Bad News Bears

[Beware Hurricane Warning]

The state of this football program is at rock bottom. The coaching is absolutely terrible and the whole situation is embarrassing as a TU fan/alumni.

It's the 11th game of the year and we can't even field a basic kick-off. The returner looked completely clueless at Navy when he tried to call a fair catch and the ball went sailing over his head. Another possession starting inside our 5 yard line. It would appear that we do not even practice special teams. Remember the fair catch at the 4 earlier this year followed by the jet sweep? Remember the 4 missed field goals at Texas? Remember how we could not catch a kick-off at Arkansas and kept starting drives at the 10? This is basic stuff that high schools can execute. We are supposed to be a D1 program for Christ Sakes!!!

Offense is boring, predictable and not effective. Defense is regressing. They forced exactly 1 punt on Sat against a team that was 2-8. All this, yet Monty keeps saying that we are a better team than our record. Said the same crap all last year to. The reality is that we are 4-19 over the last 2 years and we look like the bad news bears. Monty needs to go immediately following the SMU game. If not, attendance will continue to fall, recruiting will be impossible and good young players like Zaven Collins will transfer. This situation has reached a critical point!

 

[maverickfp]

If Monty isn't fired within the next 2 weeks, just get rid of football. Not worth it.

 

[lawpoke87]

Considering we only forced one punt the entire game, did anyone ask Monty why we kicked off to them with 4 minutes left in the game instead of trying an onside kick?

 

[maverickfp]

Considering we only forced one punt the entire game, did anyone ask Monty why we kicked off to them with 4 minutes left in the game instead of trying an onside kick?

We need a Jim Acosta asking the questions to Monty.

 

[chito_and_leon]

If Monty isn't fired within the next 2 weeks, just get rid of football. Not worth it.

With all due respect, don’t be an idiot.

 

[chito_and_leon]

The state of this football program is at rock bottom. The coaching is absolutely terrible and the whole situation is embarrassing as a TU fan/alumni.

It's the 11th game of the year and we can't even field a basic kick-off. The returner looked completely clueless at Navy when he tried to call a fair catch and the ball went sailing over his head. Another possession starting inside our 5 yard line. It would appear that we do not even practice special teams. Remember the fair catch at the 4 earlier this year followed by the jet sweep? Remember the 4 missed field goals at Texas? Remember how we could not catch a kick-off at Arkansas and kept starting drives at the 10? This is basic stuff that high schools can execute. We are supposed to be a D1 program for Christ Sakes!!!

Offense is boring, predictable and not effective. Defense is regressing. They forced exactly 1 punt on Sat against a team that was 2-8. All this, yet Monty keeps saying that we are a better team than our record. Said the same crap all last year to. The reality is that we are 4-19 over the last 2 years and we look like the bad news bears. Monty needs to go immediately following the SMU game. If not, attendance will continue to fall, recruiting will be impossible and good young players like Zaven Collins will transfer. This situation has reached a critical point!

The program was in way worse shape under Burns. I do agree with Monty that the team is better than it’s record. The difference is coaching.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

If Monty isn't fired within the next 2 weeks, just get rid of football. Not worth it.

Again, great idea. ORU would probably like to have us as a travel partner for olympic sports. Nothing like going to the Dakotas in the middle of winter.

 

[TU_BLA]

The state of this football program is at rock bottom. The coaching is absolutely terrible and the whole situation is embarrassing as a TU fan/alumni.

It's the 11th game of the year and we can't even field a basic kick-off. The returner looked completely clueless at Navy when he tried to call a fair catch and the ball went sailing over his head. Another possession starting inside our 5 yard line. It would appear that we do not even practice special teams. Remember the fair catch at the 4 earlier this year followed by the jet sweep? Remember the 4 missed field goals at Texas? Remember how we could not catch a kick-off at Arkansas and kept starting drives at the 10? This is basic stuff that high schools can execute. We are supposed to be a D1 program for Christ Sakes!!!

Offense is boring, predictable and not effective. Defense is regressing. They forced exactly 1 punt on Sat against a team that was 2-8. All this, yet Monty keeps saying that we are a better team than our record. Said the same crap all last year to. The reality is that we are 4-19 over the last 2 years and we look like the bad news bears. Monty needs to go immediately following the SMU game. If not, attendance will continue to fall, recruiting will be impossible and good young players like Zaven Collins will transfer. This situation has reached a critical point!

The KR at Navy was a true FR who hadn't been in that situation at all this year. As I can recall, this was only his 2nd game action. Putting him out there was the mistake.

The not caught KOs at Arkansas...I'll vouch for the kid because he was staring directly into the sun on those. I had the same angle and couldn't see the ball after it was kicked because it went through the sun.

And I do fear kids like Zaven Collins transferring to Arkansas or OKState because he could start at both those places as well.

 

[mcane]

I would ignore the "drop football" trolls. Probably OSU fans in disguise.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I would ignore the "drop football" trolls. Probably OSU fans in disguise.

Most don't realize the wasteland that would be waiting for the olympic sports without football. Remaining in the AAC wouldn't be an option.

 

[Tulsa76]

I think Kansas finally figured out how you revive a bottom of the barrel program! Unfortunately, TU cannot afford $2.75 Million contracts with equally huge retention bonuses. Do we just continue this cycle of hiring and firing unproven coaches and hope we win the lottery someday? At this point, it may be TU’s only option. Maybe we could start a GoFundMe site explaining TU’s unfortunate situation and how deserving D1’s smallest university football program is to be saved.

 

[chito_and_leon]

I think Kansas finally figured out how you revive a bottom of the barrel program! Unfortunately, TU cannot afford $2.75 Million contracts with equally huge retention bonuses. Do we just continue this cycle of hiring and firing unproven coaches and hope we win the lottery someday? At this point, it may be TU’s only option. Maybe we could start a GoFundMe site explaining TU’s unfortunate situation and how deserving D1’s smallest university football program is to be saved.

I think what Kansas has learned is that it sometimes takes a lot more than a new coach to pull a program out of the crapper. Charlie Weiss? We’ve seen this movie before.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Most don't realize the wasteland that would be waiting for the olympic sports without football. Remaining in the AAC wouldn't be an option.

This is correct. We’d be back in the MVC or worse... conference mates with oru quicker that you can say hobby lobby state

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

This is correct. We’d be back in the MVC or worse... conference mates with oru quicker that you can say hobby lobby state

I don't think the MVC would take us back either. We don't really fit in their footprint anymore and they would probably rather prove a point than take a retread.

 

[Weatherdemon]

I don't think the MVC would take us back either. We don't really fit in their footprint anymore and they would probably rather prove a point than take a retread.

We would end up with UNT likely. Is that Sunbelt?

 

[TU Pilot]

We would end up with UNT likely. Is that Sunbelt?

UNT is D1 and is in CUSA now...

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We would end up with UNT likely. Is that Sunbelt?

Not without D1 football. Sunbelt doesn’t accept partial members except for soccer.

If the drop football crowd were to get their way, they can look forward to playing ORU twice each year.

 

[aTUfan]

what happens to the AAC when the Big12 takes Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, or UCF?

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Not without D1 football. Sunbelt doesn’t accept partial members except for soccer.

If the drop football crowd were to get their way, they can look forward to playing ORU twice each year.

Arkansas Little Rock is in the sunbelt without football.

 

[aTUfan]

hire the coach from UAB. He built them back from nothing in two years. he makes 600k. surly we can afford him.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Arkansas Little Rock is in the sunbelt without football.

Bless your heart, I missed that one. Well there you go, we have a backup plan.

 

[eastcane]

Considering we only forced one punt the entire game, did anyone ask Monty why we kicked off to them with 4 minutes left in the game instead of trying an onside kick?

He did the exact same thing in 2016 at Navy, kicked with around 4 minutes remaining and behind a touchdown.

 

[HuffyCane]

hire the coach from UAB. He built them back from nothing in two years. he makes 600k. surly we can afford him.

Assuming Auburn isn't going to pay four times what we can offer.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Bless your heart, I missed that one. Well there you go, we have a backup plan.

Just keeping you on the straight and narrow

 

[TUMU]

what happens to the AAC when the Big12 takes Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, or UCF?

We merge with the Mountain West and change name from American to the United States of America Athletic Conference.

 

[maverickfp]

I don't want to drop football...just saying keeping Monty is about the equivalent of dropping it.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

I will be surprised if TU makes a change at head coach. Just not in the financial position to do so.

 

[TU4ever2]

Just keeping you on the straight and narrow

Just so you all know the Sunbelt has Texas Arlington as well.

Both were admitted before the current conference policy of full membership all sports.

Texas Arlington has announced they are seriously looking into FBS football and are being incouraged by the Sunbelt. UALR has also been rumoured to be incouraged by the conference to start football. The loss of a Arkansas game every year means the state legislator is more in the mood for a permanent FBS resident for War Memorial.

Arkansas will play their spring game and the Missouri game every other year in Little Rock. The upgrade of the Fayetteville stadium has changed the economics for UA, the Arlington game vs AnM is going to be moved to every third year. It is very likely both non-football Sunbelt schools will end up starting programs.

Our options with out football are in order of rejection:

Big East: didn't like us to start with, we're not Catholic, Creighton.

MVC: They are much more east focused and they probably would enjoy nothing more than to tell us to take a hike, unless our name was Wichita or Creighton.

Horizon: More east than MVC.

So we are down to the WAC and **it west travel and pacific/mountain times or the Summit.

Keeping a limping football program and/or doing it on the cheap puts us with the Sunbelt, MAC, CUSA and MW left overs not named Boise or SDSU when the break away comes.

We aren't hanging off the cliff yet, but we're awful close to edge and us being careless or some bad timing and a bump and we will go over the edge.

 

[Weatherdemon]

I will be surprised if TU makes a change at head coach. Just not in the financial position to do so.

And not doing so will not get us in a position to do so.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

And not doing so will not get us in a position to do so.

I don’t disagree. It’s a lose lose situation.

 

[aTUfan]

We will never win a national championship in football.

But we can be competitive, be ranked in the top 25, win conference championships, and go to bowl games.

And for me that's enough.

 

[chito_and_leon]

And not doing so will not get us in a position to do so.

It seems like our biggest issue is the overall financial health of the university and finding a sustainable model for TU. Fix that and we have a lot more flexibility on football. So counterintuitively, what happens in football is kind of irrelevant to the future of football. If the hard work is getting done at the university level then we’re stabilizing the future of football. If not, then a few more wins and a few thousand more fans won’t make any difference anyway.

 

[aTUfan]

Fans in the stands create revenue.
wins and exciting games create fans.
Coaches create winning teams.

 

[chito_and_leon]

Fans in the stands create revenue.
wins and exciting games create fans.
Coaches create winning teams.

No conference that we want to be part of will take a school on unstable financial footing. Do you think a quality conference wants a risk of a school going bankrupt? Or slashing budgets? If things get desperate where do you think the school will look to balance things? You know it’ll include athletics big time. How do you think the american felt about us cutting coach salaries? These people aren’t dumb, they’re not going to take a risky school, especially one that has a low profile like us. Low reward means we have to be low risk. So unless you can make us high reward by getting 35k butts into Skelly week in and week out, or get Tulsa to be a media market of 5 million, then we need to be low risk. And that requires fixing the university financial situation.

A few hundred thousand more football revenues won’t plaster over multi million university issues. You’re talking about saving Barnes and Noble by bringing a few more people into the store cafe. We have to fix the top level issues or nothing else matters.

 

[TU4ever2]

No conference that we want to be part of will take a school on unstable financial footing. Do you think a quality conference wants a risk of a school going bankrupt? Or slashing budgets? If things get desperate where do you think the school will look to balance things? You know it’ll include athletics big time. How do you think the american felt about us cutting coach salaries? These people aren’t dumb, they’re not going to take a risky school, especially one that has a low profile like us. Low reward means we have to be low risk. So unless you can make us high reward by getting 35k butts into Skelly week in and week out, or get Tulsa to be a media market of 5 million, then we need to be low risk. And that requires fixing the university financial situation.

A few hundred thousand more football revenues won’t plaster over multi million university issues. You’re talking about saving Barnes and Noble by bringing a few more people into the store cafe. We have to fix the top level issues or nothing else matters.

While the school is in a financial mess it is not so great that we are considering shutting down. That is over blown and an excuse especially considering we are looking at a minimum of doubling our media pay out. Which is more than enough of an increase to pay for us to fire Monty and pay his first year replacements salary.

The University bit off more than it could chew and did it at a bad time. Now it is tightening it's belt to make up for it. It is not desperately trying to make payroll and pay utilities.

It seems that inertia and a depressing out look has some people on here acting as though nothing can be done. Far too much Eyore not near enough Tigger.

Let's go die hards if you don't demand change there is no one left to do it.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

He's found a calling.

Come on guys are we not going to let the cheerleader lead us in a chant.

 

[chito_and_leon]

He's found a calling.

Come on guys are we not going to let the cheerleader lead us in a chant.

Lol, “I know I can make everything all better if I just smile big and wish hard enough!”

 

[aTUfan]

Wouldn't a winning team increase revenues. Increases game attendance, post season games.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Wouldn't a winning team increase revenues. Increases game attendance, post season games.

Yes. But there is much more to it than that. A small increase in attendance won’t do anything and we typically lose money on bowl game expenses.

 

[TU4ever2]

He's found a calling.

Come on guys are we not going to let the cheerleader lead us in a chant.

It amazes me that you and hurricane2 keep coming back for the beatings.

You and law poke got worked talking about TV and then shut up when Game Day showed up in Orlando.

You're sitting here talking about things you don't understand and are five years in the past.

We don't lose money on the bowl games in the AAC. The conference pools the money for expenses, covers unsold ticket allotments and then pools all the money and pays it out. So we actually make money on bowls.

Second the revenue from ticket sales now is minor, but the ability to increase the price of the ticket and to use things like dynamic point pricing means the revenue can go up multiple times their current value.

Third, just who the hell do you think the administration listens to? The casual Joe who shows up once every other year (or less with Monty losing games) or the die hard season ticket holder on here? Whose dollar carries the most weight the one who spends it on Tulsa regularly or the one who doesn't?

I'm sure with your long time experience on this board you are well aware that we have athletic and university employees who read this board. One of the main football marketing guys posts on here. Students, players, recruits, future coaches, past coaches have all been on this board. The point being if you aren't willing to demand change there isn't anyone else who will.

Yet again quit living in the past, those things which were strikes against TU are no longer relevant. The next round of realignment will be about streaming not TV markets, attendance, or alumni.

The things that were strengths at Tulsa will be deciding factors. The ability to be a feel good story, to have exciting offenses, and be a winning program will be the evaluation metric. How many eyes can you keep in a live show situation is what they are looking for.

But keep keep reiterating things that haven't been true in 6-7 years. Tell us how this is what Tulsa gets and it'll be fine when Tulsa is playing in Division FBS-AA for football and the Summit for basketball. You're talking Tulane leaving the SEC kind of vision now.