the two options are get a 10 win season then a lot of losing seasons, or get consistently decent seasons. And I think the latter would help us build the program and help with both recruiting and getting fans. As we saw the 2013 season didnt help much with recruiting. Consistently decent season might

So let me ask you a few questions

1) there are plenty of examples of coaches who come in and do as well or better from day one... and in this transfer age, it should be even easier... and if you hire a coach with a winning attitude and he can bring a few of his best players with him, why wouldn't our best guys want to stay? Or why wouldn't some other players want to come to that?

That's the thing,... we keep acting like we do something different from everyone else... we don't... and we're not talking about being 10-2 against the Big12, but against CUSA. We're really talking about being a top 80 team or so to get us to a bowl game from CUSA.... maybe not even that good. Between 100 and 80 in CUSA you probably go from 4-5 wins to 7-8.

2) so are you suggesting that because we might be worse for 2 years before being better that we should just go ahead and let ourselves be bad for even longer on the HOPE that he catches fire for a season so he can leave and put us right back where you think we will be... or worse... that he will stay and revert to the mean like Bailiff???

No guys... we need to do what others do. We need to demand results, especially in such a weak conference. If those results aren't met, coaches need to go. 3 years should be enough to see if things are working.... and we can give Bloom another because of COVID... and MAYBE another because of all the transfer rule changes etc (that would be easier at other schools)... but I'm certain that even Bloom would say that he needs to be held accountable. The only question for me is, do we see ourselves winning 7-8 next year and why?

We need guys who will do well quickly and leave, and then hopefully hire one of his top assistants for continuity... and once we've done that for a few years, we can THEN talk about hiring someone who will stay. Talking about hiring someone who will stay to a program like ours would require someone who is doing somethng contrarian or has some special attachement to us... and NOTHING we do that I see creates that. Intellectual brutality describes our players, but it doesn't describe our philosophy on the field. There is nothing especially intellectual (any more than any other team) about our schemes that I can see.... and the brutality is not always the sort we're looking for.

When I think of intellectual brutality, I think of a team that lines up in ways that makes the other team burn time outs or get out of position, especially at key times... and then we pound the rock because we're strong and they're out of position... Instead we seem to have the idea that we can or will simply out-muscle other teams... and we routinely get hammered physically or are out of position ourselves.

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire.

From what I'm hearing, a large number of players may be planning to leave if Bloomgren is retained, so that argument may be immaterial.

(10-31-2022 10:47 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-29-2022 11:26 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  Letting go of Bloomgren is a sure way of going back to two win seasons for a few years. Our good players would leave, many would decommit, it would make this place a bigger dumpster fire.

From what I'm hearing, a large number of players may be planning to leave if Bloomgren is retained, so that argument may be immaterial.

You've mentioned this a couple of times, and it very well could be true. But the team certainly played hard and didn't quit against UAB and La Tech. I don't think I would watch those games and assume that the team had quit on him or that he had lost buy-in from a large number of players. The effort in the FAU and especially Charlotte games would lead me to believe your info. But the pattern is not as consistent as I have seen in other similar situations.

My "eye test" tells me that we have better players across the board than we have had in a number of years, but the inconsistency of performance - which is either an effort or preparation problem, or both - is hard to figure out.

If he lost the team, when did he lose them? I think expectations were pretty high among the players, and at least through UAB it seemed we had improved significantly. Since then it has been worse, but we somehow gritted out an OT win on the road last week.

Hard to understand

(10-31-2022 11:02 AM)Middle Ages Wrote:  If he lost the team, when did he lose them?

The flippant answer would be when they changed ends of the field at the end of the first quarter last Saturday. But that kind of thing is not usually easily attributable to a single point in time. Those football players are athletes and competitors. They are not simply going to lie down and die. If they are in a competitive game, they are going to compete because they are wired that way. There will be times when that wiring is enough to sustain a winning effort. But not consistently. If things start to go bad, the motivation is not sufficient to turn it around.

Quote:Hard to understand

Very. And I'm only offering a possibility, not certainty. How they perform the rest of the season, and whether the rumored mass exodus occurs if Bloomgren stays, will tell us a more complete story. But right now, this looks like Bloomgren has lost the team and they have quit on him. Something like that happened at the end of Ken's tenure (I have some inside info there because my son was a student at Rice then, and was in a band with several football players), and this looks like that did.