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Message: [QUOTE="A Clockwork Orange, post: 1441119, member: 16"] Orange PA, did you work in the SU AD during Coach P's tenure? For some reason I thought you had mentioned that before. In any case, I think a lot of people in central New York thought Coach P's teams had underperformed in those years with McNabb. They played up to and down to their level of competition in those years, and could be maddening to watch at times. Huge win against Michigan at the Big House, only to get thumped by a middling NC State team a couple of weeks later. In 1997 they hammer a good Wisconsin team to open the season, only to lose to NC State and Oklahoma in the next two weeks. Two teams we should have beaten. Then they got thumped by VPI. People were expecting big things rightly or wrongly out of those teams, and they always seemed to lose games they should have won, and then also pulled some games out of their hat that they should have lost. They were consistently inconsistent, and I think a lot of people decided that laid squarely at the feet of the head coach. Then 1999 comes, and it looks as if the ONLY reason that team won as much as they did the previous couple of years was because of McNabb, and the coaching would never get us back to that level again. I never really felt that way in '99 for the reasons you state. They were replacing a ton on offense, and to be able to go 7-5 that year with a Music City Bowl victory wasn't bad. But again, as was the case with everything in Coach P's tenure, it wasn't always wins and losses, but the WAY they won or lost. A loss to Rutgers? RUTGERS???? A 1-10 Rutgers team that lost by an average of 24 points per contest that year. They weren't even remotely a mediocre team in those days, so losing to either Rutgers or Temple was way out of the question. Then a 62-0 stomping by VPI. Granted, they weren't going to win that game, but to lose like they did left a bad taste. I truly didn't abandon the Coach P. ship until 2004 when we got smoked by a good, not great Purdue team 51-0. Coach P. was a good man, and a good coach. He had a knack for winning big games, and also blowing big games. He had a knack for sometimes losing to teams he shouldn't have. He was a good, but flawed coach who finally crumbled due to his befuddling losses, along with a football infrastructure that didn't give him a chance to succeed in the present CFB landscape. I don't agree with it, but I can completely see why people jumped off the bandwagon after the Rutgers loss. There had been too many strange losses, and uninspired efforts in the previous four years. People waiting in the wings were ready to pounce, and that loss gave them a perfect opportunity. [/QUOTE]

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