Thoughts on the various coaching changes

PTW didn't know a Rodney Terry existed on the Texas coaching staff prior to his Fresno State hire (our fault, not his) but it's certainly hard to find any detraction on his résumé. It will be fascinating to see who he selects for his assistants since he has the Texas area and Canada (and probably others) well in hand just with his rolodex. Who is going to be the California contact on his staff?

Sad as it is to type this, a change was needed at Fresno State. The Bulldogs' level of recruiting must be upgraded in order to become competitive in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) and Terry seems like someone who can do just that. Plus with the status of the various state budgets, a coach via his product must put fannies in the seats and that requires winning at least 60% or so of the the matchups. It's absolutely true that Steve Cleveland had a young team this past season but moving forward with the status quo wasn't going to work from the W-L and paying customer standpoints.

Going back a year, it was also necessary for Greg Graham to depart and to get Leon Rice aboard. The latter had some solid seasons, including one magical year, but the Broncos needed a talent infusion with the MWC looming and that wasn't going to happen with GG. Neither was a spiraling attendance. But, like with Terry now, Rice must prove he can indeed bring in a higher level of potential recruit. The complete answer isn't back on that yet. 

Mike Williams will do better than Kerry Rupp did at Louisiana Tech in recruiting and that will hopefully translate into better W-L records for Bulldog supporters. Getting a core of talent in place minus the too many comings-and-goings of the Rupp era are jobs one and two for Williams.

Gib Arnold has certainly brought in better prospects than Bob Nash did at Hawaii. UH has a chance to be very successful in the Big West Conference when that switch takes place if Arnold stays hungry for talent and that translates into landing appropriate recruits.

It's also hard to type this but in losing Boise, Fresno, Nevada and Hawaii, WAC basketball is going backwards. The replacements are not at the same program level, are too geographically disparate and forseeing the development of any fierce rivalries not readily apparent.

So New Mexico State has to be the pre-season favorite, even if Troy Gillenwater decides to move on. This will be big just in the sense that Utah State 'seems' vulnerable for the first time in years. Brockeith Pane is a major asset but the absence of Tyler Newbold and Pooh Williams and especially minus Tai Wesley's presence inside leaves the Aggies in a can-the-replacements-step-up-enough mode.