On January 2, 2019, I was in a small minority of people who were uphappy with the hire of former Houston Offensive Coordinator and then current West Virginia Head Coach, Dana Holgorsen. I believed that he was a barely average coach that didn’t deserve the hype or compensation we were offering him. I didn’t believe we would get the return on investment that we were expecting.
Despite that, even I expected that Holgorsen would have been above .500 in year 2 and that recruiting levels would have been maintained or improved. Even I expected that Holgorsen would have slept-walked his way to average at UH. Even I am surprised at this point how many people still defend what he has done here.
His performance to this point is indefensible. The excuses are already old and worn: Herman, Applewhite, COVID, the roster, Tune… Nobody - and I mean even the staunchest supporters of Holgorsen - could have told me this is where they expected the program to be right now after two years. I know as someone who didn’t like the hire, this is worse than what I thought it would be.
Two losing seasons in a row; the first time since Dana Dimel. Recruiting has fallen off a cliff. Star players transferring, opting out, leaving the program before exhausting eligibility. No media hype. The redshirt fiasco was supposed to have paid off this year - nothing. The attendance next year… even if we can start to return to normal and maybe fill a reduced percentage of the stadium, is almost assuredly going to nosedive.
I thought Holgorsen would get four years, no questions asked, but now… There better be unbelievable improvement next year, or I don’t know how this can be sustained. It is going to take another four years to dig us out of this hole.
I don’t put much stock into bowl games (apparently, neither does Holgorsen), but that was a must-win yesterday to reverse the direction of the program, and we fell flat on our faces. Even I didn’t expect this. This is indefensible.
I feel very sorry for you that at 12:30 on Christmas you are crying on the message board. Holgorsen is fine. The coogs are fine. Everything will be fine. Stop over reacting and trust the process. Coogs took a big step forward from last year to this, and another will be coming next year.
Cary is slowly bringing me to his side. I want Dana to succeed badly. But the futility of this offense is disappointing. Fortunately Covid is hiding this season with all its chaos. I thought if Dana was going to underperform it would be on defense.
It’s 923a. That post was at 830a my time and I have nothing to do here as I am separated from family and friends, so… I stayed up in the middle of the night to watch that game.
Is this where you expected the program to be after two years the day Holgorsen was hired?
Whatever the process that has been happening isn’t one I am interested in.
H-Town Cary at it again with the negativity, it’s CHRISTMAS. Every post is negative, every post. If you think the Coogs should have been in the conversation for the AAC title this year, your hippie lettuce must’ve been exquisite. 2 years ago we lost to Army in a bowl game 70-14 and somehow people thought we would keep on contending for AAC titles with a coaching change?! As is the case with many things in life, change only happens with consistency and continued hard work and effort. There was definite improvement on both sides of the ball in Year 2- in a COVID year mind you. My advice to y’all is this, enjoy Christmas with your families, be happy for the good times the Coogs have had and be grateful for the great times to come! I am damn proud to be a Cougar and believe in what we are doing.
Where do you get that my expectation was contending for titles? I am putting the floor at .500. What were your expectations for year two when Holgorsen was hired? That’s what I thought.
Your post is wrong on many fronts, but you put a big cherry on top with that nonsense that yesterday’s bowl was a must win. How in the hell can you say that about a meaningless thrown together bowl game with 15 to 20 players out, hardly anyone in the stands, and it had to be moved by a state to be played. Besides the top 3 games this bowl season, all of them are meaningless this year. At best, best effort exhibitions.
I understand where your coming from but i think our leadership saw the opportunity of someone who’s had had head coaching experience as a way to bring stability to our program. I thought he did a solid job at west Virginia obviously nothing earth shattering. At the very least I thought we’d see high scoring offense like most of his teams there had. There needs to be significant improvement next year no denying that.
On paper I liked the staff we hired…but we payed alot no doubt. I can’t even think where to go next if this doesn’t work out.
Momentum headed into next season. As I said, most bowl games are meaningless, but going into next year, there is a huge perception/difference between 4-4 and 3-5.
Holgorsen even admitted as much, “I challenge (our players) to win this game so we can buy some rings that say ‘COVID CHAMPS’ on them, something to remember 2020 by… Let’s do something to feel good about what happened in 2020.”
Really well thought-out post. I felt the same way. I wasn’t enthusiastic about the hire, but when I saw the assistants, I thought, “Well maybe, just maybe”, especially Cauthen. Cauthen has been the best hire thus far in my opinion.
Where to go if we collapse again next year… We go back to up-and-coming coordinator. The recipe that works. We could also try G5 head coach like Tulane did with Fritz.
I think that is worth a lot. I have never been in the “hoping someone loses bad so we can can them” crowd. That is so disingenuous.
I honestly thought we were going to win the bowl game. I still can’t believe how uninspired and how poorly we played. I wanted to eat crow and I would have savored it.
Next year is a must-win season for him. Eight wins with our schedule is the minimum for me. All our difficult games are at home, road schedule is doable; no excuses.
Since we’re playing two not so good out of conference teams in Grambling & Rice I wouldn’t mind adding another solid ooc team to our schedule next year.
He’s just frustrated with the bad play and lacked of improvement from our football program in the last two years under Holgerson. Record and results on the field speak for themselves.
It’s human nature; just like it’s human nature to keep making excuses for our bad quarterback play to go with our coaching.
I started a thread about that a while back (Fourth OOC Game 2021 - Speculation). To sum it up, my guess is we schedule a home and home with a middling to top tier G5 team, UAB and Southern Miss have openings.
I don’t know about Dana, but I do know from watching every game we have guys that don’t play hard. They don’t move their feet when trying to make a tackle and they end up making half hearted lunges at the ball carrier.
It just is. There is Clearly a leadership vacume on this team. No one is holding anyone accountable for playing hard. I leave names out of these kinds of posts, but if you watch and rewatch the games it is the same guys and they just don’t want it that badly.
Compare the football team’s efforts over the last few years in relationship to the basketball team"s
Are you referring to if we play Southern Miss or UAB? If you are referring to ECU, that is TBD. Those are the AAC teams we are slated to play, not necessarily in that order.
program in the last two years under Holgerson. Record and results on the field speak for themselves.