Sorry Greg Rachac, It’s Time For MSU Coach Rob Ash To Go
As a Cat fan that held on to the hope of a playoff birth, watching the loss to North Dakota was brutal. It was the same thing as weeks previous but you just tried to talk yourself into idea that the defense would figure it out and the Cats would have this revelation and start playing at the level we had them pegged at in the pre-season. I try not to be an arm chair quarterback and point fingers and go crazy calling for people’s heads but the last three years have started with so much excitement and hope but have ended with Cat fans wondering what happened.
Greg Rachac is the “embedded” reporter for the Billings Gazette with the Bobcats. His article from earlier this week defends Ash and says we need to give him some time. I don’t know that we owe it to him. Rachac’s comments are in bold, and my thoughts are directly underneath.
“As this strange season continues, some on public forums and social media have gone so far as to call for Ash’s ouster.”
I don’t think it’s THAT crazy to call for a change at Head Coach. The Cats have one of the most passionate fan bases in the country and we’re 4-4 and will miss the playoffs with an All-American QB. For the last two years our defense has been literally nauseating.
“Still, firing the winningest coach in program history over one bad season seems pretty knee-jerk. Ash has won at a .657 clip in his nine seasons at MSU, including a .700 winning percentage in Big Sky Conference games.”
Ash started out his tenure on fire. We mentioned this in a past Mint Super Fans article, but his last three seasons have been so mediocre that it’s tough to call this “one bad season.” Ash is 69-36 since taking over the Cats but 19-14 overall and 13-8 in conference games since 2013. Also, against the best in the conference, he’s not that great: 4-12 against Montana and Eastern Washington combined. This isn’t knee-jerk.
“He has turned the Bobcats into a contender.”
The Cats hadn’t been to the FCS playoffs since 1984 when Kramer got them there in 2002. If getting to the playoffs is Rachac’s definition of contender then Kramer turned the Cats into a contender too! It wasn’t just Kramer’s coaching that got him ousted – it was his lack of control on what his recruits were doing once they got to Bozeman. Also, has Ash REALLY turned the Bobcats into contenders that they weren’t under Kramer? Look at his playoff record:
2007: No playoffs
2008: No playoffs
2009: No playoffs
2010: 25 point loss to NDSU
2011: 1 point win over New Hampshire and 36 point loss to Sam Houston State
2012: 6 point win over Stony Brook and 18 point loss to Sam Houston State
2013: No playoffs
2014: 7 point loss to South Dakota
2015: No playoffs
Yep, that’s a 2-4 record with their average margin of defeat being 21.5 points. Kramer was 1-3 in the playoffs and coached 2 less years than Ash who has a 2-4 mark in the postseason with double the all-Bobcat QBs than Kramer had (Lulay vs McGhee/Prukop). I’ll be the first to admit I wanted Kramer out – the program’s legal issues were embarrassing, but to me Ash inherited a program on the upswing and did well continuing what Kramer started. Oh, by the way, Kramer won the same number of Big Sky championships that as Ash.
“I can remember MSU fans being outraged when Fields dismissed Mike Kramer in the spring of 2007.”
Of course you’ll remember people being outraged – has there ever been a unanimous coaching termination among fans when the guy gets you to the playoffs during his tenure? I was on the side of getting Kramer out of Bozeman but I understood where some of the Keep Kramer Camp came from. A coaching termination will never be unanimous. If they get rid of Ash there will be people on both sides of the fence. What a throw away line in the article.
“Ash cleaned things up while maintaining a zero-tolerance policy for off-the-field misconduct.”
Have to hand it to Ash here. We have a very clean program, excel in the class room, and a have a non-nonsense way of doing things with our program now. We needed this. Now we need to win and keep our program where it’s at ethically.
This article was written by Hot Take Nate, a regular contributor to the Montana Mint Superfan article.
About the Author
Hot Take Nate Hot Take Nate now resides in Northern California but still calls Montana his home. It'll always be home.
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