[PAmedic]

I added stuff while you were agreeing

[SuperJon]

It's a business when it's convenient and a ministry when it's convenient.

[Purple Haize]

It's a business when it's convenient and a ministry when it's convenient.

This we agree on.

[lawrenceq]

Fire Gill and hire who? Maybe Liberty can get Steve Spurrier or some other football God. I guess Liberty's storied football history will have future hall of famers lining up.

[olldflame]

Fire Gill and hire who? Maybe Liberty can get Steve Spurrier or some other football God. I guess Liberty's storied football history will have future hall of famers lining up.

If the job were to become available, you can bet that the list of applicants would be long, and contain some names that would probably surprise us. Forget storied history. They will apply because of the $$$, the facilities, and in some cases the mission.
I don´t know if we could find a better ¨fit¨ than Gill, but I do think there are probably better football coaches out there who would love to be at LU. IMHO the only way Gill does not get at least another year is if he ¨loses the team.¨ I do believe he may have to make some tough calls on assistants after this year.

[Schfourteenteen]

Gill is:

1 year removed from the school's first ever playoff run (I get the asterisk)
Reasonably able to have a winning season again
Going to finish the season having won 60% of the contests in his tenure while playing a schedule that's markedly tougher than his predecessor

What impact would firing him at the end of this season have on the attractiveness of the school related to recruiting/retaining new coaching staff?

[Purple Haize]

Gill is:

1 year removed from the school's first ever playoff run (I get the asterisk)
Reasonably able to have a winning season again
Going to finish the season having won 60% of the contests in his tenure while playing a schedule that's markedly tougher than his predecessors

What impact would firing him at the end of this season have on the attractiveness of the school related to recruiting/retaining new coaching staff?

This.

[olldflame]

Gill is:

1 year removed from the school's first ever playoff run (I get the asterisk)
Reasonably able to have a winning season again
Going to finish the season having won 60% of the contests in his tenure while playing a schedule that's markedly tougher than his predecessors

What impact would firing him at the end of this season have on the attractiveness of the school related to recruiting/retaining new coaching staff?

This.

The losses that are causing us to question him have not come from the teams that ostensibly make our schedule tougher. They have come from 2 lower tier conference opponents. It does appear based on early results that the BSC is more balanced and tougher overall than in past years, but I would hold off on declaring that as fact.

[SuperJon]

Gill is:

1 year removed from the school's first ever playoff run (I get the asterisk)
Reasonably able to have a winning season again
Going to finish the season having won 60% of the contests in his tenure while playing a schedule that's markedly tougher than his predecessor

What impact would firing him at the end of this season have on the attractiveness of the school related to recruiting/retaining new coaching staff?

It shows that we are going to give you a great salary, a great budget for your staff, unlimited resources for recruiting, and incredible facilities but in return, we expect you to take us to a place that is consistently top ten in the country and a national title contender.

The expectations are high but so is the compensation. We aren't asking for championships and only financing like a mid-tier school.

[adam42381]

I posted this last year after the loss to Coastal. I'm still wondering.

At what point does the AD have to take the blame for the culture of losing that is pervasive throughout the major sports?

https://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewto ... 99#p467499

[phoenix]

It's a business when it's convenient and a ministry when it's convenient.

I know some business people who treat their business this way. I won't work for them again.

[thepostman]

I have been silently wondering the same thing since last night, Adam. I don't know if it will come to that but failures are becoming the norm and not the exception during his tenure. Should at least be considered.

[jimflamesfan]

A couple of people have mentioned last year being saved by Chima blocking Coastal's FG. In other words, if that doesn't happen, look how bad it would be!!!

If you're going to do a hypothetical, then you also need to realize we were also only 1 blocked FG away from having 2 conference championships and playoff appearances in a row.

That being said, who knows what happens the rest of the year...if we win out and beat Coastal...we don't go to the playoffs...but it's not a terrible season.

If we lose 2 more games...and then have another average to bad season next year (I believe that would be the 5th and final year of Gill's contract)...then you get serious about this conversation.

[jcmanson]

I would imagine he got an extension last year.

[SuperJon]

I'd agree with Manson. We don't know for sure, but my guess is he got a standard two year extension which would mean three years after this one.

[SuperJon]

I posted this last year after the loss to Coastal. I'm still wondering.

At what point does the AD have to take the blame for the culture of losing that is pervasive throughout the major sports?

https://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewto ... 99#p467499

The tl;dr version: Jeff has made some iffy hires in the big three sports, but overall he's doing pretty well.

This is a legit question to ask. With that said, I don't think Barber is to blame for a "culture of losing." As we've talked about on here multiple times, Typical Liberty goes back to the 70s and 80s, way before we entered this newest era in athletics.

Jeff's biggest knock is his hiring of coaches in the major three sports. He hung onto Layer too long. Gill has been iffy at best. Toman is Toman. Ritchie seemed like a good hire when first hired but he left after two years so that made it questionable.

For whatever reason, Jeff has a different approach to hiring major sport coaches than Olympic sport coaches. On the big three, he goes for name recognition and splash. For the Olympic sports, he goes after proven people from lower levels. One of the reasons we've been successful in the Olympic sports is because we've hired coaches who could build programs with no resources and then gave them resources.

With all that said, Jeff has done some very good things for our athletic department. The way he handled the Rocco departure was very good. The fact we don't have endless rumors going around about what happened there is a credit to him.

Our advertising and fundraising is much further than most at our level. He's had an open checkbook for facilities and has created a very, very good complex with that money.

The other thing to take into account is the inter-department dynamics at Liberty. At many schools, the athletic department is its own entity where the AD reports directly to the president and that's it. They get to do what they want for the most part because they raise the majority of their own money. At Liberty, the University has the final call on everything, all the way down to promotional videos and interviews with coaches. It's a very unique dynamic and Jeff has done a pretty good job navigating the politics of it.

Overall, if I were to give Jeff a grade for the last ten years, I'd give him a solid B. He took a department that was in shambles and made it a legitimate program. His lack of postseason success in the major sports and keeping Layer around a couple years too long keeps him from being an A.

[bluejacket]

For whatever reason, Jeff has a different approach to hiring major sport coaches than Olympic sport coaches. On the big three, he goes for name recognition and splash. For the Olympic sports, he goes after proven people from lower levels. One of the reasons we've been successful in the Olympic sports is because we've hired coaches who could build programs with no resources and then gave them resources.

I disagree.

[SuperJon]

Why's that?

[bluejacket]

Why's that?

I would not say that Murphy, Maren, Shellenburger, Richardson, or Hain fit the narrative of "going after proven people from lower levels."

[SuperJon]

I probably could've worded that better because you're right. My point was in those sports, we didn't go after retread head coaches who didn't work out at schools bigger than us.

Murphy: never a collegiate head coach before here.
Nangle: was head coach at Central Connecticut State before here. Was a P5 assistant before that.
Hain: was a professional assistant before Liberty. Also was head coach in a professional league and P5 assistant.
Richardson: was a great player but not much coaching experience before here.
Shellenburger: never a head coach before here. Was a P5 assistant.

Other than Richardson, they weren't flashy hires to make a splash. Shellenburger was the only one who came from a place with more resources than us.

Overall, it seems like Jeff has a different philosophy for hiring Olympic coaches than he does for football and basketball. I didn't do a good job of it in the first post, but that's what I was getting at.

[NotAJerry]

Fire Gill and hire who? Maybe Liberty can get Steve Spurrier or some other football God. I guess Liberty's storied football history will have future hall of famers lining up.

Considering Gill had 1 winning season before coming here, he wasn't exactly a hot property himself. His first two season were maintaining what was already here. Year three was huge. Year four is a disaster so far.

Let's not pretend he's some superstar coach with schools knocking down our doors for him at all hours.

[LUnpretty11]

The whole "Chima saved Gill" narrative is completely asinine. R-Fr QB on the road vs. a Top 10 team. We won to go to the playoffs. We go on the road and beat JMU, which was a playoff game.

We have the most embarrassing 2 week stretch in LU football history (arguably) and now you want to fire that head coach? On top of that, you want to take away the CCU win and say "Chima saved him". Come on. I would give that statement half credibility if we got blown out against JMU in the playoffs.

Let's not lose perspective of who Gill is and what he has done for this program.

[lawrenceq]

Fans can be crazy. I know people that wanted Nick Saban gone after losing to Ole Miss, so I'm not surprised Gill taking some shots after the last two weeks.

[ballcoach15]

Gill is the man for the job.

[bluejacket]

Fans can be crazy. I know people that wanted Nick Saban gone after losing to Ole Miss, so I'm not surprised Gill taking some shots after the last two weeks.

You're really comparing us with Alabama?