“I think sky is the limit,” Edwards said. “I’m not in the mindset of thinking that winning a (Mountain West) title has to be a once every four or five years deal. I want to be able to compete for a championship year in and year out and stay within the top four year in and year out.”
God bless Allen Edwards. Somebody at UW forgot to take him aside and tell him that bold talk like that makes people nervous. He has some serious work ahead of him and I hope he brings a fresh perspective to recruiting.
Lots of talk here about coaches “leaving the cupboard empty” for the next guy. Shyatt didn’t do that, but he left us with a couple cans of kidney beans, a half-eaten box of graham crackers, and a half-empty carton of milk. Shyatt got us into the NCAA tournament. He brought us two stars for a generation to identify with like Dembo, Leckner, Bradley, etc. did theirs. He brought defense back to the AA. He also left us five guys on suspension ( who knows how that’ll get resolved), a roster with more questions than answers, no playmakers, one scholarship, a five-year conference record 10 games below .500, an indifferent fan base, and re-defined the art of crafting the confidence-building, non-conference schedule which was the basis for much of his success.
Normally, his departure would have offered a prime chance (once again) to start over with somebody with more proven success, but Edwards’ quote at the top gives me a little hope. So...does Edwards get the customary seven-year grace period we afford other new coaches, or, since he had a hand in the current roster, should he get a grace period? If he wins six conference games next year with this roster like Shyatt did (with probably a better roster) in his first year, will Burman will be there again with an extension?
Of course, I’m not going to soap up Shyatt’s back like everyone else and call him one of the all-time UW greats. He got our head above water after Schroyer, but it’s sadly ironic that Schroyer’s Tennessee –Martin team had a better year this season than we did. Maybe we should do a home-and-home... After looking at his overall conference record, I’ll pair Shyatt with coaches like Greg Herenda, Bill Carmody and Dale Layer—whose teams also had miracle runs through a conference tournament and gave fans a reason to hope for more. Looking forward to see what Edwards can do….
God bless Allen Edwards. Somebody at UW forgot to take him aside and tell him that bold talk like that makes people nervous. He has some serious work ahead of him and I hope he brings a fresh perspective to recruiting.
Lots of talk here about coaches “leaving the cupboard empty” for the next guy. Shyatt didn’t do that, but he left us with a couple cans of kidney beans, a half-eaten box of graham crackers, and a half-empty carton of milk. Shyatt got us into the NCAA tournament. He brought us two stars for a generation to identify with like Dembo, Leckner, Bradley, etc. did theirs. He brought defense back to the AA. He also left us five guys on suspension ( who knows how that’ll get resolved), a roster with more questions than answers, no playmakers, one scholarship, a five-year conference record 10 games below .500, an indifferent fan base, and re-defined the art of crafting the confidence-building, non-conference schedule which was the basis for much of his success.
Normally, his departure would have offered a prime chance (once again) to start over with somebody with more proven success, but Edwards’ quote at the top gives me a little hope. So...does Edwards get the customary seven-year grace period we afford other new coaches, or, since he had a hand in the current roster, should he get a grace period? If he wins six conference games next year with this roster like Shyatt did (with probably a better roster) in his first year, will Burman will be there again with an extension?
Of course, I’m not going to soap up Shyatt’s back like everyone else and call him one of the all-time UW greats. He got our head above water after Schroyer, but it’s sadly ironic that Schroyer’s Tennessee –Martin team had a better year this season than we did. Maybe we should do a home-and-home... After looking at his overall conference record, I’ll pair Shyatt with coaches like Greg Herenda, Bill Carmody and Dale Layer—whose teams also had miracle runs through a conference tournament and gave fans a reason to hope for more. Looking forward to see what Edwards can do….
