Patrick Mahomes hadn’t won a Super Bowl. Tiger Woods was the reigning Masters champion. Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors were the reigning NBA Champions. COVID-19 hadn’t existed yet. Donald Trump was the President of the United States.
All of these statements were true the last time Fort Lewis football won a game. Oct. 5, 2019, the Skyhawks beat Adams State 28-9 on Ray Dennison Field to improve to 3-2 on the season.
Since then, FLC football has lost 39 straight games. During this 39-game losing streak, the Skyhawks have been within one score of the opponent as time expired only three times. FLC has the longest losing streak in the nation. The average margin of defeat has been 38.7 points.
This losing streak has spanned three head coaches. Johnny Cox is going into his third year as the Skyhawks’ head coach. He is 0-21 as FLC’s head coach.
Cox is a great person to talk to. He’s an all-time FLC great and still owns the school records in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He’s trying to build the program in an old-school way with internal development and player retention, which is admirable. He’s not relying on the transfer portal and searching it like he’s looking for the crumbs at the bottom of the bag like lots of coaches in rebuilding programs. His heart is in the right place, and it seems like he’s trying to build these players on and off the field.
Doing the right things is great, but it can’t be the only thing on your résumé. Winning matters. This isn’t youth football. College football and college sports are about winning.
Therefore, it’s win-or-go-home time for Cox and the program. Cox can’t go three years without winning a single game and stay on. It’s not like the expectation is to have a winning record or compete at the top of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
He and the program need to show tangible proof his coaching and philosophies work. Win a game. You have 11 chances this year. If not, I don’t know how you can logically defend a coach with a 0-32 record in the offseason.
Some of his players have now been in his system for three years. That should be plenty of time for some of these players to emerge and lead this team to a win. It’s plenty of time to find at least one diamond in the rough who was overlooked coming out of high school to be an impact player who can effect winning.
Cox and FLC Director of Athletics Travis Whipple have talked about a plan, process or a vision for the program. They like to talk about how there’s been internal progress and the culture is changing.
That’s great but when will the external progress show? How long should that take? Having a coach with a good moral compass is great, but what will put butts in seats is winning. There are plenty of coaches in college football and college athletics who have questionable morals and character, but that’s overlooked if they’re successful on the field.
It isn’t all Cox’s or Whipple’s fault. Cox has been handicapped by a minimal recruiting budget and lackluster facilities. These problems were evident before Cox or Whipple were at FLC in their current roles.
Cox’s and Whipple’s diction reminds me of the case of Bruno Caboclo. He was drafted in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft. NBA Draft analyst Fran Fraschilla infamously said he was, “two years away from being two years away.” Caboclo never did much in the NBA.
It seems like that’s the argument FLC is making with football right now: “Keep the faith, they’ll get there eventually, there’s a plan.”
Despite his winless tenure, Cox is confident in his program and thinks his team can compete this year and win multiple games. If that were the case, it would be amazing to see. I’m not rooting against Cox or FLC football. Every decent person should want him and the program to succeed, especially with the time he’s put in the program as a player and a coach.
There needs to be accountability. One of FLC’s slogans is “To the Top!” If the Skyhawks go winless again, the football program will have gone to the absolute bottom and maybe should never fly again.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
