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Fire Phillip Montgomery … enough is enough

Honorable Mention: 7 years: Willie Fritz, Tulane/.450

Probably worth keeping. If you cross out unusually bad year,(last year) he's at .500, and probably on to better records. Wish we were in the position Tulane is in.
 
Yes that conference championship was a big deal at the time, and something that neither Montgomery or Graham have ever been able to accomplish.
He’s the only coach in our history to win a conference championship, a bowl game and finish the season nationally ranked in the same year. What many of you define as the minimum of success.
 
He’s the only coach in our history to win a conference championship, a bowl game and finish the season nationally ranked in the same year. What many of you define as the minimum of success.
Sadly he then went all Colonel Kurtz and devolved into (coaching) madness.
 
Out of 20 other coaches tenured 8 years or longer, the four with losing records:

9 years: Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio)/.433
9 years: Craig Bohl, Wyoming/.480
9 Years: Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan/.410
8 years: Monty/.444

The only one who looks absolutely worse than us is Eastern Michigan. We're just a little better than Miami. At least we have some company.
Wow, I wish I had known this earlier, I would have paid more attention to the Wyoming game. How often do you have 2 of the best worst coaches in the game locked in a battle of epic mediocrity?
 
Gragg was at Eastern Michigan in 2013. Did he hire Creighton ? No I guess it was Heather Lyke just after Gragg left.
 
Out of 20 other coaches tenured 8 years or longer, the four with losing records:

9 years: Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio)/.433
9 years: Craig Bohl, Wyoming/.480
9 Years: Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan/.410
8 years: Monty/.444

The only one who looks absolutely worse than us is Eastern Michigan. We're just a little better than Miami. At least we have some company.
The guy that hired Monty came to us from Eastern Michigan. What a great track record to put on your resume.
 
Wow, I wish I had known this earlier, I would have paid more attention to the Wyoming game. How often do you have 2 of the best worst coaches in the game locked in a battle of epic mediocrity?
Yeah if we had won that game we would have gone to 4 games under .500, and they would have been 3 games under. As it stands they are 2 under and we are 5 under. If we had a game like Jacksonville State to figure out our best OL, we probably would have won that game, and performed better in our Northern Illinois win. The joys of mediocrity. Bohl advertised for a transfer QB in a preseason message he released. That was funny, and embarrassing for them.

The thing is, we aren't really mediocre this year.(despite Monty) Our break out performances against Jacksonville St & Ole Miss showed that. It is our lack of depth at OL & QB after Ole Miss beat on us, that is causing us to slide into 3 straight losses & compounding the problem. It keeps the defense on the field too much, it stacks injury upon injury, and exponentially makes the problem worse. We are hurting on defense because Simon & Rogers can't hold the DL up for that much playing time.

We should have just taken the loss against Cincy and healed up a bit. Instead we have extended it through the Navy game on top of it. We might have been able to beat Navy, if we left some players out of the Cincy game. We probably should have pulled a Cincy move, and just forfeited that game. Covid anyone?

I don't know if we would have been able to pull off the Navy win, at cause that Monty can't figure out how to compete with them. But we would have had a lot better chance if we took the week off. Our record might have been the same. But we would have been healed, maybe not so embarrassed, and we wouldn't have had to get our confidence back.
 
Gragg was at Eastern Michigan in 2013. Did he hire Creighton ? No I guess it was Heather Lyke just after Gragg left.
Yeah Gragg came here in March, and they hired him in December 2013. Would have been sadly funny if he had hired them both.
 
Yeah if we had won that game we would have gone to 4 games under .500, and they would have been 3 games under. As it stands they are 2 under and we are 5 under. If we had a game like Jacksonville State to figure out our best OL, we probably would have won that game, and performed better in our Northern Illinois win. The joys of mediocrity. Bohl advertised for a transfer QB in a preseason message he released. That was funny, and embarrassing for them.

The thing is, we aren't really mediocre this year.(despite Monty) Our break out performances against Jacksonville St & Ole Miss showed that. It is our lack of depth at OL & QB after Ole Miss beat on us, that is causing us to slide into 3 straight losses & compounding the problem. It keeps the defense on the field too much, it stacks injury upon injury, and exponentially makes the problem worse. We are hurting on defense because Simon & Rogers can't hold the DL up for that much playing time.

We should have just taken the loss against Cincy and healed up a bit. Instead we have extended it through the Navy game on top of it. We might have been able to beat Navy, if we left some players out of the Cincy game. We probably should have pulled a Cincy move, and just forfeited that game. Covid anyone?

I don't know if we would have been able to pull off the Navy win, at cause that Monty can't figure out how to compete with them. But we would have had a lot better chance if we took the week off. Our record might have been the same. But we would have been healed, maybe not so embarrassed, and we wouldn't have had to get our confidence back.
Navy is surely Montgomery's kryptonite.

We will know soon if we are a spectacular, bottom 10 team or rather just mediocre.
 
Yeah if we had won that game we would have gone to 4 games under .500, and they would have been 3 games under. As it stands they are 2 under and we are 5 under. If we had a game like Jacksonville State to figure out our best OL, we probably would have won that game, and performed better in our Northern Illinois win. The joys of mediocrity. Bohl advertised for a transfer QB in a preseason message he released. That was funny, and embarrassing for them.

The thing is, we aren't really mediocre this year.(despite Monty) Our break out performances against Jacksonville St & Ole Miss showed that. It is our lack of depth at OL & QB after Ole Miss beat on us, that is causing us to slide into 3 straight losses & compounding the problem. It keeps the defense on the field too much, it stacks injury upon injury, and exponentially makes the problem worse. We are hurting on defense because Simon & Rogers can't hold the DL up for that much playing time.

We should have just taken the loss against Cincy and healed up a bit. Instead we have extended it through the Navy game on top of it. We might have been able to beat Navy, if we left some players out of the Cincy game. We probably should have pulled a Cincy move, and just forfeited that game. Covid anyone?

I don't know if we would have been able to pull off the Navy win, at cause that Monty can't figure out how to compete with them. But we would have had a lot better chance if we took the week off. Our record might have been the same. But we would have been healed, maybe not so embarrassed, and we wouldn't have had to get our confidence back.
Sadly all that is nothing but fools gold. Part of how you get to be one of only 4 coaches with 8 years on the job and a losing record is to make it look like you're almooost there, and just sooo close to be over the hump. Year after year. The finish line always just around the next turn, forever.
 
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Sadly all that is nothing but fools gold. Part of how you get to be one of only 4 coaches with 8 years on the job and a losing record is to make it look like you're almooost there, and just sooo close to be over the hump. Year after year. The finish line always just around the next turn, forever.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this team. You know how Monty pulls a season out of a hat with a decent second half performance. You may not want it, I may not want it, but we can't control that Monty might go 2-4, and then 4-2.

It's happened before, and it has a better shot at happening this year than it has before. You are discounting what this team is capable of with a healthy Brin, and a healthy OL. Then we're 6-6 and it's hard for the school to let Monty go.

In all reality this team looked capable of going 7-5 to 8-4, if not for injuries. We may be stuck with him a little longer.
 
You don’t necessarily have to complete a losing season as a coach / manager to be let go after the season is over. Ask Dusty Baker about that after he wins his only World Series this year and is not renewed by the Astros.
 
You don’t necessarily have to complete a losing season as a coach / manager to be let go after the season is over. Ask Dusty Baker about that after he wins his only World Series this year and is not renewed by the Astros.
Or Bruce Cassidy with the Boston Bruins fired after having a good season last year even after a couple of key players retired/sat out last season. 6 years as Bruins head coach, 6 play off appearances, only 1 playoff exit in the 1st round and even had a Stanley Cup finals appearance. Or Mike Schildt who brought the Cardinals to MLB playoffs 3 out of his 4 seasons. Fired after the 4th season and losing in the NL Wild Card game.

You can fire a guy after a good season if you don't think he's the guy to get you to the ultimate goal which, in TUs case, should always be a conference championship. (I say conference championship because that's what we can control...we can't control the arbitrary assignment to the CFP or even a NY6 game). Yes, TU has played for a couple of AAC championships...we haven't won one yet. Not sure we can win the big game under Monty. We didn't win our bowl games against P5 teams even though we were probably better than Miss St. If Rick and Brad want to truly bring TU to the next level on game day experience...they need to put someone in charge of the program that gives the team a chance to win every home game. I don't believe Monty is that person.
 
Or Bruce Cassidy with the Boston Bruins fired after having a good season last year even after a couple of key players retired/sat out last season. 6 years as Bruins head coach, 6 play off appearances, only 1 playoff exit in the 1st round and even had a Stanley Cup finals appearance. Or Mike Schildt who brought the Cardinals to MLB playoffs 3 out of his 4 seasons. Fired after the 4th season and losing in the NL Wild Card game.

You can fire a guy after a good season if you don't think he's the guy to get you to the ultimate goal which, in TUs case, should always be a conference championship. (I say conference championship because that's what we can control...we can't control the arbitrary assignment to the CFP or even a NY6 game). Yes, TU has played for a couple of AAC championships...we haven't won one yet. Not sure we can win the big game under Monty. We didn't win our bowl games against P5 teams even though we were probably better than Miss St. If Rick and Brad want to truly bring TU to the next level on game day experience...they need to put someone in charge of the program that gives the team a chance to win every home game. I don't believe Monty is that person.
You are talking about pro leagues on all those examples. D1 is a bit of a different deal.
 
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this team. You know how Monty pulls a season out of a hat with a decent second half performance. You may not want it, I may not want it, but we can't control that Monty might go 2-4, and then 4-2.

It's happened before, and it has a better shot at happening this year than it has before. You are discounting what this team is capable of with a healthy Brin, and a healthy OL. Then we're 6-6 and it's hard for the school to let Monty go.

In all reality this team looked capable of going 7-5 to 8-4, if not for injuries. We may be stuck with him a little longer.
This wouldn't be surprising at all - in fact, it's exactly what I would expect. If you look at his last 3 full seasons, he's 17-17. Overall, he's 40-50. So statistically you'd expect 5-7 or 6-6. "Start 2-4 but show improvement to get to 6-6" is exactly how a .500 coach keeps his job for 8 years. That's the fools gold.

@TU 1978 asks the important question - is a career .500 coach good enough? Because that's likely what Monty will always be.
 
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Or Bruce Cassidy with the Boston Bruins fired after having a good season last year even after a couple of key players retired/sat out last season. 6 years as Bruins head coach, 6 play off appearances, only 1 playoff exit in the 1st round and even had a Stanley Cup finals appearance. Or Mike Schildt who brought the Cardinals to MLB playoffs 3 out of his 4 seasons. Fired after the 4th season and losing in the NL Wild Card game.

You can fire a guy after a good season if you don't think he's the guy to get you to the ultimate goal which, in TUs case, should always be a conference championship. (I say conference championship because that's what we can control...we can't control the arbitrary assignment to the CFP or even a NY6 game). Yes, TU has played for a couple of AAC championships...we haven't won one yet. Not sure we can win the big game under Monty. We didn't win our bowl games against P5 teams even though we were probably better than Miss St. If Rick and Brad want to truly bring TU to the next level on game day experience...they need to put someone in charge of the program that gives the team a chance to win every home game. I don't believe Monty is that person.
Exactly, 6-6 is not going to fill the stadium , we need to quit making excuses why we can’t be good and start making a plan to be good . We are always going to be at a disadvantage with fans because of OU and OSU, so we need to put a great product on the field, at least 8 - 10 wins on average , with an occasional down year of 5-7 wins . 6-6 is still 50 percent which is a failing grade
 
Exactly, 6-6 is not going to fill the stadium , we need to quit making excuses why we can’t be good and start making a plan to be good . We are always going to be at a disadvantage with fans because of OU and OSU, so we need to put a great product on the field, at least 8 - 10 wins on average , with an occasional down year of 5-7 wins . 6-6 is still 50 percent which is a failing grade
Brad and team are really working on making TU games a destination and event. We're a restaurant that's trying to upscale with great ambience and service but with a crappy short order cook slinging IHOP food.
 
besides Temple who do ee beat? 3-9. not good
His losses aren't looking so "fluke" like this year either (especially Cincy and Navy) AND he literally hijacked his own season by letting Brin play injured instead of holding him back for the bowl hunt. So, just maybe that would be enough to kindly show him the door.
 
He’s the only coach in our history to win a conference championship, a bowl game and finish the season nationally ranked in the same year. What many of you define as the minimum of success.
Just show's that you can win if you have the right Jimmy and Joe's, but then you have to replace them. Therefore, the Dilemma. I am not a fan of nepotism.
 
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