8-5 with 4 losses coming to Top 10 teams. They most likely play for a national title had they gone undefeated.
Is the 2011 team the unluckiest of all time?
- Thread starter Red Dragon Coog
- Start date
Playing good teams doesn't automatically mean you're good. Not a single one of those 4 losses was even close.
It was also a transition year, we lost graham as coach and most those games were early in the year. It was a tough schedule, I believe we played Boise pretty close but the other three losses weren't great to the top teams.
2016 might have been even more unlucky, bunch of close games and some controversial ref calls. However looking at Monty's terrible record in games decided by a TD or less, maybe he created his own luck in those Navy and Houston games 🤷♂️
2016 might have been even more unlucky, bunch of close games and some controversial ref calls. However looking at Monty's terrible record in games decided by a TD or less, maybe he created his own luck in those Navy and Houston games 🤷♂️
No. Boise State that season was at their place and it wasn't close. We played Bosise really close in 09' when they were in Tulsa.
Most disappointing thing in that season was Blank's offense suddenly going conservative at inopportune times.
I feel like our offense is perpetually conservative these days. I dont believe that monty ever controlled Baylors offense. If anything , we open the offense up at inopportune times now.
I remember that game against Houston. Houston ran their offense into the wind and scored. We went one dimensional when we turned into the wind and gave houston too many opportunities with the wind to their backs.
He certainly did. His big claim to fame was in 2014 when he decided to run the ball on a gassed #9 TCU team in the 4th quarter. Baylor was down 58-37 at the beginning of the 4th and they end up coming back to win 61-58. Monty's biggest problem while he's been here is not having the right personnel on offense to allow him to call frequent down-field passes to open up the threat of the power run. After Dane left, we had no QB who could throw the ball reliably downfield. Then the quality of our offensive line pass protection went to hell. That recruiting / coaching failure sits directly with Monty. I'm hopeful that he can show this season that with the right offensive build (and quality coaching), this spread offense can still hum like it used to. If not, then it's certainly time to look elsewhere.
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That game turned the moment the WR (can't remember which one) was trying to reach for an extra yard or two and fumbled as we were moving down the field to match Houston's previous score. Sometime in the 2nd quarter. That and the incomplete fwd pass from Keenum that looked like a fumble because he was handing it forward on the jet sweep. 2 big momentum and attitude changing moments in that game.
+1.
Remember, we opened up a little bit on offense against OSU and had their D on their heels the last half of the 1st quarter and the entire 2nd quarter (after we spotted them a 17-0 lead). We had them confused, missing assignments, chasing ghosts, and gassed. The offense works when Monty trusts people to execute. That trust was not there in the 2nd half of that game. We had a dropped 1st down, a near pick on a screen pass and then Monty went into the shell the rest of the game hoping the D could hold them off (as good as our D was last year we all knew holding OSU scoreless for a quarter let alone an entire half was not very likely).
To be fair, the second quarter was probably the best football we've had against a Gundy coached OSU. It's unlikely that they overlook us this season.
I don’t begrudge TG leaving when the timing was right. That’s football. I do begrudge them setting up a schedule to make us national contenders, missing out on some recruits, then bailing when it was clear there would be at least a three loss season that year due to graduation in 2009 and 2010, etc.
If you only take the first half of about five non-conference games and the UCF last year, Monty is the best coach in the AAC. The trouble is he’s actually the worst coach I’ve ever seen since John Blake and maybe Fred Akers. Close call.
I'd nominate Burns for Worst Ever. Especially if we're only considering HC performance.
BB didn’t have success on the field, but he made sound decisions within the boundaries of his offense. But that offensive strategy and system was ill suited to an evolving game and the defenses in our conference. He never lost control of the players. Montgomery routinely makes poor in game decisions, can’t manage a clock unless you count going into shell in the third quarter, and has had too many players lose control on the field and even on the sideline.
BB was good coach who was unsuccessful and who was unwilling to make the fundamental changes necessary to preserve his job.
Monty is just bad. And that would be fine in a young coach, but he’s not learning from his errors, curing his deficiencies, and holding his staff accountable. His ego dominates and he trusts in the only system he knows, arrogantly confident that the system is suitable for TU. It isn’t.
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Burns was arrogant and incompetent, but he did hire some good people and he was willing to let them do things he wasn’t necessarily familiar with. He inherited a program depleted financially and a team crippled by years of antagonism on campus.
Monty has faced none of those challenges and has had similar results despite being the best funded coach in TU history.
We’ve been below Burns for two years now.
This is revisionist history. BB lost control of the locker room which started splitting between supporting Dane or supporting Cody, and in the next season they just completely gave up on Blankenship's leadership. That was a major reason why he was let go. He also basically stopped recruiting Texas which didn't help us at all.
You say that Monty hasn't made any changes, but he oversaw a complete retooling of his defense after several years of being one of the worst defenses in the country. He tried to get slick with his offense thinking that QB mobility could substitute for downfield throws in this system, thinking President could be Tulsa's next RGIII. The only problem is that RGIII could pass a bit and President couldn't. Monty's bad teams were much more successful in terms of competitiveness than Blankenship's ever were.
We were literally two missed chipshot field goals away from bowling last season.
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Agree with Huffy's comments above. I started covering TU Football in 2001. The last two seasons of Keith Burns were by far the worst in the past 20 years.
The only win in 2001 was the opener against FCS Indiana State. TU then lost 17 games in a row before the win over UTEP at home, in which the fans tore down the goalposts. In 2002, TU only scored more than 21 points in four games. Record was 2-21 in those two seasons. Thankfully, Jerry got Kragthorpe in to save the day.
You just like disagreeing with me but you only support my argument. He might have lost the locker room, that happens to every coach at least once. The fact that happened, if it happened, only reinforces he was a better coach than Montgomery since he was coming off a conference championship and finished in the Top 25, something no other coach in modern TU history has accomplished. And we didn’t see players getting penalties for running out on the field and stomping on opponents or helping his buddies he depends on for transfers at his old program illegally scout their opponents or those T-shirt’s. I could go on and on.
He lost the locker room the year AFTER the conference championship when he returned his entire offense from the year prior and they couldn't move the ball against a bunch of newly added C-USA teams that were doo-doo. That was when Dane was a RS Frosh and Cody Green was a Senior. If it weren't for some bad ref calls against Navy and Houston Monty would have been in the top 25 as well. That 2016 was seriously bonkers. I would have loved to see the defense of 2012 go up against the offense of 2016.
He did a great job with BB’s players, didn’t he? You keep proving my point.
After last seasons misses, Monty might rely on a kicker who might start who had never played the sport until after he arrived here on campus. And he missed one of those kicks that lost one of those games last year.
Not to mention the “tight end” we paid a $100,000 for two years of education who never took a snap in a game of organized football at any level ever. But welcome to the alumni association son, we didn’t need that spot to build depth at wide out, did we? Oh wait ....
After last seasons misses, Monty might rely on a kicker who might start who had never played the sport until after he arrived here on campus. And he missed one of those kicks that lost one of those games last year.
Not to mention the “tight end” we paid a $100,000 for two years of education who never took a snap in a game of organized football at any level ever. But welcome to the alumni association son, we didn’t need that spot to build depth at wide out, did we? Oh wait ....
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Bill never lost the team in the locker room. If you think so talk to the former players and coaches who were there. Your dislike of Bill is clouding your argument. Bill’s last two seasons were not successful but that is a different issue.
Huffy outlines most of the major issues on why Monty has not been successful. We all hope that will change but it will require doing something different in his approach and game day decisions than what has occurred in the last 3 years.
Huffy outlines most of the major issues on why Monty has not been successful. We all hope that will change but it will require doing something different in his approach and game day decisions than what has occurred in the last 3 years.
You think that Bill never had any kids who never took snaps? Look up Jabe Burgess. Bills problem wasn't that he recruited kids that never played. His problem that he was forced to play kids who should have never seen the field because he recruited poorly at certain positions (like DB). I would much rather have a kid never play a down when the guy in front of him was a stud or at least a significant contributer. Monty did something similar with the kicker, but kicker's a weird position where kids can just get the yips and you don't have a replacement for them because you don't want to waste a scholarship on multiple kickers.
Evidently Bill couldn't do well with his own players or most of the offensive leftovers from Graham. Your hatred for Monty is clouding your ability to be objective. You're looking at the past with rose colored glasses and disregarding what's actually been happening in the present.
I don't dislike Bill at all as a person. I think he's one of the most caring alumni we've had on campus. It's to bad that he felt so offended by the situation after he was let go. I just remember talking to players at the time there was a disconnect between the receivers, the line, and the QB's because each preferred different personnel on the field.
A total of 4 seconds at the end of two games against 2 favored teams, one of which was top-25. If TU didn't have bad luck in 2019, they would have had no luck at all.
I got the years mixed up, the Houston game was the one I was thinking of. We were up most the first half or all of it. Third quarter it started getting away. Then they scored three or four times in the fourth to pull away.
Damn I hate the kitties. I had blocked that part of the season out. We ripped off seven straight wins, I felt good about the team, seemed like we had it going. First half was pretty good then it went ugly. That BYU bowl game was kick in the nuts too.
We need to sign another series with the mormons they were pretty good games the last few times. Make sure the players cup up though
I'm tired of this cliched thinking. Monty's record in single TD games is atrocious. Tulsa will never recruit at the sort of level that an UCF or Houston will.
That's not a knock on our talent, but Tulsa succeeds in every sport based both on the teams talent levels and its intelligence. The talent tends to be adequate to compete in every sport but rarely dominant. TU counts on those players being smart, playing smart, and having coaches putting them in positions to succeed by being smart.
That's how we win in every sport, it will be rare that Tulsa will ever be so talented that they can just line up an overwhelm their AAC opponent.
One of the reasons Graham is such a good coach was because as he proved at Rice he could take his and beat yours or take yours and beat his. That is the sort of coach TU needs to be successful, one who plays to the programs and players strengths.
That's not Monty. An end around late in a game from your own endzone is not setting up your players to succeed. Not getting a proper kicker than putting a poorly prepared and equipped kicker in positions to fail is not setting your players up to succeed.
We beat UCF last year because we had a smart player, paying attention, quick snapping a ball, and getting us the all important first down. After talent got us to the point where being smart was an advantage. Watts helped us to win because he was smart and knew the rules to take advantage of them and had a coach who put him in position to make those choices.
It's not a talent issue for TU football, it isn't bad luck. It's bad coaching, which TU does not have the talent to overcome. Watching Texas St last week I saw a coach who definitely understands how to put his players in a position to succeed. Definitely someone we should keep an eye on.
You are referring to Jake Spavital. Tx State almost beat SMU last week. Definitely a local guy to keep an eye on. Incidentally, that was TX State’s first time on ESPN I believe. So we could afford to pay Spavital is my guess.
Dang. The love in this thread for the Hall Monitor/Dry Cleaning Valet that is our HC is unbelievable.
They just lost at home to UTSA in Double OT as well. Think we better let him marinate for a while.
And I want to apologize for jinxing their kicker, I put that in the universe.
However watching that game I saw him put his players in positions to succeed and he has quite the rebuild going there. It may still be a year away but they are showing signs of serious progress.
Was he up three scores on national television to his rival and then after fulfilling the prediction of every alum that he would yet again blow that lead, and after missing two game winning field goals and your defense cannot walk, decides to run three times and then tell a kid who has never played a snap of organized football a year prior that his first collegiate attempt will be against a ranked team on the road in front of a packed stadium cheering their best team in forty years? Because if he did, and we can get that for under $1.5 million a season, that’s an improvement.
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I’d rather be up 3 scores and barely lose than to be blown out by every ranked / relevant team we play.
You're confusing our p5 record with games against the top 25. We have done pretty well against the non-P5 top 25 under previous coaches.
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