Des Makes Big Change To August Camp

[ZoomZoom]

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.

Agree with you except the extra layer of support. It's the largest moneymaker, it needs to be strickly business.

We have three local coaches who finished 5th, 5th and last in 21-22, and excuses abound. Track is the only one that had NCAA championship level participation in the last decade, but hey, it's ok. They're all one of us.

Heck, even the last bastion of hiring favorite sons, McLeast, finally figured that is not the model for success.

[John Cocktolstoy]

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.

I don’t think any one on this message board is not supporting mike to do well. Questioning why a guy made a decision he did does not mean one is not pulling for him to succeed .

[ManAboutTown]

And you are a hell of a debater.
on point one- I know there were a lot of "established real UL backers" who hated Mark Hudspeth the minute he got here. The guy was stand offish & Bustle was a nice likable guy. It didn't help him win a single football game. Your previous post reminded me of that.

Which leads me to point 3) The only standard Bustle set was sub standard. He had nine years, so the old blame the other guy routine is out. The man never had a winning season in nine years. And his last season he couldn't win more than three games with the same players the other guy came in & won 9 with his first year. Scoreboard on that point.

point 2) I'm not against Mike at all. And I'm certainly have no intention of sabotaging his tenure here unless he sucks as a coach. Then all bets are off. But in my mind, to question a major huge philosophical shift back to a time when the program was NOT successful is not in any way sabotage. And since I didn't chime in until page 11 or so, I'll go a step further & say I read every single post on this matter before I made my first post to purposely try to not speak out of turn without further knowledge.

Finally point 4- Unlike other UL fans, I realize already that Mike is going to have some special challenges that are going to be working against him. So, I' not going to expect this team to win 10, 11, or 12 games this season. I understand that he's following a legend. I understand that this team lost a LOT of great players as well as great leadership from last year's team, especially at the quarterback position.

But I can tell you what I do expect. I expect competitiveness. I expect a team that doesn't look like the keystone cops the first three weeks of the season because no one is on the same page. They might get physically beaten, but don't have guys lining up wrong & having to use precious timeouts because players either aren't on the field, or there is mass confusion among everyone. Don't let guys run free all over your defense because no one knows who is supposed to cover who. If this occurs on an even semi regular basis, you can darn well bet this very thread will be revisited over & over again. And it won't be pretty. And it shouldn't be pretty because it will be someone's fault. And that fault will only go to the guy calling the shots. And that my friend is the way it is, fair, or unfair.

Touché.

But let’s remember Bustle was recruiting to Butler buildings and ham sub dinners. He also built the roster that would become HUD’s 2 best teams. He also jump started the facilities fund raising campaigns that we enjoy to this day.

I’m no Bustle sycophant, but I appreciate the intangibles that he brought to Lafayette. And credit to Mark for capitalizing on them.

I want to stress that I’m not against questions things. The opposite is actually true. What I’m most concerned with is giving our program a chance, post Napier, to transition into a new era of success. That might require some patience and yes, even some forgiving of things early on in the Des regime. He’s a first year HC. Yes, he’s been handed the keys to a healthy program. Probably the most healthy transition of power in our history. But he will have land mines to navigate. Our fans shouldn’t be one of those land mines.

And from the very beginning, I just disagree with the idea that this is a colossal breach in the sovereignty of our program’s process. Its two weeks, with guys still spending 14 hours a day in the complex. Just me I guess.

[Bandwagon King]

Baldwin?

Did he hire himself?

[Cajunrunner]

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.

Hell, if I hadn’t known he already left, I’d have thought you were just describing Tim Buckley.

I’ll give the Diaz guy a shot, but sounds like he’s already run with and printed false info on other matters.

[ManAboutTown]

Agree with you except the extra layer of support. It's the largest moneymaker, it needs to be strickly business.

We have three local coaches who finished 5th, 5th and last in 21-22, and excuses abound. Track is the only one that had NCAA championship level participation in the last decade, but hey, it's ok. They're all one of us.

Heck, even the last bastion of hiring favorite sons, McLeast, finally figured that is not the model for success.

Yea but that’s not what I’m talking about. Completely different situation here.

[John Cocktolstoy]

Did he hire himself?

No but you asked who was responsible for having only 45 scholarship players. That was totally a poor roster management situation by Baldwin.

[Bandwagon King]

Hell, if I hadn’t known he already left, I’d have thought you were just describing Tim Buckley.

I’ll give the Diaz guy a shot, but sounds like he’s already run with and printed false info on other matters.

Nick Diaz?

[Bandwagon King]

No but you asked who was responsible for having only 45 scholarship players. That was totally a poor roster management situation by Baldwin.

It was an even poorer management decision to hire him.

[Turbine]

Try less than 45 on scholarship.

Bustle didn't try to help himself much his first year, he only signed 17.

So then he was up to near 62 going into 2002 season.