How we just lost the recruiting battle.

[CrazyCajun]

Texas state will blast our defense, Georgia state will blast our defense, app will rip us another azhole... Again

[ULvictory]

At this point, I've come to the fact that we have plateaued in this conference. The Sun Belt only brings in so many good athletes that can consistently compete with the likes of CUSA, MAC, or the Mountain West. And before any of you claim that they're no different, then explain to me why the conference has NEVER had a ranked team in the top 25.....EVER. And explain to me why these other conferences have had teams make the big bowls like the Fiesta or Orange Bowls while the Sun Belt settles for Mobile.

As long as we are in this conference, we will not recruit the top notch athletes that we need to compete on a national scale. We just built a $30M APC, we pay our coaches more than any other G5 school in the nation, and we have the fan support that can show up in droves at the snap of a finger. But the reality is that they won't show up if the product on the field is not worth watching. These fans won't pay to watch us play the likes of Texas State and NMSU week after week while getting trounced by likes of Akron. Period.

The administration needs to start understanding that you don't add end zone seating, build an APC, or pay a coach $1M to stay in the conference we are in. If that's the case, then we just threw away A LOT of money.

[CajunRed]

At this point, I've come to the fact that we have plateaued in this conference. The Sun Belt only brings in so many good athletes that can consistently compete with the likes of CUSA, MAC, or the Mountain West. And before any of you claim that they're no different, then explain to me why the conference has NEVER had a ranked team in the top 25.....EVER. And explain to me why these other conferences have had teams make the big bowls like the Fiesta or Orange Bowls while the Sun Belt settles for Mobile.

As long as we are in this conference, we will not recruit the top notch athletes that we need to compete on a national scale. We just built a $30M APC, we pay our coaches more than any other G5 school in the nation, and we have the fan support that can show up in droves at the snap of a finger. But the reality is that they won't show up if the product on the field is not worth watching. These fans won't pay to watch us play the likes of Texas State and NMSU week after week while getting trounced by likes of Akron. Period.

The administration needs to start understanding that you don't add end zone seating, build an APC, or pay a coach $1M to stay in the conference we are in. If that's the case, then we just threw away A LOT of money.

Again...last night's embarrassing beat down has NOTHING to do with conference.

[Just1More]

Victory... this isn't about our overall status. It isn't time to get philosophical. We have some bad football coaching going on. It's down to just a few employees. They need to know that they suck right now, and do what people who don't want to suck anymore do to not suck anymore. You can either man up to your own hype, or go somewhere where your level of suck is appreciated or at least not despised. It boils down to a football coaching staff. It is the week of their suck... and their suck alone.

[Just1More]

Again...last night's embarrassing beat down has NOTHING to do with conference.

Agreed.

[CrazyCajun]

Georgia southern and app state will be the first ranked schools in the sunbelt.

[Cajunfanatico]

.............we pay our coaches more than any other G5 school in the nation......

I do believe that statement is no where near accuracte.

[stodgdog]

Last year was the pinnacle of talent, yet we started 1-3, including a home beat down by LaTech? Hud's saying this year isn't any different than last year now that we're 1-3. This "lost our seniors" BS is an annual event. It is no excuse. We now have year 5 under Hud - a man credited, nationally, with resuscitating a dead program. With successive bowl victories and hype out of the rear end, we're less in year 5 than we were in year one? Really?

Excuses of a talent void are unacceptable. Hud is a great hype coach and he did crank up the strength and conditioning element. That's a given. But his coaching of football and/or selection of people to coach it under him is abissmal. My eyes don't lie to me. Decent football programs and coaches make Hud and his staff look like they learned to coach from a seminar.

Akron and Tech. Hud's embarrassed us. And he needs to know it.

I talked to George Costanza this morning. He told me ya'll visited the other night. He was able to see the game in Baltimore. Was it available in BR? The Cajuns were well represented at the game, though I don't know how many. I spoke with a group of Cajun fans at an old "haunt" and thanked them for coming up for the game. They were nice folks. I know ya'll are disappointed in the game's outcome but hope your folks that attended enjoyed their visit. I am in favor of renewing the series though it would have to be a few years down the road unless some changes are made with the existing schedules.

[stodgdog]

Every team loses players every year. That is not an excuse. We have not even been competitive with Tech. TECH, let alone any real football teams. Absolutely unacceptable to get embarrassed by ther program 2 years in a row. I am disgusted.

The job description is to recruit, coach em up, and then put them in a position to succeed. What's going on is an absolute travesty. It's either smoke and mirrors on the talent side of things, or the other 2 areas are extremely lacking.

TECH is a real football team. Our strength is the run game and the Cajuns pretty much took that away. Tech still found a way to win. Maybe you should accept that Tech is a pretty good team.

[ULvictory]

Victory... this isn't about our overall status. It isn't time to get philosophical. We have some bad football coaching going on. It's down to just a few employees. They need to know that they suck right now, and do what people who don't want to suck anymore do to not suck anymore. You can either man up to your own hype, or go somewhere where your level of suck is appreciated or at least not despised. It boils down to a football coaching staff. It is the week of their suck... and their suck alone.

J1M, it's all of these things mixed in one. By no means am I using conference as an excuse as a loss. The point I'm trying to make is that no matter how much we talk about competing with the big boys, we will never do so playing in the conference we are in. Tech was better than us last night in all aspects of the game, which includes ATHLETES. You would be amazed at how many athletes we have lost in the past to schools like Tech based on the perception of CONFERENCE. These kids coming out of high school pay attention to that kind of stuff.

But no, you're right at the fact that the coaching staff needs to be held accountable for that debacle last night. Heck, I'm still scratching my head at that pick 6 with 0:05 left in the first half. You have the ball on your own 25 down 15 and you run a pass play instead of taking a knee into the locker room. But like I said last night, everything will be fine and dandy because we will somehow pull out some close wins in our terrible conference and somehow become bowl eligible making everything alright. I'm personally getting tired of it.

[ULvictory]

I do believe that statement is no where near accuracte.

I stand corrected. Our head coach makes a higher salary than all other coaches in the Sun Belt, MAC, and CUSA. And would be listed at around 3-4 in the Mountain West.

STILL no excuse!!!!!!

[Ragin4U]

J1M, it's all of these things mixed in one. By no means am I using conference as an excuse as a loss. The point I'm trying to make is that no matter how much we talk about competing with the big boys, we will never do so playing in the conference we are in. Tech was better than us last night in all aspects of the game, which includes ATHLETES. You would be amazed at how many athletes we have lost in the past to schools like Tech based on the perception of CONFERENCE. These kids coming out of high school pay attention to that kind of stuff.

But no, you're right at the fact that the coaching staff needs to be held accountable for that debacle last night. Heck, I'm still scratching my head at that pick 6 with 0:05 left in the first half. You have the ball on your own 25 down 15 and you run a pass play instead of taking a knee into the locker room. But like I said last night, everything will be fine and dandy because we will somehow pull out some close wins in our terrible conference and somehow become bowl eligible making everything alright. I'm personally getting tired of it.

I agree with most everything posted here especially about the coaches, etc BUT neither Akron nor tech are these horrible teams that we were supposed to crush. We were 8 point favs vs Akron and 18 point dogs vs tech. We certainly didnt show up against Akron and were certainly out-talented and out-coached against tech. If we dont show up better in conference, that will be a different conversation.