tjtlja wrote:
RollWaveRoll wrote:
If you want to turn a program around, then you have to study the program's who have done it. One of the #1 keys other than great coaching is the schedule. On year 1 of the rebuild you don't go start scheduling Ohio state, ou etc every yr. you should do the opposite. It builds confidence with the fans and players and recruiting starts to pick up when have wins on the wall and bowl games. We should be scheduling all gimmes in non conference to get this train rolling. Then when you are ready a few yrs later and your confidence is sky high, then you schedule a p5 with the goal to beat them not just roll over because you aren't ready yet.
RWR, you make a really good argument. Fans and players view winning and bowls as some giant leap in progression no matter who you are actually playing. The year CJ took us to a bowl we were playing a borderline Div. 1AA schedule. You have a very valid point. The fans hate those schedules but the end result far outweighs the negatives.
If our out of conference schedule this year would have been Grambling, Rice, Army, and Charlotte, I think we would be sitting at 6-4 at the very least and the fans would be delirious. We would be going bowling and the fanbase plus recruiting would get a much needed boost. Your argument is very difficult to argue against given where we are as a program. I guess the real question comes down to money. Is a winning right now more important than the pay days Oklahoma and Ohio State produce? I say winning is more important.
Except this whole argument falls apart because schedules in football are made years in advance. So unless you are willing and able to try to cancel or reschedule games that are already under contract (which usually costs money), you get what you get from the previous administration in your first year or two, save for a spot here or there which might not have been booked already.
Coaches who really want to climb the ladder don't just take jobs because they want a job, they look at who they'll be playing right off the bat and who they have on the roster. I've always said that when Bowden was looking at this job, he saw the roster full of freshmen and sophomores who already had playing experience, then looked at the already-scheduled games for the next few years, and he knew before he signed that he'd have a chance to do something special in year two with a bunch of good Seniors and a cupcake schedule, and then he'd be out. People in the know can tell me I'm wrong but I'll believe until I die that he never had any intention of staying more than two years, before he ever took pen to paper on his contract.