Excuses, reasons, explanations, they all go together depending on your point of view.

However, explaining why something happens and giving the reasons can often sound like excuses when it comes to sports. The difference is decided by the listener and not the speaker.

As for coaches, they hate to use excuses. Those make their players victims and often lead to defeats.

Frank Wilson is no different. The McNeese State football coach talks in terms of “next man up” and “we believe in our guys.”

Fans want to hear more. They want to place blame on anybody and everybody.

Yet there are always reasons.

The Cowboys have but one game left in a season that has been disappointing. At 4-6 the best McNeese can do is finish one game under .500.

It will be the second straight losing season for the Cowboys after 15 winning ones in a row. Both have come this calendar year. That’s not a way the program wants to be trending as it dreams of a move to the FBS level.

“We are disappointed,” said Wilson. “We expect to play for championships here at McNeese and we are not going to do that this season.”

For those who wonder how this happened it’s pretty simple but we have to go back in time to explain. No reasons, no excuses, just facts and explanations. Readers can decide from there.

Before the hurricanes and pandemics there was the playoff suspension and coaching changes.

While Wilson was still coaching at the University of Texas-San Antonio, the seeds for McNeese’s misfortunes were being planted. The playoff ban, which should have been served in 2020, led to a pair of coaching changes and lasted until last spring because of the pandemic.

So what was to be a one year issue on the recruiting trail has lasted even until today. When Lance Guidry was let go and Sterling Gilbert left after one season McNeese was delayed in recruiting for two more cycles.

Playing catch-up is no way to win recruiting wars.

Then, just as Wilson was set to begin his first coaching spring, the pandemic hit and was followed by two hurricanes that doomed the fall training season of 2020.

“It was frustrating that we could not do anything,” said quarterback Cody Orgeron. “We did a lot of zoom meetings but it was hard to get through.”

With all the delays, a good portion of the roster moved on. A total of 32 players with eligibility left the program, good players who are still on college rosters.

Of the 32, 23 played for other programs. Ten of those players are on FBS rosters, four at power 5 conference schools.

“You hate to see those guys go,” said Orgeron. “They are your friends, your teammates. But everybody has to do what is in the best interest of their families and what is best for them. You have to respect their decisions.”

Nobody has done better than defensive end/ linebacker Cody Roscoe, who left with Gilbert for Syracuse. He was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week recently.

The transfer portal made player movement easier and Wilson has used it to reload the Cowboys too, with the likes of All-American Isaiah Chambers and others. But the experienced depth is what has been missing.

“We lost numbers and quality players,” said Wilson. “We got players to come in and play that are very good, but we lost our experienced depth. So we became young.”

Over the last two years Orgeron has lost four of his better receivers, including his go-to guy Trevor Beague, who transferred to Incarnate Word after the spring season.

That has forced him to get to know new receivers on the fly and without the benefit of a true offseason.

“It takes time to get the chemistry,” Orgeron has said during the year. “We have been close this year a lot.”

But in the end the pieces have not fallen into place.

“We have just gone about it as next man up,” said defensive back Colby Richardson. “Guys leave, guys get hurt, you just have to keep working.

“We have been through a lot the past few years but we have stuck together and have played hard. We will keep moving forward.”

Rebuilding a program is never fun nor is it ever easy. Fans want answers and they don’t want to hear excuses.

Facts are not always listened to as well.

In truth, there is no one reason for the Cowboys’ struggles. Transfers, coaching changes, playoff suspension, storms, all can be both explanations or excuses based on your beliefs.

Reality is the best McNeese can do this year is finish 5-6 and that’s not good enough for fans, coaches and players alike.

But even the losses have reasons. Problems inside the red zone are the easiest to point fingers at, no question. Yet there is more.

McNeese is just 1-5 against nationally ranked teams at LSU. Three of those losses have been by one possession or less.

So we are not talking a huge difference here, but an alarming one for a fan base that remembers the glory days as if they just happened. They don’t want reasons, excuses or explanations, they just want results.

“It doesn’t matter the reason, we just have to win games,” said Wilson.

That fact, they all can agree on.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com