UL Football: Bustle will be back for 2010

[ManAboutTown]

_ This is a quote from someone (SWBulldog) commenting in The Advertiser today about Bustle being retained:



THAT just about sums up what the Lafayette and Acadiana think of UL sports and is why only 12,000 show up for a final game of the year vs. an undefeated conference champion with a 7th win and bowl game on the line. APATHY. It is also why more people in Lafayette support LSU than UL. No other way to put it. UL is the small school with big ambitions but no means and no leadership to get there. Next year will be another average year in football. Basketball has fallen into the abyss and UL is taking NO ACTION to correct it in both men's and women's basketball. No one cares any more because the university doesn't care. I shouldn't say that, because they obviously care. It is that they don't exhibit any semblance of caring because they ALWAYS take the cheap way out, give no real explanations, and our AD will NOT meet with the media. We get no vision of where athletics is heading. RCAF after all the planning is rolled out with a wimper, no fanfare, no major push, and is fledgling along. And, our new President is silent on everything in athletics. And, many here wonder why people won't support UL or why they go over to the dark side and support LSU. When we criticize, we are labled as being just like LSU fans. God forbid we want to be successful in any sport. For all that has been said about our new administration and the positive changes that will now occur with Dr. A out of office, well, it ain't happening.

The only thing that would make this palatable to me in keeping Bustle is that by doing so we are able to make sweeping changes NOW in basketball. By that, I mean Coach Lee is replaced on an interim basis by an assistant coach and we start a search for a new coach. There are plenty outstanding coaches who are not coaching right now that would be great candidates. AND, we relieve Coach Rogers as head coach and bring back Coach Hall who is available immediately and is willing and ready to return to UL.

THAT would be the kind of statement I am looking for. We should have a pretty solid football team coming back next year. IF we do something in basketball NOW, I can stomach another year under Bustle. Who knows, we just might winning 3 of those 4 OOC games and go 7-1 or 6-2 in conference and end up in a bowl game. At least there is the hope of that. There is NO HOPE in basketball, men's or women's, and changes are needed IMMEDIATELY. _

Funny how that particular passage found its way into the paper.. If this comment is any indication of how the administration views UL athletics, we are all wasting our time. And judging by recent to not-so-recent history, it fits.

[ULGrad@HOU]

_ _

This was a bad decision.

[Rasta]

Here's a newsflash, the mediocrity lies in the administration. Mediocre may be too kind in fact. Personally I believe Bustle has done a great job working with one of the 3 lowest budgets in the worst football conference in the country. Nick Saban and Urban Meyer as co-head coaches couldn't do much better. BUT, the administration had two options in this case; retain Bustle and give him an extension, OR, terminate his contract and move in another direction. But in retaining him in a lame duck position, in the last year of a contract with no extension, you're dooming yourself to failure. That KILLS recruiting. Given they have no recruiting budget to begin with, adding further obstacles is devastating to the program. Rumors are that an extension MAY POSSIBLY be in the works. If that's the case then my opinion changes. But until then this shows a total lack of commitment and a recipe for failure. Period.