How much confidence do you have in RP?

[Tulsa Cat]

After last year about a 5.  We beat Texas but that was a bit flukey.  This year will realy tell me how good of coach and judge of talent prince is.  Competing in the big XII is no easy task.  I see prince taking a big jump in playing a tougher non-con scedhule.  This will attract some big name recruits who want to play against the big boys.  We shall see how it works out.  He is bold and daring, but then so is my bar-b-que sauce.

[cas]

If Prince takes us to a BCS game about every 4 or 5 years and a Big 12 Championship game about every 3 I will be really happy.

I would take that in a heartbeat.

That has a 5% chance of happening.   

SO there IS a Chance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               

[michigancat]

Wooly always showed us just enough to keep our hopes up.  His teams would hammer a top 25 squad then drop 2-3 that they should have won easily.  In the end it would become apparent that we just didn't have the athletes we needed to compete.   Remind anyone of the '06 football season? 

Which games should KSU have "won easily" last season?

For that matter, what top 25 teams did Wooly "hammer"?  Texas? but that wasn't a hammering. 

Iowa in 2000.  MU in 2001.  OSU in 2002. 

Ding! Ding! Ding!  We have a winner!  Very reminiscent of KSU/UT in football last year which was, of course, followed by the ku & bowl fiascos.

st

Not really.  Kind of an apples and oranges comparison.  Anyone that used those games as justification for keeping Wooly around in years 4, 5, or 6 was a moron (if such a person existed).  Those games really didn't say anything about Wooly that his overall records couldn't discredit.

When I'm evaluating Prince's first season, I'm just looking at overall and conference records.  7-5, 4-4 is more than acceptable for a firyear coach coming off back-to-back last place finishes.  Looking any deeper into which games were won/lost and the MOV is kind of dumb.

[catzacker]

Wooly always showed us just enough to keep our hopes up.  His teams would hammer a top 25 squad then drop 2-3 that they should have won easily.  In the end it would become apparent that we just didn't have the athletes we needed to compete.   Remind anyone of the '06 football season? 

Which games should KSU have "won easily" last season?

For that matter, what top 25 teams did Wooly "hammer"?  Texas? but that wasn't a hammering. 

Iowa in 2000.  MU in 2001.  OSU in 2002. 

Ding! Ding! Ding!  We have a winner!  Very reminiscent of KSU/UT in football last year which was, of course, followed by the ku & bowl fiascos.

I completely forgot about those wins, but Wooly never made a post season, never was even .500 in conference, and had an above .500 overall record twice.   

[opcat]

One year = Bowling.

RP =sucks.   

Great thread. 

[NorthChamps07]

RP+two time last place finishers+young players=bowl team  Nice job Coach!  Looking forward, with confidence, to more success!

 

[AzCat]

Wooly always showed us just enough to keep our hopes up.  His teams would hammer a top 25 squad then drop 2-3 that they should have won easily.  In the end it would become apparent that we just didn't have the athletes we needed to compete.   Remind anyone of the '06 football season? 

Which games should KSU have "won easily" last season?

For that matter, what top 25 teams did Wooly "hammer"?  Texas? but that wasn't a hammering. 

Iowa in 2000.  MU in 2001.  OSU in 2002. 

Ding! Ding! Ding!  We have a winner!  Very reminiscent of KSU/UT in football last year which was, of course, followed by the ku & bowl fiascos.

st

Not really.  Kind of an apples and oranges comparison.  Anyone that used those games as justification for keeping Wooly around in years 4, 5, or 6 was a moron (if such a person existed).  Those games really didn't say anything about Wooly that his overall records couldn't discredit.

When I'm evaluating Prince's first season, I'm just looking at overall and conference records.  7-5, 4-4 is more than acceptable for a firyear coach coming off back-to-back last place finishes.  Looking any deeper into which games were won/lost and the MOV is kind of dumb.

I have no complaints about 7-5 / 4-4 in Prince's first year.  I have complaints about what is going to happen soon. 

[fatty fat fat]

Recruiting. Last year was awesome. If he was some white coach that looked smart, every one would be saying he was the best "X's and O's" coach in america after what he did last year.

I worry about recruiting. We are not winning recruiting battles.

[Jeffrey_Martin]

If he was some white coach that looked smart, every one would be saying he was the best "X's and O's" coach in america after what he did last year.

Please tell me you're kidding. You believe he's a great Xs and Os coach? Really? Enlighten me.

[catzacker]

If he was some white coach that looked smart, every one would be saying he was the best "X's and O's" coach in america after what he did last year.

Please tell me you're kidding. You believe he's a great Xs and Os coach? Really? Enlighten me.

I don't mean to speak for fatty, but I think he's referring to the well known "fact" that all white head coaches are smart and all black head coaches are good  recruiters. 

[fatty fat fat]

Taking a crap 2-6 big 12 team (that lost by 28 points to Iowa State, 39 to Texas Tech, and 23 to Oklahoma) and BARELY beat ku and Mizzou, and bringing us back to 4-4 beating two southern division opponents (which KSU had not done since 2002) and defeating a top 5 team at home for the FIRST TIME EVER.

If Prince goes .500 in big 12 play the rest of his career, I'll be happy.

[fatty fat fat]

Zacker nailed it.

[michigancat]

People are quicker to jump on a white coach's bandwagon. 

Ex:  IIRC, people thought John L. Smith was the crap after his 8-5 season at Michigan State.

[catzacker]

If Venables had the year Prince just had........

[Houstoncat93]

Prince has a very Wooly feel to me right now.  I'm guessing 8 wins in a season is the best we will ever see from Prince and company.  My confidence in Prince getting us to any sort of consistent national success is about a 3 right now.

[fatty fat fat]

Prince has a very Wooly feel to me right now.  I'm guessing 8 wins in a season is the best we will ever see from Prince and company.

That's hilarious considering his first season brought 7 wins.

[Houstoncat93]

If Prince goes .500 in big 12 play the rest of his career, I'll be happy.

If that is the expectation for Prince then I hope his career is about 3 years long.

[Jeffrey_Martin]

Zacker nailed it.

OK. I was hoping that's what you meant.

[ksuno1stunner]

I have 110% confidence in Prince.

[michigancat]

If Venables had the year Prince just had........

Ron Prince would get fired with Mike Stoops' three year record.

Prince has a very Wooly feel to me right now.  I'm guessing 8 wins in a season is the best we will ever see from Prince and company.  My confidence in Prince getting us to any sort of consistent national success is about a 3 right now.

If 6 wins was the best we'd see from Prince, then he'd be Wooly like.


I agree w/ fatty on the .500 in conference play.  That means you're competitive and going to bowl games year in and year out.

[fatty fat fat]

If Prince goes .500 in big 12 play the rest of his career, I'll be happy.

If that is the expectation for Prince then I hope his career is about 3 years long.

Okay, let me take that back. He has Mike Leach success I'll be content.

[fatty fat fat]

OT: But does anyone else find it kind of LOL, that last year was our 2002 schedule, and the two teams we lost to in 2002, we beat in 2006. LOL, if someone had told you in 2002 that 4 years later we would lose to Baylor and ku, you would have said..."Get out of here! LOL!"

[Bullfn33]

I agree with others that a lot of people are looking too much into who we beat this game and lost to in another game.  You should only look at the full body of work of 7-6 4-4 and a bowl game and not try and over analyze every game.  The record is good considering where we were at and I think that is what he should be judged on. 

[Poopley]

Prince always harps on building depth up and down the roster, and when you look at WR last season, it was pretty pathetic. Jordy kept having to come out and play hurt, especially once Moreira fractured that vertebra. It wasn't like we had some hotshot or even warmshot redshirt freshman or soph. WR ready to roll out and get minutes. We had NO ONE. Just walkon Gonzo. Then once Figurs went out (thanks to dumb&*$@! play by McKinney), it was time for other teams to just man up on WRs and bring up both safeties, then send the cavalry on every play because we had no one who could get open. Wilson, Purvis, and Brown were not ready.

It's amazing how a lack of quality depth at one position can shut down everything you try to do. Even if we had a decent OL, they couldn't have blocked everyone ku and Rutgers were sending.

Lack of experience at WR is another reason I'm not terribly optimistic going in to next season. 

[chum1]

Such low standards.  No one wants to consistently compete for championships?

[AzCat]

I agree with others that a lot of people are looking too much into who we beat this game and lost to in another game.  You should only look at the full body of work of 7-6 4-4 and a bowl game and not try and over analyze every game.  The record is good considering where we were at and I think that is what he should be judged on. 

Actually you should look at the full body of work and consider not only the W/L record but how the team played in those games.  The team, particularly on defense and particularly in the last half of the season, really played very poorly.  I really didn't like what I saw happening on the field and my thoughts about Prince's likely success going forward are based almost entirely on that. 

[PoetWarrior]

Lack of experience at WR is another reason I'm not terribly optimistic going in to next season. 

Experience is not nearly as important as the bodies you have. We had no one last year beyond Nelson, Figurs, and Moriera and all 3 were hurt at times (as you mentioned).

But we will be trotting out some serious horses at the WR position this year.

If all we had this year was Lamark, Hogan, Pierce, and Murphy, I would take that over what we went through last year.

[tmramrod91]

I agree its important to look at the whole picture when evaluating RP. If at the beginning the season you woulda said ksu will go .500 in conference and go to a bowl game 90% of us woulda taken that in a heartbeat.  He beat OSU (a very good team in a brutal division) and UT (national power).   But, its hard not to have your confidence shaken when your team gets blown out by Baylor and ku (and every other loss).
He was a first year coach and I fully expected him to get outcoached more than a handful of times.  I think the next 2 yrs should tell us all we need to know about RP. My guess is he'll win some games he's not supposed to and lose some he's supposed to win.

And....I agree with others, biggest concern is the recruiting front at this point in time.

[Bullfn33]

I agree with others that a lot of people are looking too much into who we beat this game and lost to in another game.  You should only look at the full body of work of 7-6 4-4 and a bowl game and not try and over analyze every game.  The record is good considering where we were at and I think that is what he should be judged on. 

Actually you should look at the full body of work and consider not only the W/L record but how the team played in those games.  The team, particularly on defense and particularly in the last half of the season, really played very poorly.  I really didn't like what I saw happening on the field and my thoughts about Prince's likely success going forward are based almost entirely on that. 

By last half of the season, I'm assuming you mean the last two games.  That is hardly half the season.  ku was a terribly coached game injuries or not.  This was the only game that really raised any red flags.  Rutgers was way too good for us and a terrible match-up at the same time.  That was all there was to it.  We didn't stand a chance, IMO, unless we could have played it at home.  But again, the 7-6 4-4 in year one with what he inherited was very good I think.  I would probably be more analytical into each and every game as his tenure progresses and he gets his guys in that really want to play in his system. 

[ds43fan]

I agree with others that a lot of people are looking too much into who we beat this game and lost to in another game.  You should only look at the full body of work of 7-6 4-4 and a bowl game and not try and over analyze every game.  The record is good considering where we were at and I think that is what he should be judged on. 

Actually you should look at the full body of work and consider not only the W/L record but how the team played in those games.  The team, particularly on defense and particularly in the last half of the season, really played very poorly.  I really didn't like what I saw happening on the field and my thoughts about Prince's likely success going forward are based almost entirely on that. 

By last half of the season, I'm assuming you mean the last two games.  That is hardly half the season.  ku was a terribly coached game injuries or not.  This was the only game that really raised any red flags.  Rutgers was way too good for us and a terrible match-up at the same time.  That was all there was to it.  We didn't stand a chance, IMO, unless we could have played it at home.  But again, the 7-6 4-4 in year one with what he inherited was very good I think.  I would probably be more analytical into each and every game as his tenure progresses and he gets his guys in that really want to play in his system. 

IMO the d was bad after the louiseville game but we're changing systems so it should be better now