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catamount man wrote:I would like to offer an apology for the pathetic offering that is Western Carolina football. Year after year, I keep buying into some preseason hype, whether it's been a coaching change, a D-1A transfer, a supposed good recruiting class, etc, etc and still we as a fan base have absolutely nothing to show for it. WCU started playing intercollegiate football in 1931 and never has had an overall winning record, has made postseason trips 3 years (1949, 1974, 1983), but up until about 15 years ago, had always managed to at least be somewhat respectable.

Men who could put together a few winning records in Cullowhee were few and far between and even when they did, the university always failed to capitalize upon the moment. In 1983 after WCU made the I-AA title game, NOTHING was done by the university to build upon the momentum that the team had generated in both the SoCon and the national picture as a whole. Facilities faltered, budgets were cut, and our coach Bob Waters became stricken with ALS to the point that in his last season, 1988, he was coaching confined in a wheelchair. Those budget cuts forced Waters to get more money games his final 3 seasons and in fact in 1986, WCU played THREE money games that year (South Carolina, Auburn, NC State) just to break even.

When Coach Waters was forced out by then chancellor Myron Coulter in March 1989, after a spring practice mind you, it caused a rift among fans, alumni, donors that unfortunately, still shows some 21 years later. When Waters passed in May 1989, Catamount football pretty much died. An outsider came in, promptly went 3-7-1, and left. Former Waters DC Steve Hodgin then took the reins and had turned the team around knotting 3 straight winning seasons from 1992-94, missing the SoCon title and a trip to the playoffs in all 3 seasons. Another perfect time to capitalize on a renewed success you would think? Not so fast my friend. Enter 1995 and enter new Chancellor John W. Bardo who swiftly set out to turn WCU into his vision of academia glory. Now mind you, what he has done in 15 years to the ACADEMIC side of WCU has been nothing short of phenominal but as to athletics, well.............here we go.

Cut any additional funding to Coach Hodgin's football team who quickly went 3-7 and 4-7 in 1995 and 1996. Bardo fires Hodgin with a promise to hire "an experienced head coach." On January 3, 1997, Bardo and then AD Larry Travis promote 1st year OC Bill Bleil who had never been a head coach. Hmmm.....................

By the end of the 1998 season however Bleil's hire looks to be a good one as the team goes 6-5, shocks App.State and brings home the Old Mountain Jug for the 1st time since 1984 and things look to be good. 1999 and 2000 are not good, but a new AD Jeff Compher rides into town the sticks with Bliel. The move pays off. Bleil's 2001 team goes 7-4 finishing behind the "big 3" in the SoCon at that time, Bleil gets conference coach of the year and 18 starters are set to be back for 2002 in what looked to be a breakout year. Not so fast my friend. Troubled by the actions of a few CAtamount football players who had gotten into serious trouble with the law, our old Chancellor along with the AD promptly fire Bill Bleil in December 2001, a mere month after winning coach of the year in the conference claiming the actions of the team are HIS responsibility (nothing like avoiding personal accounts of each player's own actions) and they claim they are gonna bring in somebody to "clean it up."

Enter the Kent Briggs era. With no head coaching experience, Briggs, a former Waters assistant, is brought in to "heal old wounds" with the supposed notion that the Waters winning days are on their way back. Promptly, a team that had 18 starters returning has to learn a new system and goes 5-6 in 2002, 5-7 in 2003, and then 4-7, albeit an upset over App State, in 2004. We are left to wonder WHY????

2005 brings an abbreviated 9 game season due to a hurricane cancelled Nicholls State game and a Liberty game where they backed out, cancelled and it was too late to secure a 10th game but hey, we go 5-4 and all seems well. Uh.....no. Major internal disagreeing within the staff sends THREE of our brightest, youngest recruiters and coaches far away from WCU. Geoff Collins, a great DC for WCU, bolts to O'Leary's staff at Georgia Tech where he has since went to Alabama, UCF and is now Florida International's DC. Matt Rhule, a great offensive coach, loved by all the players, fans and community bolts and is now Temple's OC. Temple is 2-0 and coming off a bowl appearance. I would say he traded up and another asst. bolts for Stanford.

Briggs fills up these losses with young former player assistants, some of these guys with less than 1 year coaching experience and somehow brings back Don Powers as DC. Powers was in Cullowhee from 1974-1983 and was Citadel's HC from 1996-2000 and had been out of coaching for 6 years. We all know how 2006 and 2007 went, Briggs fired, staff hired, alums, fans, donors finally fighting to stand up to the powers that be for a winning program.

Enter Dennis Wagner, an unknown to the Cullowhee area, no ties, brings in a halfway decent staff as DC Matt Pawlowski has been on Grand Valley State's national title teams and the powers that be FINALLY start doling out money. It hasn't worked. Within a year, Wagner had ran off every Briggs holdover and had basically turned WCU football into a boot camp. I personally know good players that have left and have said that they HATE the man for whatever reason. Last night's devastating loss to Tusculum College will be felt for years. We hired Wagner, a supposed OL "guru", and in three years, our OL is no better than where it was when Briggs got canned. Apathy in the stands is at an all time high. HALF of the crowd is there strictly to see the band and when the band is finished, they live. Hell, the band left early in the 4th quarter last night.

This administration has given this team a new weight room, a new field house, more seats, new turf, a new locker room but obviously still did not get it right as it pertains to finding a coaching staff. I'm sorry that I have talked a big game over the last few years and tried to defend WCU. I obviously have no clue. So.........the honeymoon with Wagner is over. I will attend games, I will cheer for the team, but record wise, I have no clue. I say 0-11. Guys, we could not even stop a d2 team from lighting us up. IT......WAS.....PATHETIC!

Sorry to rant, sorry for the long post, but a trip down memory lane was necessary. Go ahead and rag me because I deserve it. On behalf of all CAtamount loyalists, we apologize to all I-AA fans for our ineptitude. We truly suck.

OL FU wrote:No reason to apologize for being a fan.

Sly Fox wrote:Cap'n picked the wrong place at the wrong time for that remark. Dude poured out his heart and that's how you retort?

As a longsuffering Liberty fan I am with you, brother. Just 5 years ago we were canning a coach coming off a 1-win season with little hope for change. Things can turn around quickly with the right people at the right time (notice the contrast, Cap'n?).

That said, G-W is proving to be an early season surprise. They will be tough to beat Saturday. And that's not elitist CAA sarcasm speaking.

catamount man wrote:I would like to offer an apology for the pathetic offering that is Western Carolina football. Year after year, I keep buying into some preseason hype, whether it's been a coaching change, a D-1A transfer, a supposed good recruiting class, etc, etc and still we as a fan base have absolutely nothing to show for it. WCU started playing intercollegiate football in 1931 and never has had an overall winning record, has made postseason trips 3 years (1949, 1974, 1983), but up until about 15 years ago, had always managed to at least be somewhat respectable.

Men who could put together a few winning records in Cullowhee were few and far between and even when they did, the university always failed to capitalize upon the moment. In 1983 after WCU made the I-AA title game, NOTHING was done by the university to build upon the momentum that the team had generated in both the SoCon and the national picture as a whole. Facilities faltered, budgets were cut, and our coach Bob Waters became stricken with ALS to the point that in his last season, 1988, he was coaching confined in a wheelchair. Those budget cuts forced Waters to get more money games his final 3 seasons and in fact in 1986, WCU played THREE money games that year (South Carolina, Auburn, NC State) just to break even.

When Coach Waters was forced out by then chancellor Myron Coulter in March 1989, after a spring practice mind you, it caused a rift among fans, alumni, donors that unfortunately, still shows some 21 years later. When Waters passed in May 1989, Catamount football pretty much died. An outsider came in, promptly went 3-7-1, and left. Former Waters DC Steve Hodgin then took the reins and had turned the team around knotting 3 straight winning seasons from 1992-94, missing the SoCon title and a trip to the playoffs in all 3 seasons. Another perfect time to capitalize on a renewed success you would think? Not so fast my friend. Enter 1995 and enter new Chancellor John W. Bardo who swiftly set out to turn WCU into his vision of academia glory. Now mind you, what he has done in 15 years to the ACADEMIC side of WCU has been nothing short of phenominal but as to athletics, well.............here we go.

Cut any additional funding to Coach Hodgin's football team who quickly went 3-7 and 4-7 in 1995 and 1996. Bardo fires Hodgin with a promise to hire "an experienced head coach." On January 3, 1997, Bardo and then AD Larry Travis promote 1st year OC Bill Bleil who had never been a head coach. Hmmm.....................

By the end of the 1998 season however Bleil's hire looks to be a good one as the team goes 6-5, shocks App.State and brings home the Old Mountain Jug for the 1st time since 1984 and things look to be good. 1999 and 2000 are not good, but a new AD Jeff Compher rides into town the sticks with Bliel. The move pays off. Bleil's 2001 team goes 7-4 finishing behind the "big 3" in the SoCon at that time, Bleil gets conference coach of the year and 18 starters are set to be back for 2002 in what looked to be a breakout year. Not so fast my friend. Troubled by the actions of a few CAtamount football players who had gotten into serious trouble with the law, our old Chancellor along with the AD promptly fire Bill Bleil in December 2001, a mere month after winning coach of the year in the conference claiming the actions of the team are HIS responsibility (nothing like avoiding personal accounts of each player's own actions) and they claim they are gonna bring in somebody to "clean it up."

Enter the Kent Briggs era. With no head coaching experience, Briggs, a former Waters assistant, is brought in to "heal old wounds" with the supposed notion that the Waters winning days are on their way back. Promptly, a team that had 18 starters returning has to learn a new system and goes 5-6 in 2002, 5-7 in 2003, and then 4-7, albeit an upset over App State, in 2004. We are left to wonder WHY????

2005 brings an abbreviated 9 game season due to a hurricane cancelled Nicholls State game and a Liberty game where they backed out, cancelled and it was too late to secure a 10th game but hey, we go 5-4 and all seems well. Uh.....no. Major internal disagreeing within the staff sends THREE of our brightest, youngest recruiters and coaches far away from WCU. Geoff Collins, a great DC for WCU, bolts to O'Leary's staff at Georgia Tech where he has since went to Alabama, UCF and is now Florida International's DC. Matt Rhule, a great offensive coach, loved by all the players, fans and community bolts and is now Temple's OC. Temple is 2-0 and coming off a bowl appearance. I would say he traded up and another asst. bolts for Stanford.

Briggs fills up these losses with young former player assistants, some of these guys with less than 1 year coaching experience and somehow brings back Don Powers as DC. Powers was in Cullowhee from 1974-1983 and was Citadel's HC from 1996-2000 and had been out of coaching for 6 years. We all know how 2006 and 2007 went, Briggs fired, staff hired, alums, fans, donors finally fighting to stand up to the powers that be for a winning program.

Enter Dennis Wagner, an unknown to the Cullowhee area, no ties, brings in a halfway decent staff as DC Matt Pawlowski has been on Grand Valley State's national title teams and the powers that be FINALLY start doling out money. It hasn't worked. Within a year, Wagner had ran off every Briggs holdover and had basically turned WCU football into a boot camp. I personally know good players that have left and have said that they HATE the man for whatever reason. Last night's devastating loss to Tusculum College will be felt for years. We hired Wagner, a supposed OL "guru", and in three years, our OL is no better than where it was when Briggs got canned. Apathy in the stands is at an all time high. HALF of the crowd is there strictly to see the band and when the band is finished, they live. Hell, the band left early in the 4th quarter last night.

This administration has given this team a new weight room, a new field house, more seats, new turf, a new locker room but obviously still did not get it right as it pertains to finding a coaching staff. I'm sorry that I have talked a big game over the last few years and tried to defend WCU. I obviously have no clue. So.........the honeymoon with Wagner is over. I will attend games, I will cheer for the team, but record wise, I have no clue. I say 0-11. Guys, we could not even stop a d2 team from lighting us up. IT......WAS.....PATHETIC!

Sorry to rant, sorry for the long post, but a trip down memory lane was necessary. Go ahead and rag me because I deserve it. On behalf of all CAtamount loyalists, we apologize to all I-AA fans for our ineptitude. We truly suck.

Sly Fox wrote: That said, G-W is proving to be an early season surprise.

They will be tough to beat Saturday. And that's not elitist CAA sarcasm speaking.

EagleDawg wrote:Sly Fox - You are absolutely correct. When you factor in a 8 hr bus ride, the loss of BSC Pre-Season Defensive Player of the Year Marty Patterson before the start of the season, Pre-Season All-Conference Selections LB -Jeffrey Williams and RB-Patrick Hall being held of the Akron game with turf toe and a high ankle sprain respectively and playing 2 QB's who have a combined 1 collegiate start and I'd say the Runnin Bulldogs performance was quite impressive but I'm a bit biased.

Akron's record while not good last year shows a common opponent in the Univ. of Buffalo. The Zips lost at Buffalo 21-17 while Gardner-Webb was pummeled by Buffalo 40-3. You throw in 85 vs 63 schollies, the additional resources for coaching/recruiting and the size difference between the Akron O-line vs GWU's D-line and it was a gritty, determined and inspiring performance by the Runnin Bulldogs.