What's Wrong??

[Great White Buffalo]

I am not a die-hard football fan. Never played the game. Have no in-depth knowledge. Just trying to support my school. The games are an opportunity to see friends.
In looking at Wt here is what I see. A school that has a commitment to athletic success. (as evidenced by other sports and funding) Good facilities, good community
support with good student involvement. With the exception of Commerce, our players can compete on the field. Commerce is at a different level. The coaching staff is
experienced and has been successful at other schools. Therefore, WHATS WRONG?!? Coach Hughes's record is 21- 20 at WT. He appears to me to be well organized
and has good leadership skills. Our staff is knowledgeable and hard working. What do we need to fix??

[ASUPops]

Your answers lie within your own post. If all was as you described, WT would be a powerhouse.

You can not see the forest for the trees.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

My opinions only...

I think its a combination of it being a talent, scheme, and recruiting issue. Every year under Carthel we were hyped up about the next NFL caliber QB (Keith Null, Dustin Vaughan) or the NFL caliber wide receivers (Charly Martin, Torrance Allen) and running backs (Khiry Robinson) that were coming to WT to dominate on offense and the occasional NFL caliber Defensive line guys (Ethan Westbrooks) and NFL offensive line guys (J'Marcus Webb).

Admittedly I havent followed WT as close as I have in recent years due to moving and the nature of my job but its been several years since I have seen a player hyped as the next "ringer" to get WT even back to playoff contention. I have heard Gerber is good but not the hype I have heard in years past.

Simply put the WT talent guys back then could dominate most conference games until the playoffs.

In my opinion it looks like Hughes is recruiting normal D2 high school kids with minimum junior college transfer high talent to fit his scheme and team concept which is great long term but if it isn't yielding the playoff results that the fan base were used to in recent year then here we are.


Its no accident how Commerce went from a punching bag until the mid 2010's to championship caliber football within a few years.

[Herb Street]

I lived there when Carthel was there. Carthel won because he brought in a new, unconventional spread offense that mimicked the offense at Texas Tech. Teams had great difficulty defending it.

Fast forward 25 years and that offense isn't novel any more. Practically everyone in college runs the spread offense. Chip Kelly @ UCLA knows this. He's not running the spread any more, even though he contributed to it greatly at Oregon, simply because everyone is now running it, and defending it. UCLA is running power I, with a fullback and big tight ends, and having success. They just out-muscled LSU impressively.

Good coaching is key. But so is running a scheme that isn't something all of the other teams are practicing against every week.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

I lived there when Carthel was there. Carthel won because he brought in a new, unconventional spread offense that mimicked the offense at Texas Tech. Teams had great difficulty defending it.

Fast forward 25 years and that offense isn't novel any more. Practically everyone in college runs the spread offense. Chip Kelly @ UCLA knows this. He's not running the spread any more, even though he contributed to it greatly at Oregon, simply because everyone is now running it, and defending it. UCLA is running power I, with a fullback and big tight ends, and having success. They just out-muscled LSU impressively.

Good coaching is key. But so is running a scheme that isn't something all of the other teams are practicing against every week.

Correct but you have to have the talent to run it. Its easier to run the chuck and duck when you have NFL guys at all offensive skill positions doing it like WT did in 2013.

That is why I like it when high school teams still run the triple flex option like Tascosa does. Most of the local teams cant stop it and most of the metroplex schools couldn't stop it and were chasing their tail playing catchup in the playoffs.

The really good Navy, Air Force, and Georgia Tech teams could catch teams off guard in non conference and bowl games with the triple option when they didn't see it everyday in their conference.