Biggest Marquette "what if"s

[WarriorDad]

Vanderbilt's all time SEC winning percentage is .242.  The only team under .300.  In fact, as far as I can tell, that is the worst conference record of any team in a current P5 conference outside of those who switched in the last ten or so years.  (Like Rutgers.)

Vanderbilt as an awful football team considering where they are playing.

Why does this matter?  Not every team can compete for a national title each year. Or even middle of the pack, but they can still represent the school well. I recall Duke football being atrocious for so long, but they landed a few good coaches and are respectable. 

Duke, Northwestern, Kansas State, Cal, Syracuse, Colorado so many others have had seasons even decades that were forgettable and yet survived and have had moments of very high caliber football.  Even lowly Kansas finished in the top 5 (I think) about a decade ago.   

[GGGG]

Why does this matter?

What matters is you tried to pump them up by saying things like "Vanderbilt is not awful, they aren't great either...they have an all-time record of 600-613, practically .500."

No.  They are historically awful for a P5 program.

Look, I agree with you that if they want to have an awful football program, that's fine.  But don't say they aren't awful.  They are awful.

[Lennys Tap]

What matters is you tried to pump them up by saying things like "Vanderbilt is not awful, they aren't great either...they have an all-time record of 600-613, practically .500."

No.  They are historically awful for a P5 program.

Look, I agree with you that if they want to have an awful football program, that's fine.  But don't say they aren't awful.  They are awful.

+1. There are games, seasons, maybe even brief "eras" when they're not awful. But overall, they're a poster child for P5 awful. Chico is just arguing to be arguing. Nothing new there.

[dgies9156]

On the plus side, when you are done playing for those crappy teams, you leave with a degree from Vanderbilt.

And a Vanderbilt attitude, which mitigates all of the good education from Vanderbilt.

[warriorchick]

And a Vanderbilt attitude, which mitigates all of the good education from Vanderbilt.

That part is a choice.  None of my friends who graduated from Vandy have it.

[real chili 83]

 Believe it or not, I know one or two domer grads that are sufferable....some of the time

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Believe it or not, I know one or two domer grads that are sufferable....some of the time

Who hacked RC's account?

[MomofMUltiples]

[WarriorDad]

What matters is you tried to pump them up by saying things like "Vanderbilt is not awful, they aren't great either...they have an all-time record of 600-613, practically .500."

No.  They are historically awful for a P5 program.

Look, I agree with you that if they want to have an awful football program, that's fine.  But don't say they aren't awful.  They are awful.

I struggle to label a program that is nearly .500 and has five bowl games the last nine years as awful.  Or over 100 NFL players in their history. 

Awful is Kansas, they have zero bowl games the last 20 years.  A few years back there was a report of the 25 worst programs (aka awful) in college football history.  Vanderbilt didn't sniff that list.  Northwester and Indiana did.  Memphis did.  UNLV. 

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

I struggle to label a program that is nearly .500 and has five bowl games the last nine years as awful.  Or over 100 NFL players in their history. 

Awful is Kansas, they have zero bowl games the last 20 years.  A few years back there was a report of the 25 worst programs (aka awful) in college football history.  Vanderbilt didn't sniff that list.  Northwester and Indiana did.  Memphis did.  UNLV.

You sure seem to know a lot about Kansas and Indiana football.

[real chili 83]

ND sucks

[4everwarriors]

Crean sucks

[Herman Cain]

Crean sucks

Do you think Crean will recruit Zaire?

[4everwarriors]

Y knot, hey?

[WarriorDad]

You sure seem to know a lot about Kansas and Indiana football.

Not really, other than Charlie Weiss was at one of them and did terribly. Pulled up an article of the worst college programs in the nation, top 25 worst, and they both made it along with the other schools I mentioned.  Vanderbilt did not make it.

[WarriorDad]

Marquette documentary of George Andrie, who passed away this week. Never saw this or knew it was created until yesterday when Marquette fans were talking about it on social media. Narrated by Linda Cohn from ESPN.  Very well done, some wonderful history of MU, why the school dropped football, a love story between Andrie and his future wife.  Well worth the 20 minutes.



https://www.youtube.com/v/MtuZt5Oqdng




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtuZt5Oqdng

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

My two cents on the original topic since I didn't see it mentioned.

What if Otule didn't tear his ACL in 2011-12. Don't think they beat Kentucky that year but if MU coulda played a lick of interior defense that year, that's a Final 4 team.

Other one, what if Odartey Blankston didn't transfer? OB instead of Townsend in the starting lineup?

[Billy Hoyle]

My two cents on the original topic since I didn't see it mentioned.

Other one, what if Odartey Blankston didn't transfer? OB instead of Townsend in the starting lineup?

Is this supposed to be a what if that would have resulted in better or worse results?  We made the Final Four with Todd in the starting line up.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Marquette documentary of George Andrie, who passed away this week. Never saw this or knew it was created until yesterday when Marquette fans were talking about it on social media. Narrated by Linda Cohn from ESPN.  Very well done, some wonderful history of MU, why the school dropped football, a love story between Andrie and his future wife.  Well worth the 20 minutes.



https://www.youtube.com/v/MtuZt5Oqdng




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtuZt5Oqdng

Lemme guess you knew him?  Worked with him or backyard beers?

[Galway Eagle]

My two cents on the original topic since I didn't see it mentioned.

What if Otule didn't tear his ACL in 2011-12. Don't think they beat Kentucky that year but if MU coulda played a lick of interior defense that year, that's a Final 4 team.

Other one, what if Odartey Blankston didn't transfer? OB instead of Townsend in the starting lineup?

I don't trust that we beat Louisville in the Elite 8 after that. They spanked us in the BE tournament and it had nothing to do with interior D. I do agree we beat Florida if Otule isn't injured though

[Lennys Tap]

Lemme guess you knew him?  Worked with him or backyard beers?

Chico is a whole bunch younger than George, but he was a big Cowboy fan so he might have rooted for him as a little kid.

[dgies9156]

Thanks for posting the George Andre retrospective. I remember him as a hated Dallas Cowboy but my family had a great deal of pride in him as the last Warrior. It was nice to see him play even into the early 1970s.

As to the core topic, "what if" and football, there's a few final thoughts I'd like to make that are worthy of consideration:

1) The only successful private school Division 1 football team is Notre Dame. And they've had some very un-Notre Dame like seasons in the past 40 years or so. It's been quite awhile since they won a national championship and there's a long way from their next.

2) not everybody is going to win a natchamp in football., But wanting to win and building toward that goal is critical. Marquette had no hope of competing with the Power 5. not then. Not now.

3) Keep in mind when the decision was made. It was 1960 and even amateur demographrers could see what was coming. In but four years, the front end of the biggest population explosion this country had ever seen to that point was headed for college. By the late 1970s, the country would be educating 80 million people. Now look at Marquette's campus in 1960. It was extremely ill-equipped for the burden that was coming. As a consequence, the university built the Wehr science buildings, the language center, moved St. Joan of Arc Chapel, added on to the library and Engineering School, reconstructed Johnston Hall for the J-School, closed streets and created a campus. Every dime counted in those days and football, with its enormous costs and need for new facilities would have been, at a minimum, a huge distraction and possibly very detrimental to the university's goals at the time.

4) We got very lucky on basketball. When Al was retained to save the basketball program, it is doubtful anyone thought we were going to experience what was coming. Could we have caught lightening in a bottle twice with our football team? Never say never, but with decaying facilities and conflicting financial goals, it would have been really tough to hire and retain the best and brightest for MU football. Lou Holtz or Nick Saban to Marquette in those days? Yeah, right.

[WarriorDad]

Lemme guess you knew him?  Worked with him or backyard beers?

Huh?   https://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=56312.msg1023447#msg1023447


I already said he was older than me, never saw him play, why I have met him or known him?  Worked with him?

[GGGG]

Thanks for posting the George Andre retrospective. I remember him as a hated Dallas Cowboy but my family had a great deal of pride in him as the last Warrior. It was nice to see him play even into the early 1970s.

As to the core topic, "what if" and football, there's a few final thoughts I'd like to make that are worthy of consideration:

1) The only successful private school Division 1 football team is Notre Dame. And they've had some very un-Notre Dame like seasons in the past 40 years or so. It's been quite awhile since they won a national championship and there's a long way from their next.

USC has been plenty successful.

And there have been a number of private schools who have seen success on and off.  Stanford, Boston College, TCU, etc.

But you are correct that Marquette was right to drop football.

[WarriorDad]

Chico is a whole bunch younger than George, but he was a big Cowboy fan so he might have rooted for him as a little kid.

If you are implying I am a Cowgirls fan you could not be more incorrect.  My NFL passion is mediocre and was raised in a house early on with Chicago Cardinal fans.  I have mild interest in them (AZ Cardinals) and the Bears, but mild is as good as excited as it .   My dad had an allegiance to a degree with the Steelers, too, because they merged with the Cards during the war due to player shortages.