You're really underestimating the importance of Anderson and J. Williams. Anderson was on pace to have over 1700 yards, not 1300. And consider this: Jeremy Williams is still our leading receiver yardage-wise, despite playing only half of our games (5 of 10).
ugh... it is sort of a reverse statement game. Like, we are really not that horrible?
Tulsa likes to take teams to the woodshed- a real no mercy program. Our offense is a wreck right now. I doubt the Wave is a lock to score even ten agaisnt this team. 50-10 Tulsa.
no disrespect for Anderson intended
I just figured he had 800 yards in 6plus games... that is 1600, then I took off 200-ish yards cause I think the second half of the schedule is harder (LSU, Tulsa, Houston- even Memphis seems to have gotten its act together)
But you want to project him north of 1600, you can do that. I guess I think he's not in the class of Smith or Forte or Chris Johnson* (great C-USA backs)- and a shade below Fletcher/Aldridge (aka good C-USA backs of recent vintage)
* I always thought Chris was the best of the C-USA backs last year. What a class.
The fans still seem to have a lot of confidence in Toledo. As for personnel decisions, is he getting the best 22 guys out there who give Tulane the best chance to win, i.e. one of the most basic, fundamental tasks for any coach? If he isn't doing that then you've got to question things and he would very much figure to at least deserve to be on the hot seat, given that the team isn't winning. OK, maybe they haven't had enough talent and enough depth, to start with...but what players who are clearly promising has Toledo himself brought into the program (whatever else he did or failed to do Scelfo at least was bringing in some guys worth keeping on eye on for their future from the first he came onboard -- and he did use them, too, but they helped the team and that could be easily seen)? And also, isn't it really, really soon to be expressing very much confidence in the goodness of a group of recruits who has not yet even signed? Logic tells me that coming off a 2-3 win season if you have a really solid recruiting group to come in that's a miracle. And it's just hard to conceive of this coach as being the dynamic individual who radiates enough charm, etc. so that you easily feel some confidence about things to come in spite of what's going on now. Bottom line: it really seems that fans (what few who are left) have this desire to be expressing confidence in Toledo as well as in Rick Dickson even though neither have really demonstrated that much to warrant such confidence.
I think the confidence in Toledo comes from his blunt honesty in calling out the shortcoming of the program and the team. It's refreshing and there's reason to hope that in recognizing these things, he will address them. It's only been a couple of years but he did make Forté into a 2000 yard back and a high NFL Draft pick. His recuiting is encouraging. He's decided to foucs on in-state talent and make a play for guys Scelfo probably would'nt have recruited or gotten. I think Scelfo got stale at Tulane and it shows in the leftovers of his team. It's incomplete - some players are OK while others are Div-1A level. So far Toledo has brought in, off the top of my head: QB Kemp, FB Stephany, Lineman Nierman, RB Nate Austin who all seem to be decent players. Whether he can continue to bring in solid players who are an upgrade from what we have now remains ot be seen, but I thik there's a feeling he can do this.
Frank,
Honestly, all I did was simple math. Anderson had 852 in 6 games (I ignored the Rice game since he got hurt in the first quarter.) Multiply times 2 and you get 1704 yards for 12 games.
Is it necessary at this point that Toledo play the best 22 right now?
The season is a bust. They weren't winning this week with any 22 guys they put out there.
I want him to play with the 22 best guys to help Tulane next year.
I would have no problem with blunt honesty- except:
1. Any blunt, honest assessment of the program has to give the coach low marks. A new coach had three tasks here: elevate existing talent, get new talent, rebuild the fan base.
They're losing more, by more- I don't see any new talnet elevation at all and the Dome is more vacant than ever.
2. Fighting these sort of campaings in public, n the radio, on the newspapers, never ends well- either for the coach or the institution. You can whisper and bitch- but you better win- or those you're whispering and bitvhing about will call the same reporters about you.
Toledo is here to build the foundation for solid football teams. He wants his legacy to be a strong , complete Tulane football program. He knows what it takes to have a winner so I see his opinions, gripes, bitchings whatever.... as good, even healthy. Tulane needs to hear what he has to say and get serious about Football. If not we might as well drop it. To me it's more like a call to action and/or the words of an older guy who's lived his life and feels like he can just say whatever he wants to say because he's been around long enough to know better.
Drop it?
Careful what we wish for, no?
I sense that the love for Toledo comes not so much out of what people know about his career and coaching resume as much out of a seeming still-existing Tulane fan conventional wisdom agenda to reinforce the notion that Chris Scelfo was The Whole Problem all along.
Because if Scelfo was not really The Whole Problem, then what? Then where to go from here? And that's a scary thought to some (with basketball, if a tree falls in the forest...the Tulane year goes from season no. 1, football pre-season glowing optimism, to season no. 2, football recruiting season, to season no. 3, college baseball season, whose fall practice gets more attention than basketball preseason, and basketball season itself is not noticed...where else in the country do they do it like that? but it doesn't matter).
OTOH with football in our football-loving region, if that can't be fixed so easily then that's more than mildly discomforting. That there are issues way beyond the coaching itself that will have to be addressed and that will be difficult and painful for Tulane to meaningfully address is apparent.
The Scelfo Was The Whole Problem All Along crowd got it wrong (and Frank got it right). The YOGWF Continual Cheerful Cheerleading Is All We Need crowd has likewise got it wrong.
And, yes, I do feel bad for Scelfo because I am sure that he wanted the team to win and keep on winning as it had been doing in 1997 and 1998 as much as anyone and look at what he had to deal in terms of angry fans, a cockamamie administration and 2005. And pre-review he did coach two teams out of four who finished above-.500, which is hardly below par or below the Tulane mean over 75-plus years (check the record books and you will see) unless only a single coach, Tommy Bowden, actually meets the "standard" and then only very briefly. So, I have to question the definition of "standard" there.
Yes, there were definitive poor seasons in 1999 and 2001 (looking at Michigan now leads me to believe that a Rodriguez-coached team in 1999 would have had better than a 3-win year but not above .500) but pre-review they were well within how Frank has (very accurately, I believe) frequently described the Tulane "standard." 2003 and 2004 were disappointing but also not wipe-out years and then 2005, well, apres moi le deluge.
So, it's dawning on people that Frank is correct in his depiction of how much Tulane really cares about trying real hard to win consistently in football and maybe people are starting to ask themselves if that's really the kind of program that they want (and if there cannot be something better than that then Tulane might as well close the curtain on this show) and that to me has go to be to the good.
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