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Downing Time table

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PSUVikings

Active member
In Coach Scott Downing's first year as head coach at UNC he went 1-10, UNC's worst season since 04'. How long should UNC give Downing? Its not like UNC was put on probation or anything, there isn't a monster gap between D2 and the BSC. UNC went from beating Southland schools to struggling to win period. I say they should give him 4 years total, enough to give him a chance, but not enough to start a losing trend if he fails.
 
I think as long as he shows some degree of measurable improvement each season, he will stick around, and I for one will be happy. If he gets stuck in a rut and has another miserable season, without a big turnaround in a third season, I would say it is time for him to go. I dont expect miricles but I expect the win total to go up each year.
 
PS last year was even worse than '04, we had two wins that season.

I am not really sure what caused the breakdown in our program. Sure the transition was tough, but the gap between the two levels is not as big as the drop in our record would indicate. We made the DII playoffs in 02, in '03 we beat MSU, SUU, and Cal Davis.

Then something broke, I dont know what, in '04 and '05 we lost to schools who we had beaten in '03. Although in '05 we beat SELA and Sam Houston St. whom we had lost to in '04. But we dropped SUU that year also...

Cal Davis and NDSU whom we beat in '03 and '04, are serious contenders in FCS now, but for some reason we are not. I dont know if $$ fell off, the chage in AD made a difference or what, but we have not transitioned as well as I would have hoped.
 
GoBears said:
PS last year was even worse than '04, we had two wins that season.

I am not really sure what caused the breakdown in our program. Sure the transition was tough, but the gap between the two levels is not as big as the drop in our record would indicate. We made the DII playoffs in 02, in '03 we beat MSU, SUU, and Cal Davis.

Then something broke, I dont know what, in '04 and '05 we lost to schools who we had beaten in '03. Although in '05 we beat SELA and Sam Houston St. whom we had lost to in '04. But we dropped SUU that year also...

Cal Davis and NDSU whom we beat in '03 and '04, are serious contenders in FCS now, but for some reason we are not. I dont know if $$ fell off, the chage in AD made a difference or what, but we have not transitioned as well as I would have hoped.
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Hmm.........Makes you wonder if Downing just isn't the right guy, past shows that UNC has done well against many contenders, UC Davis, NDSU, Montana State, etc. Yet all of a sudden thing go backwards. Is it coaching, did someone in the Athletic department short your football budget?

If you look at your schedule last year it seemed there were lots of games that could have changed our opinion today, you were close to being 3-8, Beyond the NAU, UM, PSU, ISU, and EWU games the rest were not lopsided. I think this season will show a lot, the BSC is going to be good this year but there are a lot of teams that have a chance at losing to UNC. CSUS is a given, WSU probably, ISU has routed UNC in the past but they will be under new management now. PSU has the better team but we have to play late in the season in the cold. MSU is due to lose to you guys again. And who knows maybe another upset comes along. This season will show whether UNC is a ways away from contending in the BSC, or if the are a sleeping giant.
 
Downing better have 3 or more wins this year or I personally will start calling for his head (for whatever that will do :D ). Hopefully Downing learns from his mistakes of last year.

He is a rookie head coach and should have surrounded himself with proven coordinators. Instead he brought in two guys that had never called a play for a high school team let alone college football. He paid dearly for that as it was evident we were outcoached every which way last year. I will give him some credit for getting rid of the OC and bringing someone in with some experience. Let's hope he has the gumption to do the same thing with the DC if we don't see some improvement on that side of the ball this year.

Downing has effectively ran off most of the old regime's players. That is going to bite him now because he has 70 freshman and sophomores on the roster. If he is really the recruiter that the admin thinks he is than he will be looking really good starting next year. Personally, I think he should have tried to keep a few more of the good older players around and then brought in some jucos to add some upperclassmen depth. Given the age of the team, they will not be that good this year, but again they better win 3 or more games or I say he should be shown the door.

The university, alumni and fans just can't take another one win season. No matter what the situation the team has to show improvement. If he doesn't the only thing one can conclude is that the admin should have kept the old coach because the new one is worse.
 
What happened last year was that we tried to run a spread offense with players that were recruited to run a West Coast offense, and it was a total disaster. It seems like Coach Darnell will run an offense similar to what we saw in the years under Dalton and Glenn, and that should bring some better results. I think that, with the exception of Hawaii and possibly Montana, the Bears will at least be able to be competitive in every game this season.
 
I don't want to start a big argument here, but it was the end of the Dalton Era that led to UNC being 1-10 last year ... it had nothing to do with Downing. He was hired and had a month to put together a recruiting class, and you don't expect a class to come in and be big contributors right away.

The recruiting at the end of the Dalton Era simply wasn't very good. The players who beat Montana State and those teams - Doughty and Jackson for example - were recruited at the end of the Joe Glenn Era and beginning of the Dalton Era. That was when it was at the best, but then it went downhill.

Downing will have plenty of time, not the 2-3 years some people said here. UNC is brand new to full-fledged FCS (I-AA) football, has moved into one of the toughest conferences and is at the bottom of the Big Sky budget list. Miracles don't happen overnight.
 
I think he should get about 5 years. I also don't think we can expect that much improvement this year with so many young players. I think we will have another horrible year but next year will be much more telling. By then Downing should get us close to .500 or I don't think he will ever be any good.

Why are so many players leaving? are they quitting or getting booted?
 
uncfootball rules....before you start bashing on coaches..maybe you should do some of your own research. Downing is not a rookie head coach he has been a head coach before, and the two coordinators you are talking about(Brown and Deti) - that had not called one play even at the high school level - have numerous years of coaching experience..so again before you start acting like you know so much, maybe you should get your facts straight...
 
uncbearsfanatic said:
uncfootball rules....before you start bashing on coaches..maybe you should do some of your own research. Downing is not a rookie head coach he has been a head coach before, and the two coordinators you are talking about(Brown and Deti) - that had not called one play even at the high school level - have numerous years of coaching experience..so again before you start acting like you know so much, maybe you should get your facts straight...
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Just his opinion, no need to get worked up about it.
 
I am not worked up about it. Im just getting tired of reading stuff about how bad these coaches are and how they've never had any experience when yet in fact they have. And on the other hand, he is allowed to his own opinion, you're right; but the part of his statement I'm talking about isn't an opinion. So I guess I'm sorry for coming off harsh I was just trying to support and defend the true side of the story.
 
uncbearsfanatic said:
I am not worked up about it. Im just getting tired of reading stuff about how bad these coaches are and how they've never had any experience when yet in fact they have. And on the other hand, he is allowed to his own opinion, you're right; but the part of his statement I'm talking about isn't an opinion. So I guess I'm sorry for coming off harsh I was just trying to support and defend the true side of the story.
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No big deal, I hope Downing can turn things around. The Big Sky needs more good teams.
 
uncbearsfanatic said:
uncfootball rules....before you start bashing on coaches..maybe you should do some of your own research. Downing is not a rookie head coach he has been a head coach before, and the two coordinators you are talking about(Brown and Deti) - that had not called one play even at the high school level - have numerous years of coaching experience..so again before you start acting like you know so much, maybe you should get your facts straight...
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I think uncfootball rules was pretty spot on in his critique. Downing had a whopping 2 years of head coaching at the NAIA level in the early '80s. I think he will probably make a few mistakes because he has had no head coaching experience in the past 20 years. Also Brown and Deti had only ever been assistant coaches, they had never held a head coaching or coordinator level position, and have therefore never had any significant role in play calling. The step from coaching the defensive secondary (Deti's last job) to being a defensive coordinator is a big leap, and again there are bound to be some rookie mistakes.

On the whole our three lead coaches had very little experience in those type of leadership roles, and I think last season showed some of that. I am not saying Downing will not be a good head coach, I think he will be, but I am glad Brown is gone, and I think Deti has a long way to go. I think Downing realized his mistakes and learned from them, by getting rid of Brown, and bringing in Darnell who has a wealth of experience. He also brought in Dan Daniel who was a defensive coordinator for an NFL Europe team to help out Deti.
 
uncbearsfanatic said:
uncfootball rules....before you start bashing on coaches..maybe you should do some of your own research. Downing is not a rookie head coach he has been a head coach before, and the two coordinators you are talking about(Brown and Deti) - that had not called one play even at the high school level - have numerous years of coaching experience..so again before you start acting like you know so much, maybe you should get your facts straight...
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\

Coach Deti is that you? :wink:

Thankfully Go Bears did an excellent job of pointing out what I was trying to say. Also, having been around the game of football for a while I can tell when a team is being outcoached - which happened a lot last year. Let's hope it is better this year.
 
Maybe all UNC needs is a big win, upset Montana, something like that. Then the flood gates open. I'm hoping UNC can become a strength in the BSC. Cause we will need it, a good projection would be 2011, why then? Because Montana may leave the conference that year. That would leave PSU, MSU, and EWU as the powers in the BSC. Hopefully UNC can get into that mix.
 
I agree, the BSC needs to be more competitive at the top. Hopefully in a few years we will help there.
 
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