Cannot defend the trajectory of the program

[Turbine]

Like the RR guy said,”I am one lottery ticket away from being a millionaire.” Both sound stupid when you think about it!

Both sound stupid but one is reasonable, feasible and seizable while the other leaves you just as close to 300 million wrong options as it does to the right option.

[Big Poppa]

Point is we have talent to win the belt. Dez needs to make some adjustments in the Off-season and see need a better performance on the field next year. If it doesn’t happen then he might not be the guy for the job. Saying we’re back to the Baldwin days or he’s set the program back 10 years is just not true at this point. Am I the only one that wouldn’t be shocked if we win the conference next year?

I was hoping he would see the error of his ways last year and fix them this year. But he didn’t they just seemed to have escalated.

[JMV JustMyView]

I was hoping he would see the error of his ways last year and fix them this year. But he didn’t they just seemed to have escalated.

On the job training is what you get when you hire a high school level coach.

[JamesTheJeweler]

Both sound stupid but one is reasonable, feasible and seizable while the other leaves you just as close to 300 million wrong options as it does to the right option.

Allow me to bestow upon us, wisdom from the great PooPoo Broussard.
"An optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says the glass is half empty. Well, I'm a realist, me. Either way you gonna need some more damn water."

You can "almost" "coulda woulda shoulda" as much as you want. We didn't. Stop making excuses. He wasn't ready. Period. End of story. He was hired, why? Because he was gonna "keep it going", "maintain the culture". And enough with the NIL/portal excuses. Literally every team dealt with that. Including other teams that also got a new coach. And knowing we were now going to be dealing with this new NIL/portal age, why hire a guy with zero head coaching/play calling experience, and NO college experience other than here at UL? That's insane to think this was gonna go any other way. But hey, keep saying, "Yeah but".....our record is what we are. And certainly, if you WERE gonna hire a guy like DEZ because of the SUPPOSED, "we didnt have the money", then why the hell would you pay Dez 750K???!!!! I don't know why it's so hard for some to just say it was a bad decision. It's madness. And I'd rather spend 1 dollar buying a lottery ticket knowing I'm not gonna win, then to spend the countless amount of money, time and energy on something that keeps promising something, lies to me, makes seemingly everything harder than it should be, and generally, consistently, peeing on my leg and tell me it's raining. All the while, people around you saying, "we almost won". The lottery is a bargain and a no brainer.

[no1cajunfan]

Allow me to bestow upon us, wisdom from the great PooPoo Broussard.
"An optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says the glass is half empty. Well, I'm a realist, me. Either way you gonna need some more damn water."

You can "almost" "coulda woulda shoulda" as much as you want. We didn't. Stop making excuses. He wasn't ready. Period. End of story. He was hired, why? Because he was gonna "keep it going", "maintain the culture". And enough with the NIL/portal excuses. Literally every team dealt with that. Including other teams that also got a new coach. And knowing we were now going to be dealing with this new NIL/portal age, why hire a guy with zero head coaching/play calling experience, and NO college experience other than here at UL? That's insane to think this was gonna go any other way. But hey, keep saying, "Yeah but".....our record is what we are. And certainly, if you WERE gonna hire a guy like DEZ because of the SUPPOSED, "we didnt have the money", then why the hell would you pay Dez 750K???!!!! I don't know why it's so hard for some to just say it was a bad decision. It's madness. And I'd rather spend 1 dollar buying a lottery ticket knowing I'm not gonna win, then to spend the countless amount of money, time and energy on something that keeps promising something, lies to me, makes seemingly everything harder than it should be, and generally, consistently, peeing on my leg and tell me it's raining. All the while, people around you saying, "we almost won". The lottery is a bargain and a no brainer.

If Napier was making 2mil a year and was offered 3mil to stay, dont kid yourself when people say there was no money to go out and do a national search and get a guy better than dez just because we couldn't pay. Money is there. MH rolled the dice thinking Dez could keep the momentum going and not have to pay him. Now it's blowing up in their faces just like it did when they hired Baldwin. Their getting exactly what they deserve.

Dez will get another year just because they gave baldwin three years but if things don't get SIGNIFICANTLY better next year a new coach is needed.

[R1Letterman]

If Napier was making 2mil a year and was offered 3mil to stay, dont kid yourself when people say there was no money to go out and do a national search and get a guy better than dez just because we couldn't pay. Money is there. MH rolled the dice thinking Dez could keep the momentum going and not have to pay him. Now it's blowing up in their faces just like it did when they hired Baldwin. Their getting exactly what they deserve.

Dez will get another year just because they gave baldwin three years but if things don't get SIGNIFICANTLY better next year a new coach is needed.

Good post, very interesting.

My only question is why didn't they try and pay Dez even less, if money saving was ultimate goal.
He makes 750k??? Would he have turned down $550k? How does his contract read, could he even have stayed under prior contract just with "other duties as assigned" as most co tracts state? Probably not..... but why an increase? Is that to keep stature of the program to some extent?

[JMV JustMyView]

If Napier was making 2mil a year and was offered 3mil to stay, dont kid yourself when people say there was no money to go out and do a national search and get a guy better than dez just because we couldn't pay. Money is there. MH rolled the dice thinking Dez could keep the momentum going and not have to pay him. Now it's blowing up in their faces just like it did when they hired Baldwin. Their getting exactly what they deserve.

Dez will get another year just because they gave baldwin three years but if things don't get SIGNIFICANTLY better next year a new coach is needed.

What happened to the $3 mil that they Cajuns received from Florida? Nobody talks about that.

[SMD7636]

Hopefully, the 3 million was used to off set our debt from the COVID years.

[JamesTheJeweler]

I swear, this fanbase is like the old MadTV skit, "lowered expectations". The video speaks for itself. You can figure out who RICK is in the video. You? MH? Both?
https://youtu.be/atfDg4fLcks?si=ReUyhX8yUcYJdtxi

[Jacob81]

Our record is who we are and it’s not good enough. I’m hoping Dez isn’t that far from having a much better record.

Maybe I’m wrong. He seems too smart and too motivated to not succeed.

[zephyr]

Des defender incoming.

Billy also walked into the blank check writing version of our athletic office, along with the joy of not having to deal with college free agency (NIL + Transfer Portal). Which all of you already know, but that's kind of a big deal.

All of this is false. The portal was easily available at that time. We don't have blank checks around this university.

[ULvictory]

No one will convince me that the losses to Georgia State, Southern Miss, Old Dominion, and Arkansas State were due to having less talent or those teams being better. We lost those games due to lack of fundamentals and poor discipline. We lost games in 2022 for the same reasons. We are seeing the same issues we saw a year ago, and they haven't changed. That is why I expect some staff shakeups at the end of this season.

[no1cajunfan]

Good post, very interesting.

My only question is why didn't they try and pay Dez even less, if money saving was ultimate goal.
He makes 750k??? Would he have turned down $550k? How does his contract read, could he even have stayed under prior contract just with "other duties as assigned" as most co tracts state? Probably not..... but why an increase? Is that to keep stature of the program to some extent?

Good question. My guess is because of the success under Napier UL needed to pay a HC a salary at or near the top of the SB. If not, that would have sent a bad message going from 2mil to 550K. Thats my opinion.

[JMV JustMyView]

Good question. My guess is because of the success under Napier UL needed to pay a HC a salary at or near the top of the SB. If not, that would have sent a bad message going from 2mil to 550K. Thats my opinion.

3.1 Million was on the table for Napier and he turned it down. The money will always be found to try to keep the right coach. Coach Justin had some offers and the Cajuns bumped him in pay and title to keep him.

[facelessjonmoon]

If Napier was making 2mil a year and was offered 3mil to stay, dont kid yourself when people say there was no money to go out and do a national search and get a guy better than dez just because we couldn't pay. Money is there. MH rolled the dice thinking Dez could keep the momentum going and not have to pay him. Now it's blowing up in their faces just like it did when they hired Baldwin. Their getting exactly what they deserve.

Dez will get another year just because they gave baldwin three years but if things don't get SIGNIFICANTLY better next year a new coach is needed.

The Baldwin comparison is iffy. The 2 years before Baldwin started the program was 1-10 and 2-9. Anybody being honest would admit it would take more than 2 years

The 2 years before Des started the team was 10-1 and 13-1. Des also needs a third year but the current trajectory is concerning