I love Conklin… but I’d rather have a winning program with new coaching staff. Doubt Conklin would be happy if he had another season at .500 or less…
SD and anyone that agrees with him are delusional if they really believe this staff -- that just went 3-9 with losses to perennial cellar dwelling programs -- is going to magically rebound next season.
If they couldn't manage better than 3-9 and 1-7 this season, how or why is next season suddenly going to be different?
Is Ohio State, Georgia or Oregon gifting their 2025 recruiting class to Thompson?
Even if they did -- we now know that neither Thompson nor Fresques could properly orchestrate that talent.
They were left with a pretty full closet (in terms of FCS talent) and just finished in a last place tie with Northern Colorado.
Let's be real. While Troy Taylor was by no means a perfect head coach, the program's record and success was largely due to his offensive system. The defense was the weak link for the entire 4 years Taylor was here.
While they made strides from years past (Sears era and earlier) and even looked dominant at times, they were wildly inconsistent and often the main culprit in the losses.
To back that up, in the 8 losses during Taylor's tenure, the Hornets surrendured 19, 34, 36, 42, 34, 42, 24, 66. That's an average of 37.125 per game. To be fair, there are probably a few points mixed in there that were given up by the offense. But nowhere near enough to bring that average down much.
Who is winning games giving up that many points? Hell, 3 of those 8 games were playoff games in which the opponent scored 42, 24, and 66. The lone conference loss in 3 seasons saw the Hornets surrendering 36 to Weber State at home.
^^ The above was Andy Thompson's responsibility. And now he's the head coach and both sides of the ball have gone to hell.
Lastly, in the 8 losses during Taylor's tenure, the offense scored 7, 20, 17, 28, 16, 30, 19, 63. That's an average of 25 points per game. Not otherworldly, but not bad either. Certainly enough to win consistently with a capable defense.
Taylor's worst decision coaching was having Thompson as his DC. And Orr's worst decision was promoting Thompson to HC.
And here we are.