2020 has been a rough year. Woke up this morning to go through the motions and found myself more tired than I've ever been. Not physically, but tired of the status quo. Got to thinking of the things that have always been consistent. The things to bring joy, optimism and a sense of excitement in life. There's only a few of these things: Family, Cowboys Football/Basketball, and chasing deer and elk around the hills. With this being said, for the better part of the last 7 or 8 years, I've only had 2/3rds of these things and some years the hunting has been marginal.
Here lately, for obvious reasons, my Wyoming Athletics fatigue has hit an all time high. Above is a quote from 2015. FIVE years ago. If you would have asked me then, although pissed at losing to the Zoomies the day prior, I would have said in 5 years we would be comfortably at the top of the conference sweating bullets the "big schools" would be coming for our coaching staff in football. After all, since the departure of TCU, Utah and BYU we had become the WAC 2.0. How hard could it be to compete in this new watered down conference. Apparently that's where I went wrong. Forgot all the variables that are evidently important to the Wyoming base such as "if the boys play hard, win lose or draw, I'll be proud of this team" or "as long as we beat the sheep and occasionally make a bowl, I'm all in." I wish I could think that way, just not in the DNA I suppose. Why are a large part of the base so quick to settle? See it all over social media. For years I've been walking on eggshells, muted, not wanting to ruffle the feathers of an apathetic fan base that considers "good enough" good enough. Been very quiet on this board the last several years so as not to sit in the corner with all the other doom and gloomers dunce hat and all. Good enough is NOT good enough.
Championships, or at least being in the hunt for championships, is the only metric that matters. This should be the expectation, not the cherry on top. The revolving door of coaches in my lifetime has been astounding. I remember years ago calling Billy Cockhills A-gap catastrophes before they even happened. Remember constantly wondering if we would ever have a quarterback that could proficiently toss the ball more than 15 times a game on the occasional bubble screen. Remember a lot of the same wailing and gnashing of teeth on the quarterbacks and playcalling. Deja vu to say the least. Guess what happened that would likely happen again today?? Say we part ways with Vigen. Say we hire another guy nobody has ever heard of from some obscure FCS connection. Does anyone think there will be a substantive change? Sadly I think not. I've seen the words jump of the page a thousand times. "We are who we are."
Sorry for the long meandering rant, but the thought came to mind of cancelling the subscription here. Sadly for you guys, I'm too stubborn to go away. I'll stick around like a bad habit. May lurk more than post, but just know that I love the Cowboys enough that I don't want to settle. Settle for less than the championships that teams are remembered by. We deserve it. We're due. I may come off as a doomer or gloomer, but that's a biproduct of not wanting to settle. Good enough isn't good enough and what we're seeing now damn sure ain't good enough. Just have to keep the pressure on and hold the athletic department accountable. Keep the emails and phone calls going. Best thing we can do is give voice to the thoughts we're all having.
Have a good day ladies and gents! (Feel better already)
GO POKES!!
