Even though this is about football, I purposely post this in the basketball forum since that is the sport where we just went through something similar to what we went through in football in 2012. Anyhow, the last time we had a coach take over one of our programs while they were bad, made them alot better, only to leave after we were convinced he was staying, we got arguably everything out of his successor, and one thing we didn't get out of him.

More specifically, after the only "rivalry(or big brother)" wins, over Utah or BYU, we got out of GA 1.0 were at home, we did get two wins in Provo out of Wells. It still was huge for GA 1.0 to get the wins over BYU and Utah and seemed like a dream to get those wins even at home, but you also would have said that you hoped to at least get one win over either(or both) of those two on their field, just as you accepted Smith wasn't going to stay forever, but hoped to at least get one NCAA Tournament win out of him before losing him.

A breakdown of what we did get out of GA 1.0
1. One appearance in the Top 25, we also got one out of Wells.
2. We did get a conference championship, the last WAC one ever, out of GA 1.0, and never got a championship out of Wells, but Wells never had a weak conference like the 2012 WAC. He did win a division championship and likely would have won a championship in a conference similar to the 2012 WAC.
3. Wins over Top 25 foes. The 2012 team got the wins over San Jose and LA Tech who were ranked that year. Out of Wells, we got the win over BYU who was ranked, the Poinsettia Bowl win over #23 Northern Illinois, and the 2015 drubbing of Boise, which was great as disappointing as it was we couldn't capitalize and from there win the games we were supposed to win.
4. Money games. You could argue that we were more competitive in the money games under GA 1.0 than Wells, but that almost means nothing since we never got a win that game over either.

So anyhow, if Odom can similarly do everything Smith did, and then some, like Wells did, I will take it. Some people turned their nose at what Wells did his first two years with it being riding GA's coattails, but I will certainly take it if Odom can have a trajectory similar to Wells, which includes somehow riding Smith's coattails to successful seasons the first two years(with at least one NCAA win, like we got the Top 25 wins out of Wells), a third year with us not just beating but destroying a ranked team but losing games where we are favored after that, a poor fourth year, a mediocre fifth year where the highlight is beating a BYU team that turns it over 30 times(the basketball equivalent of how many turnovers their FB team had that night), and a sixth year with us reaching the Sweet Sixteen and losing Odom to a bigger school. Of course, I also have to admit that I am more of a football guy which is part of the reason why I am willing to trade a few more losses in our down years for being able to win the tournament games in our up years.

Of course, after that, you would hope Jim Laub learned his lesson and doesn't force the AD whoever it is by then to hire back a zombie Craig Smith. But regardless of where Smith is at, you would also hope his kids are more responsible on social media!

Finally, one thing that should help us hold onto Odom is that now, the big schools have a perception that anyone can just get Utah State to the NCAA Tournament, and will want wins before they are interested in him.

Dkdavis wrote:If Odom is successful at Utah State, I wouldn't really credit it to riding Smiths Coattails. All of Smith's impact players are gone except Bean and Miller, and those two players' success, I think, can be attributed to their work ethic. I like the idea you brought up about Odom needing to get NCAA tournament wins to bump up.

Yeah and both Bean and Miller were recruited by the staff prior to Smith

AGGIEinIOWA wrote: ↑

July 13th, 2021, 12:11 pm

Dkdavis wrote:If Odom is successful at Utah State, I wouldn't really credit it to riding Smiths Coattails. All of Smith's impact players are gone except Bean and Miller, and those two players' success, I think, can be attributed to their work ethic. I like the idea you brought up about Odom needing to get NCAA tournament wins to bump up.

Yeah and both Bean and Miller were recruited by the staff prior to Smith

Exactly! Good call my Aggie brother.