Sorry Sara Jo...Bru provoked me
Bru, but I got to get you on Bower.
The man posted a 7-5 AVERAGE at USM. His uncreative play calling was abyssmal and it wasn't just this year. We are in a conference, especially now, that we should win outright every year. Bower was content, and apparently so were many of the fans, with losing at least 3, usually 4 or 5, games every year. The teams under Bower were inconsistent at best, horrible at worst. Yes, we beat Nebraska and other "giants", but I must point out that Nebraska wasn't even ranked when we beat them!!! They might as well have been another team! Why are you and others content with going to crap like the New Orleans Bowl? The HUMANITARIAN BOWL? (Where we LOST to Idaho State! I didn't even know they had a football program) The PapaJohns.com bowl? Do you realize you can have a 6-6 record and make it to a bowl game? 14 winning seasons means exactly nill when you are playing in a conference like C-USA against teams like Tennessee-Martin, Rice, Houston, UAB, and so on.
And by the way, I don't know why everyone is sad that Bower, the "class act" that he is, was fired. He is a great guy, there is no doubt. Yes, he had an extremely high graduation rate. (That certainly filled the stands). I must point to Joe Paterno for this argument. The man not only has one of the highest , if not the highest, graduation rates in Div. I football, but it is at one of the most respected state-funded academic institutions in the country. And didn't he manage to win somewhere in there...yeah, he only has the second most wins in the division, only two games behind Bowden. And please don't say that we couldn't "afford" someone who can graduate players, run a clean program, and WIN, because Joe Pa only gets paid $500,000 a year. That's just double what Bower was making and far less than any other coach of his caliber, of which there are few. Why does everyone whine about Bower getting fired, saying he ran a clean program, unlike all those other "dirty" teams out there? Guess what guys?! You can do BOTH! Rembmer that South Florida team didn't even have sports facilities, but they found a GOOD coach, went to a GOOD conference (that I do not blame on Bower), and tried to actually achieve the much talked-about "next level." They've been ranked practically all year...
Bower did not do his JOB. I think my parents are some of the greatest people in the world, but that does not mean that they get to keep their jobs for 17 years just because everyone likes them. I didn't see anyone crying when Bower fired a few assistants every single year, certainly not Jeff himself. IT"S DIVISION I FOOTBALL, guys. Coaches get fired every year, and I am not sorry that after 17 years of Humanitarian Bowl, New Orleans Bowl, Papajohns.com Bowl crap, we finally have the chance to get someone of a better caliber who can change things around. And it is not impossible. Just ask South Florida, Louisville, Rutgers, even Cincinatti...
Bru, your reference to that "handful of loud fans" who made everyone "pissed off enough to make the Athletic Department notice" is a little naive. First of all, I am proud to say that I have wanted change for a very, very long time. But I seriously doubt that a few students wearing white in the stands or comments posted online didn't play nearly as big of a part in his firing as, oh I don't know, LOSING games to teams like RICE and MEMPHIS. You add this season to the last few and you've got a very deserved firing.
As a true football fan, I never have and never will be devoted so much to a coach that I can't see beyond what is best for a team. Why are whiny people out there saying they are going to stop coming to games because Bower was "done wrong?" You go to the stands to support the TEAM, and by way of that, the coach. But once he is not worthy of that team, it is time for him to go. He got fired--he deserved it! MOVE ON.
There. I've been holding it in for a while now. Bring on the arguments.