FROM THE OFFICE OF ORANGE JACKET GUY: FALLOUT

 

1. Contrary to what our humble Coach Pete might tell us, not one part of the UW game's failures were his fault; that is my opinion and there is no convincing me otherwise.

2. There are, however, a lot of other places to point fingers and assign righteous blame, and I will name SOME of those shortly.

3. The failure in Montlake is not a reason for any self-respecting fan to give any less enthusiasm to our beloved Broncos, and I will go as far as to say that if you think it is, you were never a real fan in the first place.

4. One of the places to blame in fact has a name: Joe Southwick.

5. I, along with other true members of Bronco Nation, will stick with our team, and will do so forever.

 

Now with the conversation going back and forth about the failure at Montlake, it's pretty clear what happened: screw-ups and a lot of them. Let's be honest about that. When we live so hard for the offseason to be over and then have the long wait end like this, someone has to man-up and take the hit. There was NO good reason for this failure. While it's good that nobody's making excuses for anyone else, I must reiterate that blaming Coach Pete for any of this is not only incorrect, but it's like I wrote almost a year-and-a-half ago: "I hear that most of you are doubting both BSU's future in football and Coach Pete's future. This is not only sad, but just plain wrong." (OrangeJacketGuy 2012-05-23) Coach Pete no doubt saw a bad situation coming and did what he could. He even goes as far as to try to stand up for those around him because he is a stand-up guy. He is absolved from any wrongdoing. Nobody should fault him for standing up for his own but there are more things to blame than he would have us.

 

One thing we can definitely place blame on is Robert Prince's stupid and unfounded attitude about the whole thing: ""We are 100 percent confident that this will work." Well, it didn't really work. The same 6 or 7 vanilla plays will not make a game. It doesn't even make a convincing Ice Cream Truck selection.  Disregarding tried and true methods on the D-line makes no sense either and it showed well before the game got worse in the second half. Not only does this team bear no resemblance to the successes of recent years, but apparently has even set itself aside from last year's failures. At least back then we could count on the D-line to make an interception or bring the bacon home to the South Endzone. Is it the helm or the ship that has gone wayward?

 

Now, as these things have come to pass, it feels more like the 90's. No less reason to be a fan but absolutely NO expectation that a game will go well anymore. I only hope this time around that we will have better-behaved rivals and no reason to totally doubt a conference's ability to keep itself together. It even feels like the eerie Cylon saying that "All this has happened before, and will happen again."

 

Now the next part I have spoken and written about before and with a certain amount of detail as well. Joe Southwick may have earned his way out of his former nickname, but has since regressed into previous habits and demonstrated a clear lack of respect for the game. I praised all that was good and decent when I heard he got rid of that ridiculous mustache as well. However, the creepy pedostache is back, and not only is his lack of poise present again, but is now clearly worse. We all gave him enough room to improve and he nearly spat in our faces when he did not take that opportunity. I have been harshly condemned for my justified attitude towards Joe before, for reasons including that "he spent most of his youth working to be where he is" and it's "poor form". If these things are true enough that he respects the game enough to be a good QB on the team, then maybe he should act like it. He KNOWS how to do a good job; it has become increasingly clear that he chooses not to. Haters only have power when they speak the truth. I challenge the owner of the pedostache to prove me wrong.

 

I'm hoping that this year is more of an Episode V than an Episode III. As fans, we do not want to have to wait decades for things to get better again. We already know, however, it's going to take at least another year. At least if the 90's do come back, it'll be retro. Our time as Broncos will never end, and we will keep going to games and watch them on TV, sport the colors and the name, and do all the other things that good Broncos do until way past the end of time.

 

Until next time, Bronco Nation: In Pete We Trust