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BSUTOP25

Honest assessment on where your football program is with strengths and weaknesses

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41 minutes ago, East Coast Aztec said:

SDSU Strengths

- Consistency at coaching positions

- Focus on defense can keep us in games

- Improved recruiting

SDSU Weaknesses

- Lack of true passing game

- A coach that doesn't excite people

- Oversized off-campus stadium

- Fanbase has not fully bought in

SDSU Opportunities

- Being the successful football in San Diego with Chargers down and possibly out

- Win recruiting battles that we previously could not

- P5 HnH's for the next 7 or so years

- Be a player for the site acquisition of Mission Valley

SDSU Threats

- Losing MV option with no stadium contingency

- What's after Rocky?

- Continued co-location with Chargers in oversized stadium (loss of atmosphere)

Well put. I would add two Potential Weaknesses, our new AD and maybe our president.

It's known that John David Wicker screwed up the investigation of the Beth Burns matter resulting in SDSU firing the best women's basketball coach in school history and the program greatly declining since and Burns winning a lawsuit which provided unneeded bad PR and caused SDSU to have to write a check to Burns for $2M or whatever the exact amount was. Having now heard JDW interviewed three times, he's very unimpressive and his comment about building a tiny 30K seat stadium sure didn't sit well with anybody. So hiring Wicker puts Hirshman's decision making into question and if the two botch building the new stadium, that will be a kick in the nuts for SDSU.

Boom goes the dynamite.

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UNLV Football Strengths:

  • Located in Las Vegas
  • No Expectations or Winning Tradition
  • Guaranteed to Join the Elite in a Big Time Conference in Next 20 years
  • New Stadium is a done deal and already approved (share with Raiders or On-Campus) 
  • New On-Campus Football Practice Facility Coming Soon

UNLV Football Weaknesses:

  • Long Term Problems with Mediocre to Terrible Administrations that have proven unwilling to pay big money for a proven winning FBS Coach
  • Horrific Coaching Hires over the last 10 years which have further demoralized an already decaying fan base.
  • No expectations or winning tradition
  • Possibility of playing second fiddle to the Raiders in a Municipal Monstrosity MultiPurpose Nightmare Stadium built for Soccer that kills UNLV Football.
  • Possible wasted money on On-Campus Football Practice Facility built in the Wrong Location and not Attached to new possible On-Campus Stadium
  • Unqualified High School Type Administration and D2 Budget with Incompetent Coaches who were Coercively Removed from their previous positions elsewhere
  • MWC Members who compete in a miserable conference run by a clown named Craig Thompson
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Hawaii:

Strengths

Great Weather Year-Round: Its Hawaii. Palm Trees, Beaches, Hiking, Surfing, Sunshine, T-shirt and Shorts 24/7 365 days a year. Very rarely does the temperature go below 60 or above 90 degrees.

Good Football History: Outside of [1996-98] Fred Von Appen (5-31) and [2012-15] Norm Chow (10-36) the program has historically had a stable level of success. [1977-86] Dick Tomey (63-46-3) [1987-95] Bob Wagner (58-49-3) [1999-2007] June Jones (76-41) [2008-2011] Greg McMackin (29-25) [2016-Present] Nick Rolovich (7-7). All have shown Hawaii is able to have a stable and good football program that never is down for a long period of time.  

Recruiting Area: When arguably the #1 Dual-Threat QB in the nation (Tua Tangavailoa) is going to 'Bama, along with a good number of other local recruits every year going to other mid-high level P5 schools it shows how strong the area is. Hawaii used to get a lot of them and still gets a few of them every now and then but since Manti Teo and Marcus Mariota, nationwide coaches have been looking more closely at local recruits. 

Only College Football Program: Surethe state has a couple D2 schools (Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade, UH-Hilo, and it used to be BYU-Hawaii). But Hawaii is the only state program that has football at any college level. The community has shown they will show for winning programs.

Weaknesses

Little State Government Support: Hawaii has possibly one of the lowest level of state support in the Conference. As a public university the program has to fight for every single dollar they can get from the State Legislature. Even though Hawaii athletics brings in a lot of tourism revenue to the state. 

Aloha Stadium: Our State Government always kicks the can down the road when regards on what to do with Aloha Stadium. Break it down or maintain it? Is the new stadium at 35k capacity or should it be more? Is it on the Aloha Stadium location or build it elsewhere? There's always a reason they can't decide on and delay the decision for another year or two.

Location and Travel: While other teams may feel they are at a disadvantage when they go to Hawaii. Hawaii has that same feeling for when they have to travel anywhere on the continent. The Pacific Ocean will never change that issue. 

 

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Wanted to add:

Boise State Weakness

Running the read-pass option with Rypien.  It just gums up the plays, and gives Rypien too much to try to process before the play is either blown up, or he has to adjust to reading the secondary before throwing a pick.  So long as we continue to insist on playing an inherently indecisive style of offense, we will suffer.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears; it was their final, most essential command.

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Mike Morgan said:

San Jose State:

Strengths:

Location, location, location. Great weather. Strong recruiting area. Huge television market. Silicon Valley provides attractive post-graduation possibilities. Very good APR.

Weaknesses:

Spartan Stadium. Fierce competition for local sports dollars from PAC-12 and NFL. Poor attendance. Program is still paying the price of having poor administrative support back in the 1970's and '80's.  

The biggest weakness for San Jose State is no pride from your Alumni.   You are also hurt by low ticket prices at Stanford Stadium. I have heard a number of SJSU alumni say they are Stanford fans and how Stanford season tickets are the best deal in the Bay Area.  

Fresno Alums would never root for Cal like SJSU alums follow Stanford.

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3 hours ago, happycamper said:

For Wyoming -

Strengths:

Only game in town. You mention this for Boise State but Wyoming is the only game in Laramie, in Cheyenne, in Casper... etc. It's also the only university at any level and only high level sports in the state. It will be supported by the legislature and the vast majority of college educated Wyomingites have a degree from UW. You could say, I suppose, that we have a very firm foundation of support. 

Right now, good coaching hire. We picked the right guy for the job at the right time. The system fits what we can recruit and it also matches up well against what the big boys want to recruit - we're getting the power backs and big blocking fullbacks at a higher talent level than you'd think because, say, Oklahoma State just doesn't have the scheme to use those players. 

Decent recruiting base when we choose to use it. Wyoming is a good destination for kids from Nebraska, from Minnesota, from Colorado, and from the rest of the midwest who maybe aren't quite good enough for NU or CU in high school but have a lot of potential and still want to play football. A well coached team of "good enough to be recruited as a walk on at local big 10 U" is a pretty good team. 

Weaknesses:

We're not sexy. That might and can change very quickly, but we don't have BSU's swagger or SDSU's nice location. 

Only game in a little town. Yeah, we get a large percentage of Wyoming, but that is still a small pond to draw from.

We're one coaching hire from disaster. We saw this with "salt the fields and leave them barren" Dimel and we struggled for decades to recover. Frankly if we had gotten Joe Glenn right after Tiller (if the time frame had changed) we would have been fine. We need a really good coach to perk us up at least a couple years a decade or we really drop off. What exacerbates this is we can get a good coach who leaves an excellent foundation that others (cough dimel cough) can't lose with. It makes it very hard to judge how good the coaches are at the moment (Like DC winning with Glenn's D and his O recruits, until Glenn's D was gone). 

Also... Rypien never had an opportunity to lead a comeback drive against Wyoming. We safetied, got the ball back, and then ran out the clock. He did have a chance to ice the game with that last drive though and totally failed. 

You left out piss yellow and Poop brown uniforms as a weakness. 

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8 minutes ago, sactowndog said:

You left out piss yellow and Poop brown uniforms as a weakness. 

Wyoming Strengths:

Lack of fertilizer runoff in the water means a far lower incidence of retardation than agricultural areas like California's central valley.

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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SJSU Strenghts

- talent at the skill position recruited by previous staff

-3 talented QB's on roster with 3+ years of eligibility

-new university president appears to be pro football

-location helps draw recruits

-new coaching staff

SJSU weakness

- poor lines on both sides/ zero run defense

-very little experience at QB

-new coaching staff

-Historically terrible administration

-lack of winning tradition

-proximity to pac12 schools

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Strengths: 

culture of success: Fresno expects to compete in a gritty blue collar manner. 

Location: the valley has a number of solid 3 star recruits.  Lots of good recruiting and central to the state means parents can drive from most major population centers.

Competition: Fresno State represents the Fresno area and owns it from all affinity studies.  They have some money from Ag coming into the program.

Weaknesses:

DMA structure: the Fresno Visalia DMA is geographically tiny.  It could easily stretch from Bakersfield to Modesto and be one valley DMA.   But Fresno had no political pull and Bakersfield is independent and Modesto is part of Sac Stockton even though it's not a delta city and has no Ag presence.  

CA Ed plan: the current plan prevents Fresno from offering doctoral degrees in applied fields like Ag, Engineering and Petrochemical.   This structure inhibits growing the Academic Reputation.  It also prevents high level graduates from funding and endowing the school.

Current Program State: DeRuyter seriously damaged the program.   The talent and scholarship count is well below par.   Teddy will have to rebuild it.

Opportunities:

New Pres and AD: Welty and Boeh were horrible for the program.   Castro seems to have a strong vision and desire to grow the school both athletically and academically.   Whether Bartko can judge coaching talent remains to be seen.   

SDSU Model: SDSU showed the model and Castro has the connections to establish the joint doctoral programs the valley needs.  

New Stadium Upgrade: if Fresno can complete the Stadium upgrade it will improve the game day experience which is marginal today.

Threats:

Funding: the funding model in the MWC is very unstable making it hard to maintain a program and keep coaches

Valley economics: the trend of the poor getting poorer hits the valley hard.   Fresno needs a middle class rebound so people have money to spend on sporting events.

Current Turmoil: The DeRuyter years could have had a permanent effect.   Basketball has yet to recover from the bad years after Grant and Tarkanian.   Let's hope the casual fans can be brought back to the Stadium. 

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Strengths

We have a competent head coach for the first time in years. We're young and do still have some talented, but poorly coached, players.

Higher profile donors are coming back to the program in droves compared to the end of Hill's tenure, and during the debacle that was DeRuyter. Our stadium upgrade is on target, and will be a very good recruiting tool. We still have name and brand recognition both for the program and for the head coach. Good assistant coaches with ties to the area and program, who are also known to be good recruiters have been brought on board. 

Our academics have never been better than they are right now. We were upgraded to a National/Doctoral university with News & World Report as well as Carnegie in the last year. We have a President with a vision for significantly improving our academic standing and image, as well as to bring our athletics to another level. We also have a competent Athletic Director who is similarly dedicated to taking our athletic department above and beyond what it has been in the past. 

Weaknesses

We suck. We're significantly depleted due to our coaching staff sucking ass for the last few years, players being dismissed for idiotic reasons, and players leaving on their own. Additionally. the players that we do have weren't developed properly during DeRuyter's time running the program, and it shows. 

There are remaining concerns with Tedford's long-term health, and I'm concerned about him being a retread whose best coaching years may be behind him. 

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1 hour ago, sactowndog said:

The biggest weakness for San Jose State is no pride from your Alumni.   You are also hurt by low ticket prices at Stanford Stadium. I have heard a number of SJSU alumni say they are Stanford fans and how Stanford season tickets are the best deal in the Bay Area.  

Fresno Alums would never root for Cal like SJSU alums follow Stanford.

OK. Lets take Stanford with all their history, great facilities, PAC-12 affiliation, and recent TOP 10 finishes, and put them in Madera, which is about the same distance that Palo Alto is to San Jose. Then let's take Fresno State's recent performance in football. If you want to believe that Fresno State alums wouldn't have been rooting for an SJ Valley based Stanford program, 25 miles away, then you're lying to yourself.

Champ Logo.jpg

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6 hours ago, BSUTOP25 said:

How about contributing to the thread by assessing your program?

Sure- Biggest concern, keeping the Assistants and Stanford (ASU not so much).

Second- OLine, 3 replacements backups will need to cure.

Area's of improvement- QB, Receivers, and yes, RB's (Washington is solid, Penny will be the Showpiece a couple others are potentially Stars). D- Our LB's and DE's will be solid perhaps improved from this year.

MW Championship is more than attainable in 2017.

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1 hour ago, sactowndog said:

You left out piss yellow and Poop brown uniforms as a weakness. 

One of my favorite colors! Also the color scheme of the Worlds Largest Franchise Network....

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Just now, Rev McQuervo said:

Sure- Biggest concern, keeping the Assistants and Stanford (ASU not so much).

Second- OLine, 3 replacements backups will need to cure.

Area's of improvement- QB, Receivers, and yes, RB's (Washington is solid, Penny will be the Showpiece a couple others are potentially Stars). D- Our LB's and DE's will be solid perhaps improved from this year.

MW Championship is more than attainable in 2017.

This post seemed out of your comfort zone.  How do you feel about Mormons?

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5 minutes ago, WindowCoug said:

This post seemed out of your comfort zone.  How do you feel about Mormons?

Who cares? Their not of topic as they thankfully are not in our conference.

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3 hours ago, RebelRobert said:

UNLV Football Strengths:

  • Located in Las Vegas Has positives as LV area is becoming better at producing solid D-1 talent, but UNLV can't keep top talent at a MWC level program. If UNLV can start to win this should improve.
  • No Expectations or Winning Tradition Strength in that no coach faces the ghost of any past greatness unlike the basketball program
  • Guaranteed to Join the Elite in a Big Time Conference in Next 20 years If UNLV gets to a power conference it will happen sooner than 20 years out - think 4 to 8 years tops, after that it probably never happens
  • New Stadium is a done deal and already approved (share with Raiders or On-Campus) Stadium could be recruitng lure and also boost UNLV for power conference invite
  • New On-Campus Football Practice Facility Coming Soon Another good move that should improve recruiting and power conference invite

UNLV Football Weaknesses:

  • Long Term Problems with Mediocre to Terrible Administrations that have proven unwilling to pay big money for a proven winning FBS Coach UNLV admins have historically been bad on athletics for 30+ years - Next AD hire is extremely important 
  • Horrific Coaching Hires over the last 10 years which have further demoralized an already decaying fan base. Rebs have tried every angle in FB with no success, now the shadow of basketball is not so huge that football can't stand on its own
  • No expectations or winning tradition No winning tradition means no history other than the occasional "blind squirrel" season once in awhile - this needs to change
  • Possibility of playing second fiddle to the Raiders in a Municipal Monstrosity MultiPurpose Nightmare Stadium built for Soccer that kills UNLV Football. Rebel FB will never be seen as a "thing" in LV area unless moved to a power conference - Rebels will play to tiny crowds in 80% empty stadium - Power conference move would change this
  • Possible wasted money on On-Campus Football Practice Facility built in the Wrong Location and not Attached to new possible On-Campus Stadium The FB facility will be a plus - UNLV has never had on-campus stadium so where this is won't hinder the program
  • Unqualified High School Type Administration and D2 Budget with Incompetent Coaches who were Coercively Removed from their previous positions elsewhere UNLV needs to commit to winning and building FB, basketball AND baseball 
  • MWC Members who compete in a miserable conference run by a clown named Craig Thompson FB becoming legit to the majority of the local population is 100% tied to UNLV landing in a power conference. Anything else is deemed small time to vast majority of LV area residents

 

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10 hours ago, BSUTOP25 said:

I'll start with my assessment on Boise State.

I think it's obvious to everyone here that the Broncos are not the same methodical machine they once were - that machine packed up and moved to Montlake. The program is still good enough to beat a mid-level P5 school, win between 8-11 games, threaten for the MWC title, and somehow surprisingly compete with CSU but that's a step back from where it was between 2006 and 2013. College football is a fluid operation and change eventually comes due to coaching changes or long-term attrition - it wasn't that long ago that Texas beat USC in the national championship game and Alabama had only one championship between Bear Bryant and Nick Satan.

So is Boise State's run over? I believe the next two years will answer that question. Looking forward, here are the strengths and weaknesses of the program.

STRENGTHS 

  • The brand recognition is still strong as Boise State's name is still known and respected on the college football landscape. It might not translate directly to wins but it helps with recruiting both coaches and players. 
  • Community and institutional support is solid as the Broncos are the #1 game in Boise and Albertsons Stadium will fill up to full capacity for big games. The school's administration continues to demonstrate institutional support for the program with coaching payroll and infrastructural investments. Community support might start ebbing backward however if the program doesn't win a conference championship in the next season or two. 
  • In spite of the aesthetic criticisms, facilities are still a strong recruiting tool as the indoor practice facility, locker room, weight room/training areas, and notable field color draw attention.
  • Recruiting is as good as it has ever been, there is no shortage of talent on the roster. In terms of athleticism and raw skill, Boise State is only rivaled by San Diego State in the Mountain West. 

WEAKNESSES

  • Lack of revenue makes it difficult for the program to retain talented assistants and keep up with fan expectations. Boise State fans are the worst when it comes to expecting elite performance on a shoestring budget. What has transpired over the past 16 years is actually pretty remarkable considering the level of success achieved with so little financial investment. 
  • Turnover of coaching talent is a natural consequence of success. On one hand, you love to see it because it means the machine is humming. But on the other hand, it can also create disruption. The best coaching staff Boise State ever had was the 2006 season but it didn't stay together for very long in spite of Boise's amazing climate and bike paths. 
  • Growing pains within the current staff are quite obvious. It's clear to me that Bryan Harsin knows how to "practice coach" players and to maximize a playbook very well but he still has a long way to go in terms of being a head coach. The co-offensive coordinator set up was a failure in my opinion as there seemed to be a significant amount of clunkiness in what used to be an offensive juggernaut. Even in Boise State's three highest profile P5 wins against Washington State, Oregon State, and Colorado State, the offense was very streaky. Near the end of the season, defenses seemed to know what plays we were calling - that was certainly the case against Air Force and Baylor. 
  • That "Eye of the Tiger" hunger doesn't seem to be there anymore. Boise State teams of the past that had far less talent than this current one seemed to rise up to the occasion like a pissed off Rocky Balboa. I remember walk ons like Brock Forsey and Tim Gilligan who would leave everything they had out on the field, as would the rest of the team, even in a hard fought loss. This team seems to be soft as they don't have the capability to respond to adversity. When things are going well, they roll like a well oiled machine but if the other team seizes control of the momentum, these Broncos seem to fold without the hunger to punch their way back into the fight. For all of Rypien's talents, he has yet to lead a comeback drive for a win in spite of having a few opportunities to do so (Air Force x 2, New Mexico, Wyoming). 

All in all, I'm still a proud Boise State fan and will always support this program through thick and thin. I've been a fan and alum through much worse than this and I fully understand the ebbs and flows of the sport. Things are not nearly as bad as they were during the 2-10 1996 season under Tom Mason, not many Bronco fans have had to endure times like that as we have a large number of bandwagoners. I also have faith that the trophy case will house more hardware in the future.

So that's my assessment on my team, let's hear yours.

This is very fair and honest. It doesn't list what is honestly the biggest weakness of practically every program in the MW; location and city size. This puts a cap on how great almost all programs in the MW can become. 

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4 hours ago, ShoichiKUN808 said:

Hawaii:

Strengths

Great Weather Year-Round: Its Hawaii. Palm Trees, Beaches, Hiking, Surfing, Sunshine, T-shirt and Shorts 24/7 365 days a year. Very rarely does the temperature go below 60 or above 90 degrees.

Good Football History: Outside of [1996-98] Fred Von Appen (5-31) and [2012-15] Norm Chow (10-36) the program has historically had a stable level of success. [1977-86] Dick Tomey (63-46-3) [1987-95] Bob Wagner (58-49-3) [1999-2007] June Jones (76-41) [2008-2011] Greg McMackin (29-25) [2016-Present] Nick Rolovich (7-7). All have shown Hawaii is able to have a stable and good football program that never is down for a long period of time.  

Recruiting Area: When arguably the #1 Dual-Threat QB in the nation (Tua Tangavailoa) is going to 'Bama, along with a good number of other local recruits every year going to other mid-high level P5 schools it shows how strong the area is. Hawaii used to get a lot of them and still gets a few of them every now and then but since Manti Teo and Marcus Mariota, nationwide coaches have been looking more closely at local recruits. 

Only College Football Program: Surethe state has a couple D2 schools (Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade, UH-Hilo, and it used to be BYU-Hawaii). But Hawaii is the only state program that has football at any college level. The community has shown they will show for winning programs.

Weaknesses

Little State Government Support: Hawaii has possibly one of the lowest level of state support in the Conference. As a public university the program has to fight for every single dollar they can get from the State Legislature. Even though Hawaii athletics brings in a lot of tourism revenue to the state. 

Aloha Stadium: Our State Government always kicks the can down the road when regards on what to do with Aloha Stadium. Break it down or maintain it? Is the new stadium at 35k capacity or should it be more? Is it on the Aloha Stadium location or build it elsewhere? There's always a reason they can't decide on and delay the decision for another year or two.

Location and Travel: While other teams may feel they are at a disadvantage when they go to Hawaii. Hawaii has that same feeling for when they have to travel anywhere on the continent. The Pacific Ocean will never change that issue. 

 

I agree with the above.  Also two other strengths are:

- Having a competent head coach whose prior experience with the program as both a player and coordinator has given him a good understanding of what it takes to win at UH.  It also helps that he recruits well, thanks in part to his relatability and his comfort with social media.

- Having a relatively young squad that returns most of its best players next season (including QB Dru Brown who will only be a junior) and is on track to land a strong 2017 recruiting class.

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