I don’t really see what McGuire has done at Tech as being anything like Memphis. He’s been there several years and had to rebuild recruiting after the last guy failed to improve over Kingsbury. And he had made progress, though that success didn’t match the financial investments in the facilities.
But Campbell is a motivated bankroller who saw an opportunity to exploit the lack of financial guardrails going into this year, and he basically got a blank check to go get the guys he needed to compete at a high level. If anyone here thinks that Fritz would have turned that down in the interest of “building,” I don’t know what to tell you.
McGuire is a hard-working coach who shouldn’t be in any way compared to that fraud in Memphis, imo.
My emphasizing Culture and Process at UH is not meant to be a knock on the TT Head Coach. It’s simply knowing what I know about how Willie does business. He is involved in every aspect of the program and has more tools in his kitbag than most coaches he will go up against. Finding mismatches, in-game adjustments, calculated risks. But, most importantly…. Never quitting.
Losing to Tech won’t change that any more than winning would prove it.
I don’t think the Oregon state game was a trap game. I don’t think we were looking ahead. It was our first true road game. We made a lot of mistakes, especially in the first quarter. it should’ve been 14 to 14 at halftime but we dropped the ball on the slant. The beavers came out strong in the third quarter and our coaches make adjustments and Conner made a couple great throws. We went in overtime because of two blocked field goals. THIS WAS A CULTURE WIN!
They were already better than us without the fast-tracking so I don’t know what your point is. If we had the money we’d do exactly what they did and so would most schools. If you’re saying our “program” is better than theirs that has beaten us 11 out of 12 times, fills up their stadium without worrying if half the fans are the opponent’s, and now has billionaire donors I don’t know what to tell you.
It’s one thing to respect the opponent while not fearing them, but to act like a program light years ahead of ours in every measurable aspect is only a good team but not a good ‘program’ makes us all look silly and insecure. If you’d just admit that they’ve made the most of the opportunities they’ve had and WF has us headed in the right direction it would come off a lot more genuine and less bitter.
I don’t disagree with anything you said. Except the part where they are “light years ahead of us” in every aspect. There are several areas where we are very competitive with them, and dare I say, several more where we are subjectively BETTER. But I appreciate your candor and your opinion.
We will give them their toughest test of the year, to date, IMO…
I appreciate this perspective. Personally, I think the “trap game” thing can become a cliche. It certainly doesn’t apply to UH. There are no “trap games” when you’re in year 2 of a total rebuild. And I also agree with your “culture win” assessment. No way a Dana Holgerson coached team wins that game after playing off-brand ball for 54 minutes.
Maybe one day UH will play “trap games,” but it won’t be while CWF is at the helm
I agree with acouple of your points,but talking about that Tech is “light years”ahead of us is going too far! McGuire is in his 4th year at Tech and CWF is in his second season. If you are saying that it’s totally about.NIL and you might have a point. I see CWF AND.CKS in the same vein! Both coaches have won every place they have been and players love playing for them!
In 2023 our record was 4-8, yet we could have beaten #8 Texas had the ball been spotted correctly on 4th and one at the UT 4 yard line. Previous games don’t mean anything in the current game on the field. Things happen and kids can get up for a game.
This was their first game with the students back in school and playing in fr4ont of a full stadium. In 2015, we went to the Peach Bowl, yet lost to winless UConn at their house. There’s no explaining college football and the ups and downs of 18-22 year old young men.
Today Mcguire was asked about extending contracts for z Tech players. He said some were waiting, either because they were playing and were looking to get more or weren’t and didn’t want to extend before playing time. Not even half way into the season and Mcguire is playing GM, telling kids that they might get injured and have no guarantees. We’ll see how the blueprint plays out over the season
The TT defense has given up 45 points this season through 4 games; our defense has given up 53 points through 4 games. TT has played Ark-Pine Bluff, Kent State, and Ore State in Lubbock and beat UU in Salt Lake. They played sorry teams at home, and I’m not sold on UU being a power team. The good thing is that we can settle this Saturday night.
Can we at least get half a season in the books before we start making grand pronouncements like this? They’ve literally played one game against a team with a win against FBS competition.
Please understand he arrived in December and had to build a staff, recruit who ever he could and move his family in one month. He said sometimes in the first year at UH he had to play who ever was standing next to him. Difficult times . Year two is better with fair amount of progress in all those areas mentioned above. Next year is looking much better.
There is no other Coach in the Nation I would want to be coaching the Coogs at this moment in history. We ride with Coach Fritz…beat Tech!
To be fair, their defensive starters have only allowed 10 points this season, all of which were against Utah. The other 35 points were scored against their 3rd and 4th string defense.
We still lost to UT, who cares how close we came, just like when people say a win is a win when talking about OSU. No moral victories of the Helton era please.
And I think UH did all of their travel the day of the game… at least I read on here that the football team flew to Eugene Friday morning a d then rode the bus to Corvallis…
If this is, in fact, true then that was a lot better win than the Coogs are getting credit for…
