And we're in it, going to New Mexico. The WAC bowl picture looks like the following:
Dec. 22nd - New Mexico Bowl
Nevada vs. New Mexico
4:30 p.m. ESPN HD
Dec. 23rd - Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Boise State vs. East Carolina
8 p.m. ESPN
Dec. 31st - Roady's Humanitarian Bowl
Georgia Tech vs. Fresno State
2 p.m. ESPN2 HD
Jan 1st - Allstate Sugar Bowl
Hawaii vs. Georgia
8:30 p.m. FOX
Interestingly, they didn't keep Boise State in Boise for their bowl game - this is probably because Boise State travels relatively well, and the Sheraton Bowl is going to need all the help it can get for this one, attendance wise. After all, I can't imagine East Carolina has a large legion of road fans capable or willing to go to Hawaii for a bowl game. We're going to New Mexico, which works out well - since New Mexico is playing in that, it won't matter how many of our fans bother to show up. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, makes another trip to the Humanitarian Bowl, showing up three years after their last showing. Of course, none of this wouldn't be possible if Hawaii wasn't going to the Sugar Bowl to face a bitter Georgia team that, frankly, will probably run over the Warriors.
We'll cover the matchup between New Mexico and Nevada soon... but we need to pace ourselves. It's a long three weeks 'til our bowl game, and we have to have something to post here.
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Some comments from a friend of mine...
ReplyDelete...As for the Ault situation, you're more than entitled to your opinion. I happen to have worked for the guy, indirectly through the athletic department and I like him as a man and an administrator and yes, even as a coach. He has more passion for this school and its sports than any ten boosters or alumni combined, but...time has passed him by.
Being that you are 20 - and this is no attack on your age, just a point of reference - you lack the perspective that I and some of the others do. I was in high school when coach Ault became the first, and so far only, coach to win a conference championship in his first year after moving from D-IAA to D-IA. That was twelve years ago and student mentalities have changed, as have coaching philosophies.
I understand that for the three or so years you have been at UNR you've seen what passes for winning (9-4, bowl appearances, one-third of a conference championship), but we're merely beating the teams we're supposed to beat. I remember when we used to push Boise and Fresno up and down the field. Then coach Ault retired to become full-time AD and hired a series of worthless coaches in his place; Jeff Horton, Jeff Tisdel and Chris Tormey. Those programs rose and ours fell. Badly. I remember when Utah State (!) won the Big West Conference in 1997 and schooled us at home in the snow. When we lost to UNLV for the fourth straight time, Ault fired Tormey and hired himself. Some people cheered, others rolled their eyes. I cheered.
Just two years into his stint, in 2005, he had us winning again: a 9-3 record and a win over UCF in the Hawaii Bowl, but we got stomped that year by Boise, Wazzu and Colorado State. We beat Fresno just after they had gotten whacked by USC and were riddled with injuries. It almost deserves an asterisk. Last year, same story; we beat the teams we're supposed to beat but lost again to the same teams Ault fired Tormey for losing to. This year, same story. Close just doesn't cut it anymore when the AD hires himself to right the ship and in four years continues to limp his way to bowl games, this year at 6-6.
The only way we seem to survive is through individual efforts of great athletes like Chance Kretschmer, Jeff Rowe, Chris Barry, Caleb Spencer, Derrick Kennard, Joe Garcia, JJ Milan, Ezra Butler, Matt Hines and now, Colin Kaepernick and Luke Lippincott. The same could be said for the baseball team and Coach Powers. Loads of individual talent (Ryan Church, Darrel Rasner, Lyle Overbay, Chad Qualls, etc. all in the big leagues) but only two winning seasons in the past seven? This, after nine straight winning seasons and a handful of CWS appearances.
Furthermore is that this year, after defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter left for Air Force, Ault replaced him with longtime friend and coach Ken Wilson. I worked with Ken too. He's a super guy, but he took the nation's twelfth best rush defense and turned it into the nation's worst - WORST - with no significant injuries. Only through coaching is that possible. To boot, listen to some of the post-game interviews and listen to how much coach Ault puts the failure on the kids, with phrases like "we didn't execute." That's appropriate sometimes, but his statements are chronic. It is earth-shattering to hear an 'I' statement following a loss.
The final kick in the nuts is that the fans have seen our basketball program, which for years was absolutely horrible, turned around in just four short seasons by Trent Johnson and then handed off with equal success to Mark Fox. This year is turning out to be an off-year but this is a luxury for us. Between 1985 and 2003, we had been to exactly one postseason tournament (lost at home to Nebraska in 1997 in the first round of the NIT). Now it's a regular occurrence...but because of outside hiring.
My undergraduate friends are fired up to can coach Ault and they're five to ten years younger than I am. Imagine how I feel, having experienced all that crap and witnessing the massive nepotism and good ol' boy hiring that takes place here. Believe me, as good of a president as Joe Crowley was, nobody should be in charge of an institution of higher learning for 23 years because it promotes entrenchment everywhere.
We're starting to see a turnaround with a new president, new AD, new deans all over the place, a new student union, new library, etc., etc. Why not new football and baseball coaches from somewhere other than here? Or at least...younger ones.
Sorry that was so long - I needed a break from my papers. But now can you understand our frustration? It's not about wins and losses as much as it is who we're losing to, how long we've been doing it and why the guy in charge isn't doing what he promised when he hired himself four years ago...
I'll have a response to this one tonight...unfortunately right now I have to eat.
ReplyDeleteFood is good.