I must point out the necessity of using terms such as "decent" and "better than previous coaches." Let's do a little comparison, shall we? I know, comparisons don't really prove anything, we are who we are, and they are who they are after all. But let's indulge just a bit in order to promote some thought.
The beloved Wolf Pack didn't have a whole lot of success through, oh, the first 70 years or so; at least no sustained success. Even the "powerhouse" years of the late 40's (believe it or not the Wolf Pack were legit condenders back then) only lasted two seasons.
Not to sound cliche or anything, but let's take a little historical look at those snow dodgers from up North, Boise State. They had a great record as a junior college. Not really sure who they were playing back then, but they were a junior college from 1933-1967 when they amassed a 199-61-9 record for a .757 percentage. Good for them! By 1978 they were in the Big Sky (in the division which I will refer to as "1-AA"), and had a fantastic D-II run in the '70's (come home from 'Nam, play for the Broncs...with dozens of 29-year-old vets on scholarship, how can you lose? kidding, of course). Then the Reagan years weren't really kind to the Broncs (not to say that they weren't competitive), but, personally, I remember the '90's, where they had some good years, and some really, really bad years. Point being that they were good enough to make a stink, but they were kinda out of the way.
Jolt forward a few years and a couple of recruiting classes and Boise St. has morphed into a truly spectacular program. Now I will admit that they have something extra going for them that we in Northern Nevada are sorely lacking, and that is that it's not just, oh, 5-9,000 people who are behind them, it's the entire community, in similar fashion to Nebraska, but on a much smaller scale. But they were able to overcome a number of obstacles (how do you convince recruits to go to Boise over Cal or Oregon State or Hawai'i or Wyoming?) yet they came through in a big way (hopefully not the Tarkanian way).
Now where was I...oh, cliche comparisons, right. In short, the point is that if Boise of all places can do it, why the hell can't we? Not even one "freak" 11-1 year? We've had some down times but by now we should be over the hump where in reality we really are the best the WAC has to offer...if your name doesn't begin with Boise, Fresno, or Hawa. In other words, the best of the middleground. Yeah, we shared the conference in 2005 thanks to a titanic meltdown by Fresno State, but were we really on par with Boise that year? Really? Mathematically yes, realistically...not quite (49-14 on Oct. 29 of that year).
The goal of this rant? Being in the top half of the conference is great, but from where I'm seated Ault doesn't really push the envelope. Not on the field, not in the conference, possibly at his desk, but Boise of all places has proven that it's not only possible to separate yourself from the bitter IPA of mediocrity, but to consistently taste the sweet nectar of mead as offered to the Thor of football...some guy named Lee?
SO WHY CAN'T WE DO IT!!!
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I'd like to be the first to say, fire Chris Ault. I've spoken about such a site for the past few months, and now I'm glad I got there.
ReplyDeleteI'd look up what Mr. Ault made as the AD, how he fired the coach, took over the job in 2 days, then tripled his salary. Not only that, but the State of Nevada has a pension/retirement plan that base your retirement pay on the highest 3 years, so now the good old coach has taken his likely 100-200K / yr pension into the 350K+ range. And all he had to do was fire the coach. Hmmm.....
That's true, but firing Tormey really was in his job description, whereas hiring himself was...well, a grey area. My understanding of the situation was that he legitimately met with Dr. Lilley with a short list of potential candidates and it was Lilley who initiated the "Ault for God"-like impetus to his triumphant return. Not having the room bugged myself, though, I can't vouch for that. Then again, a lot of the converse to that story has been circulated ever since before Tormey was even fired (and Tormey really did need to be let go), and seems to be largely from people who've always had a proverbial "thing" against Ault, whether personally or otherwise. My take is that there is probably some truth to both sides, but since I have no proof I'd like to give Ault the benefit of the doubt and focus on his on-field failures rather than whether or not he's a scoundrel as a human being. As for your numbers, well, you can take them for what they're worth, they don't lie. BUT, I don't think he took the position to pad his retirement. He is a passionate man, and what more do you have to be passionate about than the program you built then watched fall? The fact that he is candid to a fault shows me that his motives were at least sincere even if he did (and I'm not saying that he did) resort to scoundrelness to get there...but that is money that we could be putting elsewhere, like the guy who can actually beat Boise, be competitive against Florida State in '08 (he he he), and not go down to the wire at home against a UNLV team who would go 2-fer on the season. I will agree, he is getting the best money that we can afford to give to someone who may, MAY have another 9-4 or 10-3 season in him but just isn't able to get his teams to compete anymore at the level that some of our WAC counterparts are.
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