In the other thread, it came up that Diondre Borel is remembered fondly for the 2010 BYU game alone, causing us to barely care or remember how the other games that year turned out. I thought this would be worth starting a new thread about rather than as a reply. Nearly all of us, when we are reminded of the year 2010, think of the monumental win over BYU which it was at the time.

So here is a memory test. WITHOUT looking it up, how many of you can recall from memory how the OTHER 11 games in 2010 turned out? Has the disappointment of us losing any of the games we did lose that year(most of them) as well as the happiness about the (few) other games we did win that year survived the test of time or did you barely care over the long term cause of the excitement that year about the win over BYU. Or for instance, were you at the time used to us losing the majority of our games and hoping for a one game fluke against BYU, which we did get.

I remember this year fondly, my first at USU.

Loss at OU, we put up a fight after going down big early.
FCS win, I think Idaho State.
BYU win. My Aggiedom was locked down that day.
Fresno loss, didn’t feel competitive
Narrow win against NMSU.
Hawaii killed us at home in the snow.
Idaho womped us at home
Boise State game was never competitive
We lost at LaTech
Nevada against Kaepernick. We had a really good second half but it didn’t matter
I can’t remember the other ones

USU78 wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 10:40 pm

4-8 record, but the Ags were highly competitive, unlike the prior years. Remember how we were just awful in the WAC?

2009 is the year I remember for a 4-8 record, but being highly competitive, and being happy with that compared to prior years.

2010 was when we also had a 4-8 record, and we actually had more games in 2010 than in 2009 that you could say we were uncompetitive in. We were just able to forget some of the bad games we had in 2010 cause of one of the 4 that year being against BYU.

I believe 2010 was the year Diondre didn’t have a QB coach wasn’t it? That was a bad move.

YoungBloodAggie wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 11:13 pm

I remember this year fondly, my first at USU.

Loss at OU, we put up a fight after going down big early.
FCS win, I think Idaho State.
BYU win. My Aggiedom was locked down that day.
Fresno loss, didn’t feel competitive
Narrow win against NMSU.
Hawaii killed us at home in the snow.
Idaho womped us at home
Boise State game was never competitive
We lost at LaTech
Nevada against Kaepernick. We had a really good second half but it didn’t matter
I can’t remember the other ones

I'll give a hint as the other 2. There was one more bad road loss where we weren't competitive. It was to a team we have SINCE then developed some animosity for, mostly over a different sport, but the animosity hadn't yet been developed. And this loss could have also been used to create a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" trifecta that year.

The other was a road win that involved the game clinching play being made by someone who, in his time year, would be known by some fans as regularly committing a certain penalty.

GameFAQSAggie wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 11:16 pm

USU78 wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 10:40 pm

4-8 record, but the Ags were highly competitive, unlike the prior years. Remember how we were just awful in the WAC?

2009 is the year I remember for a 4-8 record, but being highly competitive, and being happy with that compared to prior years.

2010 was when we also had a 4-8 record, and we actually had more games in 2010 than in 2009 that you could say we were uncompetitive in. We were just able to forget some of the bad games we had in 2010 cause of one of the 4 that year being against BYU.

Yeah 2010 we weren't very competitive for the most part. We beat ybu and played Oklahoma competitively, but outside of that it was a pretty bad year. Injuries were a major reason. Not having Turbin and Stanley Morrison for the season hit the team hard.

Aggie formerly in Hawaii wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 10:36 am

GameFAQSAggie wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 11:16 pm

USU78 wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 10:40 pm

4-8 record, but the Ags were highly competitive, unlike the prior years. Remember how we were just awful in the WAC?

2009 is the year I remember for a 4-8 record, but being highly competitive, and being happy with that compared to prior years.

2010 was when we also had a 4-8 record, and we actually had more games in 2010 than in 2009 that you could say we were uncompetitive in. We were just able to forget some of the bad games we had in 2010 cause of one of the 4 that year being against BYU.

Yeah 2010 we weren't very competitive for the most part. We beat ybu and played Oklahoma competitively, but outside of that it was a pretty bad year. Injuries were a major reason. Not having Turbin and Stanley Morrison for the season hit the team hard.

Wasn’t Michael Smith also injured? Speight was the starter for most of the year. I think Kerwynn and Joey D played a bit. Even Robert Marshall was getting carries.

That’s four NFL backs. Thats pretty crazy.

Hoot wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 11:19 am

Aggie formerly in Hawaii wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 10:36 am

GameFAQSAggie wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 11:16 pm

USU78 wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 10:40 pm

4-8 record, but the Ags were highly competitive, unlike the prior years. Remember how we were just awful in the WAC?

2009 is the year I remember for a 4-8 record, but being highly competitive, and being happy with that compared to prior years.

2010 was when we also had a 4-8 record, and we actually had more games in 2010 than in 2009 that you could say we were uncompetitive in. We were just able to forget some of the bad games we had in 2010 cause of one of the 4 that year being against BYU.

Yeah 2010 we weren't very competitive for the most part. We beat ybu and played Oklahoma competitively, but outside of that it was a pretty bad year. Injuries were a major reason. Not having Turbin and Stanley Morrison for the season hit the team hard.

Wasn’t Michael Smith also injured? Speight was the starter for most of the year. I think Kerwynn and Joey D played a bit. Even Robert Marshall was getting carries.

That’s four NFL backs. Thats pretty crazy.

Yep Smith missed most of the season too. Rough year for injuries and delayed the rebuild by a season. Our 2011 season happens in 2010 if healthy and we probably are less likely to blow all the close games in 2011 and have a 2012 type season in 2011.

I remember after the byu win thinking this would be the year we finally break the bowl drought, and then we basically laid an egg the rest of the season. My old high school line coach was the Aggie line coach that year but was dismissed after the season.

Aggie formerly in Hawaii wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 11:37 am

Yep Smith missed most of the season too. Rough year for injuries and delayed the rebuild by a season. Our 2011 season happens in 2010 if healthy and we probably are less likely to blow all the close games in 2011 and have a 2012 type season in 2011.

It's interesting to think what would have happened if 2011, rather than 2012, was the year that was good enough for Gary to get a bigger offer. Kind of like the alternate universe of Stew taking the Utah job in 2004 like we feared would have altered the paths of several programs besides ours, 2011 being good enough for Gary to get a bigger offer would have altered the path of our program AND others.

Maybe we would have been delusional enough to think that cause of Baldwin being part of a 2012 type year in 2011, we needed to give him the head coach job. And Matt Wells would have left and the timing of him becoming our head coach wouldn't have worked out with us having an opening.

Or maybe we would have hired Kalani Sitake as our coach in 2012(without the one year of Wells being the OC on his resume) and he is our coach until BYU opens up in 2015. Then Wells takes over in 2016 and by 2018, Texas Tech isn't impressed enough to hire him and that doesn't happen until after the 2019 or 2020 season. It's also possible that by the time Sitake is gone to BYU, Wells is making more as OC at a bigger school than we pay our head coach and we hire someone else. As well as a possibility that if Sitake got our head coach position in 2012 that he would have been able to parlay success here into a job at a school bigger than BYU.

Jim Laub, no matter what, would have still down the road had delusions of Gary being the same person he was in 2009 and demanded he was brought back when we had an opening and he was available, but maybe Gary would have done well enough at Arizona if he got that job after the 2011 season to not be available

GameFAQSAggie wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 12:07 pm

Aggie formerly in Hawaii wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 11:37 am

Yep Smith missed most of the season too. Rough year for injuries and delayed the rebuild by a season. Our 2011 season happens in 2010 if healthy and we probably are less likely to blow all the close games in 2011 and have a 2012 type season in 2011.

It's interesting to think what would have happened if 2011, rather than 2012, was the year that was good enough for Gary to get a bigger offer. Kind of like the alternate universe of Stew taking the Utah job in 2004 like we feared would have altered the paths of several programs besides ours, 2011 being good enough for Gary to get a bigger offer would have altered the path of our program AND others.

Maybe we would have been delusional enough to think that cause of Baldwin being part of a 2012 type year in 2011, we needed to give him the head coach job. And Matt Wells would have left and the timing of him becoming our head coach wouldn't have worked out with us having an opening.

Or maybe we would have hired Kalani Sitake as our coach in 2012(without the one year of Wells being the OC on his resume) and he is our coach until BYU opens up in 2015. Then Wells takes over in 2016 and by 2018, Texas Tech isn't impressed enough to hire him and that doesn't happen until after the 2019 or 2020 season. It's also possible that by the time Sitake is gone to BYU, Wells is making more as OC at a bigger school than we pay our head coach and we hire someone else. As well as a possibility that if Sitake got our head coach position in 2012 that he would have been able to parlay success here into a job at a school bigger than BYU.

Jim Laub, no matter what, would have still down the road had delusions of Gary being the same person he was in 2009 and demanded he was brought back when we had an opening and he was available, but maybe Gary would have done well enough at Arizona if he got that job after the 2011 season to not be available

If 2012 happens in 2011 do we ever get Dave Aranda?

Hoot wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 12:20 pm

GameFAQSAggie wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 12:07 pm

Aggie formerly in Hawaii wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 11:37 am

Yep Smith missed most of the season too. Rough year for injuries and delayed the rebuild by a season. Our 2011 season happens in 2010 if healthy and we probably are less likely to blow all the close games in 2011 and have a 2012 type season in 2011.

It's interesting to think what would have happened if 2011, rather than 2012, was the year that was good enough for Gary to get a bigger offer. Kind of like the alternate universe of Stew taking the Utah job in 2004 like we feared would have altered the paths of several programs besides ours, 2011 being good enough for Gary to get a bigger offer would have altered the path of our program AND others.

Maybe we would have been delusional enough to think that cause of Baldwin being part of a 2012 type year in 2011, we needed to give him the head coach job. And Matt Wells would have left and the timing of him becoming our head coach wouldn't have worked out with us having an opening.

Or maybe we would have hired Kalani Sitake as our coach in 2012(without the one year of Wells being the OC on his resume) and he is our coach until BYU opens up in 2015. Then Wells takes over in 2016 and by 2018, Texas Tech isn't impressed enough to hire him and that doesn't happen until after the 2019 or 2020 season. It's also possible that by the time Sitake is gone to BYU, Wells is making more as OC at a bigger school than we pay our head coach and we hire someone else. As well as a possibility that if Sitake got our head coach position in 2012 that he would have been able to parlay success here into a job at a school bigger than BYU.

Jim Laub, no matter what, would have still down the road had delusions of Gary being the same person he was in 2009 and demanded he was brought back when we had an opening and he was available, but maybe Gary would have done well enough at Arizona if he got that job after the 2011 season to not be available

If 2012 happens in 2011 do we ever get Dave Aranda?

There was a linebacker coach at Middle Tennessee State that we would have made a push for.

Hoot wrote: ↑

April 13th, 2024, 12:20 pm

If 2012 happens in 2011 do we ever get Dave Aranda?

It would have depended on if the coach we hired wanted him. One thing easily forgotten was that his stock was pretty low when we hired him, as he was fresh off Hawaii's defense not being good while he was their DC, including blowing it against us in our infamous turnaround game, and having Norm Chow decide not to retain him. If we had went the route of an FCS coach, or were able to surprisingly get a coach to move laterally here ala Blake, he probably would have brought along whoever he had at DC. If we had hired Kalani Sitake, he probably would have hired one of his many friends he had coached with at Utah or Southern Utah over the years. Other coordinators from other schools if we got them would have likely hired one of their friends instead of Aranda. There's always a chance a new coach in 2012 would have still made a decision to hire Aranda but it would have been unlikely. And likely, Aranda goes to another school to prove Hawaii wrong, before parlaying the job there into first a bigger DC job then a head job.

Even in the universe of Gary still being our coach after 2011, Norm Chow making a decision to retain Dave Aranda would have made a difference altering the paths of several other programs. Maybe Aranda would have been able to mask Norm Chow's shortcomings as a head coach, and Norm Chow would have lasted longer, at least until after Aranda left Hawaii by his choice. Or maybe Aranda would have been scapegoated and fired, had to move down a level or to any low G5 that would take him, and take awhile to move up the latter to P5 DC and then P5 head coach. This domino effect for instance would have maybe caused him to be at a school other than LSU in 2019.

Aranda is also one coach that is glad that he opted to stay in Wisconsin instead of following Gary to Oregon State. The coaches that went with Gary from Wisconsin to Oregon State probably all wish they wouldn't cause they would be in more prestigious jobs if they stayed at Wisconsin.

aggies22 wrote: ↑

April 15th, 2024, 6:15 am

cdaAg wrote: ↑

April 14th, 2024, 8:57 am

I believe we got demolished at SDSU that season, lost at LA Tech after the y game, and I remember a really cold and wet Hawaii game at home in which we were close in the first half and got destroyed the rest of the way. That was one of the colder ones I've attended.

The cold games always seem colder when you're getting your a$$ kicked.

The 2023 potato bowl is an example of this.