There is no longer a doubt

[Rabbit74]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

As requested, here are our year 2 results. 6 & 5 record,3 &2 in the Great West

It would be interesting if a Jacks fan reading this would post their schedule and results to see how they faired in year 2. If I recall it was a pretty good season overall. Some nice wins.

Date Opponent Opp Rank Location Results Media
Sat, Sep 03 Wisconsin-La Crosse - Coughlin-Alumni Stadium 42 - 13 (W)
Sat, Sep 10 Valparaiso (Ind.) - Coughlin-Alumni Stadium 69 - 6 (W)
Sat, Sep 17 Montana 4 at Missoula, Mont. 0 - 7 (L)
Sat, Sep 24 Cal Poly * - Coughlin-Alumni Stadium 16 - 24 (L)
Sat, Oct 01 Texas State - at San Marcos, Texas 12 - 42 (L)
Sat, Oct 08 UC Davis * - at Sioux Falls, S.D. 16 - 14 (W)
Sat, Oct 22 Missouri-Rolla - Coughlin-Alumni Stadium 64 - 28 (W)
Sat, Oct 29 Georgia Southern - Coughlin-Alumni Stadium 42 - 55 (L)
Sat, Nov 05 Southern Utah * - Coughlin-Alumni Stadium 55 - 7 (W)
Sat, Nov 12 North Dakota State * 20 at Fargo, N.D. 17 - 41 (L)
Sat, Nov 19 Northern Colorado * - Coughlin-Alumni Stadium 30 - 14 (W)

[JimmyJack]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

The mistake Coyote fans are making (and have made for years) is imagining that moving up would somehow be easy. Last year's UNI game just fueled that mistaken impression. Fact is that last year UNI was looking past USD, coming off an FBS game and looking ahead to MVFC play. It's almost a bad thing that USD competed in that game, because it continued to fuel this ridiculous notion that "the top teams in D2 could are as good as many FCS programs". As we pointed out to CF and others here, over and over and over, that's obviously not the case.

Transition sucks. The worst thing fans can do is jump ship over a bad loss in year two. Honestly, how would it help USD now to dump a coaching staff and start over? Better to give this staff the chance to be fully-funded and build the program for a few years into full FCS status. THEN see where you stand.

I'm talking logic in a smack thread here, so I'll stop here and agree with the premise of this thread. USD is not in the same league with us right now, but it shouldn't surprise anybody that a transitional program isn't as good as a nationally-ranked program. Period.

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

I hate to keep with the logic in the smack, but changing coaches now would be really over reacting (here comes my smack: so maybe USD will do it since they tend to react instead of lead. smack done). I also think that year 2 of transition is not the hardest, year 3 is.

In year 3, most of your junior and senior players began being recruited when the school was D2. It is this year that those players really begin to show the knowledge they have gained adding to their abilities to make them much better players than as freshman and sophomores. So, IMO, year three is when you have the biggest gap in experience at the FCS level of players on the field. You do have some younger players that are able to compete, the team experience level is what lacks.

Our year 3 started horrible, but through that year the was a lot of improvement. The worst thing that could have been done was to over react to that bad start.

[JamesJacks]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

I'm in agreement with 1strowfanatic. Year three is the toughest in transition. I think it is the year where you see how well your program is developing. You can see some of those recruits you got develop for a few years and see if they are FCS caliber. If you don't see improvement in year three, it's going to be a long process I think.

[zooropa]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

Well, perhaps a different tack would be to compare USD football to SDSU MBB.

For whatever reason, SDSU had kind of a charmed transition in football. A program that hadn't won a league title in D-2 since like 1964 won a league title in year 4 of their transition--not to mention that SDSU's W-L pct. during transition wasn't too different than it was pre-transition during the Stig years.

--those are not typical results--

More typical is what's happened to SDSU's MBB program, and by slogging through it, Nagy & co. look to be in a position to reap rewards from it about 6 years after leaving D-1.

For 'yote fans, that's--IMO--the time frame you need to look at. SDSU in FB was atypical--a fluke--not necessarily a repeatable scenario.

[zooropa]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

Oh, and to keep the smack going, Mark Twain on coyotes:

The cayote is a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry. He is always poor, out of luck and friendless. The meanest creatures despise him and even the flea would desert him for a velocipede.

[Jacked_Up]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

Welcome to reality, Coyotie-ville. Beating up NAIA and non-scholarship teams is not the reality of FCS football. And thanks for setting the bar low in the coming comparison of the South Dakota teams fare against UNI.

[jackmd]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

I think UNI is awfully good, and USD is in their second year of transition. Bad losses happen in transition, particularly when you play a team as good as UNI.

It's way too early to say how USD's program will stack up in a few years. And it takes a few years. Are we better now? Sure. We should be, having been fully-funded for a few years.

As I recall, we lost to GSU 63-7 a few years back. We just beat up on them 44-6 today. It's just really hard to know what to think of a program that's still in transition.

Agree with all these points. Losses like this are going to occur when you are transitioning to the next higher level.

What bothers me are naive fans like the ones I visited with on Thursday night. They were using last years close game as a reason for them to expect a close game again this year, and worse, they were using the score comparison to suggest that USD was better than several other established FCS teams. Taking it a step further, they than concluded that the FCS and the NCC were essentially equivalent. I tried to make an argument but they weren't hearing it. Maybe this will help them better understand.

Losses like this happen, its how you respond that determines what you are really about as a program. USD will be okay.

[Cowbell]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

After USD made a game of it last year against UNI I think it caused many people to wonder ... is USD better than we think? Happily, balance has been restored to the universe

[Chains]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

I'm in agreement with 1strowfanatic. Year three is the toughest in transition. I think it is the year where you see how well your program is developing. You can see some of those recruits you got develop for a few years and see if they are FCS caliber. If you don't see improvement in year three, it's going to be a long process I think.

Correct me if I am wrong but do you not need to schedule more Dl schools in year three vs 1 and 2? That clearly makes it more difficult if true.

Also, I was told not to long ago that if you think the 5 year transition is tough just wait for the following 5 years. During the transition period expectations are fairly low. However, 66 - 7 may just be a little to low. Fans and the media cut you a little slack. After transition expectations grow and if your program does not - well, than comes the pressure.

Welcome to FCS football. By the final score it appears the Yotes brought their football team to a basketball game.

GBGBGJ

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

Agree with all these points. Losses like this are going to occur when you are transitioning to the next higher level.

What bothers me are naive fans like the ones I visited with on Thursday night. They were using last years close game as a reason for them to expect a close game again this year, and worse, they were using the score comparison to suggest that USD was better than several other established FCS teams. Taking it a step further, they than concluded that the FCS and the NCC were essentially equivalent. I tried to make an argument but they weren't hearing it. Maybe this will help them better understand.

Losses like this happen, its how you respond that determines what you are really about as a program. USD will be okay.

You know, I was actually thinking that this loss might be the best thing to happen to USD so far in the transition. Especially if we happen to beat UNI in a few weeks.

It might serve as a wake up call to USD athletes, coaches, administration, fans, and boosters just what level of commitment is needed to be successful as a DI institution.

Athletes, coaches, and administrators will have to work harder, fans will have to be more supportive, and boosters will have to give more. Until a really bad loss happens, it is difficult to get people to understand what is needed to be successful.

I think if we look back, there were a couple bad losses that SDSU had that probably had this effect on the program. IMO, this is the real strength of the past AD, current coaching staffs, and student athletes for all sports at SDSU: the ability to get back up and try harder after getting knocked on your @ss.

[NoVaJack]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

It looks like I am the only Coyote Fan that puts any of this game on the Yotes. Of course UNI is going to be able to pick apart USD's defense when they have receivers running open and uncontested for most of the game. I wasn't at the game but I didn't need to be to make an accurate determination that 700 yards against is NOT a good performance.

This is basically what I think. This is completely unacceptable and accountability needs to be taken immediately. Others think it's just one game (eventhough it's really the 3rd year of a downfall in progress) and UNI played great, USD gets a pass on this because of how good UNI played. Same things were being said after McNeese, Cal Poly, UNO, Minnesota State, West Texas, Montana St etc. The defense continues to be shredded and no one thinks it's a very big deal. With the USD fans expectations of their football program it's a no wonder they had a 15 year slump that lasted from about 1988 through 2003. SDSU and/or NDSU fans would be in a frenzy after a game like the one in Cedar Falls. They would be calling for coaches heads etc. I wish USD fans wouldn't be so accepting of losing football but I guess one good win a year will have to be considered good enough. If that is not considered good enough a person wouldn't be considered a good fan for not accepting the on field performance no matter what and that includes a 66-7 beatdown. Ed has lost this program and I see no signs that any kind of consistant winning football is happening anytime soon. It would be interesting if a Jacks fan reading this would post their schedule and results to see how they faired in year 2. If I recall it was a pretty good season overall. Some nice wins.

It's one game. A bad one, for sure, but the season and the world goes on. As someone else said elsewhere in this thread, not that long ago Jacks got their behinds handed to them by a similar score to a team they just dominated. No sense dwelling on it.

[NorCalJack]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

Breaking News!!!!

Northern Iowa just scored again!!!

[RabbitObsessed]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

Breaking News!!!!

Northern Iowa just scored again!!!

Haha?

[Jacked_Up]

Re: There is no longer a doubt

Cheer up, Coyotie fans. It's supposed to be about 80 degrees this weekend. The dome should be toasty warm, which will give USD the home smell advantage. The Yotes be playing a non-skollie program, so everyone on the home team should get a chance to play and earn their shower.