It seems that many have gone full on apocalypse when it comes to the Herd football program while others have moved to the "this is as good as it gets" camp. I think both misstate the picture.
When Holliday was hired, the Herd football program was in bad shape. Snyder had 4 losing seasons before cobbling together a 6-6 year and a bowl win. Fans were apathetic at best. Season ticket sales were nose diving. Holliday did indeed engineer a turnaround of sorts. His first three seasons were 5-7, 7-6, and 5-7. Then, we went 10-4, 13-1, and 10-3 and many, including me, thought the program had turned the corner. Not only were we winning but we were playing an exciting game of football. One of the main critiques of Mark Snyder was that he played the Jim Tressell way which was to play it safe, keep every game close, and then win in the end. That is not the game Herd fans have come to expect.
Unfortunately, "Doc ball" appears to be the same thing. Yes, we won this past weekend but our QB had a whopping 90 passing yards. 90. In an entire game. Hell, Leftwich had a lot of quarters with more yardage than that. It is boring football.
Worse, by every measure you can think of, Marshall has become simply a mediocre football team. We're not awful but we're not good. We don't beat teams that are favored to beat us by more than a touchdown. We sometimes lose to really bad teams. Even when we win, every win is an ugly win. Until the absolute last second, you are wondering whether we will manage to pull out a "W" and that happens in every single game. You rarely, rarely see blowouts. Just a plodding, methodical game. Someone said our average Sagarin during Doc's tenure was 86th. Yep. Mediocre. Our average G-5 rating was 21st. Yep. mediocre.
EXACTLY, like Mark Snyder's game except that we manage to win a few more each year.
If Doc is back for another season, and I fully expect him to be, I also expect you'll see a nosedive in season ticket sales which, ultimately, was what got Mark Snyder (and, for that matter, Ron Jirsa) relieved of his duties. That, apparently, is the only thing that gets the administration's attention.
We can be better than this. We don't have to accept mediocrity. We can demand a coach that will come in with new ideas and an offense that puts up 40+ per game. Yes, we'll lose him in 4-5 years if he is successful but it is unrealistic to expect that we can get a great coach and hang onto him for a long time. We ain't Oklahoma. Still, it is time to try something different because what we have now isn't working.
When Holliday was hired, the Herd football program was in bad shape. Snyder had 4 losing seasons before cobbling together a 6-6 year and a bowl win. Fans were apathetic at best. Season ticket sales were nose diving. Holliday did indeed engineer a turnaround of sorts. His first three seasons were 5-7, 7-6, and 5-7. Then, we went 10-4, 13-1, and 10-3 and many, including me, thought the program had turned the corner. Not only were we winning but we were playing an exciting game of football. One of the main critiques of Mark Snyder was that he played the Jim Tressell way which was to play it safe, keep every game close, and then win in the end. That is not the game Herd fans have come to expect.
Unfortunately, "Doc ball" appears to be the same thing. Yes, we won this past weekend but our QB had a whopping 90 passing yards. 90. In an entire game. Hell, Leftwich had a lot of quarters with more yardage than that. It is boring football.
Worse, by every measure you can think of, Marshall has become simply a mediocre football team. We're not awful but we're not good. We don't beat teams that are favored to beat us by more than a touchdown. We sometimes lose to really bad teams. Even when we win, every win is an ugly win. Until the absolute last second, you are wondering whether we will manage to pull out a "W" and that happens in every single game. You rarely, rarely see blowouts. Just a plodding, methodical game. Someone said our average Sagarin during Doc's tenure was 86th. Yep. Mediocre. Our average G-5 rating was 21st. Yep. mediocre.
EXACTLY, like Mark Snyder's game except that we manage to win a few more each year.
If Doc is back for another season, and I fully expect him to be, I also expect you'll see a nosedive in season ticket sales which, ultimately, was what got Mark Snyder (and, for that matter, Ron Jirsa) relieved of his duties. That, apparently, is the only thing that gets the administration's attention.
We can be better than this. We don't have to accept mediocrity. We can demand a coach that will come in with new ideas and an offense that puts up 40+ per game. Yes, we'll lose him in 4-5 years if he is successful but it is unrealistic to expect that we can get a great coach and hang onto him for a long time. We ain't Oklahoma. Still, it is time to try something different because what we have now isn't working.