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junker-town · 3 years

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Western Illinois, Year 40, 2046-2047

The final season of our sim dynasty with Western Illinois in College Hoops 2K8 is here.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April 2020 for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies. Dynasty mode runs for 40 years.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 40, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

Western Illinois entered Year 39 trying to three-peat as national champions for the first time in program history. We lost two starters early to the NBA coming into the season, but still had enough talent to be ranked No. 10 overall in the preseason polls.

We ran through the regular season schedule, losing only one game to UCLA during the non-conference season and sweeping Summit League opponents once again. We entered the NCAA tournament at 29-1 on the year and earned a No. 4 seed to the big dance.

We beat Brown in round one, knocked off Georgia Tech in the round of 32, beat Indiana in the Sweet 16, and lost to Florida in the Elite Eight. We know enter the final season of my career tied with John Wooden with 10 national championships.

We added three players in our last ever recruiting class: five-star JUCO SF Jerald Obasohan, four-star SG Erwin Walls, and four-star PF Kenny Butler.

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 40:

It feels like only yesterday that a fresh-faced, 25-year-old came to the small town of Macomb, Illinois with big dreams. Coach Rick was hired by Western Illinois to do the impossible: win a national championship with arguably the worst team in college basketball. After 39 seasons at the helm, our tiny program has accomplished that and so much more. Now it’s time to hang it up.

Our journey at Western Illinois is finally coming to an end. In literal terms, College Hoops 2K8 forces mandatory retirement upon coaches in dynasty mode after 40 seasons. All good stories need closure either way. As we start our final season, we have some big stakes attached to our swan song.

Western Illinois has won 10 national championships in the Ricky Charisma era. That ties us with UCLA legend John Wooden for the most in history. What started as a mission to win a single national championship has now left us with a different goal: to become the undisputed greatest program in the history of the sport.

While we failed in our bid to three-peat last season — falling to Florida in the Elite Eight — we did bring back all four breakout juniors for this season. We only lost starting center DJ Foster to graduation. Yeah, it’s been a while since we last published Year 39 (thanks for your patience), so let’s go over the roster:

PG Christano Ngounou, junior, 89 overall: Ngounou made major strides after being forced into the starting lineup last season, and now looks like a rock solid contributor going into our final year. An international recruit out of Cameroon, Ngounou is a fast 6’3 guard with lockdown defensive ability and a slightly above average three-point shot. We have bigger names on this squad who will be expected to carry the scoring load, but Ngounou is going to play a huge role because he’s way better than every other point guard on the roster. We need quality minutes from him in the tournament. Former five-star international recruit with B potential.

SG Bernie Doyle, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Doyle is an incredible talent who enters his senior year looking to fully blossom into a superstar. The 6’9 shooting guard uses his immense size on both ends of the floor. He’s elite at getting into the passing lanes and forcing steals (a team-high 1.8 per game as a junior) on the defensive end, and has a sweet three-point stroke offensively. Doyle is such a smooth scorer and dominant defender that it feels like he has the natural talent to develop into an all-great in his senior year. Let’s hope he’s up to the challenge. Former No. 36 overall recruit from Detroit with C potential. Projected lottery pick.

SF Floyd Keller, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Keller checks every box for a small forward. He has good size at 6’7. He has a three-point rating in the mid-80s. He’s the best dunker on the team. He’s an elite offensive rebounder for a wing with a rating in the low 90s, which helps equip him to play minutes at the four. After a tough shooting night in our Elite Eight loss last season — he went 1-for-7 from three — we’ll need Keller to be consistently great if we want one more run through the bracket. Former No. 101 overall recruit out of Dallas with C+ potential. Projected second round pick.

PF Oscar Fray, redshirt senior, 88 overall: Fray enters his third year as a starter with a fascinating combination of size and skill that could set him up for a breakout senior year. The 7-foot power forward is a great three-point shooter for his position with a rating just below 80. Defensively, he’s the top-rated shot blocker on the team, and also does a pretty good job on the glass. Former No. 118 overall recruit out of Lynn, MA with C potential. Projected second round pick.

C Brody Munoz, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Munoz finally gets the spotlight as a senior after backing up DJ Foster — a one-time NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player — for his entire career up to this point. We’re expected big things, and not just because he’s tied for the highest rated player on the roster going into the regular season. What Munoz lacks in elite size at 6’11 he can make up for with strength, agility, and rebounding. We expect him to be really good at forcing turnovers, grabbing putbacks, and helping fortify the paint. Former No. 169 overall recruit (No. 6 center) out of Nashville with B potential. Projected lottery pick.

We have an incredibly deep bench for our final season. Center Logan Polk (85 overall) will be our sixth man, and should be able to form a three-man front court rotation with the two starters in the tournament. After that, we have a lot of options but not a lot of good options.

Here’s the rest of the bench: wing Jaycee Queen (80 overall), wing Jerald Obasohan (79 overall), guard Archie Howell (78 overall), wing/guard James Haranga (74 overall), guard Edwin Walls (74 overall), and power forward Kenny Butler (74 overall).

This is really it. Year 40. The last dance. What a ride it has been. We start the season at No. 4 in the polls.

How did the regular season go?

For our final regular season, we tried to schedule a good mix of local schools and historic big conference rivals with a couple in-season tournaments thrown in for good measure.

Here’s how the regular season went:

Win over Bradley

Win over Nebraska

Win over UTEP

Loss to Southern Illinois

Win over Florida

Loss to Northwestern

Win over New Mexico

Win over DePaul

That sets up a rivalry game against Illinois. We’ve played the Illini in almost every season, and we don’t want to end this dynasty without one more dub. The losses to Southern Illinois and Northwestern were a real bummer, and we need a palate cleanser. Let’s go!

Big win, 102-68. Look at Cristano Ngounou hanging 17 points and six assists on the Illini. Love seeing both starters in the front court — seniors Oscar Fray (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Brody Munoz (18 points, 11 rebounds) — each dropping a double-double, too. And how about our new five-star JUCO addition Obasohan chipping in 12 points off the bench? Really promising performance from the boys.

We get a big win over Kansas in our next game. That sets up another marquee game with a program we don’t like very much out of the state of North Carolina: Duke. We’ve battling with Duke on the court and on the recruiting trail for 40 freaking years. Can we end this rivalry with a dub?

Ugh, loss, 88-83. Nice games from Bernie Doyle (19 points, four assists) and Oscar Fray (14 points, 12 rebounds), but it isn’t enough. That’s our third loss of the season. Get bent, Duke.

We end the year with three more non-conference games.

Win over Illinois-Chicago

Win over American

Win over Arizona State

While we may have lost the final battle to Duke, I won the war over Coach K with a significantly better career by any measure (more on that in a minute). Now it’s time to jump into conference play in the Summit League.

Did we go undefeated in conference season?

Yes we did, another perfect 18-0 stretch.

Now we enter the conference tournament. Can we punch one more automatic bid to the NCAA tournament?

Win over UMKC

Win over Southern Utah

Win over UL-Calcutta

We’re going to the NCAA tournament for the last time, but that isn’t even the headliner after winning the Summit League. Im taking home the conference tournament championship, I won game No. 1,171 of my career. That currently puts me ahead of Coach K for the most wins all-time.

We have built a great legacy at Western Illinois. Before we enter the NCAA tournament, let’s take a look at our statistical leaders:

What a year for Munoz. Dude sat on the bench for four seasons before finally getting a starting spot, and all he did was lead our team in scoring at 17.2 points per game. Fray was awesome, too, averaging a hair under 15 points per game while chipping in nearly two blocks and six rebounds per game. It’s good to see Keller and Doyle both hit double-figures in scoring. I’m a bit surprised Cristano couldn’t even put up seven points a night after his big game against Illinois, but the assist and steals numbers are solid. We’re going to need him in March.

The Leathernecks are heading into the NCAA tournament at 32-3 on the year. I can’t wait to see what seed we get.

2047 NCAA tournament

Well, we couldn’t end this dynasty without getting swindled by the Selection Committee one more time. We’re a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. I thought we should have been a top-four seed without question.

We’ll open the tournament with a game against No. 11 seed Syracuse. Sheesh. Before we get to the game, let’s check in on our roster one more time:

I’m loving the way this group progressed through the year. We have two awesome wing scorers with an elite combination of size and shooting in Keller and Doyle. We have plenty of beef up front with Munoz, Fray, and Polk. Ngounou entered the program as a 77 overall and shot up to a 92 in three years without a redshirt. The bench also really improved during the season and should give us plenty of different lineup options in March.

This is going to be a tough run, starting with Syracuse. The Orange have knocked us out of the big dance before, and consistently put together really strong teams.

Our last dance starts now. As always, we’re simulating every game, I’m not controlling the ‘Necks.

Let’s go!

Win, 105-73! What an absolute beatdown. We’ve moving on to the round of 32.

Long-time followers of the series will know that our Leathernecks have always been known as a second half team. It happened in a big way in this game. Syracuse ended the first half strong to cut our lead to nine points, but we quickly turned it into a blowout out of the break.

I thought this was a tremendous all-around team effort. Six players hit double-figures in scoring with no one putting up more than Floyd Keller’s 15 points. Everyone who played recorded an assist. I loved this play from the first half when we set two screens for our five-star JUCO Obasohan that helped get him an easy layup.

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Our bench is a big question mark coming into this tournament, mostly because it’s filled with a lot of fresh faces who haven’t played big minutes in clutch spots before. I have to say, the performance of our reserves in our tournament opener was super encouraging. Obasohan in particular looks like a keeper after scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and knocking down a three. We always need wing depth, and he should be able to provide that on this run.

The clear highlight of Obasohan’s night: this sick two-handed dunk in transition for an and-one.

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We love to turn defense into offense, and Ngounou and Doyle’s ability to get into the passing lanes really helps us out there.

Speaking of Ngounou in transition: he had a beautiful finish on the break to put the game fully out of reach. That’s what you want out of your point guard.

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The win sets up a second round game against Colorado State

The Rams have been a solid program throughout this sim dynasty, regularly making NCAA tournament appearances. We have a decisive edge in talent heading into this game.

We are one win away from going to the Sweet 16 and extended our run in the big dance. One time, ‘Necks. Let’s go!

Win, 109-79! We’re going to the Sweet 16!

We didn’t need to be a second half team in this one. Our ‘Necks blew the doors off Colorado State from the opening tip-off. I thought we played a great game offensively thanks to our inside-out ball movement.

We had five scorers in double-figures in this one, but it was senior starters Bernie Doyle and Oscar Fray leading the charge. We know Doyle is capable of taking over a game at his best, and he was awesome in this one: 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from three. The real story was Fray, though.

Fray was probably the least appealing long-term prospect of our recruiting class when he entered the program alongside Doyle, Keller, and Munoz. That was mostly because of his 74 rating and C potential grade. While he’s always been rated a few points lower than his classmates, Fray’s skill set on the court is so important to us. He’s a massive 7-foot power forward who can protect the rim and shoot threes. What more do you want?

Fray went off in this game: 22 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals on 9-of-11 shooting. I love watching the big man shoot from deep. This was from NBA range.

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Here’s one more catch-and-shoot three for good measure.

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Fray might get slept on a little on this team, but he’s absolutely critical to our success if we want to win it all.

I also want to shout-out the bench for another solid performance. I liked what I saw out of Obasohan (11 points) and Howell (10 points). Since we already have two Obasohan clips in this post, why not make it three? Love him hitting this triple in the first half to help us open up the lead.

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We’re rollin’.

The win sets up a Sweet 16 game vs. Alabama

We’re now four wins away from ending this dynasty with a national championship. A Sweet 16 game against Bama is going to be an absolute battle.

In our simulated future, the Tide have become a basketball school. This program seems to make the tournament every year, and they’ve given us plenty of trouble in the past.

A trip to the Elite Eight is on the line. Let’s go!

Win, 112-69! We’re onto the Elite Eight!

Say it with me: SECOND. HALF. TEAM. After a tight first half left us with a six-point lead coming into the break, our ‘Necks absolutely torched the nets in the second half to come away with the blowout win. Seriously: we scored 66 points in the final 20 minutes. That was an offensive clinic at its best.

I had a good feeling about the second half when Cristano got this three hit the rim like 50 times before falling. Sometimes you need some good luck on your side.

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A couple possessions later, Floyd Keller came down a ripped another three. We finally had a double-digit lead, and we’d never look back.

It was great to see Keller (15 points) get going from deep. He hit all three of his attempts from beyond the arc.

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While we don’t have any clips of the front court from this game, they absolutely deserve credit for the win.

Fray turned in another incredible performance, this one somehow even better than his last. He ended the game with 25 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and three blocks on 10-of015 shooting. He didn’t attempt a three (booooo) but he dominated the game on both ends. His front court mate Munoz was almost as good. The senior center finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds. We kept going inside — Munoz and Fray combined for 35 (!) field goal attempts — and they were making the Bama defense pay.

Not the best Bernie Buckets game (9 points on 3-of-10 shooting), but I clipped this shot from the first half, so I might as well embed it here.

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Elite Eight, here we come.

The win sets up an Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 seed Indiana

Our run in the NCAA tournament has been a breeze up to this point, but I fear things about to get a lot more difficult. Our plucky No. 6 seed is about to run into one of college basketball’s blue bloods: the top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers.

The Elite Eight has been something of a bugaboo for us. We lost in this round last year. We’ve lost in this round many times before. I don’t want it to happen again.

A Final Four trip is on the line. As always, we’re watching a simulated version of this game; I am not controlling the Leathernecks. Let’s go!

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Loss, 96-86. Oh my gosh. And just like that, our dream of ending this dynasty with a national title is over.

I am devastated. I really thought this team was good enough to send me out on top, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Hoosiers’ outside shooters did us in. Indiana’s guard-heavy lineup caught fire from deep (10-of-21 for 47.6 percent), and our perimeter attack couldn’t keep up. We only hit 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) attempts from three.

What happened to our second half team this time? We were only down two going into halftime, but we were outscored by eight over the final 20 minutes. Tough scene.

There were some solid individual performances. Munoz went out strong with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Bernie Doyle dropped 21 points and hit this three-pointer to keep us in it early.

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Floyd Keller just didn’t give us enough on the wing. He shot 1-of-8 from three in the loss. He did give us a little juice in transition, at least.

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Cristano played all 40 minutes, and had eight points and nine assists. I really wish I got another year with him as a senior next season.

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Unfortunately there is no next season. After 40 years at Western Illinois, our sim dynasty is over. Here are some final numbers on the series:

Final record: 1,177-213

10 national championships (tied with John Wooden for the most in men’s college basketball history)

15 Final Four appearances

25 Sweet 16 appearances

Final NCAA tournament record: 113-27

38 Summit League regular season championships

35 Summit League tournament championships

38 seasons with 20+ wins

61 players drafted

The thing I’m most proud of? After we made the NCAA tournament for the first time in Year 3, we didn’t miss it again the rest of this dynasty.

Is Ricky Charisma the greatest men’s college basketball coach ever?

I think so. Here’s how we stack up to other top coaches in NCAA history in important categories.

Total wins

Ricky Charisma: 1,179

Mike Krzyzewski: 1,170

Jim Boeheim: 1,083

Roy Williams: 903

Bob Knight: 899

Dean Smith: 879

Jim Calhoun: 877

Adolph Rupp: 876

Bob Huggins: 828

Eddie Sutton: 806

Tournament wins

Ricky Charisma: 110

Mike Krzyzewski: 94

Roy Williams: 77

Dean Smith: 65

Jim Boeheim: 57

Tom Izzo: 52

Jim Calhoun: 49

John Wooden: 47

Final Four appearances

Ricky Charisma: 15

Mike Krzyzewski: 12

John Wooden: 12

Dean Smith: 11

Roy Williams: 9

Tom Izzo: 8

Rick Pitino: 7

Denny Crum, Adolph Rupp, John Calipari: 6

Consecutive tournament appearances

Western Illinois: 36

Kansas: 31

North Carolina: 27

Arizona: 25

Duke: 24

Michigan State: 23

Gonzaga: 22

Winning percentage

Ricky Charisma: 84.7

Mark Few: 83.44

Sam Burton: 83.33

Clair Bee: 82.444

Adolph Rupp: 82.1

John Wooden: 80.3

National championships

Ricky Charisma: 10

John Wooden: 10

Mike Krzyzewski: 5

Adolph Rupp: 4

Roy Williams: 3

Jim Calhoun: 3

Bobby Knight: 3

Who is the best player in Western Illinois history?

That’s the big question within the fanbase right now. Before we get to it, let’s look back at our greatest recruiting wins.

We landed five five-star recruits out of the domestic high school ranks during my time at Western Illinois. We also signed nine five-star JUCO recruits, and six five-star international recruits from places like New Zealand (shout-out Dave French), Montenegro (anti shout-out Vitor Andrisevic), France (what up, Kim Kone!), and Cameroon.

The highest-rated recruit in program history was Sammy Yan at No. 10 overall in 2032. He was pretty much a disappointment. The program’s all-time leading scorer was center Vinnie Harmon with 2,452 career points during his career. He was the No. 122 overall recruit and the No. 8 center (those that followed the series or played the game know that centers are always weirded underrated on the recruiting trail).

Here are some more numbers during tournament games only (aka, the games we streamed), from the amazing Leathernecks Database maintained by our fans:

The highest rated player in program history is a tie between small forward Nic Cummings and point guard Duncan Martinez, who are the only players to reach 97 overall. Cummings in particular is a great choice for the GOAT. He ended his career with three national titles, though only one as a starter. He’s top-10 for me, but not No. 1.

The people’s choice for the GOAT is Deke Van, the legendary center who helped carry us to our first national title in Year 8. Deke’s turn from from Year 7 goat to Year 8 GOAT is the most memorable we’ve ever had. We couldn’t have done any of this without you, Deke.

When Coach tell you youre guarding @deke_van https://t.co/RDhmDAPRA8 pic.twitter.com/fm2udgvMZT

— Ryan Thomas (@RTtheSID) May 10, 2020

As the series went on, other great players emerged who finished with gaudier stats and better resumes.

My personal favorite might be Bert Draughan, Mr. Basketball out of Chicago (No. 29 overall recruit), who went on to win a title with us in Year 13 and also starred for our Year 11 team that began the season 35-0 before losing to Michigan State in the Final Four. Harmon is another fine choice. Skip Clemmons helped us win three national titles in Year 23, Year 24, and Year 26. Albert Jagla, Clemmons’ former teammate, played a big role in our first back-to-back championship squad, and is arguably the greatest perimeter bucket-getter in program history.

All-time favorite moment? Impossible to say. The first one that comes to mind is Kim Kone’s go-ahead corner three in the 2024 tournament. Najeeb Goode’s steal vs. UCLA in the Final Four to help us win our second title in Year 13 also stands out. There was also the time superstar power forward Allen Cunningham took off his pants mid-game.

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Thank you to everyone who read, watched, and interacted

I started this series on April 11, 2020, a few weeks after the pandemic had shut down all ‘real’ sports. At the time, I was gearing up to cover the 2020 NCAA tournament. That never happened. I had college basketball on my mind, and I always wanted to write something on ‘College Hoops 2K8’, probably my favorite video game ever. This project is what came of it.

I had no idea if anyone was going to read this. I definitely did not think I’d finish out all 40 years like a complete lunatic. I didn’t think I’d write the equivalent of multiple books in terms of total word count.

Just before I dropped the first post in the series, I tweeted this:

Got a real dumb blog post coming

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) April 11, 2020

I wrote around 70 posts in the series, counting the inaugural Hall of Fame induction (read a big Deke Van retrospective at that link) and two posts of my Deke Van x Seattle Supersonics spin-off. I’m estimating I wrote 200,000 words in this series. That’s about the length of “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

I still can’t believe everything that came from this series. The Washington Post wrote a profile on it. I went on WGN TV and did a few radio spots promoting it. We sold a Deke Van t-shirt with Homefield Apparel. Our series inspired a new friend in Japan named Thanh Nguyen to write a pair of e-books adding greater depth to our story. Friend of the program Mike Rutherford did an amazing hype video for our first championship run. When I moved the series to Substack for a few months, more than 7,000 people signed up for email updates and still remain. Our first Twitch stream for the Year 8 Final Four drew more than 7,000 total viewers, and had 2,500 concurrent viewers on it at as we were closing out the win. On SB Nation, the series has been viewed more than 500K times.

What really made the project special was always the community around it. Some quick shout-outs:

The Leathernecks Database is an amazing companion to this series. You can lost in there. Thank you to the diehards to helped maintain it, and reader Evan for starting it.

Thanks to my guy who started the Leathernecks Nation instagram fan page and whoever is behind the wondrous fake Deke Van twitter account.

Thanks to everyone in the Discord who maintained ‘Necks discussion always and forever.

Thank the diehards that came out for every Twitch stream. I don’t want to name names because I’ll forget someone, but you know who you are. I love you all. I also want to thank the readers for keeping up with the recaps, and everyone who emailed me feedback throughout the series. I also want to thank my buddy Scott for introducing me to the game and running through multiple 40-year dynasties with me way before I ever considered blogging through it like this. This series would not exist without him.

What a ride it’s been. As I sim through to the end of the calendar, I’m greeted with this message.

Thank you, everyone. Go ‘Necks.

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kirnet · 3 years

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i realized ive never talked abt my holocron heist ocs so im dumping that here

the characters:

Njall Aukkuul - born and raised on Mandalore and inheriting his armor from his father in Death Watch, Njall works for an eclectic art deal and does whatever it takes for his client to be happy. While willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, he’s still pretty level headed and compassionate.

Jetaida Okis - only a youngling during the Jedi purge, Jet was smuggled out of Coruscant by master Katha, a miraluka jedi archivist who’s force vision gave them just enough time to escape. For many years in secret, Katha trained Jet in the force and groomed her into becoming her archivist successor, until the inquisitors found and killed Katha and recruited a young Jet. already disillusioned with the Jedi from her master’s teachings, Jet took to her new job as a jedi hunter well enough until she realized the sith were unsustainable. Stealing as many sith artifacts as she could, Jet went into hiding, devoting her life to collecting all of the knowledge of the force, whether it be sith or jedi. She still has her inquisitor saber and made a second double bladed saber from parts from Katha’s and Pwir’s lightsabers, which she wields at the same time by floating them around with the force.

Zephyr Liloc - a nautolan jedi padawan during the jedi purge, Zephyr managed to survive for a time with his master Idenzo Pwir. unfortunately, pwir had a vision of Jet, who he had brought to the order as an infant, and Katha, his friend since he was a padawan, and went to try to find them. He failed to protect them from the inquisitors, leaving Zephyr by himself. He works in hiding as a mechanic and laborer while still trying to emulate the values of a jedi. He still has his blue lightsaber.

Odaahsa Seshroks - a spice runner and one of the the best pilots out of Nal Hutta, togruta Odaahsa could retire from the small fortune she’s earned herself but enjoys the thrill of running too much. She’s been happily married to Topa’koti for years, her gentle and calm nature balancing her wife’s agressive one.

Topa’koti - twi’lek Topa’koti (or Koti, if you’re Odaahsa) is a successful assassin for the Hutts who enjoys her work a little too much. The Butcher of Nar Shaddaa has little kindness for anyone but her wife, who she actively dotes on, though the other members of the crew may be worming their ways in. While she revels in violence, she can always be trusted to offer a creative and level headed approach to any problem.

Bit - odaahsa’s reprogrammed destroyer droid from the clone wars, Bit doesn’t roll as well as they once used to but is still great at defending the ship and Odaahsa while the rest are away.

the story:

set right before the mandalorian, while the republic and Jedi order are starting to rebuild. Njall’s boss comes across an ancient holocron and doesn’t quite understand what it is, but he knows he wants it open without the republic knowing. so, he hires Njall to find someone who can open it, which in turn leads Njall to bring on Koti and Odaahsa as partners in the assignment bc a fat paycheck was promised. They track down Jet, who is interested bc new force knowledge, so she opens it, revealing some ancient sith fuckery that would be very dangerous for anyone to know about, republic or sith. In an effort to find more information out about it, they run into Zephyr, who joins them bc 1) jet is alive??? and 2) he doesn’t want any ancient sith fuckery unleashed upon the galaxy.

they realize the only way theyre gonna get info on this ancient sith device is through other ancient sith holocrons, so they form a fucking heist team, stealing from other collectors and hidden temples until they compile enough knowledge to understand the threat (which im leaving vague bc im not clever enough to come up with something). They also fight over what should be done with these holocrons: Njall wants to give them to his boss, Jet wants to keep them, Zephyr thinks they should go to the new jedi order, Koti thinks it should be sold to the highest bidder, and Odaahsa thinks it should be destroyed before it can hurt anyone.

Overtime, they become a found family and settle on creating an independent, uncensored library of all of the knowledge they collected from both the Jedi and the Sith. Jet serves as the archivist of the library, restoring and curating old artifacts so that any knowledge lost to time or the empire’s censorship can be brought back while still understanding the failings of the jedi.

extra bits:

this is a convoluted way for me to dissect my thoughts on museums dont judge me lmao

njall and zephyr end up together. these bitches gay

jet has vitiligo on her scalp, turning parts of her hair white. Zephyr has a bunch of different spots like a leopard gecko. Their nicknames for each other since Jet was 2 is “stripes” and “spots”

Pwir also raised them like siblings and doted on Jet despite her NOT being his padawan. kind of like ahsoka and plo

a common strat they use in heist evacuations is for njall to pick jet up while zooming around on his jetpack and she just lets her lightsabers fly all around them like a death helicoptor

#there is no obligation to read this lmao its a lot #ramblings #SOMEDAY I WILL MAKE CONTENT FOR YOU ALL #jet okis #njall #odaahsa #koti #zephyr liloc #long post

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noona-la-la-la · 5 years

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Noona, do you have any bad interview experience to share? I went to an interview today. Once I entered the room, before I sat down the interviewer already asked me to start introducing myself & that she’s busy so I need to make this quick 😐 guess what I actually waited 30 mins because the previous interviews overran The whole time she was keeping a straight face and talking in monotone, also does not show interests in my work (I’m a graphic designer) 1/2

She asked why did I quit my last job so I explained that because there wasn’t a career path and she immediately goes “Same here!” I explained to her that I’m well aware of it but I’m interested in working for a museum. At the end, she showed me 5 exhibition leaflets they’ve done in the past and asked me what I like about them. Tbh I started criticizing the designs in my head the minute I started looking at them (because of my designer instinct lol)

All I could think about was things I didn’t like about the designs When she saw me quickly flipped through all 5 leaflets, she literally says - are you done? Are you ready to talk about it? (in a rude manner) I was like - hmm am I supposed to talk about what I like? And she says I can also say things that I didn’t like LOL so I started criticizing about one of the leaflets, I listed a few points and she suddenly goes - Then what do you like about them!? 🤡

After the interview,I looked up her name on google I found out she’s a senior designer so I assume she approved those leaflet designs even if it may not be designed by her She might be pissed that I’m criticizing her works 😂 I feel so dumb cause she simply looks like an old housewife to me I thought she’s some supervisor who doesn’t know design at all LOL Im always being honest at interviews and sometimes it’s hard to filter what I say when I’m unprepared😅 I need help

1. That company doesn’t deserve you (or anyone else) if they are going to treat the people who interview with them that poorly. Interviews are a two way street -- meaning while they are interviewing you to see if you fit, you should also be interviewing them to make sure this is a place you would really want to work. Would you really want a woman who was so inconsiderate to a job candidate to become your boss?

2. Pretty much everyone has blown an interview at some point or another. It happens and being unprepared for the question is one of the main reasons people give less than stellar answers. That’s okay. So consider this practice and think about what might have been a better way to answer that question. Next time someone asks you something similar, you’ll be prepared.

As for my own bad interview stories? Oh, man, I have MANY stories I could tell. Also, I’ve often thought that if I ever wrote a book for money - it would be about interviewing. I have tremendous experience in this area.

To keep it manageable - I’ll put the rest of my thoughts under the cut.

How about the time I interviewed for a job and the recruiter was describing some of the new business practices and technologies they were adopting and I said, “I think it’s great that Company A is embracing these new, progressive approaches to business problems. So many of the companies I’ve interviewed with rely on old-fashioned approaches because they are comfortable with the status quo.” AND SHE FLIPPED OUT ON ME! She said things like “What’s wrong with being old-fashioned? This company was based on old fashioned principals like hard work and loyalty. Our founder believed in doing things the old fashioned way!”

Or the time I went in for an interview with Company B, met with a couple people, was there for almost 90 minutes and then they excused themselves. They left me alone in the interview room when all of a sudden some other guy comes in and says he is the Director of Sales and that the previous interviewers thought he should talk to me because of my background. Apparently they thought that I might be a good fit for a job on his team ( a job that I didn’t apply for) . So this guy proceeds to start interviewing me for a completely different role and I don’t even understand what it is. No one is even bothering to ask me if I’m interested in doing sales (I’m not, FYI) and I’m completely unprepared. He and I spoke for maybe another 40 minutes when the original interviewer/hiring manager comes into the room and asks to speak to the Sales Director. They excuse themselves and go out into the hallway to talk AND I CAN HEAR THEM. The original hiring manager asks the Sales Director why he’s wasting his time talking to me because the original interviewers already decided that they don’t like me and don’t want to hire me. So the Sales Director pops back into the room to grab his notebook and says to be that an “emergency” came up and he has to go. So I’m alone again, for maybe 10 minutes when the receptionist opens the door, pops her head in to say the hiring manager to her to tell me “That you can leave now” and then she pops back out and is gone. I gather my stuff and walk out of the interview room. It’s like 6:30pm on a Friday, the building is now empty, it’s a huge office building and everything looks the same and I’m completely lost because it was a number of twists and turns when they brought me to the interview room and I end up wandering around this empty office for a while until I stumble upon the lobby. The receptionist is already gone and a security guard had to unlock the door to let me out.

Or how about the time that I interviewed with Company C and the interviewer asked me a question about the most creative way I’ve ever solved a specific type of business problem. She really emphasized the “creative” part of the question, so I knew she wanted something way out of the box. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really prepared for that, so I started to tell her the first thing that came to my mind... and it was a doozy! I start telling her this story which includes hiring a bunch of strippers and half way through telling her this completely inappropriate story, I realize that I don’t know how to end it because in real life things did not turn out well and included people transporting controlled substances across state lines, some minor theft, and a few people arrested for prostitution. The moral of the story was that not all creative ideas are good ideas. Not exactly what the hiring manager was looking for and needless to say, I didn’t get the job.

So these were all terrible experiences - some my fault, some there fault. I’ve got dozens more examples of interviews gone bad. It happens to everyone.

But these were also good learning experiences. Every time an interview goes badly, I walk away a little more knowledgeable and a little more competent at interviewing. I just recently told a relative of mine who is looking for a new job that he should apply for a few jobs that he doesn’t really want just for the interviewing practice. Because if you haven’t done interviews in a while, you can assume that the first few might be a bit awkward as you work out how to present yourself and your experience in the best way. So it’s better to do a few interviews with companies where you won’t care if they don’t hire you - just to get the practice in. You don’t want to turn yourself inside out to try to fit what you think a company wants, you still need to be your natural self. But there are ways for all of us to make our natural selves come across as the more professional and business savvy version of who we are. But that comes with practice -- and lord knows, I’ve been in the business world for what feels like 10 million years now and I’m still learning how to be the better and more professional version of me every day.

Also, if you’ve read this far... I have an epilogue on those three bad interviews:

Company A turned out to be too old fashioned after all. Their business changes didn’t really take effect the way they wanted them to and now it’s become such a miserable place to work, they are losing talent rapidly. How do I know? I have hired multiple people from that buisness - they are very talented and all tell me the same horror stories of what it was like to work there. So thank god I didn’t get that job.

Company B went bankrupt. The original hiring manager, who treated me so unprofessionally eventually went on to be a vice president at a service company who is a vendor to the place I work now. She was terrible at her job and we just fired her and her company from ever doing business with my current employer ever again.

And company C? I didn’t get job after telling them my awful stripper story. However, a few years later, I applied for a job with them again... and they are my current employer. They work me like a dog, but I’m generally happy with my workplace and my coworkers, I’ve been promoted once already and I’m well compensated and treated with respect.

The moral of this story... karma is a bitch and not every lost opportunity is lost forever.

Good luck with your job search!

#advice and opinions #job advice #interview advice #omg this is long!#blah blah blah #Anonymous

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ruffolive · 3 years

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i love dropping my hyperfixations on my rpg characters on my friends. yall wanna read the nonsense i wrote about my da:o character. discord messages so its all broken up

i got so emotional in my half nap bc i was thiking about. ok infodump time

[7:55 PM]

so in the thing ur casteless. basically lowest class of dwarves. ppl b starving and shit. u live w ur sister (and ur alcoholic mom who is never lucid) and r both under the thumb of this like crimelord guy

[7:55 PM]

im swtiching away from "u"

[7:55 PM]

so her sister is like pretty so she is made a prostitute and arania is not so shes basically hired muscle and goes and collects debts and shit

[7:56 PM]

arania is like a REALLY GOOD fighter and everyone knows it but doesnt aspire to anything else bc she needs to protect her sister by not acting out

[7:57 PM]

the only way for them to move up in the world is for her sister to have a boy baby with someone who is in a higher caste or for arania to like. become a legendary hero but thats not gonna happen bc the casteless are super hated

[7:58 PM]

but one day arania ends up like getting recruited into the grey wardens (elite demon-slaying group who are not affiliated w the dwarves) by some guy bc she accidentally showed off her skills. should have been executed for it but was saved by being recruited

[7:59 PM]

has to LEAVE the city underground where she has NEVER left and go miles away to go fight demons with a bunch of races shes never met before in places shes never imagined

[7:59 PM]

almost dies like 80 times. ends up w a new group of friends that she decides to protect bc that's what she knows how to do

[8:00 PM]

they go back to the dwarven city (to get allies w a treaty) and when she gets back her sister!!! has had a son with a noble!!! who loves and treats her well!!!! and will probably become king!!!!!

[8:00 PM]

and like was just imagining the immense relief that must be for her

[8:01 PM]

like everything she'd ever done was to protect her sister. yeah and to keep herself alive but she wasnt ambitious it was for her sister. and shes safe and happy and has a son---and arania has a NEPHEW

[8:01 PM]

arania i like to be an aggressive and a bit blunt, not liking to show weakness bc of how she grew up, but i think she'd definitely cry holding her nephew

[8:01 PM]

and her sister smiling and saying "thank you for everything, but im safe now, it looks like you've found new people to protect"

[8:02 PM]

and the crew (including alistair who is a very sensitive emotive family kind of guy) who are all used to me being very stony and hot-headed and strong, all see me like crying with happiness holding this kid

[8:02 PM]

mannnnn

[8:05 PM]

also just want a scene of arania trying to show the team her nephew and. its alistair who is a family kinda guy and would be GREAT w the kid. and then morrigan the swamp witch goth. definitely the baby and her just stare at each other. the baby gives her a slow nervous baby wave and she waves back just as uncomfortably. and then the baby has to be gently pried away from bi disaster flirty spanish elf man's long pretty hair

#texting 123 #im serious this is just dumping oc shit. please beware

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bloojayoolie · 5 years

Photo

Comfortable, Fail, and Fake: hey!! hope you dont mind me messaging you about this, but i actually just started an online business, and im looking for help to get the word out!! I was wondering if you would mine putting up a post that i will send you, and in exchange I can enter you into our teams monthly giveaway for a $1000 vacation voucher, or $1000 cash! (winner chooses!) would you like to do that!? oh, hi there. last time we spoke was like 7 years ago, so I dont think I would be comfortable doing that. good luck though. No problem thanks hun : whats the name of your business? It works. it works.com My store is works.com works.com It works is an MLM, its basically a pyramid scheme. You should be careful, the statistics of MLMS is like a 2% success rate. More people end up in debt than making money. I know it sounds good at first, but its not. I was part of an MLM, I get it. I'd suggest getting out now while you havent spent too much money. Okay thanks http:://http://bit.ly/2KBhiCC Review-It-Works-Global-RVW14986048.htm It Works! Global This is a scam and pyramid scheme None. Things present themselves as Works "pros" up front but they are not in th... glassdoor.co.uk I'm only in it for 2 days and have made sales so idk I may try it for this month and see Making sales is easy at first, but the business isn't about making sales, it's about recruiting people to help you, recruiting people under you. People like me, who you haven't spoken to in 7 years. Your manager/s told you to contact everyone, right? Friends, family, and people you know, they probably toted it as 'not a cold calling business'. It wont just affect you, it will affect your relationships and personal life. It's honestly not worth it. I got into a car accident on the way to a convention for the MLM I used to work for, and they told me should still go anyway. Read some of the articles people have written, watch videos online of people who have worked for It Works and other MLMS. It's not a nice environment, it's all fake, and it's cultish.I just wanted to warn you. I've seen both sides my husband told me try it maybe I'll be successful I have signed 2 distributors so I'm not sure I understand that people may seem to be successful, but that's the whole point, no one is supposed to admit that they are struggling with the business, it's all about the image, about selling the lifestyle. If people openly admit how badly in debt they are, how few sales they are making, the whole thing breaks apart. I know the rush of excitement making sales, making your first big sale is exciting, and getting people signed on with you seems productive but just go and read those articles, watch the videos, read the stories of how peoples lives have literally been ruined by MLMS like It Works. It's a pyramid scheme but it gets away with it by calling itself a multi level marketing business. The best and really only way is to get people working for your name, working under you. I know the job market sucks, I'd be happy to help you with a CV, and even provide a reference if you needed one, but It Works is a dangerous thing to just try out. 98% percent of people not only fail, but end up in debt because of MLM work. Imma just take my first check and walk lol I got a new job anyways I'm glad to hear it. I wish I would have known this last night lol l'd kept my 100$ But oh well I'd rather 100 the. More So what happens if I dont aute reorder and stuff does my account just close or whY Fuxk I'm having people block me too Like I said, relationships will be affected. People will block you, lot of people already know about It Works and what they are/do Ugh Yeah they don't tell you about that part. I remember when I worked for CutCo (the MLM that hired me straight out of highschool) I totally destroyed my relationship with one of my cousins trying to sell her knives. Not that she was a great person to begin with, but still. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know. Hopefully you can get out as quickly as you can. Imma delete the charge hopefully Good luck. I was thankfully able to convince an old acquaintance to quit It Works tonight

#funny #lol #humor #memes #meme #memehumor #dank memes #funny pics #rolf #lmao #Comfortable #Fail #an

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siliconwebx · 5 years

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Putting Together A Great Web Developer Portfolio

Having a solid portfolio is a must for any web developer. It’s hard for an employer to make a decision for a position based on cover letters, CVs, or resumes that simply describe projects you’ve made. Your talent and skill don’t really shine through that way. So having a great web developer portfolio that you can include is as important as anything else. But having a great one versus having a good enough one is huge. And it could be the difference in landing the job and being passed over. So let’s look at what you can do to help ensure as much success as possible.

What Makes a Great Web Developer Portfolio?

If you look around the internet, the concept of a development portfolio is pretty wide. Some people include every project they’ve ever worked on to show their improvement over time, some folks make it a barebones CV with lots of text and links, while yet others focus on languages learned and overall skillsets while using the portfolio site itself as an example of how they practically apply their skills.

You won’t find a right or a wrong way to do this. But you will find some elements that run across the most successful web dev portfolios. We’re going to look at these elements and break down why they work and how you can easily implement them in either a new portfolio or an update to your existing one.

1. Your Name and Professional Contact Information

It is actually pretty easy to miss putting your name and contact info on your resume and portfolio. You might be so concerned with making sure that your work history and talent shines so much that you forget the simplest thing. Or you do think about it, but you don’t place it prominently on your portfolio, making the recruiter or hiring manager work for it. After all, you are trying to work for them, not the other way around.

Sure, keeping the info at the top is great, but consider having a floating box or small section that scrolls with the user. That way, you’re never more than a click away from a call or email. You could even take it a step further and put like a Facebook Messenger tab where they can contact you directly via IM. Just, whatever you do, don’t bury the information in the footer. Or at the end of a long section, or make it hard or confusing to find.

Also, consider making sure that it’s all totally professional contact info. We’re sure you’ve heard this before, but if your email is [email protected], you’ll be taken less seriously than if they see [email protected].

1a. A Photo

We didn’t want to include this as a full entry in the list, but we thought it was worth mentioning. If you can finagle a way to have a picture of yourself alongside your portfolio (the contact info is a great spot to place it), giving potential employers a way to put a face to the work will humanize you far more than just seeing a name and list of programming languages you know. Hiring managers tend to also hire for personality fits within companies, so if you have candid shots that would fit into your desired industry niche and show that you are comfortable there, use those somewhere.

2. Consider Combining Bio, Experience, and Education into a Narrative

Storytelling in marketing is huge. Your portfolio is how you market yourself. So it only makes sense that you would want to make yourself as interesting and human as possible. And a bulleted list of universities, bootcamps, certifications, company names, and employment dates aren’t terribly interesting or memorable.

Your story, on the other hand, is. And while it is possible to glean your story from those lists, putting it into narrative form is better. The thing is, there are ways to do this that still highlight all the info and make it easily accessible. But it makes it much more of a delight to read. And makes you seem like more of a person.

Also, there’s a good chance that you already have a bio/about section as part of your portfolio. Sprinkle in the same information you would the lists, but make it something they can read and scan for highlights.

Your history is likely going to be lengthier than a bio/about section allows, but including links and highlights while telling about yourself is a great way to stand out.

Here’s a re-work of my current bio with some of my experience and history highlighted:

Outside of just being pretty awesome, I have a Master’s degree in English from The University of North Alabama in 2009, spent almost 10 years teaching college English (literature and composition at various levels) and working as the director of the campus writing center at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, TN. I started working with WordPress in 2008, which means I can pretty much make it do whatever you need me to.

After learning enough PHP, CSS, and JavaScript to be dangerous while WordPress was my hobby, I transitioned to freelancing full-time and building the websites you see below. I didn’t want to give up writing altogether, however, and was published by magazines such as Like the Wind and The No’Ala. That led to me starting to freelance for Elegant Themes in May 2017, and I started as a full-time Content Creator for ET later in September.

Now, we know that you may be thinking: I’m a developer, not a writer. That is a very valid point. So you can still put a narrative spin on your bio, experience, and education. It doesn’t have to be a narrative in prose. It could be something like a timeline that tells your story.

2a. Use a Timeline

We suppose the advice here is to avoid bulleted lists as much as possible. We think that Kyle Ledbetter has done it very well with his work history. He places it on a timeline that’s easily digestible, scannable, and gives a sense of his story until now.

While this is a fantastic example of a web developer portfolio, he doesn’t actually tell or show what these projects are. In traditional CV/resume fashion, Kyle describes his role on the teams he worked with. However, none of the work here links out to the actual projects he describes. His portfolio is entirely separate, and it includes these examples. They are disconnected from the timeline, and while this is a good example, giving direct examples of what the end results of each job were would make it great.

3. Show and Describe Your Projects

The meat-and-potatoes of every web developer portfolio is, well, the portfolio. It is not uncommon for a portfolio to be a simple (and useful and functional) grid with thumbnails. In our eyes, there’s no need to fix what’s broken. These kinds of grids are excellent at showcasing your talent, projects, skill, and creativity (like this one by Adham Dannaway)

What they’re not excellent at, though, is telling the story of that project, showing off the intricacies of the project, and giving a full picture of just how amazing you are at making it be as amazing as it is. That’s where Adham really made his web developer portfolio shine. It’s great.

Because when you click on any of the entries from the grid, you are not taken to the final result of the project. By far, that is the most common use of these portfolios. The click-to-see-what-I-did approach. What Adham does, however, takes a good idea and makes it great. He breaks down each project from conception to completion. He is being totally transparent about reasons for each decision that was made over the course of the project.

This breakdown shows not only the awesome work that came out of the project, but it also shows the talents and skills that the developer has that aren’t necessarily visible just by looking at a finished product.

You might not have the time or inclination to include a full case study for each project; however, you can absolutely get in some blurbs and descriptions about major aspects of the project that potential clients and employers should know about.

What If Your Portfolio is Empty?

One caveat to putting together a great web developer portfolio is that you have to have web development experience. If you have no projects under your belt to show off, it’s pretty hard to have a robust portfolio that shows off your expertise. Everyone’s been there. It’s not a fun place to be, but it is a fairly easy place to get away from.

First, check out First Timers Only. This site is designed specifically for people to get their very first GitHub pull request accepted. There are tags on GitHub that projects can include to indicate that their open-source project has some easy and accessible needs. This kind of contribution is amazing for getting your portfolio (and really dev career in general) off the ground. A few of these kinds of contributions can go a long way to showing what you’re capable of. (And that you’re good enough at what you do to be vetted and accepted by a random internet stranger into their project).

Secondly, start making stuff. Or really, upgrading stuff you’ve already done. You don’t get to the point of needing a web development portfolio without having something to show for it. Think about projects that you’ve done in school or for fun that you can polish up and post online. Then, not only do you have an updated project that shows off your current abilities, you also have a way to show the growth that you’ve had since the original was made by posting it up, too.

Also, doing work for non-profits, friends, or family members is a great way to add to your portfolio. We guarantee that you know someone (or lots of someones) who need work done that you can do. They just might not be able to pay the rates that typical web developers charge. Especially non-profits. We are not advocating that you work for free. You have skills and are doing work and deserve to be paid for that work.

However, payment doesn’t have to be with money. Maybe your uncle runs a bakery, and he can make your wedding cake in exchange for a new website. That’s a pretty good deal. Or maybe the non-profit has a budget to pay, but it’s very small. Perhaps you might even be able to count the hours you spend working for them as a tax deduction. Again, which is a pretty good deal.

Either way, you’re getting new projects to show off, and if you combine those with the ideas we talk about above, you’re on your way to having a great web development portfolio.

And that’s not even mentioning the time and care and perfectionism that you’ll be putting into the portfolio website itself. That’s as much a project to showcase as any (and a pretty good case study to boot).

Conclusion

Having a great web developer portfolio goes a long way toward getting hired. It’s not only a showcase of what you have done, but also what kind of skills and personality you will bring to any team you join. Prospective clients and hiring managers look at portfolios to see if they’re compatible with the dev, to see what you’re best at, to see what you think you’re best at, and to get a glimpse into the part of your brain that puts the code together in that specific way that you do. With all that in mind, we think that you now have the tools to take your web developer portfolio from good to great. And maybe even further than that.

What part of your web developer portfolio are you most proud of?

Article featured image by 0beron / shutterstock.com

The post Putting Together A Great Web Developer Portfolio appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐ElegantThemes

#Silicon Web Design #Ahmedabad #India #Web Development #WPBeginner #Silicon URL #Web Site #Cloud Host

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mrmichaelchadler · 5 years

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Kicking It Old School

There is an email that occasionally makes the circuit in the HR community.

The content of this email is an amusing excerpt from a 1940’s transportation magazine article entitled Guide to Hiring Women. The point of this forwarded email isn’t about how atrocious the recruiting practices of women were in the 1940s, but rather to challenge its readers (recruiters, HR professionals) to think about the current practices in our teams and departments that will be reviewed 50 years later by our 3rd generation successors and will cause them to blurb, “You did what?” What practices today are generally prescribed as standard practice (albeit not necessarily best practice) that will be looked at in the future as a great you-sh*ting-be-kidding-me story from the past?

Well, a reflection of our profession in my head yielded an immediate and passionate response – STAFFING. Yep, the way we recruit and select people who work in our companies. After all, how much has this process really changed aside from the slight modifications in the questions that either can’t be asked legally or those questions that are now asked in intriguing new ways? (Check out behavioral interviewing techniques and brain teaser questions for some of the latest twists on how to gain revealing insight from applicants.)

The recruitment practices of today are destined to be the obvious dinosaurs of HR in 50 years. Heck, maybe even in 10 years. Why, you say? Let me start by exaggerating slightly the current practice employed by most companies large and small, simple and complex, global or local.

We post a job – though how and where you do this has changed since the 1940s, the essence of this step is exactly the same. Hey, we want to hire someone with these skills and attributes.

We collect and sort the applicants – into the have and have not categories based on their skills. Oh, and this analysis is enabled via a one or two-page piece of paper, authored by the applicant, for the applicant, for the sole purpose of obtaining employment. We said we wanted someone with strong technical and interpersonal skills and miraculously most applicants have stated on their resume that they have that. Whew, that’s a relief.

We interview – bringing the best candidates in to confirm these skills and attributes via what we call an interview. The interview isn’t indicative of the actual job they will be doing, it’s just a person or persons asking questions to the applicant for an hour or two. Do you know how to design hydraulic pumps? “Yes”, well ok then. And if the company is really sophisticated then this interview process is reinforced by utilizing multiple professionals who ask questions, rather than just one or two. And surely they will use behaviorally-based questions like “tell me about a time when you … and how you dealt with that”. Oh, and these questions are the same regardless of position applied for and the right answers are freely available to anyone who has access to the internet.

We ask for references – the three people who the applicant knows that can vouch for their success and accomplishments. Generally, they need to have actually worked with the applicant, but this isn’t a mandate. And guess what – when we contact these people they tell us how good this person really is and that they would love to work with them again. So we ensure that the applicant has at least three friends. Interpersonally savvy? Check.

Then we hire them. It’s that simple.

So you hire a programmer without actually making them do any programming? Yep.

You hire a salesperson without actually seeing if they can sell? Yes, that’s right.

And that marketing professional you have to handle your company communications and branding, you hired them without seeing any of their actual work? Bingo.

Did you hear the snickering and roar of laughter from those in the working world in 2070? I did. Now I’m exaggerating to make a point. But not too much.

As HR leaders we need to be challenging ourselves by challenging our applicants to show us real job-related skills. Have them present on a real work challenge they will face in the role, create a probationary period so you can see how they actually perform, or at least come up with some pre-employment assessments that are legal and more predictive of success in our key roles. And I’m not suggesting we quit interviewing. I’m just suggesting it should be a data point in the process, not THE process. In short, build a portfolio of more sophisticated selection tools that will evolve and improve our selection success percentages.

We all know what recruiting costs, and we all know the cost of a vacant position. The best recruiter in the world employing the age-old techniques above will make the right hire what percent of the time? 80%, 90%? That’s pretty good, but it could be a lot better.

That is, if we aren’t giving him the recruitment equivalent of a buggy whip to make the horses in his Ford run faster.

The post Kicking It Old School appeared first on Fistful of Talent.

from Fistful of Talent http://bit.ly/2WcCUbB

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bmiremodeling · 6 years

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Channel 11 9 Patrick Crayton

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adastraradionews · 6 years

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Battle over Pipeliners looms

A fight over ownership of McPherson's collegiate summer baseball team, the Pipeliners, has erupted over the past 48 hours. The Kansas Collegiate Baseball League announced today it has awarded control of the "franchise' to Chad Pinson, who was an assistant coach for the team and handled marketing in it's inaugural season. Caleb Hartman, who established the team, contends he is the legal owner.

This is the announcement from KCLB issued on Facebook

Kansas Collegiate League Baseball is formally announcing that today we have decided to move forward with Chad Pinson and his vision for the baseball organization located in McPherson, KS. After one year of involvement it has become apparent that his professionalism, maturity, and integrity align with our league values. Coach Pinson, whom has been involved as an affiliated owner with the team since inception in the 2017 offseason, will now act as the sole owner of this franchise slot. This franchise with the KCLB will continue its current league affiliation agreement as agreed upon by Pinson in 2017.

Chad Pinson, active immediately will be held responsible for all outstanding balances due to the KCLB. Including the agreed upon franchise fee. Until full remittance of the remaining balance the KCLB continues to reserve the right to enforce any and/or all legal remedies to us.

This decision was made unanimously with full support from current owners and umpires affiliated with the KCLB. PSA and the NBC are aware of the current situation and are excited for the future of our franchise in Pinson's hands.

Furthermore, the KCLB would like to apologize for the public defamation of character that Chad Pinson, his family and supporters have been forced to endure in the beginning of this endeavor. The KCLB will show full support for Pinson in the legal proceedings following today. It was the hope from our organization for a peaceful and professional split.

For the members of the McPherson community, we look forward to continuing summer collegiate baseball in your town. We promise to deliver a professional and family friendly experience year after year. The KCLB has no intention of leaving your community. We look forward to placing an unequivocally qualified individual such as Chad Pinson in charge of the franchise in McPherson. We are confident that the community of McPherson will rally around an individual with values, integrity, and a true passion for baseball.

This statement was issued by Caleb Hartman in a Thursday morning e-mail

It has been brought to my attention that former assistant coach Chad Pinson has reached out to all of you regarding wanting your support in taking over the McPherson Pipeliners due to the fact that I was stepping down as owner and head coach. Unfortunately this couldn’t be further then the truth. The team as been a sole proprietorship owner by myself Caleb Hartman and always will be owned by myself. CHAD PINSON WAS AN EMPLOYEE OF THE MCPHERSON PIPELINERS.

MY WIFE AND I HAVE ALL THE PROOF TO SUPPORT OR CLAIM TO OWNERSHIP!!!!

Chad was hired by my self back in August last year after my first year of coaching with the Wichita marlins. Mr. Pinson was hired to help generate sponsorships and help with the business. I work 40-50 hours a week like most people do, because of my out of state work due to my job I let chad have complete control of Generating sponsorships for the team. So many of you have spoken with chad and met with chad numerous times about sponsorship. This is where I have messed up. I should have been out there to meet and shake hands and thank you for your contributions to the team. Many of you have built a relationship with Chad Pinson on a personal level, which he has in turned and manipulated many individuals in to asking for their written support for him to take of the team because I was “stepping down”. This conversation never took place with him and I at all. These written “letters of recommendations” were taken to the league (KCLB) and central Christian College to secure another season in McPherson with out my knowledge under the same name but a different company.

The McPherson Pipeliners have always been owned by Pipeliner baseball recruiting LLC. Which is owned solely by myself. Every sponsorship check was sent to “the McPherson Pipeliners” in Moundridge which is my address. Every invoice we have paid has come out of MY business account that I gave chad a company card to make equipment purchases which he abused considerably towards the end of the year when he began to realize that he would most likely not be with the team again in the future.

Many of you know Chad Pinson as the face of the team due to his talent of being a likable out going person and I should have been more active in the community as an owner should. I just couldn’t be as active due to my career traveling in the oil and gas industry and a pregnant wife. The letters he’s asked for as a recommendation were All based on a lie, a lie that concocted with out my knowledge. Chad Pinson had access to a company card what was directly linked to our account and he began to abuse toward the end of the year, which is part of the reason we still have a few open balances that IM trying to cover out of my and my family’s pocket.

Chad Pinson was an employee that got a bad taste in his mouth by the end of the year because he knew that He most likely wouldn’t be apart of the team in the future. He has since concocted this plan to take advantage of me by setting up a similar business running with the same name. I have been contacted by some of you with come already asking if this is all true and unfortunately yes. This is all true. Chad Pinson is trying to steal the McPherson Pipeliners for his own when he has no affiliation with the team

I ask that you stand up and support me (Caleb Hartman) in this situation. I have never wanted to step down as owner, nor have I ever wanted to pass the business on to Chad Pinson. I’m sorry that you all have been duped by this disgruntled former employee. I am also sorry that I let it get this far. I should have been more active in the community and not have let chad get the upper hand by developing these person connections. I should have been the one doing all of that but in the end you also don’t expect to be screwed over by such a long time friend.

I have been in contact with a civil lawyer and have decided to serve Chad Pinson with a cease and desist order. Chad has from what I have been told many legal battles active against him regarding past debt from his previous employer

In closing, I am Caleb Hartman. The owner of the McPherson Pipeliners. I am from Moundridge Kansas. I grew up in the McPherson community since I was born. This was my idea. My team. My name. My logos. My community. My website. My Facebook page. My players. My recruits. My coaches. I graduated from McPherson College. THIS IS MY BUSINESS. My wife and I have all the proof to support my claims. WHAT CHAD PINSON IS DOING IS ILLEGAL! DO NOT BE DUPED MY CHAD PINSON!

Please stand up and support the rightful owner of the McPherson Pipeliners, do not let this man come in to our community and ruin something that I brought in for McPherson.

Chad Pinson issued this statement Thursday afternoon after KCLB made their statement.

I am following up with the press release made by the KCLB for me to take on the managing role of the Pipeliners Baseball Team. I have gladly accepted this role.

As many as you know, I was indecisive of about returning for the 2019 season due the current situation that is at hand. I was struggling make a decision to stay or remove myself because I didn’t want to leave the players and community, but I did not want to associate myself with the current culture that was being allowed within the team. My standards were not being met which questioned the integrity of the organization. My decision become very easy when the KCLB league contacted me asking about my plans for the 2019 season to which I expressed my concerns about staying or leaving the organization. The league had the same concerns as myself, but they did not want The Pipeliners to leave the league as they could see what a great thing it is for the community. When a team has great support in a community this reflects the league in a positive way, but when negative things happen within a team it impacts the community and the league. The league was apprehensive to keep The Pipeliners within the league, unless there was a change of ownership and/or management. This is when the League asked me if I would take on this role so that The Pipeliners could stay in McPherson. As I said above, I gladly accepted and proceeded to move forward with the support of the league to keep the Pipeliners intact. My goal is, and always has been for the best interest of the players and the community of McPherson.

Many of you may have read the post that has been circulating on social media. It is apparent that the initial change of management has not been handled professionally. Clearly the decision made by the KCLB of having me take on the managing role for The Pipeliners has not been accepted in a mature or professional manner.

Without a doubt, the accusations posted on social media of me are ERRONEOUS and UNTRUE. It is unfortunate this has become a personal attach that has created drama with everyone involved directly or indirectly with The Pipeliners. These actions has left me no choice to get my attorney and the governing body of the league involved.

I apologize that this situation has brought so much negative attention to the McPherson community and players. The statements about the League and myself are embarrassing to McPherson and the players. I am not impacted by the statements about me as they are not true. But, when these comments impact my family (my wife, children, players, and community), I become very upset and will fight to the very end. All I have wanted is a place for the players to play in a supportive community where they can continue to follow their dreams, and McPherson is the greatest place to do so. These actions concern and baffle me. By taking this course of action, the ones who suffer the most are the fans, community, and players. This is for the team, not for personal gain or recognition. Through the support of the KCLB, PSA, and the NBC, summer collegiate baseball will remain in McPherson Kansas. I look forward to improving the culture of this organization.

Feel free to contact me directly to answer any questions or address any concerns you may have.

I look forward to calling McPherson home. Again, thank you for all your support.

We'll have any updates on the situation as it develops.

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junker-town · 7 years

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THIS WEEK IN SCHADENFREUDE, Tennessee and LSU have both reached the “GoFundMe to pay the coach’s buyout” stage of the season

Your weekly search of the college football internet’s strongest reactions centers on two SEC fan bases.

There is losing.

There is losing to your rival.

There is losing to your rival 41-0.

There is losing to your rival 41-0 at home.

Then there is losing to your rival 41-0 at home one week after almost losing at home to UMass, two weeks after losing because you didn’t have enough defensive backs on the field, and all in front of your fans who call for your coach’s firing even during victories.

The 2017 Tennessee Volunteers, everybody!

Let’s see how some Vols fans across the internet responded to the loss.

We start our travels at the VolNation.com message boards.

Mere weeks ago, some thought athletic director John Currie had hatched a plot to relieve Butch Jones of his duties and replace him with ex-coach Phillip Fulmer. There’s still a fear (or a hope?) that Fulmer, now 67 and an AD assistant will return:

VolNation.com

Someone’s got a more practical idea, obviously:

Do whatever it takes to get Gruden !!!! This was embarrassing

We have to much talent to be losing this badly ... especially at home

Jon Gruden’s turned down the Tennessee job at least three times since 2008.

I agree. Whether it is Gruden or Chip Kelly, or Bobby Petrino, or Mike Leach...take a blank check and make them say no.

I'd still love to see Gruden here. He's clearly a smart coach, great offensive mind, great QB mind. He relates with kids as he has shown on his QB camp shows. I have to imagine he'd be a great recruiter, the question is whether he'd put in the time? He has connections to build a great staff. He wouldn't coach scared. The booth is always there for him to return to.

Why not make a run at him?

Another poster wants to hire the 32-year-old head coach at FCS Austin Peay, which recently snapped a 29-game losing streak:

Bring in Will Healy

Smart young coach on a roll. What could go wrong??

Someone started a thread that was designed purely as a repository for Tennessee fans’ freshest Butch Jones jokes. The original post:

Well, this game is awful. I would usually be ticked off and screaming at the television. Unfortunately, apathy is beginning to set in. In the midst of my boredom, I've created a list of bad Butch Jones jokes. Feel free to add to this list or burn me at the stake.

Butch Jones should be a spokesperson for a vacuum company... He sucks!

Butch Jones likes the yellow starbursts

Butch Jones' mom is disappointed in him and doesn't think he's handsome

Butch Jones pees sitting down

Butch Jones knits blankets for Christmas gifts

Butch Jones drives a Toyota Tercel

Butch Jones vacations in Muncy, Indiana.

Butch Jones thinks the band is underappreciated

Butch Jones wrote the book, Football for Dummies.

Butch Jones owns one book, Football for Dummies.

Butch Jones can't read or write

Butch Jones flies kites every afternoon

Butch Jones thinks the word infallible means sucks

Some of my favorite reader submissions:

“Butch Jones skis in jeans.”

“Butch Jones has a Blockbuster card.”

Someone else proposes everyone go to the next home game dressed in protest gear.

I think fans going to the games should wear black to show their displeasure in Butch and continue to wear black until he is fired. You can still support the team and wear the gear but seeing a stadium that is normally full of orange blacked out sends a loud and clear message.

Let’s stroll on over to Twitter just see what we find, shall we?

This is an idea of how many people have changed their Twitter names — not just tweeted, mind you, but actually changed their names — to FIRE BUTCH JONES:

(This may not be an exhaustive list.)

In Nashville, the trending topics right after the game:

This is a bit of a “choose your own adventure” game, but I’m going down the “Neyland Stadium” rabbit hole first.

A note for the athletic director from Pastor James:

@John_Currie 2nd year coach & freshman QB 4️⃣1️⃣ points #GA 5 year coach and junior qb 0️⃣points #UT & at Neyland Stadium #vols http://pic.twitter.com/CbCfKQKHcM

— Pastor James Chessor (@JamesChessor) September 30, 2017

Separately, one gentleman had a proposal:

I will post nudes on twitter if Butch Jones is fired this weekend.

— Owen Hill (@owenahill) October 1, 2017

Let’s just camp in Butch Jones’ mentions for a minute.

Well I never thought it could happen @UTCoachJones you have broken my husband

— DAT Way (@cable18) September 30, 2017

Fuck Butch Jones. Fuck this ‘excuses’ program he has sold our fan base. Fuck you and your trash ‘ecosystem’ that you push. @UTCoachJones

— Digital Dad (@DigitalDad23) September 30, 2017

Last week, Jones went on a weird rant directed at local media. Therefore:

@UTCoachJones god damn media

— RK Anderson (@RK_Anderson6) September 30, 2017

Shame on the Knoxville media if you can’t find the countless positives in the most lopsided home loss in 94 years. #Vols @utcoachjones

— G (@GFunk_Error) September 30, 2017

@UTCoachJones will bobby Petrino replace you?

— Bones (@mike_the_dick) September 30, 2017

@UTCoachJones i will fight u sir

— pey (@PeytonnBlairr) September 30, 2017

Fire HIM NOW, FULMER for Intern @UTCoachJones

— Caleb Salyers (@crazyreb12) September 30, 2017

Let’s make a super brief stop at UT’s 247Sports board.

Even Vol Nation’s children apparently offer no mercy.

My daughter just came up to me

And said that Tennessee is trash. I couldn't disagree.

And also at the school’s Scout board.

When is butch getting fired i denounce him as coach

Im not watching another game until he is gone period

Once you’ve been denounced, there’s no way back.

These aren’t even from the internet, but you should see them.

Here is a VOL BRAWL that happened in the stands:

Lets check in on the Vols http://pic.twitter.com/FTOKhgMnP8

— SEC Country (@SECcountry) September 30, 2017

Here are some extremely loud second-quarter boos:

More fun stuff here:

http://pic.twitter.com/uGYbp1hqvs

— Gray Hardison (@BellyoftheBeast) September 30, 2017

And here:

Thanks for helping me make sports illustrated for the wrong reasons @UTCoachJones https://t.co/IeJP7ZIYHS

— Quillen B (@ChillinBlack) October 1, 2017

And here:

Here:

And definitely here:

Tennessee fans had fled the premises by the end.

Last snap, 41-0 final. http://pic.twitter.com/UP7jGAH5HJ

— Joe Rexrode (@joerexrode) September 30, 2017

Back to the internet: a brief Q&A to take us home.

Did anyone propose hiring Les Miles yet?

Yes.

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Fire Butch Hire Les Problem solved

Posted by Brad Boles on Saturday, September 30, 2017

Did anyone start a GoFundMe yet to pay Jones’ buyout?

Also yes.

Are people actually going to spend money on that?

It’s possible.

Has anyone called for failed Michigan head coach Brady Hoke, UT’s DL coach, to take over? Via a Rocky Top Talk commenter:

Fire him now. Promote Hoak to interim HC, and start the search.

Has anyone suggested the Vols hire FAU coach Lane Kiffin, the man who once left them in the middle of the night to take the head coaching job at USC and has now found himself running a middling Conference USA team at 42?

Hey @Lane_Kiffin after your games over you think you could head on to Knoxville to take over for Butch or naw? #firebutch

— Scott (@msallen22) October 1, 2017

Hey @Lane_Kiffin there is a job opening up on rocky top. You interested?

— DAT Way (@cable18) October 1, 2017

At this point, I’ll take Lane Kiffin back please. #VolTwitter

— Josh C (@ViperTheShowOff) October 1, 2017

Are these people kidding?

Quite possibly. But when things are this dark, never assume someone’s joking.

Also, LSU lost to Troy.

There is losing.

There is losing at home.

There is losing at home to a team from the Sun Belt.

And there is losing at home to a team from the Sun Belt in the fifth game of your new head coach’s five-year contract, which carries a $12 million buyout.

We now visit with some Tigers fans to take their temperature.

First things first: Yes, there’s also a GoFundMe to buy out Ed Orgeron.

On Sunday evening at 6 p.m. ET, it had raised a fraction of a fraction of a percentage point of the money that’d be needed to pay Orgeron’s walking-away money.

At TigerDroppings.com, posters are plotting AD Joe Alleva’s demise.

In these sharply political times, grassroots activism is more important than ever. Whether you’re fighting for affordable healthcare or trying to get your school to fire its athletic director after a bad loss, real change happens on the ground.

Email addresses if you're interested in taking action

Michigan fans rallied (Fire Dave Brandon Rally) and got their AD ousted. Nebraska fired their AD within days of losing to Northern Illinois earlier this season (Nebraska ousts AD after embarassing loss).

Why can't we as a fanbase get Alleva and F.Kingremoved? It's well-documented that termination of both is completely warranted and way past overdue. These two gentleman have single-handedly made LSU a national laughing-stock. This is a $150 million per year organization and there must be accountability.

Things you can do to help: -Stop auto contribution to TAF today or Monday (I recommend email stopping contributions with CC to board members below) -Email the board as much as your time allows -Do not attend upcoming home games -Do not buy another piece of LSU merchandise -Talk to your powerful friends and legislators and put the BOS on notice -Keep pressure on the media to ask the tough questions and demand accountability for this $150 million per year revenue organization that is LSU athletics -If you know the governor, tell him his job is on the line too and he better stay out of our way -If you know the LSU BOS members, put them on notice that investigations of ethical violations and conflicts of interest are coming on them as individuals

Another way to get the regime out, per one poster: Have one of Louisiana’s smaller schools step in for the good of LSU.

Time for a state school to help LSU out

Get one of them like ULL or Nicholls to offer him the AD and head coaching job and strongly encourage him to accept it. Give whichever school hires him whatever they want. LSU can agree to play at their stadium for a few years.

Of course this is after Alleva is fired.

Infighting’s rampant on message boards, especially after a brutal loss.

This is a thing that happens. It’s also the time to delineate who’s a TRUE FAN and who’s not.

Check in here if you're a true fan

These are the times where people truly prove their fan-hood. I'm very upset and angry right now, but I'll never leave my Tigers. Check in if you'll be here during these dark days.

I bring that up just to share the first reply:

Just here for the downvote

At And the Valley Shook!, the discourse was largely reasonable. This comment is important to note ...

At least Florida had the foresight to schedule us for their homecoming

... because it came in response to this:

Hey @LSU, thanks for having us down for homecoming! We really enjoyed it!

— Troy University (@TROYUnews) October 1, 2017

The folks at R/LSUFootball had good sense of humor about all of this.

Someone brought up the plight of fans of another Louisianan football program: the South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs, from The Waterboy.

How I felt before drinking my sorrows away

Here is the problem for LSU: It doesn’t have Bobby Boucher.

Also, someone posted this:

One person did start a thread simply titled, “Calm the fuck down.”

This is college football, and that’s never going to happen.

0 notes

junker-town · 7 years

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Frank Wilson has improved UTSA on the field, and his recruiting hasn’t even kicked in yet

Making the jump from recruiting coordinator and assistant to head coach is rare. Looking good so far!

What happens when a recruiter proves himself before he even gets a chance to recruit a full class? Is there anything more intriguing than that?

A year ago, UTSA was tasked with replacing the only coach it’d ever had. Larry Coker had taken the program from the conceptual stage to Conference USA. The Roadrunners took the fast lane to FBS, playing one provisional year before jumping all the way in; despite that, FBS life had started with 15-9 in their first two years.

When Coker’s first, giant class of freshmen and transfers left, so did Coker’s energy. He won just seven combined games in 2014-15 and elected to head toward the proverbial golf course. In looking to replace him, UTSA took a big swing.

Wilson went from small schools to big roles in a hurry. The Nicholls State grad spent seven seasons as a Louisiana high school assistant before taking the reins at O. Perry Walker High in 2000, at the age of just 26. He won state coach of the year honors in 2002, and by 2005 found himself in the college ranks.

After a decade as position coach/ace recruiter for Ole Miss, Southern Miss, Tennessee, and LSU, he had yet to move up to the coordinator ranks. UTSA took him all the same.

I was pretty intrigued by the thought of a dynamic recruiter running the show in San Antonio, but there was reason to be cautious.

We have no idea how good Wilson might be as a head coach. Plenty of ace recruiters have failed in this role. He's done about as much as Ed Orgeron had when Orgeron landed in Oxford (though he does have head coaching experience at the high school level). But while he's not going to start inking top-20 classes at UTSA, he's going to raise the talent level.

So now he has to coach. Either he will struggle like Orgeron did and leave his successor a stocked cupboard, or he will show that he's learned from previous bosses' mistakes and thrive. All we know is that he can still recruit and that his assistant coach hires have been interesting.

When you hire someone mostly known for recruiting instead of coordinator success or college head coaching experience, you don't expect immediate success. P.J. Fleck went 1-11 in his first year at Western Michigan, after all, and in Orgeron’s first head coaching gig at Ole Miss, he never turned things around. There’s a learning process here, and there’s a foundation to be laid.

To be sure, UTSA went only 6-7 with an S&P+ ranking of No. 103 in 2016. The Roadrunners weren’t exactly dominant. But the improvement was undeniable: UTSA's S&P+ rating (presented as an adjusted points per game average) improved by 4.4 points on offense, by 1.9 points on defense, and by 1.2 points on special teams.

Most important: UTSA doubled its win total. The Roadrunners overcame a 1-3 start, then walloped bowl teams Southern Miss, North Texas, and Middle Tennessee by a combined 57 points. There were plenty of missteps — a damning home loss to UTEP, a 28-point destruction at the hands of Louisiana Tech — but this level of success wasn't expected.

And then Wilson followed up by signing the No. 3 class in Conference USA, behind only Lane Kiffin's FAU and Southern Miss.

That's pretty good proof of concept in Year 1. Now all Wilson has to do is top himself.

2016 in review

2016 UTSA statistical profile.

It took a little while for UTSA to work its way into the 2016 season. The Roadrunners were neither great nor terrible early, looking pretty poor in a win over Alabama State, then suffering competitive losses to Colorado State, Arizona State, and ODU.

Barring an excellent 55-32 win over Southern Miss, the team got to the midway point of the season without distinguishing itself. But thanks to a mostly solid defense, the Roadrunners navigated a high-octane late stretch to qualify for a bowl despite a shaky shootout loss to UTEP.

First 7 games (3-4) — Avg. percentile performance: 29% | Avg. yards per play: UTSA 5.9, Opp 5.7 (+0.2)

Last 6 games (3-3) — Avg. percentile performance: 40% | Avg. yards per play: Opp 5.7, UTSA 4.9 (-0.8)

UTSA's defensive stats didn't change that much over the second half of the season, but the opponents improved; that made for better opponent-adjusted numbers.

Still, the defense was steady aside from a couple of glitches (namely, the UTEP and Louisiana Tech games); the offense was the primary difference-maker. When it showed up, UTSA won.

Yards per play in UTSA wins: UTSA 6.3, Opp 5.3 (+1.0)

Yards per play in UTSA losses: Opp 6.1, UTSA 4.7 (-1.4)

The offense was rarely amazing, but the variation was immense. The Roadrunners scored 20 or fewer points five times and 33 or more five times. While they allowed 0.8 fewer yards per play in wins, they averaged 1.6 more yards per play in wins.

Regardless, a 4-1 stretch in October and early-November put UTSA on the doorstep of bowl eligibility, and in the regular season finale against Charlotte, the Roadrunners clinched a New Mexico Bowl bid with a 33-14 win.

Offense

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Louisiana guys stick together. Wilson named Frank Scelfo as his offensive coordinator last year; Scelfo spent 11 seasons at Tulane from 1996-06, then led the Louisiana Tech offense for three years after that. He had spent his last three seasons as an assistant for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but Wilson had enough regard for him from long ago to give him a call.

The thing that was obvious about Scelfo's résumé was his lengthy work with successful quarterbacks: Patrick Ramsey, J.P. Losman, and Shaun King at Tulane, Ross Jenkins at Louisiana Tech, Nick Foles and Matt Scott at Arizona. He might not have been directly responsible for their success, but he played a role.

It was interesting, then, to see what Scelfo might be able to do with Dalton Sturm. The former walk-on had shown some promise through ups and downs in 2015, but could Scelfo (who is also, not surprisingly, the QBs coach) make him more consistent?

Based on 2016, the answer is a solid "Maybe." "Perhaps," even! In his first year under Scelfo, Sturm's completion rate fell slightly (from 59 percent to 56.5), but he averaged 2 more yards per completion (12.8 from 10.8), cut his interception rate (2 percent from 3.3) and cut his sack rate (10.5 percent from 13.1). That's still far too many sacks, but improvement is improvement.

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Dalton Sturm

Sturm's back for one final go-round in 2017, and he's got his top four 2016 targets back.

That could be good news or bad news. Josh Stewart, Kerry Thomas Jr., Brady Jones, and Marquez McNair combined for only a 53 percent catch rate last year, and of the group, only Thomas finished 2016 with a success rate over 50 percent.

Efficiency for this offense might require influence from others. Junior running back Jalen Rhodes has a lot of potential — he combined 5.3 yards per carry with an 85 percent catch rate — and in senior Shaq Williams, JUCO transfer Robert Ursua, and three-star freshman Chance McLeod, UTSA has some interesting options at tight end. Plus, it could be interesting to see what roles Oklahoma transfer Dannon Cavil, three-star sophomore slot Matt Guidry, and three-star redshirt freshman Jesse Ebozue carve out.

Rhodes was more efficient than last year's go-to rusher, Jarveon Williams, and he'll be running behind what might be a five-senior line. Wilson brought in a couple of JUCOs to increase competition (not a terrible idea, as last year's line stats were subpar).

I'm not sure what the ceiling of a Scelfo offense is, but at worst, I figure UTSA's should improve by a couple more points per game this fall.

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Jalen Rhodes

Defense

Wilson went with an old hand on offense, but he went the other direction on D. When coordinator Pete Golding graduated from Delta State, Scelfo was already more than two decades into his career. The former college safety was Tusculum's coordinator in 2008, just three years out of graduation, and he moved up to Delta State in 2010-11 and Southeastern Louisiana in 2012-13.

After two years as safeties coach at Southern Miss, Golding took the reins of the Roadrunner defense last fall, and he acquitted himself well.

While the combination of opponent adjustments (UTSA played a lot of bad offenses) and a few too many huge plays (26 passes of 30-plus yards, 118th in FBS) dragged down their overall Def. S&P+ rating, UTSA ranked a robust 39th in Rushing S&P+. Five players made at least 6.5 tackles for loss (four return in 2017), and five defensed at least five passes (again, four return).

UTSA posted solid havoc numbers in the front (53rd in defensive line havoc rate) and back (31st in DB havoc), and the Roadrunners were just successful enough in their aggression to lure opponents into running the ball on passing downs. When the dam broke, it broke, but there was a load of potential here.

In 2017, the line returns four of its top five, three of four linebackers, and nine of 11 defensive backs. Most of the havoc guys are back, headlined by defensive end Marcus Davenport, who both makes plays and, at 6'7 and 245 pounds, looks the part.

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Marcus Davenport

From an experience standpoint, the primary question mark comes at safety, where two starters (Michael Egwuagu and Jordan Moore) need replacing. Considering the big plays UTSA allowed, that could be reason for concern.

Another potential concern: injuries. The Roadrunners simply didn't have to deal with as many as other defenses did. Most contributors played in either 12 or 13 games. That doesn't happen every year.

Still, the combination of entrenched play-makers and athletic newcomers is exciting. Wilson added two three-star linemen, a three-star linebacker, a three-star JUCO corner (Jay Jay Smith), and four three-star freshmen in the secondary. If competition breeds improvement, the Roadrunners should have a lot, especially in the back, where they need it the most.

And in linebackers Josiah Tauaefa and La'Kel Bass, they have a couple of havoc guys in the middle. Tauaefa had nine tackles for loss and six sacks as a freshman last year.

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Josiah Tauaefa

Special Teams

Part of the reason to be excited about Matt Guidry's potential with the offense is because of what he did in special teams last year. UTSA's return game dragged an otherwise shaky unit to a No. 77 ranking in Special Teams S&P+, and Guidry's steady kick returns were a major reason why.

Guidry's got potential, and honestly, so does the rest of the unit. Daniel Portillo's kickoffs were mostly unreturnable (aside from a couple of very returnable ones that went for scores), and at the very least, Victor Falcon was automatic inside of 40 yards. (Outside of 40: not so much.)

This might not be an incredibly high-ceiling special teams unit, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Roadrunners moved from 77th into the 50s or 60s in 2017.

2017 outlook

2017 Schedule & Projection Factors

Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 2-Sep Houston 49 -9.0 30% 9-Sep at Baylor 28 -18.8 14% 16-Sep Southern U. NR 25.1 93% 23-Sep at Texas State 129 12.6 77% 7-Oct Southern Miss 84 1.0 52% 14-Oct at North Texas 106 1.4 53% 21-Oct Rice 120 9.6 71% 28-Oct at UTEP 126 7.1 66% 4-Nov at Florida International 104 0.7 52% 11-Nov UAB 130 23.5 91% 18-Nov Marshall 101 4.7 61% 25-Nov at Louisiana Tech 82 -4.3 40%

Projected S&P+ Rk 91 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 92 / 84 Projected wins 7.0 Five-Year S&P+ Rk -8.5 (103) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 86 / 93 2016 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* 3 / 3.7 2016 TO Luck/Game -0.3 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 78% (81%, 74%) 2016 Second-order wins (difference) 6.3 (-0.3)

Wilson took a young two-deep and a recruiter's reputation into battle and engineered improvement before his recruiting could even kick in. That's not how that's supposed to work.

Now, in theory, the improvement could really kick in. UTSA's returning production figures (18th overall, 19th on offense, 33rd on defense) are strong, and at worst, recent recruiting should make for more competition in key areas like the receiving corps, offensive line, and secondary.

S&P+ projects UTSA to win seven games, but the upside on the schedule is obvious. The Roadrunners are given at least a 52 percent chance of winning in nine games (including seven of eight C-USA battles) and a 40 percent chance in a 10th. If this seasoned squad can close out close games, the Roadrunners could contend for the C-USA West title.

There are obvious potential limitations. We don't know that the passing game will ever be as efficient as it needs to be, and there's nothing saying that the secondary will be any better at preventing big plays. But the ceiling is high in San Antonio.

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