All Quiet on the Football Front

After two days of departures from the Fresno State football team (Hagen, Norton) a less eventful day finally presented itself to Fresno State and it's football fans. However a story did arise that is quite interesting when you think about it. I feel that Pat Hill putting himself out there for the NFL hurt the Bulldogs and their team unity this past season. Hill had convinced many players to return to play their senior season only to turn around and show that he was interested in coaching somewhere else aside Fresno State. Two days ago it was reported by an Arizona newspaper that Pat Hill had shown interest in the coaching opening at Arizona State. Whether this is true or not does not matter because of what happened last season. Even if Pat Hill does not have any interest in coaching the Sun Devils (although he should, what a great job that would be) we as fans of the Bulldogs tend to believe the opposite of whatever Hill says. It seems that Hill has fed this team and city so much crap over the past few seasons that someone like me has a very hard time believing whether these rumors or true or not.

Because this newspaper has reported Hill as being interested he either needs to clear up the confusion right away by saying he has no interest in going anywhere or admit that he would not mind talking to other schools about opportunities. It is in a sense funny that Boeh would completely grant Hill the opportunity to speak with other schools if he feels the desire to do so. To me that says that Boeh is not worried about losing Hill as the coach, something I have to say I agree with at this time. Hill has been a great man to Fresno State for a long time now. Unfortunately I do not feel that he is operating in the same manner that he did when he first arrived. Hill was loved by all of Fresno for making us a big time program, one that could play with the BCS schools and beat them often. Today we do not view Hill as the same man but instead view him as a man who seems confused and lacks confidence in himself as the coach of the Bulldogs football team. He puts very little trust in his team assistants and seems to feel that he is the only one who can coach this team successfully. Last night Kelly Carr said Hill needs to hire an O.C. and let him run with the position. I completely agree with Carr. If Pat Hill were to show support for an O.C. and let him venture out with his own system fans may begin to believe that Pat Hill can change. However, the chances of Hill allowing an O.C. to run his own system are about as good as the odds that the Royals will win the World Series in 2007.

My question is do we want Pat Hill to be interested in coaching elsewhere? When fans complain about this Bulldog team are we complaining about the coaching aside Hill or is Hill the reason we complain? Do you fans think we need to replace Hagen, Brown, Simons, and so on? Or do you instead feel that if Hill is replaced and the rest of the coaches remain we will be fine? Let me know what you think, this should make for interesting responses.

Note - I was on the barkboard the other day reading some posts and I have to say ChrisDog's are quite funny. There may be times where they aren't 100% right on, but for the most part he is hilarious and really comes through with what he has to say. Thanks for the posts Chris, definitely fun to read.