Fans like me? Go f**k yourself. I understand that it takes time for coaches to put in their systems. I undertand that KSU wasn't in as good of spot as most people wanted to believe or was led to believe. I understand that on our good days we still probably aren't but the 3rd best team in the North. I understand all of that Prince has a tough task ahead of him, but pardon the hell out of me if my opinion is that he probably won't accomplish what he wants here.
You offer the obvious outs, but then never really accept them. I don't get it.
Pardon the hell out of me if I think he sounds like a jackass when he talks about championships meanwhile our offense scored it's first touchdown after 6 quarters, pardon the hell out of me if I think his offensive strategy is boring and dreadful, rather than bold and daring. Now, do I hope that Prince doesn't work out? hell no. I hope he freaking wins every damn game he coaches.
He talks of Championships to help build the support for the team. He never said we'd get one right away, only that we'd compete consistently for one. We still have to build the program so we can. You can't do that in just one season. Historically speaking, it never happens that way. Generally, it takes a 3-5 years.
How you come to the conclusion after 3/4 of the games played that he's already a failure is beyond me.
I'm of the belief that you pretty much know what you have by year 3. Right now, I don't think people in general realize how far down KSU football is as a program, that's why I say that Prince probably won't get what he wants here. We're further down than people think. The catch phrases are really getting to me; obviously Prince has never heard the "speak softly and carry a big stick" quote.
We're not even finished with year 1 yet on his contract and you're already throwing in the towel, yet you seem to understand why but you can't state beyond a vague opinion that he "won't get what he wants."
I'm just curious as to when you're going to provide some basis for your opinion.
What I'm saying is this (and maybe I'm way off in terms of generalizng the fan base): The expectations of this season were greatly exaggerated/overhyped. They were overhyped because fan bought into Snyder's talk about the talent on the team. It was overhyped because Prince is a good "salesman" and he sold it well to the fan base (nothing wrong with that, except he could cut back on the catch phrases). In general, I think fan expected to see us bounce back with all the returning starters we had. This, in my opinion, was wrong but it's what I believe will lead to Prince getting on the hot seat pretty quickly because that's not how it happens when a new coach comes in and we certainly weren't in the "talent position" that people thought we were in, especially offensively.
Now, my opinion of Prince is that he's an arrogant, stubborn, ass. Nothing wrong with that. Alot of, if not all, coaches are. I haven't thrown in the towel on him, but I do think that we won't be more than a 7-5 or 8-4 team with him and his undying stubborness towards being "bold and daring". You don't win consistently with that type of philosphy. I'll admit that I don't have much beyond a feeling that this is the way we'll end up under Prince, but you don't have any "evidence"that will say differently. And I'm certainly not cheering for Prince to be lead us to mediocrity; I'd love to be wrong about him. And whether I believe he's going to get us back to 7-5 or 11-3, I'm still going to renew my season tickets.
The people who "bought" into the overrating or even the higher expectations wanted to believe something that I know Prince didn't offer.
All he ever said was that this would be a strong, fast discipilined team that competes for championships. Yeah, he says a lot of things and talks very intelligently, but no where can I find a quote that says we're going to have x number of wins at this point, or that our team is going to score x number of points a game or what not. I never heard him say that our talent was the best he'd ever seen or that our team was just plain bad. All he's ever said is that there are goals to reach, and with that comes expectations he has for how our team competes. The team meets those expectations, I'm sure he expects them to win. In every game, some areas of our play has met his expectations, and he has pointed those out.
The bottom line is this. My persona allows me to be positive through all of the bad times simply because we've tasted success longer than other generations of fans at KSU. We understand what it means to be at or near the top and beating up perennial powerhouses, and running long win streaks against conference foes, helps to solidify that feeling of dominance. Being from the time when going to KSU meant sitting through loss after loss after loss after loss (and going two and half years without ever winning a game), I've become quite the optimist in where we are going.
What you said is true, I can offer nothing that Prince will be any better than you can say he'll be a failure, but I'm not willing to bet or even prognosticate his future based on a game, or even a couple of games, or for that matter, part of his first season. All indications are, he's headed in the right direction. Special teams, and defense are doing much better than the last two years under our legendary coach. Our offense is having a horrible time, but that's not exactly unprecedented, nor is it a sign that the house is about to implode either. You look at what it took Snyder to get for his program.. he had a winning season by year three. So did Rich Rodriguez. So did Frank Beamer. And those coaches came to programs where the year before were hired, they had a winning record. Snyder didn't. Stoops went to a bowl in his first year as a coach, and he took over a program that had not had a winning season in like three years. If Prince gets to a bowl game this year, then we've managed to do what other current "good" coaches have not done and had similar starts in their HC career. He's not that far off from doing that and I think it would be a huge HUGE feather in KSU's cap to go to a bowl with the talent that was left from Snyder.
There is nothing to suggest that will happen to KSU either, but there is nothing to suggest it won't. We'll see what happens, but I'm not going to make conclusions about the state of our program because we're only 3/4 of the way through a season with our first year head coach.
