Stop_HammerTime69
Well-known member
Being one hundred percent honest, I have no idea where I stand on Stitt anymore.
Most of my optimism from earlier this year came from believing that we would do what the Griz have done 72 times before: beat the damn cats. That did not happen. The Griz looked like they took random kids from Willard and dressed them up as the players. That was not the Montana team we saw after Jensen took over. It was very clear throughout the season that we had far more talent than Montana State. Somehow, we made a 4-6 Montana State team look like Washington or Alabama. For the second year in a row. This was quite frankly us handing the Bobcats a win.
Then came the worst part of this. The Griz were not a part of the playoffs for the second year in a row. As has been discussed ad nauseam here, this season saw a crazy playoff bubble. Montana was still apart of that bubble. Most years, 7-4 gets a team into the playoff. What separates great teams from good teams is not the sheer level of talent or how well they can dominate or keep up on offense or defense. It's when it comes down to a fumble, a penalty, or a in/out of bounds call, they come out ahead. Similarly, when things come down to a toss-up, power programs are the ones that come out on top. Montana is supposed to be a power program. But this weekend they are not.
We got knocked off our feet in Bozeman. Then we got kicked while we were down.
For a lack of better phrasing, this has been kinda shitty. While I want stability, the contract's up. I'll recognize that we have not suffered a losing season under Stitt. But for a program like Montana, those seasons should include wins over rivals and the postseason. I do not want for Montana to go through another attempt at rebuild, to cast their lot in the wind when schools like Tennessee, Nebraska, and Florida have done the same. There is not a coach in the country who could walk into Missoula and win the title for us next season.
I might describe this as Montana football being stuck between a rock and a hard place, with no obvious way out. But frankly, no. That implies that our demise would be fairly quick. No, what we are going to witness is one of two things. The first, if we retain Stitt, is winning seasons, but laughter from Bozeman and, starting next season, Moscow. We will get a Thanksgiving home game the years without crazy bubble scenarios, but never a seed. We would see the brand of Montana slowly erode like a pebble at the bottom of a river. The other is to join a massive coaching carousel against schools with far more resources and maybe find the second coming of Don Read, but more likely find a Jim MacElwain or Mike Riley. In the words of Lindsay Graham, "it's like being shot or poisoned."
Most of my optimism from earlier this year came from believing that we would do what the Griz have done 72 times before: beat the damn cats. That did not happen. The Griz looked like they took random kids from Willard and dressed them up as the players. That was not the Montana team we saw after Jensen took over. It was very clear throughout the season that we had far more talent than Montana State. Somehow, we made a 4-6 Montana State team look like Washington or Alabama. For the second year in a row. This was quite frankly us handing the Bobcats a win.
Then came the worst part of this. The Griz were not a part of the playoffs for the second year in a row. As has been discussed ad nauseam here, this season saw a crazy playoff bubble. Montana was still apart of that bubble. Most years, 7-4 gets a team into the playoff. What separates great teams from good teams is not the sheer level of talent or how well they can dominate or keep up on offense or defense. It's when it comes down to a fumble, a penalty, or a in/out of bounds call, they come out ahead. Similarly, when things come down to a toss-up, power programs are the ones that come out on top. Montana is supposed to be a power program. But this weekend they are not.
We got knocked off our feet in Bozeman. Then we got kicked while we were down.
For a lack of better phrasing, this has been kinda shitty. While I want stability, the contract's up. I'll recognize that we have not suffered a losing season under Stitt. But for a program like Montana, those seasons should include wins over rivals and the postseason. I do not want for Montana to go through another attempt at rebuild, to cast their lot in the wind when schools like Tennessee, Nebraska, and Florida have done the same. There is not a coach in the country who could walk into Missoula and win the title for us next season.
I might describe this as Montana football being stuck between a rock and a hard place, with no obvious way out. But frankly, no. That implies that our demise would be fairly quick. No, what we are going to witness is one of two things. The first, if we retain Stitt, is winning seasons, but laughter from Bozeman and, starting next season, Moscow. We will get a Thanksgiving home game the years without crazy bubble scenarios, but never a seed. We would see the brand of Montana slowly erode like a pebble at the bottom of a river. The other is to join a massive coaching carousel against schools with far more resources and maybe find the second coming of Don Read, but more likely find a Jim MacElwain or Mike Riley. In the words of Lindsay Graham, "it's like being shot or poisoned."