For Our New Visitors

Our visits have increased greatly in the past few days, so I'd just like to say 'WELCOME' to our newcomers as well as our regulars, whomever they may be. 

I know that my partners are frothing at the mouth to do some posts.  Not wanting to step on their toes I'll just do a little wheel spinning until they're able to get theirs up and posted.

While I was at the game Friday night, about midway through the fourth quarter, a lady walked by.  She happened to hear some rather coarse language with regards to Coach, and said: "Aw, he's not that bad."  Of course I have to ask: "Then why are you leaving now?" 

A few years back I remember Groth announcing our future OOC competition...a rough lot, to be sure.  I also remember her as saying that we would >>competitive<< by then, an ultimatum in no uncertain terms.  I was still an Ault apologist at that time, and I remember a lump going into my throat at that point.

I remember when Ault fired Tormey.  I had a number of friends, colleagues, and people on the street fuming about the firing when it seemed that we were just about to turn the corner (2003).  Most of that talk died a quick death with the swath of fellonies his team left behind him, but, at the time, I defended him.

I remember when Lilley hired Ault, and that the talk was (and still is, in some circles) that he had let Tormey go in order to usurp him.  I defended him then, too.

His first step, in 2004 was to "take back Mackay," and he did, winning five of his six home games (none on the road, regrettably [including his only loss-to-date to UNLV in his 3rd stint] although the change in command left him with a shrunken roster) and losing only to Boise St.  The only thing I really couldn't defend was the fact that he benched Andy Heiser in favor of Jeff Rowe...Ault would go on to create the "Pistol Offense" around Rowe.

In 2005 we shared the conference championship, although we got positively clobbered by Boise State that year, with whom we shared the title, and beat a Fresno State team (in ten-degree weather) who, despite coming close against USC the week prior, would go on to lose to LaTech at home the very next week.  Central Florida would go on to win the Hawai'i Bowl for us on a missed PAT in OT (the Pack had a ten point lead late in the 4th quarter, by the way).

2006 was Rowe's last season, and Nevada put forth another very respectable 8-win season including two consecutive shutouts vs. Utah State and at LaTech, and capped by a near win vs. Miami in the "Boise Bowl" (with the famous WTF 2-point attempt).  By the way, what happened to that defense?

I think most fans expected 2007 to be a rebuilding year; and it was, more or less.  Yet watching the game at New Mexico State come down to the opponent shanking a last-second fieldgoal attempt just fed me up; I was tired of apologising, and this site was born.  This was also the year of the loss, at home, to that undefeated Hawai'i team, a game we led late and, thanks to some attrocious clock management, a game in which we had no chance to recover.  A 6-6 regular season somehow landed the Pack in the New Mexico bowl, a decades-long scoring streak came to a disasterous end, and Ault had his thrid career losing season (and second in four seasons since coming back).

In 2008 the Pack notches its first season-opening win since 2003, a home matchup against the powerhouse, 1-AA Grambling State...and again lands in a bowl game.  The 2008 team did give a 'fair' showing vs. Texas Tech, but also included a couple of hearbreaking losses to Boise St. and Hawai'i, and a total WTF loss AT HOME to New Mexico State.

There's no way around the fact that I am a HUGE history buff, so I can't help but draw comparisons accordingly; and the way I see it Ault is an awful lot like Robert E. Lee.  Lee was a great leader of men as well as a fine tactician, and together with some of the greatest generals in American history did some amazing things..in relation to the context.  What Lee and Jackson were able to pull off at Chancellorsville was similar indeed to the 1991 Weber State game. Then something happened to Lee: simply put, he got cocky.  Lee moved into the North in an attempt to draw out the Union army and put it on the defense.  This much was successful, but by the time the Army of the Potomac, under General George Meade, was in place Lee was in check, and in a desperate gamble...ran it up the middle.  The result has come down through history known as Pickett's Charge, and it signaled the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

I hope Ault is able to put together a fine campaign in the next nine games (although if he only wins one it had damn well better be next week!), then he really can rest on the laurels that he has earned.  At the end of the season he can walk away...say that he and the family agreed that it was the right decision at the right time or something...and, in time, some of the embarrassing moments broadcast on national television (the coaching decisions, the clock managment stuffs, the predictable play calling...all the WTFs) will be forgotten.  He can take his place in Legacy Hall along with the Salad Bowl trophy.  After all, even Lincoln wasn't all that popular when he was alive, but now he is revered in nearly God-like fashion.

I don't want to remain in the proverbial Confederate backwater of the FBS.  Some may feel that being in the top half of the *WAC* and four-straight bowl appearances are good enough.  OK, but the drive to be something better is what drove Ault in the past, and that drive took us from D 2 to D 1-A and on into the WAC.  Why should we let go of that intensity, that 'drive,' just because Ault has?  Because we can't realistically expect any better?  Bosch!  If we'd have lived by that mantra 30 years ago the Pack would maybe, *maybe,* be hovering around the 1-AA Big Sky right now.  We need to keep aiming high, that is what I've always been told is the American way, and since Ault seems to be content riding the laurels of that win eighteen years ago and of his 'new' offense from which he still runs the same, predictable plays, it's time for Groth to live up to her ultimatum and use that contract extension of hers.