[Class of 20Something]

Who has suggested we bring Rocco back? I haven't seen that anywhere.

I know I have seen it. It's been a few months, but I've seen it. I may have tossed it around flippantly too.

[Jonathan Carone]

People have mentioned him as a potential replacement but it's shot down fairly quickly. It's also been said that he's expressed interest in coming back. I may be the biggest Rocco fan on this site and even I'd say it wouldn't be the best move to bring him back.

[thepostman]

I liked Rocco and thought he laid a great foundation but I certainly dont believe he is a guy who can take us where we want to go.

[BJWilliams]

It's a bit of a catch 22 as far as start times are concerned. There are essentially three windows that are available for start times and broadcast: 12-1 pm, 3-4 pm and 7-8 pm (for west coast there's also 10-11 pm but that's 7-8 Pacific). Finding an ideal start time is a balancing act of sorts. Ive said for years that we need to evenly split our start times between the three windows mentioned. I think having an earlier start for games like Thanksgiving week can offset the student issue, because they won't be on campus.

Here's next year's schedule and how i would lay out the start times:

Aug 31 - Syracuse 7 pm
Sep 07 - @ Louisiana-Lafayette
Sep 14 - Buffalo 1 pm
Sep 21 - Hampton 3 pm
Sep 28 - New Mexico 7 pm
Oct 05 - @ New Mexico State
Oct 12 - Open
Oct 19 - Maine 3 pm
Oct 26 - @ Rutgers
Nov 02 - @ UMass
Nov 09 - @ BYU
Nov 16 - Open
Nov 23 - @ Virginia
Nov 30 - New Mexico State 1 pm

I don't know. 1 p.m games would be torture on those with a bit of travel time. I don't think the students would be crazy about it either. I prefer night games personally. It makes travel easier where we can do some tailgating and who doesn't love football under the lights. For late fall....the 3 p.m. times are great. Of course, I'm speaking for me and my situation, but earlier games just seem tough.

They can be, but the tradeoff is you still can get home with enough time to enjoy a little home time after an awesome day at the game. As I've said, it's a bit of a balancing act and even the best have to navigate that, especially when all your games are on a major network and always in primetime. I've lost count of the number of crowd shots I've seen with kids falling asleep, especially the night games.

[Jonathan Carone]

We should never start a game at 12 or 1pm unless it's a TV game or the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

[Class of 20Something]

It's a bit of a catch 22 as far as start times are concerned. There are essentially three windows that are available for start times and broadcast: 12-1 pm, 3-4 pm and 7-8 pm (for west coast there's also 10-11 pm but that's 7-8 Pacific). Finding an ideal start time is a balancing act of sorts. Ive said for years that we need to evenly split our start times between the three windows mentioned. I think having an earlier start for games like Thanksgiving week can offset the student issue, because they won't be on campus.

Here's next year's schedule and how i would lay out the start times:

Aug 31 - Syracuse 7 pm
Sep 07 - @ Louisiana-Lafayette
Sep 14 - Buffalo 1 pm
Sep 21 - Hampton 3 pm
Sep 28 - New Mexico 7 pm
Oct 05 - @ New Mexico State
Oct 12 - Open
Oct 19 - Maine 3 pm
Oct 26 - @ Rutgers
Nov 02 - @ UMass
Nov 09 - @ BYU
Nov 16 - Open
Nov 23 - @ Virginia
Nov 30 - New Mexico State 1 pm

I don't know. 1 p.m games would be torture on those with a bit of travel time. I don't think the students would be crazy about it either. I prefer night games personally. It makes travel easier where we can do some tailgating and who doesn't love football under the lights. For late fall....the 3 p.m. times are great. Of course, I'm speaking for me and my situation, but earlier games just seem tough.

They can be, but the tradeoff is you still can get home with enough time to enjoy a little home time after an awesome day at the game. As I've said, it's a bit of a balancing act and even the best have to navigate that, especially when all your games are on a major network and always in primetime. I've lost count of the number of crowd shots I've seen with kids falling asleep, especially the night games.

Ehh Kids are gonna fall asleep. My daughter slept through the third and most of the fourth quarter.

I'm torn. I think we could chase sunset games most of the season. As sunset gets earlier, kick off an hour and a half before, finish under the lights. Sunset for the Norfolk State game will be at 4:58. That game will finish under the lights but we can still watch other week 14 matchups.

[R i]

RI, the Debbie Downer "mob" was doing the same thing back when Rocco was here. "Fire the coach! He gave Asa Chapman a second chance ". "Fire the coach for that silly call in the NCSU game " Now we have Gill and some of the same people are praising Rocco, "bring back Rocco " ....... Forget sports, same ones use the forum to blow up every negative issues they can find about anything LU. Whatever floats your boat Water floats mine!

My idea of being a fan is to celebrate big accomplishments, not try and tear apart and fix it all. But you are right, I guess that's their cup of tea and it makes the message board go round.

It really only struck me as a personal problem after the Troy game, and there wasn't a single thought of celebrating the accomplishment, it was " A GOOD WIN BUT......................"

The mob will mob
Haters Gonna Hate

And Ill be over here shotgunning kool aids.

[LUminary]

RI, the Debbie Downer "mob" was doing the same thing back when Rocco was here. "Fire the coach! He gave Asa Chapman a second chance ". "Fire the coach for that silly call in the NCSU game " Now we have Gill and some of the same people are praising Rocco, "bring back Rocco " ....... Forget sports, same ones use the forum to blow up every negative issues they can find about anything LU. Whatever floats your boat Water floats mine!

My idea of being a fan is to celebrate big accomplishments, not try and tear apart and fix it all. But you are right, I guess that's their cup of tea and it makes the message board go round.

It really only struck me as a personal problem after the Troy game, and there wasn't a single thought of celebrating the accomplishment, it was " A GOOD WIN BUT......................"

The mob will mob
Haters Gonna Hate

And Ill be over here shotgunning kool aids.

Pour me one. I'm with ya.
Anyone can find something to complain about and some always do. I wish we had beaten New Mexico State, but the Troy win was a fine one and a winning season is in reach. And we're FBS. That's awesome. That's kool-aid territory.

[Jonathan Carone]

This is where perspectives are different. When I celebrated the Troy win, I wasn’t downplaying it by saying let’s wait until we see if their backup QB is any good before we crowned it the best win ever. I was simply not willing to fall into the Liberty trap of overhyping absolutely everything we do.

[thepostman]

Ri's false narrative continues. Who cares if it isn't even close to reality???

[SumItUp]

We should never start a game at 12 or 1pm unless it's a TV game or the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

I agree 100%

[Class of 20Something]

We should never start a game at 12 or 1pm unless it's a TV game or the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Be careful with short, definitive and absolute statements. That is ballcoach's thing.

[Jonathan Carone]

We should never start a game at 12 or 1pm unless it's a TV game or the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Be careful with short, definitive and absolute statements. That is ballcoach's thing.

The difference is mine has logic and data behind it.

[ballcoach15]

I know some people are lazy and don't like to get up and out early, but 1:00 is best time for a game. By same token, 7:00 is worst time, except for maybe early September games.

[R i]

Pour me one. I'm with ya.
Anyone can find something to complain about and some always do. I wish we had beaten New Mexico State, but the Troy win was a fine one and a winning season is in reach. And we're FBS. That's awesome. That's kool-aid territory.

Cheers

[R i]

Liberty trap of overhyping absolutely everything we do.

Troy , possible best win in school history ? top 40 rated team in the country ?

Nothing you said after that win could be remotely confused with overhyping. The false narrative is that LU fan base is still naïve and cannot recognize reality. That was years ago. We have evolved. Join in.

[Jonathan Carone]

The false narrative is that LU fan base is still naïve and cannot recognize reality. That was years ago. We have evolved.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement.

[R i]

Come to a game. I’m not taking a shot at your lack of attendance over the last couple years, it will shock you how far this fan base has come.


Btw I don’t see the exaggerations on this message board nearly like I use to. Read the beginning of this thread for example. No one is predicting more than 7 wins that I remember .

[thepostman]

The false narrative is that LU fan base is still naïve and cannot recognize reality. That was years ago. We have evolved.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement.

I will have to say when I was at the ODU game I was pleasantly surprised with how engaged and knowledgeable the fan base on the baptist side was. I always had this idea in my head about how those guys were when I was a student and it was really not accurate.

I think LU's fan base is just like any other fan base. You have die hard fans who get it and then you have others you clearly don't.

Just my 2 cents...

but I'm just a hater so my opinion is void

[flamesfilmguy]

my worry is that people expected us (with all they hype moving to FBS) to be playing ACC and better known teams more often than once or twice a year and when we trot out opponents like NMSU and ISU they are disappointed or just don't have the desire to go spend a day at the stadium. The ones that are there seem pretty involved like they were when we were there. The first down chant lives on and I love that. Its definitely better than the times we had to explain that we were division I FCS not division II. And I can't believe that I agree with Ri here but we didn't have outrageous expectations on this thread at the beginning of the year. HOWEVER. if you have watched this team play you see performances like troy on defense and then see us give up over 600 yards to a decent FCS team the next week you have got to be frustrated. and I hate picking on the defense because I worked with Wimbo and he's one of my favorite people I've ever worked with. That all being said we can be better. Which is what I've been saying the whole time.(Sarcasm font) but I'm just a hater. and Haters gon hate right? No room on this board for negative nancies and debbie downer mobs. (/HEAVY SARCASM)

[flamesfilmguy]

RI, the Debbie Downer "mob" was doing the same thing back when Rocco was here. "Fire the coach! He gave Asa Chapman a second chance ". "Fire the coach for that silly call in the NCSU game " Now we have Gill and some of the same people are praising Rocco, "bring back Rocco " ....... Forget sports, same ones use the forum to blow up every negative issues they can find about anything LU. Whatever floats your boat Water floats mine!

Look I don't know you and honestly I don't care but you are fundamentally wrong on this. I'll address this in pieces.
1. I worked for Rocco. and even defended him on this board several times many years ago. but when we went and collapsed in games we should have won and he allowed asa chapman to play I couldn't defend that any more. If you truly know what happened with the Asa situation you should feel the same way. No division one program would have tried to weather that PR storm and we did and it was a unmitigated disaster for Rocco.
2. I have not seen a single person talk about bringing back rocco. It would be a poor decision for the university.
3. The university leadership does things worthy of being critiqued. Some of us feel that several instances could have been handled better. But again we choose to run head long into PR storms. I'm not even asking for us to be politically correct. We aren't I get that. But we also shouldn't be inviting conflict. (see 2Timothy 2:23 and Proverbs 20:3) I was very critical of the McCaw hire because of the optics and timing. I can admit that he's been good for us but I still don't agree with how we went about it.

Doc said on many occasions that if its Christian it ought to be better. Sorry that some of us trying to encourage the university to keep that mantra, offends your fandom to this degree.

[rtb72]

The false narrative is that LU fan base is still naïve and cannot recognize reality. That was years ago. We have evolved.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement.

I thought so too.....after our first playoff berth.
…..after we beat Baylor.
…...and now after we have three FBS wins.

I love where we are, but I think saying we have turned the corner and evolved may be a bit premature. I hope, however, it is true.

[rtb72]

I know some people are lazy and don't like to get up and out early, but 1:00 is best time for a game. By same token, 7:00 is worst time, except for maybe early September games.

Like I said for me....it's based on my situation, just like your statement is based on yours. It's about your situation and perspective. 1 p.m games are tough for folks with kids and those traveling....especially those who want to take in some pregame activities. I can assure you, I'm far from lazy my friend.

[Purple Haize]

I know some people are lazy and don't like to get up and out early, but 1:00 is best time for a game. By same token, 7:00 is worst time, except for maybe early September games.

Like I said for me....it's based on my situation, just like your statement is based on yours. It's about your situation and perspective. 1 p.m games are tough for folks with kids and those traveling....especially those who want to take in some pregame activities. I can assure you, I'm far from lazy my friend.

I LOVE night games.

[ballah09]

RI, the Debbie Downer "mob" was doing the same thing back when Rocco was here. "Fire the coach! He gave Asa Chapman a second chance ". "Fire the coach for that silly call in the NCSU game " Now we have Gill and some of the same people are praising Rocco, "bring back Rocco " ....... Forget sports, same ones use the forum to blow up every negative issues they can find about anything LU. Whatever floats your boat Water floats mine!

Look I don't know you and honestly I don't care but you are fundamentally wrong on this. I'll address this in pieces.
1. I worked for Rocco. and even defended him on this board several times many years ago. but when we went and collapsed in games we should have won and he allowed asa chapman to play I couldn't defend that any more. If you truly know what happened with the Asa situation you should feel the same way. No division one program would have tried to weather that PR storm and we did and it was a unmitigated disaster for Rocco.
2. I have not seen a single person talk about bringing back rocco. It would be a poor decision for the university.
3. The university leadership does things worthy of being critiqued. Some of us feel that several instances could have been handled better. But again we choose to run head long into PR storms. I'm not even asking for us to be politically correct. We aren't I get that. But we also shouldn't be inviting conflict. (see 2Timothy 2:23 and Proverbs 20:3) I was very critical of the McCaw hire because of the optics and timing. I can admit that he's been good for us but I still don't agree with how we went about it.

Doc said on many occasions that if its Christian it ought to be better. Sorry that some of us trying to encourage the university to keep that mantra, offends your fandom to this degree.

Well Said!