I don’t post much in football and claim no expertise other than being a follower of the game and Louisiana Tech for 50ish years. I apologize in advance for the length of this.
But, I know history. I was not a fan of Skip Holtz. I have no reason to have personal animosity against him other than he obviously sold a bill of goods from day 1 when he said he would bring the same brand of football that TECH fans were used to.
He didn’t. His offenses were by and large boring for his entire tenure. (Yes, there were a couple of exciting seasons).
9 years of playing against expectations culminated in our last home game with only a few hundred listless fans present.
That decline is not just on Skip. Others who had the authority to prevent it let him do it; they either didn’t know TECH’s history or had no desire to maintain it.
THE GREATEST IRONY is that 95 percent of teams at all levels now play like TECH did 50 years ago. We were known for high octane, sling the ball all over the yard, offense for DECADES before it bacame the fashionable style. And we became the ones who wouldn’t, or couldn’t, do it. Neither reason is excusable.
Without a rededication to that identify, in the short and long term, this change will not matter. All the other things that have been suggested for improvement are important, but without a plan to re-establish and maintain an identity none of them will matter.
There are a lot of reasons that it may not now work with the most obvious being that we are way behind the curve that we literally created. But I think we still live right in the middle of the best recruiting area in the country, don’t we?
Accept it now that success at our level means we will be recharging every 3-4 years, but we should NEVER accept a coach again that thinks his way is better than what our history dictates. That should be so important that the Larry Bechtol rule should be implemented. Fire them in the middle of the season even if it is the first one if they disrespect the brand.
If we let a coach go against the identity for any length of the time again, the absolute death nell will b on TECH football, but hopefully that has not happened yet and our leadership has learned a valuable lesson.
But, I know history. I was not a fan of Skip Holtz. I have no reason to have personal animosity against him other than he obviously sold a bill of goods from day 1 when he said he would bring the same brand of football that TECH fans were used to.
He didn’t. His offenses were by and large boring for his entire tenure. (Yes, there were a couple of exciting seasons).
9 years of playing against expectations culminated in our last home game with only a few hundred listless fans present.
That decline is not just on Skip. Others who had the authority to prevent it let him do it; they either didn’t know TECH’s history or had no desire to maintain it.
THE GREATEST IRONY is that 95 percent of teams at all levels now play like TECH did 50 years ago. We were known for high octane, sling the ball all over the yard, offense for DECADES before it bacame the fashionable style. And we became the ones who wouldn’t, or couldn’t, do it. Neither reason is excusable.
Without a rededication to that identify, in the short and long term, this change will not matter. All the other things that have been suggested for improvement are important, but without a plan to re-establish and maintain an identity none of them will matter.
There are a lot of reasons that it may not now work with the most obvious being that we are way behind the curve that we literally created. But I think we still live right in the middle of the best recruiting area in the country, don’t we?
Accept it now that success at our level means we will be recharging every 3-4 years, but we should NEVER accept a coach again that thinks his way is better than what our history dictates. That should be so important that the Larry Bechtol rule should be implemented. Fire them in the middle of the season even if it is the first one if they disrespect the brand.
If we let a coach go against the identity for any length of the time again, the absolute death nell will b on TECH football, but hopefully that has not happened yet and our leadership has learned a valuable lesson.
