Big Sky Silly Season

[Pounder]

Troy Taylor leaves Sacramento State for HC at Stanford.

Jay Hill leaves Weber State for DC at BYU.

Ed McCaffrey is fired at Northern Colorado, BYU AHC (and former Southern Utah HC) Ed Lamb is the new HC.

Beau Baldwin leaves Cal Poly for OC at Arizona State, OC Paul Wulff (former EWU) promoted to HC.

Charlie Ragle leaves Idaho State for AHC at Arizona State, UC Davis OC Cody Hawkins leaves dad to become HC at ISU.

In all this, though it rates mention that Bruce Barnum and Idaho State AD Pauline Thiros are apparently friends, I do question if being a finalist for the ISU job and coming back to, um, whatever is a good look. Then again, that the local media absolutely does not budge for this might be more of an indictment of the athletic department here. Eh, shrug.

 

[bigskyconf]

In all this, though it rates mention that Bruce Barnum and Idaho State AD Pauline Thiros are apparently friends, I do question if being a finalist for the ISU job and coming back to, um, whatever is a good look. Then again, that the local media absolutely does not budge for this might be more of an indictment of the athletic department here. Eh, shrug.

Whatever issues there may be here, the Viks have always been able to get the talent to come here. So, if it is not the talent that is the issue, then what is it? If Barnum thinks that he can have better success with better facilities, I think he will have a rude awakening. Idaho State has a tough time getting talent to come to Pocatello. The Mormon footballers in the area are heading to the Utah programs (mainly BYU) and the better talent are going to Boise. It is a tough sell to prospective college athletes than Portland.

As far as the local media, with the Beavers and Ducks bowling, the early success of the Blazers, the Pilots/Viks mens basketball teams, and the issues with the Timbers, a courtesy call for a prospective head job is just a blip (and should be). Had Barnum got the job, that is a different story.

 

[Pounder]

Whatever issues there may be here, the Viks have always been able to get the talent to come here. So, if it is not the talent that is the issue, then what is it? If Barnum thinks that he can have better success with better facilities, I think he will have a rude awakening. Idaho State has a tough time getting talent to come to Pocatello. The Mormon footballers in the area are heading to the Utah programs (mainly BYU) and the better talent are going to Boise. It is a tough sell to prospective college athletes than Portland.

The other way to look at it is he pressed for an option because he knows he has a year left here and probably no more. In another media environment, however, this would be an issue. It’s hard to glean which scenario is more true because of all the little factors that aren’t so little.

BTW… you think bowl games are still big news? Well, there is a steady stream of information in the less visible media (the social arm of print, for instance) about which players are in the transfer portal or otherwise won’t be playing, and Oregon isn’t being hit as bad as North Carolina there, for instance. I’d seen a suggestion that bowl games might consider NIL as inducement for kids to play in those games… thought that was an interesting proposal.

A tangent here… it’s been 49 hours and I’ve managed not to call out the Sac State board for their game thread from Friday. They already have some nasty arguments about who’s actually “qualified” to criticize coaches, but in a 7 page thread (and a different 2-page thread) about their Friday playoff game, an insane 66-63 game in favor of Incarnate Word, defense was mentioned once before kickoff. And there was a continuous yawning gap between the pass rush and the secondary the whole game. I mean, seriously? But I can’t decide if I should be proud or ashamed for not calling them out in that big thread for that. Thing is, when you compare that to Portland State’s defense, are you sure we’re really recruiting more than one good player at a time here?