ULL - 4 straight wins in the same bowl

[blueraiderJT]

ULL completely dominated Navada. The score was only 16-3 but it could have easily been 30 - 3. Very impressed with Mark Hudspeth who has a 36-16 record. How in the world has Hudspeth not been considered for some of these other jobs out there? All this dude does is win. +5 every year. Their team was kinda down this year and still waxed a team that beat BYU. Wow.

Anyone know his history? Is Hudspeth like a Blakeney where teams just stay away from him? I just don't get how teams without coaches aren't looking at him. ULL is a fun team to watch. Great fanbase too.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

I bet he gets a new oppty this year. I have always been impressed with him.

 

[Raiderclyde]

Remember Hudspeth being HC at North Alabama in Florence in the early 2000's (thinking around 2002-08 period) and was a perennial contender for the Division II championships for several years. Saw quick clips of him on Channel 48 sportscasts when they were in the playoffs. Don't remember him winning the title for the Lions, but several semi-finals. From there he was at Mississippi State for a couple of years before Lafayette, IIRC. Yes they are fun group to watch, ULL seems to have it better together from a consistency. It's four straight wins for them, championships and we seem to can't get to consecutive bowls or a outright championship? Sigh...

 

[BlueRaider95]

Originally posted by Raiderclyde:
It's four straight wins for them, championships and we seem to can't get to consecutive bowls or a outright championship? Sigh...

To be fair, the New Orleans Bowl is going to take them every year that they're eligible, even if they're 6-6. We do not have such a bowl who would do that for us. ULL in the NOB equals tons of tickets sold and that's all the bowl committee cares about.

 

[TeKEraider]

Yeah great post except they have no outright championships and only one co championship. They are exciting to watch and we're not. They run basically the same offense as us only with fewer yards and points. They do have one thing to be jealous of-good fans.

 

[Raiderclyde]

Originally posted by TeKEraider:
Yeah great post except they have no outright championships and only one co championship. They are exciting to watch and we're not. They run basically the same offense as us only with fewer yards and points. They do have one thing to be jealous of-good fans.

Right, Hudspeth has one co-championship last year (tied with the ASU Red Wolves). Lafayette also won a tri-championship with Monroe and ASU in 2005 when everybody at the top finished 5-2 in the Sun Belt--thinking about that one too. They have two co-championships like we in the conference. Definitely have to tip my hat to their fans, they travel well and support their bowl well. That is one thing our marketing folks need to study is fan bases like theirs to improve our fan engagement and experiences. Also having a bowl that they "partner" with certainly helps too.

 

[blueraiderJT]

They have a defense, We don't. Nevada puts up 42 on BYU but only gets 3 on ULL. Yup, ULL knows how to get it done.

 

[TeKEraider]

Its a decent win but lets not oversell Nevada. They were 4-4 in conference and came in as the #7 team out of the MWC. The NOB is a great set up for the SBC as they will always pair a #1 or #2 team against a #5-#7. They should never lose.

 

[TeKEraider]

I doubt their marketing dept does anything significantly different than our. They just have better targets.

 

[blueraiderJT]

I'm comparing BYU because we played BYU a week after Nevada did. Nevada put up 42 on BYU and won in their house. We put up 7 on the Y in our house and got embarrassed. ULL and Nevada would kick our butts if we played them today. People must care about ULL since there attendance kills ours.

4 straight bowl wins on national tv is better than championships IMO. It's a 3 hour commercial selling recruits on the program and you're playing teams from better perceived conferences. ULL has beaten ECU, San Diego St., Tulane and Nevada. Not a bad resume.We've beaten Southern Miss and have gotten embarrassed by CMU, Miami of Ohio and Navy. Which program is on the uptick and which one isn't?

BTW, I think we'll be better next year. ULL is way more consistent at this point though.

UTEP just lost to Utah State. It was a horrible game to watch. Utah State put the same amount of points on them as we did. We should have won that stupid game and the FIU one as well. I'm not bitter though.

 

[Raiderclyde]

Originally posted by blueraiderJT:
I'm comparing BYU because we played BYU a week after Nevada did. Nevada put up 42 on BYU and won in their house. We put up 7 on the Y in our house and got embarrassed. ULL and Nevada would kick our butts if we played them today. People must care about ULL since there attendance kills ours.

4 straight bowl wins on national tv is better than championships IMO. It's a 3 hour commercial selling recruits on the program and you're playing teams from better perceived conferences. ULL has beaten ECU, San Diego St., Tulane and Nevada. Not a bad resume.We've beaten Southern Miss and have gotten embarrassed by CMU, Miami of Ohio and Navy. Which program is on the uptick and which one isn't?

BTW, I think we'll be better next year. ULL is way more consistent at this point though.

UTEP just lost to Utah State. It was a horrible game to watch. Utah State put the same amount of points on them as we did. We should have won that stupid game and the FIU one as well. I'm not bitter though.

Good points. BTW, UTEP's last bowl win dates to 1967, ironically in the Sun Bowl. Still think we let that game get away. We lost to a team we shouldn't have and that's fact.

How we performed in the Navy game last year along with the negative unsportsmanlike publicity that I won't rehash in detail has me still a bit miffed. Know we must move on. But we have also to learn and improve and 2014 wasn't a great year in either as far as our 6-6 record demonstrated. Hope 2015 is better, but will reserve judgement until closer to season starts--at least on paper there is some hope. But, our defense needs to be much better and we have to be more efficient and consistent on offense--think we got a little worse as the season wore on. We saw what happened with BYU and couldn't say with a high level of confidence that we would have won the SBC this year (or defeat Nevada as well).

There are some that will say "we coulda been 8-4", and guess that's true, but by the same token we could have been 4-8 just as well with the WKU (OT) and FAU (converting 4th and 11 at 20 seconds) game going the other way. Count blessings that it's not any worse than what it was. And then there's the 2012 game with Arkansas State that we got drilled 45-0. It's been tough to digest last two years on the lost opportunities to build our fanbase.

Hats off to ULL and what they have been able to do in the Sun Belt and with their bowl. Their championship histories are not much different that our Sun Belt tenure, but they have made the most of their opportunities--created or not. We have to do more of that or position ourselves to make our success. That's is what I saw in my brief viewing of the NO Bowl on television.

Bowl wins and divisional championships (at least) are the primary ways to improve our product and fanbase and create excitement. We have to do better.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Originally posted by TeKEraider:
I doubt their marketing dept does anything significantly different than our. They just have better targets.

Theirs is an unique case. Their nickname, Ragin' Cajuns, identifies with that whole community and culture of that region. So when the team is winning, they have the community ready to turn out in support and pride in a way that no comparable program can duplicate. The proximity of the school to New Orleans and that bowl is a great thing for that program, but it is a double edge sword, I would think. Their run of bowl invites to the R&L Carriers carries some of the same issue and danger of perception of having plateaued (as another school we know except one step below at 'being bowl eligble'). The ability of taking a crowd to another bowl and locale remains unanswered.

Not sure why Hudspeth has not received really serious consideration for any program that would be considered step up.

 

[MTLover]

They may be getting an advantage by having the NO bowl prefer them even with a 6-6 record, but the fact of the matter is they go and win! They don't leave any doubt that they belong there. Aside from our NO win over Southern Miss, we have not shown up for the other balls!

 

[MTFNBY5]

MT has a football Ball? - Is it formal?

 

[sWiley]

Originally posted by SpaceRaider:
Not sure why Hudspeth has not received really serious consideration for any program that would be considered step up.

Would love to have him here at Mid Tenn. I truly believe he could and would take us to the next level...