A Sea Of Red

Annouced at coffeehouse that Tony Dungy is assisting us in finding a head coach.

Reminds me of the time that Dick Cheney had the role of helping George W. Bush find a vice presidential candidate. After reviewing the potential candidates, he decided he was the man for the job.

That has happened a time or two at LU. We wound up with an AD that way not that long ago. And if you believe some of the stories, we almost wound up with a hall of fame coach that way as well.

Barber mentioned Tuesday that Dungy is someone he could potentially reach out to.

Falwell reached out to Sam Rutigliano in the same fashion in '05.

I feel like at coffeehouse everything is a joke. Is there any truth to this?

No way there is any truth to this. Even Matt Bevins was joking on it on twitter.

This seemed to be more of a joke than an announcement according to what Twitter was saying. They "announced" this right after making a joke about Rocco leaving.

SuperJon wrote:This seemed to be more of a joke than an announcement according to what Twitter was saying. They "announced" this right after making a joke about Rocco leaving.

Yea one of the guys took a crack at Rocco (which was hilarious) then mentioned DungyTown. Then the next time they came up they said that Dungy was advising on the coach choice.

If it's not true, then she sucks at telling jokes.

Jkill617 wrote:If it's not true, then she sucks at telling jokes.

Student Activities makes a living off of telling crappy jokes no one finds funny.

skywalker5291 wrote:
Student Activities makes a living off of telling crappy jokes no one finds funny.

The thing was though that she did not say it in a joking manner. After the initial Dungy joke was made, she later came up and was like "Well it actually turns out he is helping us find a new coach..."

I believe it is true because I saw it on the interweb.

Sly Fox whats your take on him helping with our situation?

I tweeted him about all the ruckus on campus he's causing and asked him if he even knows about our HC situation. Still waiting for a response though.

I haven't heard a thing other than from what was spoken last night. It is possible but I have no verification whatsoever.

Chris Lang wrote:Barber mentioned Tuesday that Dungy is someone he could potentially reach out to.

Falwell reached out to Sam Rutigliano in the same fashion in '05.

I thought, well someone thinks he's funny, but this nugget from Lang gives it possible validity.

It could have been a joke. I guess we will find out soon enough.

From the class of 09 wrote:

Chris Lang wrote:Barber mentioned Tuesday that Dungy is someone he could potentially reach out to.

Falwell reached out to Sam Rutigliano in the same fashion in '05.

I thought, well someone thinks he's funny, but this nugget from Lang gives it possible validity.

I would have to agree...Lang Im sure has a sense of humor but he doesnt sound like someone who would joke like that

We have had Bobby Bowden & Lou Holtz help us out in the past. Tony Dungy is not a preposterous suggestion for assistance.

BJWilliams wrote:

From the class of 09 wrote:

Chris Lang wrote:Barber mentioned Tuesday that Dungy is someone he could potentially reach out to.

Falwell reached out to Sam Rutigliano in the same fashion in '05.

I thought, well someone thinks he's funny, but this nugget from Lang gives it possible validity.

I would have to agree...Lang Im sure has a sense of humor but he doesnt sound like someone who would joke like that

I am sure you're convinced since our resident scribe spoke of it right beej?? haha

Not joking. Barber mentioned Tuesday that Dungy is someone worth talking to, not as a candidate -- he's not a college football coach -- but as somebody who knows plenty of good coaches with Christian backgrounds who would be good candidates for the post.

This is what he said Tuesday:

"It's not only folks that you have in mind, but people you want to talk to that are in the business that understand what Liberty is. There are coaches out there. Take Tony Dungy. I'm not saying he's a candidate, but he's a guy that knows a lot of Christian football coaches. He's a guy who may be able to give us two or three names of guys that he feels like would be a perfect fit here."

He said that at about 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Has he talked to Dungy? No idea. But he mentioned it as a possibility.

Chris Lang wrote:Not joking. Barber mentioned Tuesday that Dungy is someone worth talking to, not as a candidate -- he's not a college football coach -- but as somebody who knows plenty of good coaches with Christian backgrounds who would be good candidates for the post.

This is what he said Tuesday:

"It's not only folks that you have in mind, but people you want to talk to that are in the business that understand what Liberty is. There are coaches out there. Take Tony Dungy. I'm not saying he's a candidate, but he's a guy that knows a lot of Christian football coaches. He's a guy who may be able to give us two or three names of guys that he feels like would be a perfect fit here."

He said that at about 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Has he talked to Dungy? No idea. But he mentioned it as a possibility.

Well then, WOOHOOO!

Thinking big here -

Why wouldn't we talk to Dungy? We are after all, the largest Christian University in the world, and that carries some weight with people everywhere. On top of that, with the way we are growing and the resources we have, we will, I repeat, we will, continue to expand our national presence and make "Liberty" a household name nationwide, and not just amongst Christians.

Tony Dungy assisting in our search is not only logical, but expected. This is a small step in the direction of our goals, another building block to the achievement of our mission. I would think he would be honored to help, and as JB said would probably offer some great advice.

We're big, and getting bigger. With small steps daily, there will come a time when an idea like Tony Dungy is not taken as a joke, but as the expected course for an institution of our stature. This is the natural progression for Liberty, and in time the next Dungy will in fact be our coach.

My guess is he's had his fill of coaching at this point. I mean we can talk to him, and he may listen, but Im guessing that his focus is gonna be on his analyst and ministry work. He will be a valuable resource in the search though

I'm not sure Tony Dungy would want to coach at the college level. But what has been mentioned and what he does have is a Rolodex full of Christian coaches. I'm sure there are one or two coaches who have expressed interest to him that we may not even have on our radar.
Plus getting more important getting info is not a bad thing!

Tony Dungy on Twitter:

@Lukeaustin91 I talked to the people at Liberty. They will get a great coach but it won't be me.

and

@Lukeaustin91 @libertyu No. But they will get a great head coach!