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MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 1:34 pm

Yossarian wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 1:03 pm

aggies22 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 11:18 am

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 10:18 am

aggies22 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 9:51 am

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 9:04 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:33 pm

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:17 pm

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:03 pm

Blake Anderson is the Matt Wells of Arkansas State in the sense that he is irrationally disliked for providing sustained success.

Most on this board were excited when Texas Tech hired Wells and were excited about the P5 retread we hired to replace him. Boy were we wrong — the grass was not greener on the other side.

Hope it works out better for you guys, but the parallels are there.

I dont see that at all. Matt Wells has a losing record 5 of the last 6. Blake Anderson has a winning record in 6 of the last 7.

Very different.

Well, you don’t get to count the last two years at Texas Tech in evaluating the existence of a parallel based on facts as they existed when Wells left.

Seems to me like both had a bunch of bowl seasons at G5 schools and had one outlier losing season. Overall the MW is a tougher conference than the Sun Belt, so I value Matt’s 6-7 seasons as much as Blake’s 7 win seasons. Blake’s highs were also not as high as the highs we had under Wells (two 10 win seasons, rankings in the CFP for multiple weeks in 2018). On the other hand, Blake did lock down a few conference titles.

Seems pretty comparable to me. I am happy Blake is our coach now, and the Wells was our coach when he was.

Not to me. Blake's lows weren't as low either. Matt was very very close to being fired here. Matt grossly under preformed with the talent he was left. Nearly got fired here. Hit the lottery with Jordan. Went all in on 1 season recruiting wise and hit the jackpot. Got a new Job .

I for 1 dont miss Matt. I wish him luck. But there was nothing great or special there. Very average.

Gary did the same thing. Hit the lottery with Chuckie and went all in with a ton of JuCo transfers in the 2011 (especially) and 2012 recruiting classes.

I think the team Gary left MATT may be our most talented team in the last 40 years... The team Matt left Gary was not very talented.

And was comparing Matt vs Blake there. I think Gary's 1.0 here was a very different job from either Matt or Blakes 1st HC job.

I'd have to compare rosters, you may be right.

I agree with you on the second point. Gary had NO winning to tradition to build on. However, Gary did have a much weaker conference to compete in.

The most important thing that Gary 1.0 had that his predecessors did not have was a vision of what USU football could be. He saw the gem within the rocks. Then, he had the ability to sell the program to the university, the donors, the fans, assistant coaches, and recruits. What he did in his first stop here was Herculean in scope. He took an under-funded outcast that was perennially in the Bottom 10 in the country with a shoestring budget and horrible facilities (although they were on the way to getting better) and created a winning program.

I agree with this, but I think Brent Guy deserves some credit. I know I am in the minority on this but I think he did some very good things for the program but we were so far behind and so bad it was hard to see the progress.

We were 1 Fresno State 57? yard field goal away from Brent Guy staying on and GA staying at Utah. IMHO

Not even close! Brent Guy was a loser as a head coach (albeit he found a few recruiting gems). He would run "trick" plays that involved our QB punting on 3rd down and after losses would talk about the team making progress for being in games in the first quarter.

OrangeCountyAggie wrote: ↑

December 16th, 2020, 1:14 am

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 1:34 pm

Yossarian wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 1:03 pm

aggies22 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 11:18 am

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 10:18 am

aggies22 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 9:51 am

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 9:04 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:33 pm

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:17 pm

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:03 pm

Blake Anderson is the Matt Wells of Arkansas State in the sense that he is irrationally disliked for providing sustained success.

Most on this board were excited when Texas Tech hired Wells and were excited about the P5 retread we hired to replace him. Boy were we wrong — the grass was not greener on the other side.

Hope it works out better for you guys, but the parallels are there.

I dont see that at all. Matt Wells has a losing record 5 of the last 6. Blake Anderson has a winning record in 6 of the last 7.

Very different.

Well, you don’t get to count the last two years at Texas Tech in evaluating the existence of a parallel based on facts as they existed when Wells left.

Seems to me like both had a bunch of bowl seasons at G5 schools and had one outlier losing season. Overall the MW is a tougher conference than the Sun Belt, so I value Matt’s 6-7 seasons as much as Blake’s 7 win seasons. Blake’s highs were also not as high as the highs we had under Wells (two 10 win seasons, rankings in the CFP for multiple weeks in 2018). On the other hand, Blake did lock down a few conference titles.

Seems pretty comparable to me. I am happy Blake is our coach now, and the Wells was our coach when he was.

Not to me. Blake's lows weren't as low either. Matt was very very close to being fired here. Matt grossly under preformed with the talent he was left. Nearly got fired here. Hit the lottery with Jordan. Went all in on 1 season recruiting wise and hit the jackpot. Got a new Job .

I for 1 dont miss Matt. I wish him luck. But there was nothing great or special there. Very average.

Gary did the same thing. Hit the lottery with Chuckie and went all in with a ton of JuCo transfers in the 2011 (especially) and 2012 recruiting classes.

I think the team Gary left MATT may be our most talented team in the last 40 years... The team Matt left Gary was not very talented.

And was comparing Matt vs Blake there. I think Gary's 1.0 here was a very different job from either Matt or Blakes 1st HC job.

I'd have to compare rosters, you may be right.

I agree with you on the second point. Gary had NO winning to tradition to build on. However, Gary did have a much weaker conference to compete in.

The most important thing that Gary 1.0 had that his predecessors did not have was a vision of what USU football could be. He saw the gem within the rocks. Then, he had the ability to sell the program to the university, the donors, the fans, assistant coaches, and recruits. What he did in his first stop here was Herculean in scope. He took an under-funded outcast that was perennially in the Bottom 10 in the country with a shoestring budget and horrible facilities (although they were on the way to getting better) and created a winning program.

I agree with this, but I think Brent Guy deserves some credit. I know I am in the minority on this but I think he did some very good things for the program but we were so far behind and so bad it was hard to see the progress.

We were 1 Fresno State 57? yard field goal away from Brent Guy staying on and GA staying at Utah. IMHO

Not even close! Brent Guy was a loser as a head coach (albeit he found a few recruiting gems). He would run "trick" plays that involved our QB punting on 3rd down and after losses would talk about the team making progress for being in games in the first quarter.

Wait are we talking about Guy or Arslanian? Not that it matters.

Guy never punted on third down. He did however punt deep into our opponents territory, like really deep. We also lined Leon up in shot gun and had him punt on fourth down.

NVAggie wrote: ↑

December 16th, 2020, 7:32 am

Guy never punted on third down. He did however punt deep into our opponents territory, like really deep. We also lined Leon up in shot gun and had him punt on fourth down.

It was the Red Zone Punt. He should have been fired after the first time it was tried.

The thing I hated most about Guy was him saying in EVERY interview that he just wanted to be "close" in the 4th quarter. How about trying to just kick their (I can't express myself without swearing) by the 4th quarter instead??

2004AG wrote: ↑

December 16th, 2020, 7:35 am

The thing I hated most about Guy was him saying in EVERY interview that he just wanted to be "close" in the 4th quarter. How about trying to just kick their (I can't express myself without swearing) by the 4th quarter instead??

I still don't understand the problem with a coach stating he wanted to be close in the 4th quarter. That means he wants the team to do enough the rest of the game that we actually have a chance to win. Where the program was at the time, that should have been taken as a positive. Instead it was misrepresented as a statement that he didn't want to win, which is of course absurd.

Stucki wrote:

2004AG wrote: ↑

December 16th, 2020, 7:35 am

The thing I hated most about Guy was him saying in EVERY interview that he just wanted to be "close" in the 4th quarter. How about trying to just kick their (I can't express myself without swearing) by the 4th quarter instead??

I still don't understand the problem with a coach stating he wanted to be close in the 4th quarter. That means he wants the team to do enough the rest of the game that we actually have a chance to win. Where the program was at the time, that should have been taken as a positive. Instead it was misrepresented as a statement that he didn't want to win, which is of course absurd.

Because you should try to be up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter not just “hoping to be close” in the fourth quarter.

His punt against Fresno State when it was 4th and 1 on the Fresno 32 was really bad too.


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2004AG wrote: ↑

December 16th, 2020, 7:54 am

Stucki wrote:

2004AG wrote: ↑

December 16th, 2020, 7:35 am

The thing I hated most about Guy was him saying in EVERY interview that he just wanted to be "close" in the 4th quarter. How about trying to just kick their (I can't express myself without swearing) by the 4th quarter instead??

I still don't understand the problem with a coach stating he wanted to be close in the 4th quarter. That means he wants the team to do enough the rest of the game that we actually have a chance to win. Where the program was at the time, that should have been taken as a positive. Instead it was misrepresented as a statement that he didn't want to win, which is of course absurd.

Because you should try to be up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter not just “hoping to be close” in the fourth quarter.

His punt against Fresno State when it was 4th and 1 on the Fresno 32 was really bad too.


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I agree with the punt from field goal range. That was mystifying at best.

I agree that you should try to be up by many in the 4th, but from where our program was, there was nothing wrong with what he said. Nearly every coach in nearly every sport has a variation of we just want to give ourselves a chance to win at the end of the game.

Anyway, as I said earlier, I didn't understand the group think criticism of it then, and I am still confused by it when it still gets brought up a decade plus on.

I agree that there shouldn't be a problem with Guy saying he wants to be in a position to win in the fourth quarter. Gary Andersen 1.0 would say the same thing.

The bigger issue for me was having Guy show one practice clip of a young quarterback to show boosters that Leon was the better choice. I also remember a young Frank Maile speaking at one of those luncheons. Those were the good ol' days of having them in the TSC.

IMO, It was understandable to want to get a game against Utah to the fourth quarter, but you should shoot higher than just getting to the fourth quarter against peer conference foes.

What I think was a bigger problem than that for Guy though was trying to win with mostly freshmen. It's admirable he would try to do it that way, but the reality is we don't get as high caliber of freshmen to come here as we get JuCos and transfers. Like we would have never won a recruiting battle for freshman Hunter Sharp, but he was better for us in the two years we got him that most kids we are able to sign as freshmen are even in their junior and senior seasons.

I think Guy had a decent eye for identifying talent in players but really lacked in developing that talent. I also appreciate he tried to build something with freshmen instead of just loading up on JuCos to try and win now before moving on to something bigger, all while leave the cupboard completely bare for the next coach. And many of his in-game decisions were more boneheaded than most made by GA or MW .

Fortunately, the stars line up at USU when GA 1.0 came as there was some talent to work with that he was able to harness and exploit, facilities were improving, and there was a president who supported athletics. If not for all of that fortuitously coming together and working out, it is not hard to think that USU would be wallowing athletically with NMSU right now.

First time I heard Guy tell us that before a game I about flipped my lid. I came from a highschool that for 10 years straight we went to the state championships and expected to win. The only time we ever talked about winning in the 4th was at state. Every other game is we win it before half time.

That was the biggest knock I had on Guy there was no we go out there and beat and demoralize every time so we can get to the championship game.

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I believe that building the North End Zone complex was just as important to changing our football program. The coaches
that preceded GA had very little to work with. The were embarrased to take a recruit into the locker room, we had no film
rooms, not training table, an old beatup weightroom to name a few of the obstacles. I do not beleive that Gary would have come to Logan if the NEZ had not been built. I agree that Guy had to be replaced but things could have turned out much different if he and the other coaches before him had the tools to work with that GA had to work with.

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 1:34 pm

Yossarian wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 1:03 pm

aggies22 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 11:18 am

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 10:18 am

aggies22 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 9:51 am

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2020, 9:04 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:33 pm

MWCFAN12 wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:17 pm

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

December 14th, 2020, 11:03 pm

Blake Anderson is the Matt Wells of Arkansas State in the sense that he is irrationally disliked for providing sustained success.

Most on this board were excited when Texas Tech hired Wells and were excited about the P5 retread we hired to replace him. Boy were we wrong — the grass was not greener on the other side.

Hope it works out better for you guys, but the parallels are there.

I dont see that at all. Matt Wells has a losing record 5 of the last 6. Blake Anderson has a winning record in 6 of the last 7.

Very different.

Well, you don’t get to count the last two years at Texas Tech in evaluating the existence of a parallel based on facts as they existed when Wells left.

Seems to me like both had a bunch of bowl seasons at G5 schools and had one outlier losing season. Overall the MW is a tougher conference than the Sun Belt, so I value Matt’s 6-7 seasons as much as Blake’s 7 win seasons. Blake’s highs were also not as high as the highs we had under Wells (two 10 win seasons, rankings in the CFP for multiple weeks in 2018). On the other hand, Blake did lock down a few conference titles.

Seems pretty comparable to me. I am happy Blake is our coach now, and the Wells was our coach when he was.

Not to me. Blake's lows weren't as low either. Matt was very very close to being fired here. Matt grossly under preformed with the talent he was left. Nearly got fired here. Hit the lottery with Jordan. Went all in on 1 season recruiting wise and hit the jackpot. Got a new Job .

I for 1 dont miss Matt. I wish him luck. But there was nothing great or special there. Very average.

Gary did the same thing. Hit the lottery with Chuckie and went all in with a ton of JuCo transfers in the 2011 (especially) and 2012 recruiting classes.

I think the team Gary left MATT may be our most talented team in the last 40 years... The team Matt left Gary was not very talented.

And was comparing Matt vs Blake there. I think Gary's 1.0 here was a very different job from either Matt or Blakes 1st HC job.

I'd have to compare rosters, you may be right.

I agree with you on the second point. Gary had NO winning to tradition to build on. However, Gary did have a much weaker conference to compete in.

The most important thing that Gary 1.0 had that his predecessors did not have was a vision of what USU football could be. He saw the gem within the rocks. Then, he had the ability to sell the program to the university, the donors, the fans, assistant coaches, and recruits. What he did in his first stop here was Herculean in scope. He took an under-funded outcast that was perennially in the Bottom 10 in the country with a shoestring budget and horrible facilities (although they were on the way to getting better) and created a winning program.

I agree with this, but I think Brent Guy deserves some credit. I know I am in the minority on this but I think he did some very good things for the program but we were so far behind and so bad it was hard to see the progress.

We were 1 Fresno State 57? yard field goal away from Brent Guy staying on and GA staying at Utah. IMHO

I frequently thought during Brent Guy's last year that this was a team ready to start winning. Not going bowling, but I honestly think Brent Guy wins 4 games if he was here one more year, same as Gary did

I'm not saying I wanted BG to stay, and I'm not saying he would have done what Gary did. I just think we had some players and a team his last year that were ready to move up.Makes Gary's first year look a little underachieving really, but let's not discount the huge culture shift that Gary had to do and did. I'm not sure BG could have done that.

AGGIEFIGHT wrote:I believe that building the North End Zone complex was just as important to changing our football program. The coaches
that preceded GA had very little to work with. The were embarrased to take a recruit into the locker room, we had no film
rooms, not training table, an old beatup weightroom to name a few of the obstacles. I do not beleive that Gary would have come to Logan if the NEZ had not been built. I agree that Guy had to be replaced but things could have turned out much different if he and the other coaches before him had the tools to work with that GA had to work with.

From 02-04 our best recruiting tool was the parties I would throw.


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