GAME 5: AT UTAH STATE
Ok, I guess we have to go over that whole "this community expects to win" crap. Yes, yes, yes this college football program is light years ahead of where it was when Jim Sweeney had them playing at Ratcliffe and started building Bulldog Stadium at the corner of Cedar and Barstow. That's a given. So is Pat Hill's indelible mark on the program by taking it in a new direction. I'm not saying that any of that didn't happen or that any of that is bad.
It's just that it's not working right now.
This football season is a struggle. That's just the way it goes. Happens to the best of programs, even up in the rarified BCS air which the Bulldog faithful strives to join someday. Hey, Bobby Bowden's having a rough go of it this year. Joe Paterno took on a ton of water two seasons ago.
But those two guys are established on the highest level and have national championships to their credit. It hurts a little more for a program that's knocking on the door to prominence and trying to get noticed.
Well, here we are. We entered the season minus a four-year starter at QB, who graduated, with a whole lot of inexperience in the secondary and numerous other holes that weren't so obvious at the time. Fans called into the local talk shows and debated whether the team would be 6-0 or 5-1 going into the LSU game. Would the LSU game take too much out of them, win or lose, when they took on Boise State 10 days later? How high would LSU be ranked in the polls when FSU arrived in Baton Rouge? Would FSU be in the top 10 by then?
Instead of all these bullshit questions, fans should have been asking if Tommy Brandstater could play quarterback and if the offensive line could protect him. The hosts (i.e. the enablers) at the local talkies should have been pointing out to fans that the Washington Huskies were a different team than the dismal bunch that FSU had beaten a couple of years ago. But that was then and this is now.
What's gone on since then is a gutsy win against Nevada, a tough loss in a very physical game against Oregon, a close loss at Washington and a clear-cut beating at the hands of Colorado State. 4-0 has become 1-3. At 1-2, Sporting News Radio's Tony D'Adato was having a contest to see how many times he could say "of course this team could be 3-0 but should this team be 3-0.?"Almost everyone he posed that question to on the air said that things were probably right where they should be at 1-2. It was what it was. And now, one loss later, it is what it is.
So why in the hell did I listen to all this dismissal of Utah State this week? Oh, hell, I think Fresno State's going to win. But I'm not taking anything for granted at this point. While these same talkies were going over the three-game stretch of Hawaii-LSU-Boise State and wondering how many of the three were winnable, here's what I was wondering:
How will Fresno State do against Utah State in Logan without Paul Williams or Joe Fernandez when the temperature at game time will be 45 degerees? And falling. I honestly wonder how they would do at full strength with Brandstater under center and with the same secondary, special teams and offensive line that they had against Colorado State.
Well, that's why I'm here. And why I don't call the talk shows. It's hilarious. People who never cared about winning the WAC suddenly care with all the non-conference losses stacking up. They want Brandstater out and Sean Norton in at QB. They want all kinds of stuff. Soften up the non-conference schedule. Don't soften it up. There's even an occasion "get rid of Pat Hill." It's a smorgy of goofiness on the phones and behind the microphones.
Back to the original point, it is definitely good that people care about the team and get pissed off when the team isn't going good. What's crazy is that we even debate that point. I think they'll beat Utah State tonight. It won't prove a whole hell of a lot if they do but it will make the present state of affairs in FSU football very clear if they lose. Here's the bottom line:
For all the talk of becoming a national power, crashing the party and all that, the 2006 Fresno State Football team has played a tough non-conference schedule and lost a tough one that turned into a three-game losing streak. And that is EXACTLY what they did in years past with Paul Pinegar at the helm. And also with David Carr. They previously waited till the end of the season to hit the skids but this is all stuff we've seen before around here. The team may be a huge step below where it was even a season ago, which I believe to be the case. Or it could reel off a bunch of wins sandwiched around a good outing in Baton Rouge to get everybody all riled up again. Heck, they could be the giant slayer again with a win over LSU. My point is, it's Groundhog Day. Same as it ever was in the Pat Hill era. FSU's progress in the battle for BCS recognition has basically been the same whether Carr was on the cover of Sports Illustrated or Paul Pinegar was being criticized by the Red Wave. FSU's no closer to the penthouse but really, no further away.
As Sweeney used to say, "Go Dogs, win the WAC."
It's just that it's not working right now.
This football season is a struggle. That's just the way it goes. Happens to the best of programs, even up in the rarified BCS air which the Bulldog faithful strives to join someday. Hey, Bobby Bowden's having a rough go of it this year. Joe Paterno took on a ton of water two seasons ago.
But those two guys are established on the highest level and have national championships to their credit. It hurts a little more for a program that's knocking on the door to prominence and trying to get noticed.
Well, here we are. We entered the season minus a four-year starter at QB, who graduated, with a whole lot of inexperience in the secondary and numerous other holes that weren't so obvious at the time. Fans called into the local talk shows and debated whether the team would be 6-0 or 5-1 going into the LSU game. Would the LSU game take too much out of them, win or lose, when they took on Boise State 10 days later? How high would LSU be ranked in the polls when FSU arrived in Baton Rouge? Would FSU be in the top 10 by then?
Instead of all these bullshit questions, fans should have been asking if Tommy Brandstater could play quarterback and if the offensive line could protect him. The hosts (i.e. the enablers) at the local talkies should have been pointing out to fans that the Washington Huskies were a different team than the dismal bunch that FSU had beaten a couple of years ago. But that was then and this is now.
What's gone on since then is a gutsy win against Nevada, a tough loss in a very physical game against Oregon, a close loss at Washington and a clear-cut beating at the hands of Colorado State. 4-0 has become 1-3. At 1-2, Sporting News Radio's Tony D'Adato was having a contest to see how many times he could say "of course this team could be 3-0 but should this team be 3-0.?"Almost everyone he posed that question to on the air said that things were probably right where they should be at 1-2. It was what it was. And now, one loss later, it is what it is.
So why in the hell did I listen to all this dismissal of Utah State this week? Oh, hell, I think Fresno State's going to win. But I'm not taking anything for granted at this point. While these same talkies were going over the three-game stretch of Hawaii-LSU-Boise State and wondering how many of the three were winnable, here's what I was wondering:
How will Fresno State do against Utah State in Logan without Paul Williams or Joe Fernandez when the temperature at game time will be 45 degerees? And falling. I honestly wonder how they would do at full strength with Brandstater under center and with the same secondary, special teams and offensive line that they had against Colorado State.
Well, that's why I'm here. And why I don't call the talk shows. It's hilarious. People who never cared about winning the WAC suddenly care with all the non-conference losses stacking up. They want Brandstater out and Sean Norton in at QB. They want all kinds of stuff. Soften up the non-conference schedule. Don't soften it up. There's even an occasion "get rid of Pat Hill." It's a smorgy of goofiness on the phones and behind the microphones.
Back to the original point, it is definitely good that people care about the team and get pissed off when the team isn't going good. What's crazy is that we even debate that point. I think they'll beat Utah State tonight. It won't prove a whole hell of a lot if they do but it will make the present state of affairs in FSU football very clear if they lose. Here's the bottom line:
For all the talk of becoming a national power, crashing the party and all that, the 2006 Fresno State Football team has played a tough non-conference schedule and lost a tough one that turned into a three-game losing streak. And that is EXACTLY what they did in years past with Paul Pinegar at the helm. And also with David Carr. They previously waited till the end of the season to hit the skids but this is all stuff we've seen before around here. The team may be a huge step below where it was even a season ago, which I believe to be the case. Or it could reel off a bunch of wins sandwiched around a good outing in Baton Rouge to get everybody all riled up again. Heck, they could be the giant slayer again with a win over LSU. My point is, it's Groundhog Day. Same as it ever was in the Pat Hill era. FSU's progress in the battle for BCS recognition has basically been the same whether Carr was on the cover of Sports Illustrated or Paul Pinegar was being criticized by the Red Wave. FSU's no closer to the penthouse but really, no further away.
As Sweeney used to say, "Go Dogs, win the WAC."
posted by Green V Watchdog | 4:25 PM
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