CSU is banking on the recently hired Jim McElwain to turn the program around. And by banking I mean shelling out the big bucks. CSU is reportedly paying McElwain 1.5 million per year. That is more than double what the Rams were paying Steve Fairchild. CSU is now on the books for two football coaches and two athletic directors and the fired AD, Paul Kowalczyk, had recently signed an extension. There have also been rumors popping up that CSU is considering doing away with Hughes Stadium in favor of an on campus venue (although these rumors are fairly unsubstantiated). Still, where is all this money coming from? The recent battle for the Boot would suggest that it is not coming from ticket sales.
At the price of 1.5 million per year it is looking like the Rams are thinking that McElwain can win back the three Bronze Boots that Fairchild lost in a single season, because if he doesn’t then his price seems suspiciously high.
Temple Football Forever answered some questions about Owl football for us yesterday and today I bring you the questions asked of me. The Owls are excited to be going to Albuquerque and had a few questions about the New Mexico Bowl experience as well as the Wyoming football team. You can read our exchange in the link below (warning it will take you to enemy territory!).
The latest team grab by the Big East has left many Wyoming fans feeling blue about the long-term viability of Wyoming football. The Cowboys have not had the recent success of a Boise State and the state does not offer anything to conference coffers in terms of television dollars; these two things make Wyoming appear vulnerable in the current landscape of college football. But, while conference stability is at an all time low, the status and future for the Cowboys is not nearly as bleak as some may think.
Wyoming does not have the money to keep up with the incredible spending that is taking place in the PAC-12 nor can it compete with the SEC or the BIG-12 etc. but the finances of the state and the donor support for the Pokes is strong. Support is strong enough that the Cowboys are paying Dave Christensen more than nearly every other MWC team and more than Colorado is paying its current coach. Christensen also makes nearly double what every coach in the MAC makes. The facilities at Wyoming are fantastic and constantly improving and have you seen the big rig that handles the UW football gear? – nice to say the least. What about the facilities at San Diego State? – not so much, in fact SDSU is feeling so rich that they had their football team travel to their game in Las Vegas by bus. Boise State? – before the move to the Big East the Broncos were afraid that they would not be able to pay for the new $2000 stipends the NCAA is allowing for athletes. So those schools need the extra money that the Big Least will provide while the Cowboys are doing just fine.
So the Cowboys have the facilities to compete at the FBS level and they have the means of luring good coaches at a competitive salary. It is also possible to land a coach like Larry Shyatt for football – remember Joe Tiller? He wanted to stay but was not offered a competitive contract thanks to the worst AD of all time – Lee Moon. Now the only thing that the remains is luring the athletes to stay competitive.
What do young people want these days?
-Facilities -> check.
-Access to games of television -> check (The Mountain may not be the best but I saw every game the Cowboys played this season without living in Laramie. This is the first year every that that was possible and the MWC is still a few years away from renewing their television contract, but the money will likely get better.)
-Location -> Meah (Location is not going to change and the Pokes have landed great players in the past, so that is what it is).
At the end of the day there are still 120 FBS teams and the number of FBS caliber athletes is not changing, so the question of the competitive balance comes down to whether or not the Cowboys can continue to lure in quality players. History says yes and that conference affiliation will not really matter. After all, Boise State built their dynasty while playing in the WAC on a shoestring budget and San Diego State has never had any prolonged success while being located in San Diego a hot bed of collegiate talent and coeds – which I have heard have a fair amount of recruiting pull. In other words there is a lot more to recruiting and success than conference affiliation and location.
So at the end of the day the Cowboys are not being left in dark. The Boarder War is not going anywhere and the near future looks bright. Not to mention, the Cowboys will not be relegated to playing Wednesday night games against Central Florida – have fun SDSU.
To get you ready for the New Mexico Bowl we were able to ask Temple blogger Mike Gibson who runs the site Temple Football Forever a few questions about the Owls. See what he has to say in the questions below and check back later this week for the questions about the Cowboys 7220 Report answered for him.
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7220 Report: Wyoming fans probably haven’t seen much of Temple this year. Describe to us the overall scheme and philosophy of the Owl offense and defense.
Temple Football Forever: OFFENSE- The scheme is to run the ball to set up the pass, moving toward a spread option philosophy. DEFENSE- Complete change in philosophy from last year, a 5-2 “attack the passer” scheme by DC Chuck Heater (last year’s Florida co-DC). Last year’s DC, Mark D’Onofrio, had a bend-but-don’t-break scheme. Heater has the Owls ranked near the top nationally in every defensive category.
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7220 Report: The Owls will be making a rare trip to the mountain time zone. How has Temple done the past few times they’ve gone West?
Temple Football Forever: This is off the top of my head, but I went to the Wyoming game in 1990 and Temple had six turnovers and lost, 38-23, and I went to the Temple at BYU game in 1986 and Temple lost, 17-10, so not too well. I can’t remember other trips out West. Few and far between.
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7220 Report: Who are a few players on each side of the ball that Wyoming fans should take note of?
Temple Football Forever: Offensively, RBs Bernard Pierce (No. 30) and Matty Brown (22) and Chris Coyer (10). Pierce is a first-round NFL draft choice if he stays his senior year. If he comes out now, he’s a low two or high three. Everyone talks about RGIII’s “world-class” speed at Baylor, but RGIII ran a 10.6 100 meters in high school. Pierce won the Pennsylvania state 100-meter title running a 10.3, so I guess Pierce’s speed could be considered solar-system class. Pierce is a football player who messed around running track the second half of his senior year in high school and won the state title. Tremendous speed and vision. He scored five touchdowns in a 38-7 win at Maryland. Brown is an NFL caliber kickoff and punt returner and possibly a third-down back, ala Dave Meggett. Coyer has a lot of Tim Tebow’s running ability but throws a better ball. Receivers who can do damage are tight end Evan Rodriguez (88) and WRs Joey Jones (26) and Rod Streater (18). Almost all throws are off play-action. Defensively, Adrian Robinson (43) is a relentless pass-rusher and the 2009 MAC defensive player of the year. Tahir Whitehead (2) and Stephen Johnson (53) are the best linebackers. Kee-Ayre Griffin (20) likes to jump corner routes for interceptions and the line up front is big and solid, led by 26-year-old Iraq vet Morkeith Brown (85).
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7220 Report: Given the fact that Temple was passed over in last years bowl proceeding even though they were deserving of getting a bowl bid, do you think there is any chance Temple will be too emotional or keyed up for this game?
Temple Football Forever: Not really. A lot of the key guys on this team (Bernard Pierce and Matty Brown on offense and Adrian Robinson and Tahir Whitehead on defense tp name a couple) were also on the Eagle Bank Bowl team that lost a competitive game to UCLA. They all said they got “too keyed up” and “treated it more than a game” and were committed to approaching this like a regular-season big game.
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7220 Report: What are the general thoughts of the fan base on this game? Do they expect a win over Wyoming?
Temple Football Forever: Yes, they do. But I’m sure Wyoming fans feel the same way. They’ve been impressed all year with the lines Vegas has set so the 7 points for them is a good sign. Vegas had Temple 17 1/2-point favorites in the final regular-season game of the year vs. Kent State. The Owls won by 18.
Brett Smith has been named second team freshman All-American by Yahoo Sports finishing behind first team quarterback Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville. I am starting to question if the national media takes these honors seriously at this point in time because Smith was robbed. Bridgewater’s Louisville Cardinals were 7-5 while Smith and the Cowboys went 8-4. Bridgewater threw the ball for 1,855 yards with 12 TD’s and 9 INT’s while Smith threw for 2,495 yards with 18 TD’s and 8 INT’s. In terms of rushing Bridgewater had 95 yards with 3 TD’s and Smith had 645 with 10 TD’s. That gives Smith a 1,190 yard total offense advantage with 13 more TD’s and one less INT with roughly 130 more pass attempts. Based on those numbers it is clear the only reason Bridgewater was named first team over Smith was the fact that Louisville is in a “BCS” conference. What do you think? You can see the complete Yahoo Sports freshman All-American teams in the link below.
The New Mexico Bowl is just a baby in Bowl terms and is entering only its 6th season. The Albuquerque destination does not sound as appealing as some, but its proximity to Wyoming and considerably better weather (as opposed to Laramie in December) should get fans chomping at the bit. Not to mention the fact that two years ago fans and players alike were treated incredibly well and all had a blast (I know I did)!
Five New Mexico Bowls have been played to date. Your past champions are:
2006 – San Jose State
2007 – New Mexico
2008 – Colorado State
2009 – Wyoming
2010 – BYU
Including this season, 3 teams have made multiple appearances in the bowl, New Mexico (2006, 2007), Fresno State (2008, 2009) and Wyoming (2009, 2011). Until this season, with BYU finishing 9-3, every champion of the New Mexico Bowl posted a losing record in the season following their New Mexico Bowl victory. In fact three of the past champions, San Jose State, New Mexico and CSU have not had a single winning season since.
Other Notables:
-2011 will mark the first time that the bowl slotted two teams with winning records, as each of the previous 5 games had at least one 6-6 team.
-The MWC is 4-1 all time in the New Mexico Bowl with the one loss coming from New Mexico who lost to San Jose State in 2006.
-The current league tie-ins for the bowl are the Mountain West and the PAC-12, but the PAC-12 did not have enough bowl eligible teams to fill its slot.
-Temple will be the first MAC team to play in the bowl.
-The game is played at New Mexico’s University Stadium (39,244) which is right next to the the University’s basketball stadium, The Pit. The stadium is also right next to the home of the Albuquerque Isotopes who, you will remember, moved from Springfield (State?) sometime in the mid 90’s.
-The 2009 contest between Wyoming and Fresno State was the most watched New Mexico Bowl posting a Nielson rating of 2.78.
-In 2009 Austyn Carta-Samuels was the offensive MVP and Mitch Unrein was the defensive MVP in Wyoming’s thrilling overtime win against Fresno State
-In 2009 NFL running back Ryan Mathews was stopped three times from scoring from the 1 yard line during overtime against the Pokes. Current Wyoming DE Josh Biezuns was responsible for two of those stops.
-Current Cowboy running back Alvester Alexander posted the best game of his career (up to that point) by running for 143 yards and a touchdown.
Extra incentive to make the trip:
Wyoming fans will be given the sunny (warm) side of University Stadium as Wyoming ticket sales are quickly outpacing those of Temple and the sunny side is what can be seen on TV (gotta make the stadium look as full as possible).
Since the Wyoming vs Temple match-up in the New Mexico Bowl was announced on Sunday there has been a great deal of talk about Temple’s defense. On the surface they have great numbers and look like a major challenge for the Cowboys ranking third in the nation in scoring defense at 13.8 points a game just behind Alabama and LSU. Yet, when you dig deeper the Owl defense may not be as good as those numbers indicate. Take a look at these split statistics:
To frame everything in proper perspective one must look at strength of schedule and according to the Sagarin ratings Wyoming’s schedule was less than stellar at 90th in the country with three of the worst teams in the nation New Mexico, UNLV and CSU all on the conference schedule. Temple comes in even worse at 122nd which is absolutely horrible considering there are only 120 teams in the FBS so according to Sagarin two teams in the FCS actually played a tougher schedule than Temple. To illustrate this point further the chart shows that Wyoming played 6 winning FBS teams and 4 losing FBS teams (with the stats against the two FCS teams not included) while Temple only played 3 winning FBS teams and 8 losing ones (with 1 game against an FCS school not included). This is important because it is the basis for the split offensive and defensive stats given. Follow me after the jump for further analysis!
On this date in 1996 the Wyoming Cowboys were defeated by the BYU Cougars in the inaugural WAC championship game by the score of 28-25 in overtime. The Pokes trailed at halftime 13-0 after a very lackluster first half but responded strongly in the second half scoring 17 unanswered points with linebacker Jay Jenkins providing the first score on a 25 yard fumble return. Then late in the fourth quarter with under two minutes left and Wyoming leading 25-20 head coach Joe Tiller who had already agreed to become Purdue’s next head coach before the game elected to take a safety making the score 25-22. He described this move as a “no brainer” in order to give his kicker a better chance of getting the ball past midfield. This strategy back fired though as BYU only needed a field goal to force overtime where they eventually won the game after a Wyoming missed field goal. To make matters worse not only did Wyoming lose but they finished the season ranked in the top 25 with a 10-2 record and did not get invited to a bowl game. You can relive this game through some highlights via Cougar Rewind (sorry, this is the only good source!) in the video below.
The more things change the more they stay the same. I get it that Wyoming is just a blip on the national college football radar, but I love the fact that any time we play someone from the east or west coasts no one gives us any shot at winning. NBC Sports through their College Football Talk website is the first New Mexico Bowl prediction I have seen from the national media and they have Temple winning by the score of 26-14. Yes, Temple is going to provide a stiff challenge for the Cowboys in some areas but we are also going to be a stiff challenge for the Owls. Check back here tomorrow for a few reasons why the Owls are not some kind of super force on defense as their overall statistics may indicate. Click on the link below to see NBC’s prediction for the battle in Albuquerque.
The Mountain West regular season is over and we can say congratulations to the Air Force Falcons for being the Mountain West toxic differential champions with a score of +30 edging out the Boise State Broncos by four points. Too bad their actual record was 7-5 with a 3-4 conference mark only good enough for a 5th place finish. This shows some of the flaws with the toxic differential but also shows that Air Force was a team that seriously underachieved this year or played such a soft schedule it inflated their final numbers. I would say it is more from column two. One thing the toxic differential does get right is overall team quality. As I pointed out last week every team with a winning record had a positive toxic rating and every team with a negative toxic rating had a losing record so it looks like the toxic differential is a somewhat good barometer of overall success in general. I have enjoyed doing these toxic standings every week but I am not sure if I will continue to do them next season. Do you as a reader find it informative? Please take part in the poll (on the bottom right of the page) to help me decide if the toxic ratings will make a return next season. You can also leave a comment in the post if you want to leave more feedback than a simple up or down vote. Here is this seasons final standings with statistics as always from cfbstats.com:
FanSided
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