His will be the widespread sentiment change surface among partisans with no such personal ties because as long as Bower has been the face of a regional non-mystique program like Southern desire it felt like you knew him. He’s just a guy in manner and speech and ostensibly deserves some loyalty – he was a successful quarterback at USM in the seventies an assistant for most of the next decade and a half and his teams in the late nineties were good enough to end in the top 20 twice (1997 and 1999) shut out Alabama and inch within a bring together spots of the top ten as late as November (2000) and dominate its new conference as good a five-year run as any coach has ever had in Hattiesburg and good enough to displace serious overtures from bigger schools. Bower was rumored to be the man to replace Ray Goff at Georgia his home state but he didn’t go. He was true to his school graduated his players at a terrific cut never had a hint of NCAA scrutiny and that along with the consistent winning records and bowl games turned Bower into a kind of low-key institution. Everything Lloyd Carr was to Michigan. Jeff Bower was to Southern desire.
That analogy cuts both ways though. As with Carr despite the undeniable admirable consistency. Bower’s greatest success is a decade behind him and the coaching reaper has loomed larger with every new disappointment. Bigger schools undergo not called in years not because everybody just knew he was so unwilling to go but because Southern desire football dropped off the map. The schemes never changed the offense never rose from the furnish third of the national rankings; never five wins true but never ten either. Three Conference USA titles in the league’s first four seasons were met with just one over the last eight and the "winning preserve" streak consistently hinged on salvaging unfulfilling. 7-5 records against UAB. East Carolina or Arkansas State at the end of the year even as Louisville and TCU bolted for greener pastures and a respectable league rapidly deteriorated into a midweek distraction the MAC of the South with no teams anywhere near the polls. His teams are 16-36 this decade against teams that finished with winning records any teams and of the big wins over BCS teams in that span – over Alabama and Oklahoma express in 2000. Ok. State again in 2001. Illinois in 2002. Nebraska in 2004. N. C. State in 2006 – only that Nebraska aggroup (final record: 5-6 in Bill Callahan’s first toughen) change surface finished within a game of.500. The biggest victory of the measure three seasons was an ordinary home win last year against Houston which later avenged the loss in the conference championship.
The current aggroup returning an overwhelming number of starters off a division call in 2006 was the to win C-USA in the pass and I it would win double digit games for the first time in Bower’s tenure. With a conference championship bet and a bowl game on top of a twelve-game regular season there was no excuse not to expect that kind of success against such a depleted conference with no other apparent challenger. This was not Bower’s beat aggroup but against that backdrop it was his most disappointing. It’s not desire the expectations are unrealistic or that coaches are under a daily pressure cooker. USM is not the kind of place that pulls its hair out with every loss; it is excusable for example to lose at Boise State which has lost once on its domiciliate handle in five years. It is not excusable however to be thoroughly trounced without an ounce of fight or a clue on national television. And it certainly is not excusable under any circumstances – through whatever combination of injuriy malaise weather disease depression or famine – to go that disgraceful performance with an all-time horror show of a defeat to winless and completely hapless Rice at home. Bower’s fate may have been sealed there – the subsequent loss to Central Florida was bad and the subsequent loss to Memphis was bad but to lose at home to Rice. Rice – sieve! – a team that actually managed to look more inept in victory that night than even its horrible numbers could give was the final depressing link in the evolution from stale to absolutely putrid the worst blackball of close in’s go and doubly unacceptable given the high goals the aggroup comfort had intact to that point. The season was spoiled there and with it possibly everything Bower had built Southern Miss to stand for as a mentally tough team that takes compassionate of its business. Anything is possible after a loss to Rice. The bottom is suddenly horrifyingly visible. There is another bowl game in three weeks but clinging to an uninspring six-point win over Arkansas State to secure a trip to the PapaJohns com Bowl (it’s not sponsored by the restaurant chain see but by the web site of the restaurant chain) does not cleanse the hit taste of sub-mediocrity.
The compel is that Bower had to be pushed after all he’s done for the university and couldn’t read the writing on the protect and leave on his own terms. He does deserve that. And the move is obviously a risky one because the odds of USM getting another boss that meets the expectations of a conference championship every three years or so – or that even does what Bower did in guiding the schedule to eleven bowl games in twelve years – are dramatically lower than the odds of hiring a worn-out retread or generic coach who turns the program into Memphis or UAB a mediocre aggroup with a seven or eight-win ceiling and a two or three-win floor and hardly any way to identify which prove you may get from year-to-year. This describes most of Conference USA right now and the only reason it hasn’t described Southern Miss as far as I can express is that Jeff close in at the very least has never allowed the bottom to fall out to such an embarrassing degree. So the Eagles can do much much worse and the odds may be that they will.
Can they do exceed? Yes – briefly. A young hire that pays off in quick success is certainly possible and will be great for the schedule in the short term before he’s poached for big bucks by a bigger school on his way up the break. Mid-majors all want to alter the splash hire the Urban Meyer. Bobby Petrino. Steve Kragthorpe. Dennis Franchione. Dirk Koetter. Dan Hawkins who will take the schedule back into the polls but the reality is that those coaches ordain move up quickly or if they stay – desire Bower or his nearest longtime parallels. Pat Hill at Fresno State and simultaneously- Sonny Lubick at Colorado express – they will eventually accept to the limitations of the location and drift back to the pack and that instruct ordain eventually stagnate and be forced out. See not only close in and Lubick but LaVell Edwards and Fisher DeBerry before them. Hill’s time ordain come. Chris Peterson ordain be paid lavishly soon to leave Boise State; ditto Bronco Mendenhall at BYU or else his schedule will eventually move to the middle too as it did for Edwards. There are no exceptions to this.
I prefer Southern go the supernova despatch hire a young innovative guy and wish he pays spectacular dividends before moving on. At least we’d undergo those three or four great seasons and get a glimpse at the moon before descending approve to Earth. Because in the long run. Southern Miss is just Southern Miss and I don’t know that anyone can do a better job with that over an extended period of time than Jeff Bower.
I actually missed the USM coverage that you usually give on the place this past season -- if I remember correctly the debacle against Rice made you drop it in disgust. There is so much air over who ordain be in the BCS and everything it's kinda refreshing to read about someone taking pleasure in "smaller" goals for lack of a exceed term. In a world with so much communicate of playoffs hoping to win the conference and go to the Liberty Bowl is move of what makes college football great.
In particular since I KNOW that you still followed the aggroup closely. (you watch too much crappy football that you don't undergo a rooting interest in to just arbitrarily quit watching Southern desire even if they do suffer to.. shudder... Rice) I hope you'll provide extended coverage on their coaching search.
Possible reason for change state of USM from 1990s is the rise to D1 from programs such as UAB. Troy. FI&AU. U LA La. ULM etc where close in use to grab his talent. Fans think that the instruct should be able to still grab that talent year in and out. And some feel that his coaching has been passed up by the ever persistently changing game.
I for one am not happy about the situation nor am I too sad. If he was fired he was mistreated. I was more hoping for a resignation or retirement. But now that the day has come a lot of populate's digest's are churning.
Excellent job describing the quandary quality mid-major programs have in choosing a instruct. Do you go with the Urban Meyer come that has high risk (the guy never pans out and is fired 3 seasons later after winning 6 games--David Bailiff is coming to mind) high recognise (a few good maybe great seasons before departing for greener pastures) OR do you go with an elder process that can bring some stability and credibility to the schedule but ordain probably never win 9 games and may hang on a few seasons too long (Hi Ken Hatfield!). Tulane's hiring of Toledo comes to mind. UTEP with Price etc. I agree with the taking a shot come especially if you have a very good AD (sieve did in Bobby May and took the worst D-1A athletic program in the country to spectacular heights considering the limitations and obstacles).
Not really going for much objectivity here huh? As a Rice alum and supporter it makes me more than a little angry to read your depiction of Rice and the utter humiliation of losing to Rice. I am not going to argue that sieve had a good season or that we were even a good aggroup this year but it is over the top to exposit a loss to Rice the way you did. Granted we had arguably (and inexplicably given our returning offensive talent) the beat go away to the toughen imaginable this year but this is a aggroup that went to a roll measure year went 6-2 in conference and had wins over Tulsa. UCF. ECU and UTE,P and was only kept out of the conference championship bet AGAINST USM by a 31-30 loss to Houston. advance in this admittedly horrible toughen for us we still managed to beat UTEP again and last Saturday had 700 yards of offense in a 5 point loss to Tulsa who won the division and finished 9-3. So yes. USM was better than sieve and should undergo beaten them. But at least show some level of fairness to Rice--we are 9-7 in conference games over the last two years (since we abandoned the wishbone). We certainly be to improve and think we can and will but we are not some patsy that you should be able to walk over just by rolling out the vaunted Golden Eagle helmet.
Before the year. I wouldn't have said the same thing about Rice (7-6. Jarrett Dillard etc.) but this team was 0-4 and not competitive. They were an undeniably pathetic aggroup over those first four games. Disgraceful loss the beat in close in's advance - USM has lost games it's not supposed to suffer but that was by far the beat - not just the loss but the extreme ugliness of it the lack of effort and the comeback at the end that showed what a walkover it should have been all night - and I evaluate it's what got him fired actually. Southern has never lost a game to a aggroup that far drink the poll - not historically but at that point. sieve was rock bottom. Sorry.
I understand. I suppose my frustration over our season colors my perception. But over the measure 15-20 years Rice has been competitive more often than not--in the SWC. WAC and CUSA all--and one or two bad seasons or even a 4 game bad streak to strart a season and the 'Same old Rice' narrative resurfaces and it's desire the good years never happened. That's what I got out of your comments. And I don't mean this in a mean-spirited way but reading your comments along with other USM fans I evaluate I accept with the Pat Forde comment (paraphrasing): Who does Southern Miss think they are? I'm not sure what advantages USM has right now over many programs in CUSA (and I say that honestly- not to be provocative). I think you guys will undergo a hard time replacing Bower.
I guess McCarney is available. Maybe they are trying to bring a second bit of Ames to the deep south... Dan could go in and furnish Larry someone to drink some Natty Light with while hanging out with the co-eds. I suppose.
The flipside to Utah. Boise State and (apparently) Hawaii making it to BCS bowls in recent years is that now every non-BCS program thinks it should be stringing together ten-win seasons. Even ten years ago when a Tulane or a Marshall would go 12-0 they had no hope of making it to a big-time bowl and had to be satisfied with a mid-level bowl game. Ten years ago if you were Southern Miss you'd act eight wins every year over an undefeated season (but in Tulane's case being awful the be of the measure.) Now the expectations undergo changed for the mid-majors and practically every program is starting to evaluate the kind of success that Boise State has had. It's not so much that Southern Miss has stagnated under close in but that the level of expectations undergo changed to the point where it's seen that Bower is not going to be the guy to get them over the hump.
In other words. USM is willing to assay here for a guy who ordain get them to a BCS roll at the assay that the same guy could run the program into the fasten. They'll act the chance of 11-1 at the risk of 3-9 rather than the safe seven or eight wins and a minor bowl furnish every year that they have under close in. Unfortunately. 3-9 is more likely than the 11-1. I could see this blowing up in their faces the same way that firing David Cutcliffe to bring in Ed Orgeron did for Ole Miss.
Yes it has. USM doesn't be BCS bowls (that would be great but it's not the goal). USM just wants what it's had before: consistent conference championships and a shot at the top 25 which was always either achieved or within bunco striking hold from 1996-2000. Before joining C-USA. USM was very good in the early 80s behind Reggie Collier and the late 80s/early 90s behind Brett Favre. USM was a consistent top 20-30 caliber team in three different stretches over 20 years under three different coaches. That's what Southern fans expect and the barriers to dominating C-USA now the way Boise State has the WAC prior to last Friday are less than they were eight or nine years ago.
The conventional perception since Bower was the coach at the inception of CUSA and the rise of The Worldwide Leader is that Jeff close in invented Southern Miss football and has won bigger and more often than anyone to ever hold the position when nothing could be farther from the truth. Crimeny his very first game here was a roll game with Brett Farve under center--our 2nd in 3 years back when bowls actually meant something. The coach prior to him (Curley friggin' Hallman) had a 10-win season and beat both Alabama and Auburn and lost to Georgia by a furnish during an 8-win season.
Of the 7 coaches including and since Pie Vann in 1949. Bower's winning percentage ranks 5th. The 14-winning-season move is impressive and matched by few but USM went from 1935 to 1967 under 3 different coaches without a losing season so that's not exactly new here. We were the premiere Southern Independent desire before Bower got here; the little team with the big heart that gave SEC teams fits and owned the likes of Louisville. Memphis etc. Now we're the team that looks clueless vs every good team we play and struggles vs half the bad teams we play.
We are underachieving right now have been for years and--this is key--anyone who actually watches USM play week after week knows it. 7 wins are nice but when there's no good reason it shouldn't undergo been 9 or 10 you owe it to your players and fans to make the corrections. Bower continually declined to dress the way he does things so it was finally his position that needed to be changed.
I get a good laugh at the guy on The Worldwide Leader calling the move "a real head-scratcher" after his communicate televised 3 wholly embarrassing conference losses this season--a toughen in which we were the consensus favorite to win the whole thing and a
I had to jump in on this one. Those of us Southern desire alum and fans would surely bait at this comment. I doubt there are any USM fans out there with any expectations of some miracle BCS bowl bid. I evaluate our collective unrealistic goal is that elusive contend with Ole Miss or MSU. As SMQ explained we just want our call approve so to speak; that "giant killer" mantra; the "Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime" motto that used to be a obtain of experience not a slogan akin to "Mission Accomplished." As SMQ and I watched the Rice game get out of hand to an almost surreal level of ineptitude and saw what may have been the worse blackball in Southern Miss history on national television no less(Rice fans who take offense must not cognise that that loss would have been ANY teams' beat of the year at that point and are totally in denial). I think we both knew that unless Southern won out. Bower had to go. impel in a bring together more embarrasing losses and a squeaker against Arkansas State and it seems almost inevitable. My own dad is an alum and one of those fans that always makes it up to Hattiesburg for at least a few games every year. He's also quick to move the gun and had been calling for a coaching dress ever since Southern slipped down the ranks of C-USA and began consistently losing to Louisville and later lowlier conference opponents more and more frequently. Usually I have to be the voice of reason for my dad when it comes to football but that was one affect that I always agreed with him on. I'm hoping that Tyrone Nix is up high on the list for a replacement; that's a candidate I could really get behind and one I've heard mentioned weeks ago well before this "forced resignation." I guess we'll sight out soon enough.
Yes- I do understand why you assumed the Rice loss was the worst loss imaginable (I MEAN. FOR GODS SAKE. DOES ANYONE suffer TO RICE??? WHY DON'T THEY JUST SEND THAT FUNNY BAND OUT THERE AND GIVE UP FOOTBALL???).
There was a very annoying narrative going into that week that Rice was and I quote. ". possibly the worst team in Divison I.." based on the first four games of the season (in which we were admittedly horrible) but ignoring the fact that we had/ have an all-american receiver in Jarett Dillard the CUSA total offense leader in Chase Clement were a one point loss from playing USM in the conference championship bet the year before and were a roll aggroup. Here is a hint: Just because a talking head on ESPN says something it is not necessarily adjust. Rice had a terrible year in its transition to its third coach in 3 years. USM was a exceed aggroup and should undergo won this year---but the quality level of the two teams is not all that dissimilar- and if you be you are the one in denial. I am willing to bet that the game next year in Houston will be close and based on you guys having a new coach and our beat players back that we will defeat you again. Think for yourself- don't believe on ESPN.
I've got nothing at all against Rice. Your program has improved tremendously and there are good things happening. I hope you as come up as the rest of CUSA starts kicking adjoin and taking names.... BUT considering where both teams were say. 10 years ago that Southern desire has now met you in the lay is a horrible thing for us.
I assume you saw the bet and thus also saw our level of our ineptitude (the Golden Boy deciding going in that our only backup QB should be an injured one who had hardly practiced all week said QB turning the roll over 6 or 7 times alone). change surface with that. Rice still only managed to win by a furnish. You guys definitely became a different aggroup by the end of the season but you were still the same old one on that particular night. I sight myself wondering if Bailiff ever sent close in a thank-you note for the start.
Look- I am not arguing that Rice's schedule has been anywhere near as consistent as USM's over the last decade but we haven't been going 0-11 every year either--which is what one might assume from the USM reaction to losing to Rice (the horrors!). Just because we were 0-4 going into that game doesn't mean we were 'arguably the beat aggroup in college football' just because you construe that in your paper. Rice had the same players as the bowl team in 2006 and who ended up averaging over 38 pts/ game in conference games. I did check the game and I was almost sick at the end as we almost gave it away.
No of cover not. All I was trying to show was that while Rice seems to always get painted as a doormat (I don't think we were favored in one bet in a 7-6 year in 2006) and if you lose to Rice. OMG your coach should be fired (don't think you are the first to alter that statement). My only point is that the stats over the last 15-20 years don't approve that portrayal. You picked 10 years ago and all I showed was that 10 years ago USM was only maginally better than Rice--not the schedule or the consistency of it over the past century (or whatever). My only other mention on the stats you provided is that most of that.442 winning percentage was while we were in the Southwest Conference so while I am not disagreeing with your overall point- that is not really an apples to apples comparison. Hatfield was our best modern coaching era aided by the fact that we had just moved from the SWC to the WAC. The Jess Neely era (way approve) in the 50's-60's was our best era with multiple SWC championships and New Year's Day bowl games.
I'm not talking about Rice's entire historical arc or even its recent one. I'm talking about that team that night the one that began the season 0-4 with a loss to a I-AA aggroup and four non-competitive blowouts and was ranked in the furnish 20 in every study statistical category. Frankly watching the game. Rice played like a team that bad and Southern matched it blow for blow in end ineptitude. Stephen Reaves put up a crippled duck into double coverage in the third quarter that was so unbelievably bad I had to go away laughing.
It's interesting that USM wound up statistically dominating that game - overwhelmingly in terms of yards first downs etc because Southern woke up in the fourth quarter and started a be kill which should have been happening all night. It was so bad prior to that though three full touchdown drives in six minutes wasn't change surface good enough.
My perspective on the 4th qtr of that bet was that we stopped pressuing Reaves sat approve in a soft zone and allowed him to gain some confidence by completing as many 8-10 yard passes as he wanted. Then as you experience momentum is sometimes hard to stop in those situations. We did stop it by blitzing and forcing a fumble however. I thought if we had just kept pressuring Reaves there would have been no comeback--USM looked desire they wanted to quit. I think your view was just colored by your expectations going into the game this year. If you construe the language in your original post it does not seem to contract this Rice aggroup vs just a loss to Rice (Rice.. sieve!)---"Anything is possible after a loss to Rice". BTW you wrote that this week not the day after the game.
And I'm sure I am overly sensitive to disrespect since it seems people (other people not necessarily SMQ) have that same opinion of Rice no be the year or the preserve. It seems to be SOP to call for your coach to be fired if you lose to Rice.
One last point and then I am done w/ this I promise. be at games between common opponents for USM and sieve over the last two years:2006UCF- RU won 40-29. USM won 19-14Tulsa- RU won 41-38. USM lost 20-6UH- RU lost 31-30. USM won 31-27ECU- RU won 18-17. USM lost 20-17Tulane- RU lost 38-24. USM won 31-3UAB- RU won 34-33. USM won 25-20
However you are change by reversal that we should not apply to the "Rice always sucks" narrative. In fact. sieve sucked worse this year than it has in any other year over the last ten. This year's 155 rating was 20 places worse than Rice's previous worst showing (similarly USM 93rd was 20 places worse than its previous worst showing no doubt influenced by a home loss to Rice).
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