There Are Some Things Greater...

For those who've read it, Dan Hinxman had a great article in the RGJ Sunday (Hard to call Pack football team's season a success). He gets to a number of great points.

"...the 'reaching a bowl game' argument doesn't fly...not in the current environment when 54 percent of Football Bowl Subdivision teams (64 of 119) make it to the postseason"

For those who think that there are too many bowl games, well, that's the beautiful part about capitalism: if you don't watch then it won't make money and it will go away. Some go away, some new ones sprout, but if there weren't at least a modest quarum of demand out there then there would be fewer bowl games. If you want it to go away then don't support it; it's that simple.

BUT, this does show just what type of 'reward' is being given to these schools. You have to be in the top 54%? The only place where that is considered passable is in batting average. Getting to the game doesn't show that the team is, per se, worthy, it just shows that the cards happened to fall the right way.

"And there are a few teams on the outside looking in that have stronger résumés than Nevada -- South Carolina (6-6) beat two Top 25 teams and plays in the toughest conference in the country (Southeastern), Louisville went 6-6 in the very competitive Big East and Iowa went 6-6 in the Big Ten, which included a win over Rose Bowl-bound Illinois. Troy went 8-4 with four of those losses to Top 25 teams."

So it's not even the top 54%! In fact, Sagarin has us rated at #95, between Villanova and McNeese State, both 1-AA teams. Or, eliminating the 1-AAs, between Iowa State and Middle Tennessee, and only 5 1-A spots above Duke http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt07.htm.

"The Wolf Pack, despite a handful of lean years in the late 1990s and early part if this decade, has set the bar too high for itself to consider a season at or near .500 a success, even with a win on the 22nd."

"But this is also the second straight year that the team has slipped backward."

True, this is. We were 9-3 in 2005. Wee little slips backward are one thing, but there has, so far, been very little to grab onto which would say that 9-3 isn't the high water mark. The future looks fairly positive, in terms of players, but each year so far has looked pretty fair in that regard. Yes, okay, one can consider 2007 a "rebuilding" year of sorts. Nobody was certain what would come of the offense when Rowe left, but things turned out even better; some youth issues, but by and large a step up. Plus, if the off-season after the 2006 season was looming, with a number of players leaving, perhaps there should have been more JuCo transfers added into the mix? Granted I may be eating these words in 2-3 years (which I would gladly do), but 2007 was year #4, which is generally considered a separation year of sorts. By year #4 we should be seeing a fair example of what we should be expecting.

Then there are the matter of the "close call" games. Two of them against very good teams, no doubt. But, there were 8 of 12 regular season games decided by 8 points or less...and the Pack lost 5 of them. 5!!! Northwestern (L), UNLV (W), Fresno St. (L), Utah St. (W), New Mexico St. (W), and San Jose St. (L) were the others. Fresno St. didn't have a bad year at all...not great by their standards, but certainly not what they saw last year by any stretch of the imagination. But aside from them, those remaining 5 shine about as well as grandma's old, tarnished silver.

There's also a factor I repeat frequently: the first game of the season has been embarassing every year. 2004: loss at La. Tech 38-21; 2005: loss vs. Wazzu 55-21; 2006: loss at Fresno St. 28-19 (in a real down year for them); 2007: loss at Nebraska 52-10. Granted most of those were on the road (and La. Tech still had Moats in 2004), but this is, to me, a good example of coaching. Teams always look bad in game 1, but the Pack never seems to be prepared for game 1 at all. At least there's generally the proverbial "sauce for the goose," but that never quite seems to apply.

So, long story short here: Hinxman wrote what I consider to be a great artice, one I encourage everyone to read. Likewise, here are my feelings in some of these matters.

Good luck, and Go Pack!