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Seattle Times pre-game evaluation of Stitt

stubz406

Member
Did anyone see this? The direction of our program didn't really hit me until I read this, an outsider's perspective on Stitt from the Seattle times. They have been immune to any talk on e-griz and have no emotional investment in UM football:

"Coach: In 2015, Bob Stitt, 53, took over a successful program that made back-to-back appearances in the 2008 and ’09 Football Championship Subdivision title game, made seven playoff appearances since 2007 and hadn’t lost fewer than nine games in the two years before his arrival. However, the Griz, the 2004 Division I-AA national champions, have steadily declined under Stitt. They were 8-5 his first year and dropped to 6-5 and eighth in the 13-team Big Sky. Montana is predicted to finish in the middle of the pack once again."

Just interesting to hear a bi-partisan take on stitt. Doesn't sound too good having it laid out like that lol.

I will support the team no matter who the coach is though, hoping he can turn it around and have a good season this year! Go Griz! :clap:
 
We are in the middle of either:

- A slow, agonizing downward spiral...or
- A slow, agonizing rebuild...

I'm getting sucked into the first, but thankful for the sugar that is coating eGriz right now. It's giving me hope....and diabetes.
 
Well, for one the Griz didn't win the 2004 national championship. So there's that. Secondly, they made the playoffs in Stitt's first year, and, the program actually MISSED the playoffs in two of the last five seasons BEFORE Stitt's arrival.
 
George Ferguson said:
Well, for one the Griz didn't win the 2004 national championship. So there's that. Secondly, they made the playoffs in Stitt's first year, and, the program actually MISSED the playoffs in two of the last five seasons BEFORE Stitt's arrival.

Did you call the editor?
 
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.
 
SoldierGriz said:
George Ferguson said:
Well, for one the Griz didn't win the 2004 national championship. So there's that. Secondly, they made the playoffs in Stitt's first year, and, the program actually MISSED the playoffs in two of the last five seasons BEFORE Stitt's arrival.

Did you call the editor?

More fake news! Lol
 
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

It's beyond frustrating when one blames a coach for the present condition of the athletic department and the school and community atmosphere. One need only look at the NDSU offense Saturday and the SDSU special teams Saturday to see what a change of venue can do for a coach (those who don't follow the careers of people miss out on a great deal because NDSU's OC this year was at MSU last year and the Special Team Coach for SDSU who dialed up the fake field goal was in Bozeman before).

Or those of you who follow Oklahoma State know two former MSU coaches are on that staff with Gundy. Remember Dave Arnold? Sonny Lubick? They both had great careers after being let go by MSU. Calipari said it best: "Coaches don't win championships. Administrators win championships."

It is really difficult to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. The worst thing this school could do now is a knee jerk response and clean house. Ride the tough times out and enjoy everything this community has to offer. Great hunting. Great fishing. Still a few good academic departments in the college. I don't understand why Missoula isn't actively chasing becoming the host for the conference basketball tournament. The crap that happened in 2012 is over and done with and time to move on again.
 
SoldierGriz said:
George Ferguson said:
Well, for one the Griz didn't win the 2004 national championship. So there's that. Secondly, they made the playoffs in Stitt's first year, and, the program actually MISSED the playoffs in two of the last five seasons BEFORE Stitt's arrival.

Did you call the editor?

More fake news! Lol
 
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

UM was good Delaney's last 2 years. 10-3 (with losses to EWU and Coastal) and 9-5 (with losses to Wyo. NDSU, and 2 to EWU), playoffs, wins over the Cats and a top 10 and top 12 ranking those years, I believe. Please stop with the nonsense.
 
PlayerRep said:
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

UM was good Delaney's last 2 years. 10-3 (with losses to EWU and Coastal) and 9-5 (with losses to Wyo. NDSU, and 2 to EWU), playoffs, wins over the Cats and a top 10 and top 12 ranking those years, I believe. Please stop with the nonsense.

Exactly..
 
PlayerRep said:
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

UM was good Delaney's last 2 years. 10-3 (with losses to EWU and Coastal) and 9-5 (with losses to Wyo. NDSU, and 2 to EWU), playoffs, wins over the Cats and a top 10 and top 12 ranking those years, I believe. Please stop with the nonsense.

I don't get why people get so worked up about defending Stitt yet are so quick to throw Delaney under the bus. Both are nice guys, neither is a great head coach IMO. There may be an ascent coming (hopefully) but I know there is a definite reduction in interest. Very similar decline to that of Carroll....hoping UM doesn't go that low.
 
CatGrad-UMGradStu said:
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

It's beyond frustrating when one blames a coach for the present condition of the athletic department and the school and community atmosphere. One need only look at the NDSU offense Saturday and the SDSU special teams Saturday to see what a change of venue can do for a coach (those who don't follow the careers of people miss out on a great deal because NDSU's OC this year was at MSU last year and the Special Team Coach for SDSU who dialed up the fake field goal was in Bozeman before).

Or those of you who follow Oklahoma State know two former MSU coaches are on that staff with Gundy. Remember Dave Arnold? Sonny Lubick? They both had great careers after being let go by MSU. Calipari said it best: "Coaches don't win championships. Administrators win championships."

It is really difficult to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. The worst thing this school could do now is a knee jerk response and clean house. Ride the tough times out and enjoy everything this community has to offer. Great hunting. Great fishing. Still a few good academic departments in the college. I don't understand why Missoula isn't actively chasing becoming the host for the conference basketball tournament. The crap that happened in 2012 is over and done with and time to move on again.

I don't think anyone is blaming stitt for "the present condition of the athletic department and the school and community atmosphere". And who said anything about not enjoying what the Missoula community has to offer? just talking about football and how we want to see the griz back on top! :thumb:
 
PlayerRep said:
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

UM was good Delaney's last 2 years. 10-3 (with losses to EWU and Coastal) and 9-5 (with losses to Wyo. NDSU, and 2 to EWU), playoffs, wins over the Cats and a top 10 and top 12 ranking those years, I believe. Please stop with the nonsense.
I don't dislike Delaney at all, but we were never a perennially awful road team until after 2011 (against good teams, sure, but never against bad teams). I know you won't agree with me, but it seems like that's become our culture, which Stitt has yet to do anything about.

I always felt under Delaney that our team's ceiling was never higher than the quarterfinals if we ever got a good draw. He had one playoff win against the worst playoff team that's ever been to Missoula. It's not his fault his teams had to play NDSU and EWU in the playoffs, but you can't knock the 2015 team for that, either, which beat a very good SDSU team the week before.

And as I've posted before, 2013 was our weakest schedule we had since 2007, and it showed when Coastal came in and punked our overconfident asses. And the 2014 team beat a hugely overrated MSU team without it's starting QB, the aforementioned awful San Diego team, and then looked listless against EWU.

Delaney's teams weren't as bad as Stitt's team last year, but they weren't quite what I would consider "good" relative to Griz teams in the past. If those count as "good" years in your book, then Stitt has had one good team and one bad team, same as Mick after 2 years.

It appears no one here wants to admit the scandals had any effect on our program, though.
 
George Ferguson said:
Well, for one the Griz didn't win the 2004 national championship. So there's that. Secondly, they made the playoffs in Stitt's first year, and, the program actually MISSED the playoffs in two of the last five seasons BEFORE Stitt's arrival.


Stellar reporting job by the failing Seattle Times. #sad
 
Do you think it possible that there are some people outside of Montana that don't think Stitt has the ability to coach at the FCS level?
 
uofmman1122 said:
PlayerRep said:
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

UM was good Delaney's last 2 years. 10-3 (with losses to EWU and Coastal) and 9-5 (with losses to Wyo. NDSU, and 2 to EWU), playoffs, wins over the Cats and a top 10 and top 12 ranking those years, I believe. Please stop with the nonsense.
I don't dislike Delaney at all, but we were never a perennially awful road team until after 2011 (against good teams, sure, but never against bad teams). I know you won't agree with me, but it seems like that's become our culture, which Stitt has yet to do anything about.

I always felt under Delaney that our team's ceiling was never higher than the quarterfinals if we ever got a good draw. He had one playoff win against the worst playoff team that's ever been to Missoula. It's not his fault his teams had to play NDSU and EWU in the playoffs, but you can't knock the 2015 team for that, either, which beat a very good SDSU team the week before.

And as I've posted before, 2013 was our weakest schedule we had since 2007, and it showed when Coastal came in and punked our overconfident asses. And the 2014 team beat a hugely overrated MSU team without it's starting QB, the aforementioned awful San Diego team, and then looked listless against EWU.

Delaney's teams weren't as bad as Stitt's team last year, but they weren't quite what I would consider "good" relative to Griz teams in the past. If those count as "good" years in your book, then Stitt has had one good team and one bad team, same as Mick after 2 years.

It appears no one here wants to admit the scandals had any effect on our program, though.

Good grief, the non-scandals have been discussed ad nauseam on here. Few don't believe it had an impact.

Fill in the blank: Stitt was hired to____________________________________?

Your thought in bold above is front and center to what is happening RIGHT NOW...
 
SoldierGriz said:
Good grief, the non-scandals have been discussed ad nauseam on here. Few don't believe it had an impact.

Fill in the blank: Stitt was hired to____________________________________?

Your thought in bold above is front and center to what is happening RIGHT NOW...
Sure:

Stitt was hired to "get us back to where we used to be".

That implies that before he even got here we somehow fell down from where we were, no?

Last season was a step in the wrong direction, and this season is still too early to tell, but I don't see how saying we slipped a lot from 2011-2014 is so blasphemous.
 
grizd said:
PlayerRep said:
uofmman1122 said:
We haven't been "good" since 2011, and blaming that on Stitt is just dumb.

The shit and aftermath of 2012's scandals decimated us in ways that are not obvious, which is especially frustrating when everyone still expects us to win the big sky and go to the semis every year.

UM was good Delaney's last 2 years. 10-3 (with losses to EWU and Coastal) and 9-5 (with losses to Wyo. NDSU, and 2 to EWU), playoffs, wins over the Cats and a top 10 and top 12 ranking those years, I believe. Please stop with the nonsense.

I don't get why people get so worked up about defending Stitt yet are so quick to throw Delaney under the bus. Both are nice guys, neither is a great head coach IMO. There may be an ascent coming (hopefully) but I know there is a definite reduction in interest. Very similar decline to that of Carroll....hoping UM doesn't go that low.

I am curious as to why you say, "reduction of interest." I agree, but I would like to know more specifics. The University of Montana as a whole? The athletic department? The football team? All of the above? Just curious as to why you say that.
 
uofmman1122 said:
SoldierGriz said:
Good grief, the non-scandals have been discussed ad nauseam on here. Few don't believe it had an impact.

Fill in the blank: Stitt was hired to____________________________________?

Your thought in bold above is front and center to what is happening RIGHT NOW...
Sure:

Stitt was hired to "get us back to where we used to be".

That implies that before he even got here we somehow fell down from where we were, no?

Last season was a step in the wrong direction, and this season is still too early to tell, but I don't see how saying we slipped a lot from 2011-2014 is so blasphemous.

It's not blasphemous; it's true. Some argue it started before then.

Ding, ding, ding on the fill in the blank answer. Stitt has led the team to exactly 2 wins in the last 7 games. Maybe it's too early to tell this season...maybe it is not. Honestly, the trajectory is NOT good. Stitt's job is to change that trajectory. We'll see.
 
SoldierGriz said:
uofmman1122 said:
SoldierGriz said:
Good grief, the non-scandals have been discussed ad nauseam on here. Few don't believe it had an impact.

Fill in the blank: Stitt was hired to____________________________________?

Your thought in bold above is front and center to what is happening RIGHT NOW...
Sure:

Stitt was hired to "get us back to where we used to be".

That implies that before he even got here we somehow fell down from where we were, no?

Last season was a step in the wrong direction, and this season is still too early to tell, but I don't see how saying we slipped a lot from 2011-2014 is so blasphemous.

It's not blasphemous; it's true. Some argue it started before then.

Ding, ding, ding on the fill in the blank answer. Stitt has led the team to exactly 2 wins in the last 7 games. Maybe it's too early to tell this season...maybe it is not. Honestly, the trajectory is NOT good. Stitt's job is to change that trajectory. We'll see.
I'm with AZ about the "last 7 games" argument. He can't change what happened last season, and if we were anything different from 2 in the last 7, Stitt would either have his extension already (after arguably the biggest win in program history), or very likely be nearly fired.

This season, we're right where we should be in terms of record. There have been some positives and negatives, but it makes no sense to put too much stock in 2 out of 7 from last year. Get back to me after we play Eastern, and we'll talk.
 
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