Learning how to block.
9 guys started 9 or more games Dickeys last year. Two graduated, two transferred, 5 came back. If weāre calling that 60% then okay. But only two were to the portal (talking starters, I think two more players transferred out). The other issue was that Dickey leaned so heavily on JUCO guys that we were always losing a ton of players to graduation.
But Fritz had a ton of roster turnover too. I donāt get why thatās even argued against. Itās a fact. If you donāt think itās a good excuse for why we suck thats different but you can at least acknowledge the fact of the matter.
As for the number of fans in the stands, I never saw two people sitting alone in a section. I lived on campus so I never missed games. I can recall games during the winter break where there were like 10-20 students but that would be the absolute worst I ever saw a section.
I do recall seeing the team practice at the rec though. Got a kick out of seeing that. Lol
I think comparing football to basketball is totally different.
4 Likes
3 transferred. Jaaron Simmons, Danuel House, Tashawn Thomas.
Simmons went on to average 15+ at Ohio before transferring to Michigan to end his career. Would have been a year 2 starter for us. Or, at the very least, our sixth man. We lost half of our rotation before the season even started. And Sampson had no portal to backfill.
And no one is arguing your fact about turnover. But at least Fritz has the portal. He loses Caldwell, he goes out and gets Carlos Allen. Loses Isaiah Hamilton, goes out and gets Jeremiah Wilson and Kris Davis.
Sampson lost House, Thomas, and Simmons. Has to go pick up the unsigned Juco kids.
Donāt tell me you saw them practicing and didnāt try to jump in on the bubble drill? Lol
And Fritz should get credit. He totally revamped our defense. If we have even an average offense we probably have 4 wins right now. But he put his eggs in the Donovan Smith basket. And that was his decision.
2 Likes
Fair enough on Simmons. He probably couldāve started. I was just going off of who did start the year before.
I want to say I saw them in there twice on the 2nd set of courts. Pretty sure I just stood by dribbling like an idiot so that it didnāt just look I was trying to watch their practice.
It did give me an early look at Pollard so that was cool. And naw no chance I was gonna mix it up with them on the bubble drill haha
And FYI. Iām fully on the Fritz bandwagon. He was the right hire.
3 Likes
Yah I donāt know what the deal is with Smith. Maybe heās one of those guys who looks amazing in practice but doesnāt translate to the game. Idk but if thereās one position we really need to be aggressive in the portal for, itās QB.
For sure man. We talked shop on Fritz a few week back so I get some of where youāre coming from. And as pro Fritz as I am, that was a hard game to watch Saturday. Idk hopefully Chriss is ready to go for Utah. Otherwise I may just have to take a week off the board until hoops starts lol
1 Like
Haha. I am fully off the Barbay bandwagon, though.
1 Like
Yup i can only really speak to ISUās path when Campbell came 9 years ago. I see a lot of similarities between CMC and CWF, except for age. Although i will say CMC has always been a bit of a conservative old soul and has a legit deference and respect for old school guys like Snyder, Ferentz, and im sure CWF, and he models his coaching style on guys like that with a few modern tweaks.
We also had a lot of Transfers (year one only tho), but we did have a few productive pieces left over from the previous regime. Not much, but more than you would think at a struggling ISU.
They got embarrassed in the non con, but they were surprisingly competitive in most big 12 games. But ISU did only end up going 1-8, 3-9 overall and werent getting anything close to opponentsā best shot or respect.
Things that got fixed QUICKLY (1-2 years):
-Defense
-Standards, accountability, daily habits
-Relationships and cohesion with fans, recruiting, locker room, alumni
-competitive practices, best player plays 100%
-Scheme
-Social media and marketing
-Running back room
-Physicality
-Depth
-continuity (no transfers in or out for most part)
-closed practices, controlled messaging NOTHING gets out unless CMC wants it to. No exceptions. EVER. (They are insanely strict w/ access and info)
Thing that took a long time (3+ years):
-Offensive line (arguably still not where it needs to be 9 years later
-QB (Purdy was the 5th QB to start for Campbell. Sorry guys, it was a freaking process.)
-Special teams (still an adventure with a few bright spots honestly. Weve been ok to good only maaaaybe 3 out of 9 years.
-Offense in general (year 8 was when we said ok its not just guys like Purdy and Hall, we actually have a scheme and a system that any decent player can succeed in)
-Learning how to play winning football every week, even in losses (probably took 3 or 4 years)
6 Likes
This is really all Iām asking for this year. I can live with a poor W-L record in the first season. I canāt stomach getting curb-stomped by a 1-5 team more than halfway through the season and getting absolutely dominated in 5 out of the 7 games played.
I thought the defense would give me hope, but they snatched that away last weekend, too. 
But there are 5 games left to show something. Thereās no reason we shouldnāt be competitive in at least 3 of them. I donāt think thatās too much to ask. 
2 Likes
I hear you and i get it. FWIW i had Houston to beat the spread and was 50/50 to win. I was very wrong and disappointed to see that. So i can imagine how you guys feel. No, its not too much to ask to compete, and thereās no excuse for the defense to get worked like that. It was BAD. Iowa and ISU have proven up here that its possible to keep playing elite defense with no help from the offense whatsoever. You have to demand that this year in Houston to have any hope to compete consistently right now.
What i will say is the Jayhawks were not a typical 1-5 team. Dark Horse heisman athletic freak at QB (at least formerly, he dominated ISU before). Leipold is as good of a coach as you will find in this conference. Their roster is arguably as good as anyone in the conference too. Leipold clearly out coached our staff from start to finish last year in Ames, something ive only seen maybe less than 5 times in 9 years under CMC, so i have a ton of respect for him based on that and his resume.
Im not making excuses for the Coogs, it was a stinker for sure. At the same time, im not just saying that to make you all feel better. Its real.
3 Likes
Iām wondering if the performance of the offense is lowering the morale of the defense. If that didnāt happen at the Kansas game in the 2nd half, then it will start soon if the offense keeps beating itself.
1 Like
We let Tilman make the decision because he was so butt hurt about the Herman situation.
STOP you are embarrassing yourself.
Sampson inherited a program that hadnāt won a tournament in decades, played in a G5 conference, had disgusting facilities and no practice facility and played in front of 100s of fans (on good nights)
Fritz walked into a P4 job, in a new stadium that was going through a major renovation for him and his players, coming off a season with 25k season ticket holders, oh and the largest coaching pot in UH history.
We need to STOP comparing this job to what CKS inheritedā¦laughable to even start to compare the two.
Fritz is under performing, and at at times, appears way in over his headā¦
Iāll say it again, in the NIL/Transfer era you can bring over a coach PLUS his QB and offensive weapons as a Package deal to PREVENT a dud first season.
Surely, Tilman, being the bright creative businessman surely knew this.
Surely, our AD knew thisā¦oh, thatās right we chose to hire the coach BEFORE we hired a new creative AD.
A lot of our own issues with our football program are self inflicted by Tilman and Renu!
1 Like
Hey you donāt have a monopoly on embarrassing yourself on CF. If I want to do it thatās my right! Lol
and itās my right to point out that the situations both coaches walked into are completely different.
Yeah, but you better have the biggest bag that was offered that QB. You guys act like all we have to do is go to the QB store and buy one. But the fact is each one is basically auctioned to the highest bidder.
You seem to forget that by the time CWF got here most of the best ones were taken from both HS and the portal. But CWF was able to get some good looking HS recruits and decent portal recruits. But only a couple of those HS recruits can be depended on as freshmen and with 63 new players fitting into a new system is hard.
BTW, there were no portal guys that could come in and replace Golden, Brown, Paul, etc.
6 Likes
Never said it was a perfect comparison but in my head there are similarities. I respect that you donāt see any.