Matt Viator

[Rebel02]

Why would we want a coach that can't win in the postseason?


igeaux.mobi

[Zeebart21]

_ imagine the millions of people that say the same thing about us with our Ragin Cajun License plates... _

More brilliant commentary Waldo...keep it coming son!!

[Red Tide]

_ One of my big concerns with any coach from an FCS school who has little or no FBS background is recruiting. Believe it or not we really are not going after the same set of recruits. McNeese and many other FCS schools aren't saddled with the academic requirements. They also pick up transfers from FBS schools because they didn't make the grades or they are seeking more playing time and don't want to sit out a year etc.

In a lot of ways I just think coaches (head coaches) need a slightly different set of skills between the divisions. Similar to a college coach going to the pro ranks. We have seen great college coaches turned in to bad pro coaches. _

A lot of what you say is true, however, I think it is much harder recruiting to an FCS school than to an FBS school. I do not believe that FCS schools are going to recruit different athletes than the FBS schools. I purposely leave out the BCS schools because they are on a different plain altogether. BCS schools usually have their signing classes done by a prospects junior year due to football camps and national notoriety.

Now, as to type of recruit by way of academics, that is another issue altogether. The NCAA has a big loophole in the "greyshirt" program. A recruit that wants to attend a school like UL can enroll if he has the college entrance requirements and can come on his own dime. If he makes the grades, he can get a scholarship if it is still offered. Big schools like LSU just have a wealthy TAF member pay for a scholarship to Hargrave Military.

All schools do it and it benefits the university athletics more than the athlete himself. The big difference is that FCS coaches have to recruit to 65 scholarships instead of 87 scholarships. When the pecking order of recruiting is finished FCS schools have to find the remaining athletes that are qualified and hope to "coach them up." In essence, there is not much room for error for FCS coaches in that situation.

So, I don't fully buy your argument because at the end of the day FCS/FBS are both recruiting to 1-A one just has more room for error.

[allncr1966]

_ He was the OC at Oregon for a few years before taking over as HC. _

I think what is being pointed out is that he was at an FCS school first before being OC at Oregon and the last time I checked UL's football program and the Sunbelt are not Oregon's or the Pac 10's. The jump from the Southland to the Sunbelt for a HC isn't that great. Paul Johnson went from being HC at Georgia Southern FCS to Navy FBS and did very well.

[Red Tide]

_ Why would we want a coach that can't win in the postseason?


igeaux.mobi _

Don't you think our biggest priority would be to get to the post season first?

[Clutch0364]

_ I think what is being pointed out is that he was at an FCS school first before being OC at Oregon and the last time I checked UL's football program and the Sunbelt are not Oregon's or the Pac 10's. The jump from the Southland to the Sunbelt for a HC isn't that great. Paul Johnson went from being HC at Georgia Southern FCS to Navy FBS and did very well. _

I am not against a lower level guy but there are a lot better lower level guys than Viator.

[allncr1966]

_ I thought McNeese was just disguised as a University but was in fact Ryan Street High School? Nothing funnier than seeing someone proudly display there MSU alum license plate and wondering what kind of career path they had majoring in Cow Milking. Goldman Sachs doesn't have a barn out back. _

CajunHawk its one thing to take friendly jabs at other schools and thats cool but you go overboard I notice like the only university in the world is UL. I am a UL alum and proud of it. I have given money to UL but my son went to McNeese because he wanted to run track and they were the only one who offered him a free ride. Naturally I was offended and picked at him about it but I went and supported him and the program for 4 years. He qualified for the NCAA championships his senior year and even though he didn't do well he had a great experience. His career path I am sorry to admit to you is that he graduated from McNeese in pre med and had to go to a sorry little med school named Harvard and is now doing residency at a pitful place called Johns Hopkins. He is not the exception to the rule by the way McNeese has one of the highest medical school acceptance percentages in the state. Students at all universities work hard for their degrees no matter where they go so I never insult in a mean spritied way in what they have accomplished. I know you probably don't care and thats fine but I do.

[allncr1966]

_ Why would we want a coach that can't win in the postseason?


igeaux.mobi _

True but at least he got to them postseason. When was the last time UL got to the post season?

[Rebel02]

And yet he's still a coach at a I-AA school and apparently isn't moving up (just like McNeese) to I-A. He got an interview and that's it. He is not a serious candidate.

True but at least he got to them postseason. When was the last time UL got to the post season?

igeaux.mobi

[Rebel02]

Our next coach will get us there. That coach will not be a coach from a current I-AA school.

Don't you think our biggest priority would be to get to the post season first?

igeaux.mobi