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While there is some truth to your statement, there are instances where this is false. Take Boise State, they have fewer people in the state of Idaho, yet they have managed to build a top tier program. Boise has built a large fanbase who are dedicated to the program. The sheer investment by the community is incredible, as such the university has responded by investing heavily in the program as well. They also have an amazing coach who knows how to get the absolute best performance out of each player. UNM fans love to complain, yet no one here supports football the way fans in Idaho do. Our basketball program faces the same challenges as football, yet the facilities for basketball are top notch, as is the coaching staff, and the community has always supported basketball. If people here came to the realization that we are too small for the NFL, and started supporting football the same as basketball we could build a solid program. We were heading in the right direction with Rocky Long's leadership, but hiring Locksley reversed all that. I do believe we needed a new coach, but I wish we had hired someone better than Coach Locksley.
I also agree with many of the other posters, Krebs has done a great job since coming here, Locksley is the one mistake. We all make mistakes in our given professions, so hopefully he'll learn from this mistake and make better choice next time around.
Idaho probably doesn't have as much competition for recruiting as New Mexico has. NM is surrounded by the Big 12 and Pac 10. It's especially difficult having Texas next door with so many BCS schools. Idaho can recruit regionally without too much competition. They've even had a lot of success going into Washington and California. They have more quality athletes than BCS scholarships.
Basketball is much easier to build a program. You only have to recruit 13 scholarship players. Football has 85 slots to fill. So it's a lot easier to put together a team from a smaller recruiting pool.
It may be possible for them to turn it around. Anything can happen. But I don't see it happening.
Basketball is much easier to build a program. You only have to recruit 13
scholarship players. Football has 85 slots to fill. So it's a lot easier to put together a
team from a smaller recruiting pool.
Good point. Look at Georgetown's basketball success. Outside of that, GT is not a big
sports school.
Are you sure that UNM is the worst Division I football program in the state? I am not.
There are only 2 Division 1 schools in the state . . . really not much to brag about. Either can look at the glass half full. Either way, the best school is also the second worst.
The football team has had some problems, but Rocky did get us to five straight bowls and six straight winning seasons only THREE years ago.
Rocky Long always struck me as a good guy who handled the team and players well. BUT, in terms of his record, he was a mediocre coach at best. His overall record at UNM was 65-69. For his 13 seasons here, his record is 6-6-1 (best year at 9-4).
My suspicion is that Long saw the poor quality of the team he had recruited for the then upcoming 2009 season, was likely getting hassled by Krebs to dramatically improve from the 4-8 2008 season, and decided he didn't need it any more. Why Krebs ever hired Locksley, who is clearly not major college head coach material, is beyond me. He'll be gone after this season, with a $1 million check in his pocket.
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