Des Makes Big Change To August Camp

[John Cocktolstoy]

I got a text this morning that was so ridiculous, I think I should say something here.

Any of you lazy “writers” for the rags in this town getting ready to make this a “story”, you should give up on the idea. This is the biggest non-issue thread.

Per people very, intimately familiar with the “decision” to let kids live off of campus: FB players that qualify academically have always ALWAYS been able to live off of campus. There is a narrative being shaped here and on social media that Mike is soft on the players and this was misconstrued as an example of that narrative. There are agendas at work here. Be very careful what you read.

First of all this thread has nothing to do with kids being able to live off campus, as a place to reside during a semester. That has never been the argument in this thread so not sure your point. It has always been the case, that even though kids were living off campus, they lived together as a team during the fall camp session.

Secondly it is not a narrative being shaped on social media that Mike is being soft on the players. I was told that in a one on one conversation with a player after the spring practice period ended in April. And now this next move that is obviously going to be much easier on players, during camp goes right it line with that conversation.

I wish Mike all the best. I hope he wins more games in a shorter period of time than any coach in the history of our school, but you can’t be the friend that an assistant usually is to players, and the hard @$$ that a head coach needs to be at the same time. That NEVER works.

And no players could not “ALWAYS” live off campus, back in the days before athletic dorms were abolished by the NCAA, it was mandatory all players live on campus.

[John Cocktolstoy]

Absolutely. This is not about living on or off campus, it's about the same fans that did not want Des as the HC just finding anything to complain about when there is really nothing available. Haters will be haters. Haters need to eat more cheese . . .

No. This is not about living on or off campus. It’s about the way to run a pre season training camp. Do you do it the way the Napier, Saban, Sweeney, and the vast majority of the most successful college coaches for years have done it or do you gamble and experiment in your first year as a head coach?

This has nothing to do with where a kid lives once the semester starts through the Christmas break.

[Boomer]

Absolutely. This is not about living on or off campus, it's about the same fans that did not want Des as the HC just finding anything to complain about when there is really nothing available. Haters will be haters. Haters need to eat more cheese . . .

…Because there is SO much more to the decision then we know, I say let’s go with the coaches wishes…now just my wants would be on campus because of convenience……meals, snacks, medical, teammate chats, coaches meetings, transportation…the less peripheral things to think about, the more the time for football….hey, obviously the coaches know all this, and yet they choose to let them off…Geaux Cajuns!

[ManAboutTown]

First of all this thread has nothing to do with kids being able to live off campus, as a place to reside during a semester. That has never been the argument in this thread so not sure your point. It has always been the case, that even though kids were living off campus, they lived together as a team during the fall camp session.

Secondly it is not a narrative being shaped on social media that Mike is being soft on the players. I was told that in a one on one conversation with a player after the spring practice period ended in April. And now this next move that is obviously going to be much easier on players, during camp goes right it line with that conversation.

I wish Mike all the best. I hope he wins more games in a shorter period of time than any coach in the history of our school, but you can’t be the friend that an assistant usually is to players, and the hard @$$ that a head coach needs to be at the same time. That NEVER works.

And no players could not “ALWAYS” live off campus, back in the days before athletic dorms were abolished by the NCAA, it was mandatory all players live on campus.

So I’m assuming you’re saying some player from the team told you that Mike was being too easy on the players. And now that has opened up RP to other threads about HOW he’s being soft on the players. That is exactly what creating a narrative looks like. I’ll say again, since the moment Mike was hired, people decided it was a USL hire and will work day and night to prove how right they were.

As for your living off campus qualification: I’ll rephrase - in the modern era, players have lived off campus even during fall camp. It certainly happened under Bustle, I know that for a fact, because one of them roomed with us.

But my biggest question to you is, at what level did you run a fall camp at the collegiate level and what exactly do you know about the on campus/off campus dynamic that makes you so passionate about this? I’ll be very interested to read your answer.

[KajunKrazy]

Kids have lived off campus during camp too.
What people aren’t understanding is how media is done now. We have an ex-Tech, UL hating reporter for the AdverTiger doing embarrassing work on our program right now. Dude is just waiting for a negative slant to start hammering Mike. And he’s lazy, like most print “journalists” are now days. He will come here and start using info. Incorrect info, but he doesn’t care.

And it’s not just him. Outside of Foote, no one really does real reporting on our team anymore. Their “news” comes from twitter and here.

I’m not trying to say don’t ask questions. Hell, I am the king of questioning. But keep things into perspective and remember what we’re up against. People don’t want to see UL stay on top in this state. They’ll find anything they can to topple us.

Was there a story about this in the paper? I quit subscribing long ago.

[CharlieK]

______ I can’t wait for the season to start.

[allincajun]

Kids have lived off campus during camp too.
What people aren’t understanding is how media is done now. We have an ex-Tech, UL hating reporter for the AdverTiger doing embarrassing work on our program right now. Dude is just waiting for a negative slant to start hammering Mike. And he’s lazy, like most print “journalists” are now days. He will come here and start using info. Incorrect info, but he doesn’t care.

And it’s not just him. Outside of Foote, no one really does real reporting on our team anymore. Their “news” comes from twitter and here.

I’m not trying to say don’t ask questions. Hell, I am the king of questioning. But keep things into perspective and remember what we’re up against. People don’t want to see UL stay on top in this state. They’ll find anything they can to topple us.

Who is the writer? I have not read the paper in at least 5 years

[allincajun]

______ I can’t wait for the season to start.

I second that

[John Cocktolstoy]

So I’m assuming you’re saying some player from the team told you that Mike was being too easy on the players. And now that has opened up RP to other threads about HOW he’s being soft on the players. That is exactly what creating a narrative looks like. I’ll say again, since the moment Mike was hired, people decided it was a USL hire and will work day and night to prove how right they were.

As for your living off campus qualification: I’ll rephrase - in the modern era, players have lived off campus even during fall camp. It certainly happened under Bustle, I know that for a fact, because one of them roomed with us.

But my biggest question to you is, at what level did you run a fall camp at the collegiate level and what exactly do you know about the on campus/off campus dynamic that makes you so passionate about this? I’ll be very interested to read your answer.

Kids may have stayed spread out off campus during camp during Bustle years I don’t recall. I know they haven’t since the HUD days. As a matter of fact it wasn’t until the HUD then Napier days that this football program started doing anything that resembled big time college football in the way they ran things. I have never ran a camp. But I saw what Napier did and I can see what other big time successful college football programs are doing. You said it yourself that’s how we did it in the Bustle days. Is that what we are aspiring to be now Bustle days?

[ManAboutTown]

Kids may have stayed spread out off campus during camp during Bustle years I don’t recall. I know they haven’t since the HUD days. As a matter of fact it wasn’t until the HUD then Napier days that this football program started doing anything that resembled big time college football in the way they ran things. I have never ran a camp. But I saw what Napier did and I can see what other big time successful college football programs are doing. You said it yourself that’s how we did it in the Bustle days. Is that what we are aspiring to be now Bustle days?

It’s hilarious, the length you’ll go to one up someone on here. I know some of you worship Napier, but I’ll remind you that Hudspeth fostered the single most toxic lockeroom in the history of this program. You casually step right over that.

Bustle made plenty of mistakes. But he’s also a big reason why we are where we are today. The point was that kids lived off campus during fall camp as recently as bustle. So your previous posts about it were completely wrong.

Thanks for admitting that you have no idea what goes into running a successful fall camp at the FBS level. “Watching Napier” and “hearing from a player” means nothing. This is Mike’s team. This is a completely different situation than even last year. Let the man build and Coach his football team before you start sabotaging him.

[Bandwagon King]

It’s hilarious, the length you’ll go to one up someone on here. I know some of you worship Napier, but I’ll remind you that Hudspeth fostered the single most toxic lockeroom in the history of this program. You casually step right over that.

Bustle made plenty of mistakes. But he’s also a big reason why we are where we are today. The point was that kids lived off campus during fall camp as recently as bustle. So your previous posts about it were completely wrong.

Please explain to me how Bustle has a damn thing to do with why this program is where it is today? Because for the life of me, I can't see it. I can tell by your previous comments you harbor a lot of hatred for Hudspeth. And he broke rules which in reality had to be broken to help get this DOA program on the winning track. But you're suffering from a massive amount of myopic delusion if you think anything other than Hudspeth coming here & pushing & challenging the University & local community leadership to put a huge amount of capital into the football program which was previously unheard of in the past was the beginning of any turn around for this school.
No offense Chief, I like a lot of your takes. But you also have a tendency to be about yourself & what your position is in messaging UL athletics. And that isn't always the best for the program either. The fact is we don't have a clue what's coming down the pipe for this football program. I hope & pray that Des wins the conference every single season for the rest of his tenure here. But we have lost a lot of great coaches, personnel & players as is the nature of college sports. Everything is subject to being debated at this point. And that debate won't change a damn thing that goes on between the lines of the gridiron. But where this thing goes in the future depends upon decisions being made in the locker room & coach's offices today. And acting like Bustle ever did anything to improve this program for the nine years he was here wasn't a fix to the problem. It was the problem. And if we revert back to that type of thinking then we are reverting back to the 41 & 65 won/loss record of a guy whose last season was just as uncompetitive as his first one was.

[John Cocktolstoy]

Please explain to me how Bustle has a damn thing to do with why this program is where it is today? Because for the life of me, I can't see it. I can tell by your previous comments you harbor a lot of hatred for Hudspeth. And he broke rules which in reality had to be broken to help get this DOA program on the winning track. But you're suffering from a massive amount of myopic delusion if you think anything other than Hudspeth coming here & pushing & challenging the University & local community leadership to put a huge amount of capital into the football program which was previously unheard of in the past was the beginning of any turn around for this school.
No offense Chief, I like a lot of your takes. But you also have a tendency to be about yourself & what your position is in messaging UL athletics. And that isn't always the best for the program either. The fact is we don't have a clue what's coming down the pipe for this football program. I hope & pray that Des wins the conference every single season for the rest of his tenure here. But we have lost a lot of great coaches, personnel & players as is the nature of college sports. Everything is subject to being debated at this point. And that debate won't change a damn thing that goes on between the lines of the gridiron. But where this thing goes in the future depends upon decisions being made in the locker room & coach's offices today. And acting like Bustle ever did anything to improve this program for the nine years he was here wasn't a fix to the problem. It was the problem. And if we revert back to that type of thinking then we are reverting back to the 41 & 65 won/loss record of a guy whose last season was just as uncompetitive as his first one was.

Disagree Bustle left this place a lot better than he found it. Baldwin won like 6 games in 3 years. Bustle only had 60 or so scholarship players when he got here. The roster was in shambles. It rook 2 or 3 years just to get the roster back to the numbers it needed to be. He got them from the cellar to respectability.

[ManAboutTown]

Please explain to me how Bustle has a damn thing to do with why this program is where it is today? Because for the life of me, I can't see it. I can tell by your previous comments you harbor a lot of hatred for Hudspeth. And he broke rules which in reality had to be broken to help get this DOA program on the winning track. But you're suffering from a massive amount of myopic delusion if you think anything other than Hudspeth coming here & pushing & challenging the University & local community leadership to put a huge amount of capital into the football program which was previously unheard of in the past was the beginning of any turn around for this school.
No offense Chief, I like a lot of your takes. But you also have a tendency to be about yourself & what your position is in messaging UL athletics. And that isn't always the best for the program either. The fact is we don't have a clue what's coming down the pipe for this football program. I hope & pray that Des wins the conference every single season for the rest of his tenure here. But we have lost a lot of great coaches, personnel & players as is the nature of college sports. Everything is subject to being debated at this point. And that debate won't change a damn thing that goes on between the lines of the gridiron. But where this thing goes in the future depends upon decisions being made in the locker room & coach's offices today. And acting like Bustle ever did anything to improve this program for the nine years he was here wasn't a fix to the problem. It was the problem. And if we revert back to that type of thinking then we are reverting back to the 41 & 65 won/loss record of a guy whose last season was just as uncompetitive as his first one was.

A lot to unpack here. I’ll be brief.

1) Zero hatred for Hudspeth. Had a personal relationship with the man. But facts are facts. The culture was toxic after about year 2.5.
2) I’m not discounting the need for debate. You’re correct that things are up in the air. But I’ll say again, agendas were defined immediately after Mike was named coach. It’s very obvious what’s happening every time someone starts with this kind of crap.
3) If you don’t think that Rickey changed a lot of things around here, I’ll have to question how closely you follow this program. Hudspeth took Bustle’s players and won with them. You want to argue that he wasn’t energetic and great at X & O’s? That’s another conversation. But he changed the course of our program, with regard to how to build and maintain.
4) Supporting Mike as our coach before he’s even completed his first off season has nothing to do with being self serving. It’s something we should all be doing. In fact, because he’s a local son, former player and coach, and life long supporter of this place, he should be given an extra layer of support, regardless of what happens this first few months, in my opinion. This guy has inherited a program going through enormous change, a fickle ass fanbase and almost unfair expectations. The last thing he needs is our hardcore fans starting ____ over nothing.

I’m going to choose to support this guy until he gives me a real reason to doubt him. Because he deserves that.

[John Cocktolstoy]

It’s hilarious, the length you’ll go to one up someone on here. I know some of you worship Napier, but I’ll remind you that Hudspeth fostered the single most toxic lockeroom in the history of this program. You casually step right over that.

Bustle made plenty of mistakes. But he’s also a big reason why we are where we are today. The point was that kids lived off campus during fall camp as recently as bustle. So your previous posts about it were completely wrong.

Thanks for admitting that you have no idea what goes into running a successful fall camp at the FBS level. “Watching Napier” and “hearing from a player” means nothing. This is Mike’s team. This is a completely different situation than even last year. Let the man build and Coach his football team before you start sabotaging him.

Questioning as to why one is getting away from a very proven successful method that is very widely used throughout all of college football is not sabotaging. Since when do we live in a world where it is not ok to question? The only place I know in our society today that you are not allowed to question is if you question the corrupt leftest. They will put these fake fact checkers out on your question. To my knowledge it is still OK to question a college football coach.

[CajunT]

Disagree Bustle left this place a lot better than he found it. Baldwin won like 6 games in 3 years. Bustle only had 60 or so scholarship players when he got here. The roster was in shambles. It rook 2 or 3 years just to get the roster back to the numbers it needed to be. He got them from the cellar to respectability.

Try less than 45 on scholarship.