I honestly don't know. 10 years ago, I would have said, "yes" to both questions. ISU proved twice that Big Sky football programs can be turned around fairly quickly. They followed an 0-11 season in 1979 with a winning record the next year and a national championship two years later. Larry Lewis followed a 2-9 team with a winning record two seasons later, and a tri-conference championship four years later.
But that was before the APR rules came into play. The days of recruiting "quick fix" JC and D-1 transfer kids are gone, especially at ISU, where the school has instituted higher academic standards for incoming recruits. Kramer recruited only one JC player and brought in one D-1 drop-down this past season. Ten years ago, he might have had as many as a dozen transfers who could at least make the program respectable the following season.
Now Kramer has fired four of his assistants. It will be interesting to see if he can recruit with just a three-man staff, following the miserable season they had and in light of the much-discussed "shoving" incident with Derek Graves.
And I'm not a big fan of his and Don Bailey's throw-it-65-times a game offense. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I still believe you have to be at least somewhat balanced offensively to compete on a regular basis. I think Jerry Glanville proved that point at Portland State.
The administration has done a lot to try to give Kramer the tools he needs to win. The weight room and lockerrooms were completely renovated, work is supposed to start in the spring on a new practice field, and we finally got rid of that terrible turf. And to his credit, Kramer and company have, at least temporarily, "fixed" the APR situation by turning in a perfect APR score to the NCAA yesterday, and seeing the NCAA lift all of its scholarship limitations earlier this year.
So there are some "positives" hidden within the program. But there are a ton of negatives still to overcome. And with the four new additions to the Big Sky, the conference has gotten tougher from top to bottom.
