[LUconn]

I'm not questioning your fandom. I know you're an LU fan. But I just find your opinion in this matter completely ridiculous considering how you were swinging from Mills jock before we played them this year. And it's difficult to argue with you. I could bring up wins (which I haven't even bothered to add) or win % (which I haven't bothered to calculate), I could bring up BS championships (of which there are 3 not 2), I could bring up points scored, I could bring up how we're in the top 25 every year. But you immediately invalidate them with your personal opinion.

We've done everything we've wanted to at this point including 4 or 5 winning seasons, cementing ourselves in the top 25, and winning a big south championship. The next step is the playoffs. It's a monkey on DR's back right now. But 5 years is about the minimum you give a coach. He's earned many more.

[thepostman]

correction...2.5 big south championships...

TTL means well, he just allows his emotions to control him and takes far too many things personally...

[LUnpretty11]

Time for new offensive coaches, streetr must go too.

This made me laugh pretty hard. You do realize it was our defense, not our offense that lost us the game yesterday, right? You do realize we have a top 10 offense in the nation, right? Streeter is by no means the problem.

[olldflame]

Our offense is predictable at times and we lack a power runner, but defense is where we need work. I didn't really think we would miss Aldreakis that much, but I was wrong.

[BJWilliams]

Time for new offensive coaches, streetr must go too.

This made me laugh pretty hard. You do realize it was our defense, not our offense that lost us the game yesterday, right? You do realize we have a top 10 offense in the nation, right? Streeter is by no means the problem.

I agree with pretty...we have scored <20 points a total of three times the last two seasons and only once failed to score at least one TD (against JMU this season). We do lack a Brandon Jacobs style power back (which I think AA could have been if he was on the team) but the offense has found ways to put up points in large numbers. If we need changes anywhere its DC or DBs coach.

[LUconn]

Our offense is predictable at times and we lack a power runner, but defense is where we need work. I didn't really think we would miss Aldreakis that much, but I was wrong.

I think a lot of that has to do with the loss of AA. I think Davis and Holloway are complimentary backs. And when you don't have your main runner, it really limits what you can do and makes you somewhat predictable. This is also only Streeter's 2nd year at the position and I think it's gone pretty well.

[jcmanson]

This is actually a pretty good thread with the help of the foe feature.

I still never got any answer to my question about who the "Fire Danny" police want hired. Or maybe the foe feature kept me from seeing it.

That's not our job. That's the AD's job to find the right guy if they decide Danny's not it.

[LUconn]

neither is firing a coach but here we are

[olldflame]

I think the point rooster is making is that in the real world where Barber lives you don't just fire a coach unless he is doing a horrible job. If the coach has had some level of success like ours has, it would be foolish to fire him unless you had people in mind you think can do better.

[jcmanson]

Another thing we have to consider, if we were to get rid of Rocco after this year (especially if we sneak by SBU as lefty predicts), who will want to come here? We would be getting rid of a coach who has won 4 straight championships.

[EagleOne]

Rocco = Al Groh.

From the 3-4 defense to the sweatshirt on the sideline. Might be able to draw some more comparsions too.

[LUconn]

hmmm, no. That's about where it ends.

[Liberty4Life]

I am so... astounded right now.

My first post on this message board pre-dated Flamefans. I was here back in the Firehouse days. My first post SIX YEARS AGO, heck, probably my first 100 posts, was under the topic "FIRE KARCHER".

Maybe I've grown up in the past six years*..... because I can't believe that there are people who are calling for Danny Rocco's head.

* Okay, no, I haven't grown up in six years. Karcher was a disaster and still is. That's why he has been the OC at a school the last two years that has placed near the bottom of the pack in offensive production, and has won a grand total of ONE game in the two years he's been at the helm.

Rocco took a directionless 1 win team and turned it around. His next goal was to take a good team and make it a great team (hence the slogan, "From Good to Great"). He has NOT done that, losing to W&M & Elon in '07, the Lafayette & Presby games in '08, Stony Brook in '09, and Robert Morris and CCU in '10 (I won't count the JMU games because they're better than us. We may have hoped to win those games, but they weren't games were SUPPOSED to win). Granted, we're playing with a target on our back -- every team circles "Conference Champion Liberty" on their calendar, even though we won't circle theirs.

I don't want to say that Rocco hasn't been able to get the team up when he's needed it, because we did beat Elon in '08. We did beat Ball State this year. He's just been unable to avoid the so-called "trap games".

But that's NOT a reason to get rid of the guy. There is NO ONE waiting in the wings that'll be a guaranteed improvement. Karcher took a good team and ran it into the ground. Karcher had a blueprint that fell apart (case in point: Coastal Carolina built a team from scratch and became a conference champion before Karcher did). Karcher stunk, and ANYONE would be an improvement from him.

Rocco is the guy who constructed a top-25 I-AA team. Granted, that's not all that impressive, but there is no one out there who we can name that will take the job (for a reduced salary*) and be a guaranteed improvement.

*GUYS, WE ARE STILL PAYING SEVERANCE FOR OUR LAST COACH. HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU WANT TO PAY TO *NOT* COACH OUR FOOTBALL TEAM? OTHER THAN "TDDANCE", I CAN'T THINK OF ONE PERSON I WOULD PAY TO not COACH.

IF, say, someone like Mark Richt or Tony Dungy* suddenly becomes available (as well as $1.5 million in cash), then yeah, give him a job and let Rocco walk. But that ain't happening. Until then, here's a wild idea... If you have a problem with someone, whether it's a co-worker or a football coach who can't win the big one, try this: spend 30 days praying for that person and see what happens. Maybe you won't be calling for his head after that.

*Tony Dungy, as you may / may not remember, was once branded as a guy who "couldn't win the big one" too.

[ATrain]

Rome wasn't built in a day or a few years for that matter. Coach Rocco had to spend his first year cleaning up Karcher's mess, and then we began working on the goal of making the playoffs. Yes, we seem to lose a game or two that we should've won every year. However, please remember that basically every team not named Boise State over the past 4 years has done that.

Rocco got us to our first win over an FBS school since the lae 80's. We went on the road and beat Youngstown State, who in the previous meeting hammered us at home 42-0. We were able to beat Elon at home, a team that used to own us before they left the Big South. We are finally being ranked.

Maybe one or two things need to be changed (like the defensive coordinator) to get over the hump to greatness, but to suggest we need to get rid of Coach Rocco is uber insanity at this point.

[Hold My Own]

I hope people think about the difficulty in hiring a position like a head coach, AD, President or other high positions before they post. In theory it sounds nice to find someone to "get you over the hump" but its not a guarantee, in fact its a crap shoot to replace someone that has brought you a ton of success and find someone to do better. Do you understand how close we are to going from where we are today to where we were in the past? We would be 1 or 2 bad recruiting classes away from having to do a complete over haul and have to set expectations of a 4-5 year process.


So at the end of the day I'm willing to wait out Rocco's 1-2 years to get us in the playoffs and succeed then I'm willing to risk making a new hire and it costing us 5+ years to get to this point again. Do you guys really think we wont make the playoffs in 3 years if we continue to grow and get better at the pace we are? If we dont make the playoffs this year this would be the first year we SHOULD have made the playoffs going into the season, in the two years past we COULD have made the playoffs.

The book Tipping Point comes to mind. A few SMALL changes can create radical results and start an epidemic. Those small changes would include defensive systems and other X's and O's changes....by no means is a coaching change a small change.

[Rooster Cogburn]

This is actually a pretty good thread with the help of the foe feature.

I still never got any answer to my question about who the "Fire Danny" police want hired. Or maybe the foe feature kept me from seeing it.

That's not our job. That's the AD's job to find the right guy if they decide Danny's not it.

Dude, you know that I know that. I'm just saying that if people don't think Danny is the right guy, they want him fired and a new guy; then who is the great coach that will come in and win a natl championship in his second year?

[SuperJon]

I think firing the head coach would be an absolute mistake right now and would be the stupidest thing we could do. Maybe we change some assistants, and I hate the thought of that because I love all of our assistants as people, but maybe that's needed? More than anything though, I think some philosophies need to change and some questions need to be answered this offseason. I trust Rocco to answer them, but I'm interested to see that answers.

1) Are we a spread team or are we a power running team? Right now, we claim to be a power running team and try to force that without having the personnel to do that. We've emphasized speed and athleticism in recruiting the last few years and don't have the big bruiser we need currently to be a power running team. If we want to do that, then we need the running back and offensive line to do it. We have all of the tools to be a spread team, whether that be a spread option/Rich Rodriguez or Texas Tech/Hawaii sling it around spread team. We just have to embrace one style of play and go with it. In 07 and 08, and even some in 09, we could be a hybrid and throw multiple things at you. Right now we don't have the personnel to be that fluid. I'm okay with whatever direction we go, I just feel we need to embrace a style.

2) Are we a 3-4, a 3-3-5, a 4-2-5, or a 4-3? What is our base defense? Is it working or do we need to completely overhaul it and do something new? The 4-2-5 with the adjuster as part of the 5 seemed to work really well this year. We were the most effective in that defense this year. In the past few years, we've been best in our nickel/penny formation and that is very similar to the 4-2-5 if I'm not mistaken. Do we embrace the 4-2-5 for next year? If so, do we have the defensive linemen coming back to do that? We lose three very talented guys up front this year.

3) Where has our return game gone? I realize we don't have Dominic Bolden or Wynton Jackson returning kicks and punts anymore, but our guys in the return game are still dynamic athletes. What is going wrong in this area? Is it scheme? Is it philosophy? I honestly don't know. Our kicking and our punting is great, but our return game hasn't been as dynamic. We started getting it right in the kick return game in the last half of this year so that's progress and something to build on for next year. I hope to see that continue and that we get the punt game to that level.

4) Where has the chip on our shoulder gone? It feels like some of our players have a sense of entitlement now, especially some of the ones on the defensive side of the ball. In the past, our players had a chip on their shoulder. I don't know if that was because they all knew how bad we were and wanted to prove themselves or what. How do we get that chip back?

5) Do we really think we're good enough to demand home-and-homes with top teams? We thought the answer to this was yes, but are we still sure of that? Would we be better off taking the Boise State approach of playing whoever, whenever, wherever? It'd give us more of a challenge throughout the year than bad NEC teams (St. Francis) and terrible independents (Savannah State). Yeah, we might have to travel, but is that sacrifice worth it for a few years to get to the level we need to get to in order to demand home and homes? Would 2-for-1's be worth it?

I feel that we have the talent to win the Big South every year. Right now though, we don't play like it every week. I don't know if that's philosophies, schemes, motivation, or what. All I know is we've lost a season-crippling game in November for the past three years.

We're doing most things right. We've hit a plateau though. Where do we go from here? We're investing way too much money into this program to slide back down, but what's needed to take that next step? I don't know. I'm not a coach. I don't even play Playstation. All I know is that something has to change and I trust Danny Rocco to make the change.

[LUnpretty11]

most stupid. Not stupidest.

[jcmanson]

5) Do we really think we're good enough to demand home-and-homes with top teams? We thought the answer to this was yes, but are we still sure of that? Would we be better off taking the Boise State approach of playing whoever, whenever, wherever? It'd give us more of a challenge throughout the year than bad NEC teams (St. Francis) and terrible independents (Savannah State). Yeah, we might have to travel, but is that sacrifice worth it for a few years to get to the level we need to get to in order to demand home and homes? Would 2-for-1's be worth it?

This. Forget playing D2's, St Francis', and Savannah State's, we should only have one of those (at most) per year. We need to play "up" every other OOC game. I don't care if that's home and homes or if we have to travel.

I also think the "sense of entitlement" is an issue as well. We think we can just show up and win 9 of our 11 games (not counting the CAA/FBS games). When those other 9 teams have us circled as their big game of the year, we can't just expect to show up and win.

[prototype]

You guys and gals are all funny. Here we go again... We lose a game and now the same coach everyone praised all year is now the worst coach... He's a good coach and I wouldn't be quick to think we need a bunch of changes. Maybe we need some more consistency - even with our assistants? Maybe they learn from past mistakes and improve year to year. After all they would get to know other opponents styles/philosophies/strategies/etc. They need to be more aggressive with play calling, but I'm guessing Coach Rocco knows that. I just think we need to step back and be patient. It's fine to be a Monday morning QB, but only on things we can see, and you never know how tied the assistants hands are...

[ALUmnus]

Hey guys, Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher are available, or maybe we could convince a good Christian man like Joe Gibbs to coach us for a few years! Surely we can get Gary Patterson to move to a real Christian school. Just think of the possibilities!

[olldflame]

If Tony Dungy were interested I might be OK with making the change right now.

[prototype]

Tom Landry Anyone? Or maybe Ara Parseghian? or Paul "Bear" Bryant? I heard they're all not coaching right now;)

[R i]

I think firing the head coach would be an absolute mistake right now .....
We're doing most things right. We've hit a plateau though. Where do we go from here? We're investing way too much money into this program to slide back down, but what's needed to take that next step? I don't know. I'm not a coach. I don't even play Playstation. All I know is that something has to change and I trust Danny Rocco to make the change.

1.)Maybe AA would have been our answer to a power running game.

2.)I have a feeling this will be the biggest change over the offseason. especially the way we lost Saturday, passes over the middle killing us.

3.) Its not just our return game.... its our kickoff coverage, and for a while field goals.... if any of the assistants are not here in the same capacity next year, I would say its Marshall. though i like the guy.

4.) I am not sure I see less of a chip. These guys wanna win big. After being in outside the locker room after the JMU loss. I am sure that most do not have entitlement.

5.) Still not sure the answer. I am sure our AD and coach, considered us Playoff bound for years to come.


Good Post SJ. You bring up good questions about our program/ without jumping off ship.

[jcmanson]

4.) I am not sure I see less of a chip. These guys wanna win big. After being in outside the locker room after the JMU loss. I am sure that most do not have entitlement.

It's not the JMU/Ball State games you see the sense of entitlement. It's the other 9.