A Sea Of Red

Well, I lashed out my plan on how to keep him or someone of his level and get us to BYU ND independent level, still haven’t heard another one other than “build slow”. And “ wait for conferences to realign”. I am all ears...

Nothing we do can ensure he stays. If the SEC comes calling, it’s current prestige vs future reputation. It all comes down to his wants and desires in life. By all means, pay him generously, but no amount of money alone will keep him here.

tyndal23 wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 5:32 pm Well, I lashed out my plan on how to keep him or someone of his level and get us to BYU ND independent level, still haven’t heard another one other than “build slow”. And “ wait for conferences to realign”. I am all ears...

You laid out a plan to play almost all P5 schools and at this stage in our development that would be program suicide.

Jonathan Carone wrote:Nothing we do can ensure he stays. If the SEC comes calling, it’s current prestige vs future reputation. It all comes down to his wants and desires in life. By all means, pay him generously, but no amount of money alone will keep him here.

Yeah, this pretty much sums up the reality.

If he leaves, we will find someone else with high recognition, that will do a great job. He has set the bar for our future coaches. (This is dependent on our future leadership direction of course).
As I was reading the above posts, my thoughts went to; when was the last time we were hoping that a coach wouldn't leave and that we could pay him enough money to stay? We are blessed with that situation right now.

I agree. It simply comes down to whether he wants the challenge or not. I get the sense he is intrigued by the idea of building a program from scratch and seeing if he can take it to the top but the allure of the SEC and a chance at redemption in that league is pretty great. I would like him to stay another recruiting cycle or two.
I do believe we will continue to put $ in the program.

Let’s all takes a deep breath here. LU is a better team than in years past. No doubt. HF is great for the Program, absolutely. But who has LU beaten this year? Anyone with a winning record? Anyone with a win? Coastal looked good against good competition. NC State is down but looked decent. VT....who knows. LU does have a chance against all of them. But those 3 games will be the measuring stick. The rest of the games LU just needs to hope they don’t get tripped up.

Purple Haize wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 6:37 pm Let’s all takes a deep breath here. LU is a better team than in years past. No doubt. HF is great for the Program, absolutely. But who has LU beaten this year? Anyone with a winning record? Anyone with a win? Coastal looked good against good competition. NC State is down but looked decent. VT....who knows. LU does have a chance against all of them. But those 3 games will be the measuring stick. The rest of the games LU just needs to hope they don’t get tripped up.

Agreed. We’re doing great, but not all 5-0 is created equal. If someone comes after Freeze, they were going to come after him regardless of our success this year, not because of it.

Jonathan Carone wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 6:43 pm

Purple Haize wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 6:37 pm Let’s all takes a deep breath here. LU is a better team than in years past. No doubt. HF is great for the Program, absolutely. But who has LU beaten this year? Anyone with a winning record? Anyone with a win? Coastal looked good against good competition. NC State is down but looked decent. VT....who knows. LU does have a chance against all of them. But those 3 games will be the measuring stick. The rest of the games LU just needs to hope they don’t get tripped up.

Agreed. We’re doing great, but not all 5-0 is created equal. If someone comes after Freeze, they were going to come after him regardless of our success this year, not because of it.

UGA has 1 loss. Pretty sure they are better than 5-0 LU
The U is 4-1. I’d take them in a head to head match up with a 5-0 LU team

10 million a year is utter nonsense

If you’re Ian and the administration, you have to consider the precedent you’re setting. That’s why the old Turner Gill contracts were so reckless. We want to be known as a program that pays well, but if we set the standard too high, it could actually harm us when recruiting the next guy.

thepostman wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 6:07 pm

tyndal23 wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 5:32 pm Well, I lashed out my plan on how to keep him or someone of his level and get us to BYU ND independent level, still haven’t heard another one other than “build slow”. And “ wait for conferences to realign”. I am all ears...

You laid out a plan to play almost all P5 schools and at this stage in our development that would be program suicide.

A plan that starts7 years from now with High P5 recruiting budget, coaches salaries and operations and plays the bottom 3rd of P5 with 7 road games first 5 years and plays 6 P5 plus BYU and Army and remaining is Buffalo, UMass and NMSU and whatever. Up are you want. At what “stage” do we need to be at for you to approve ? Coastal? App State?

5 and 0 with our situation is awesome. Im not beating the top 25 drum. Im beating the we cant find a better coach drum period drum so you empty out the war chest with anything in our control if and when others come calling. Obviously the final choice is his but success on field, fan support, facilities, $, and administration support can make the decision far tougher.

I dont think there is any doubt he would like to try his hand at the sec again and i totally get that. Its just how soon and what does he see here ceiling wise. We just have to hope that the thought of building something from scratch here is prevailing along with the other factors. Were in such a unique position. We have the resources and facilities and footprint to keep growing if the coach is willing to stay where most all the other g5s eventually peaked and fall.

Also i completely disagree about others not coming due to success here. I cant tell you how many tweets/posts/columns ive read in the last week about how what hes doing with us is boosting his resume as well. Plus youve got the saban recent comments as well.

Anyway im enjoying every day that we have rmk scott jackson and hchf. Truly blessed position to be in.

Also as far as precedent. Gill barely had success prior to here. Had one late season run and we crowned him. Still not as bad as layer. However, we freeze you know were not going backward or stuck in neutral, period. And the next guy may be a young hchf but he wont be where hchf is now. This is prime hchf who was young and talented and his learned from his mistakes and found a defensive staff which he never had at ole miss. The next guy after the greats never makes the same money unless its like unc bball bringing alum roy williams in. Usually its more like matt doherty or bill guthredge succeeding dean smith.

Yeah @jinxy I'm just enjoying the ride. All this other stuff is fun fo debate but through it all we just need to enjoy it and also know we will have a let down at some point this year.

But it sure is fun.

As I have said before, we have the 3rd best coach in the nation. The other 2 are named Nick Saban and Dabo Sweeney.

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 8:31 pm As I have said before, we have the 3rd best coach in the nation. The other 2 are named Nick Saban and Dabo Sweeney.

You say a lot of crazy stuff too

With the great staff HCHF has built, when he does leave, I wouldn't mind promoting someone like Kent Austin from within and keeping the staff together. The coaching staff is a lot more than just HCHF. His assistants clearly all are great as well.

It will be interesting to see the decisions Freeze makes. So far, he has turned down offers, but he doesn't seem to give a firm "I'm not looking for another job" answer when he does so. LU has some immense benefits including a great place for his kids to grow up and go to school, a G5-level salary, a nice house on a mountain, and last, but not least, low pressure. If he finishes a year in the top 10 with LU, there will be a statue built for him. If he goes to the SEC and finishes outside the top 10 in many programs, his job will be on the line.

Purple Haize wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 6:55 pm
10 million a year is utter nonsense

I don't even think Ballcoach's 2 favorite coaches are making making that kind of coin.

https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/

ALAFlamesFan wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 6:22 pm I agree. It simply comes down to whether he wants the challenge or not. I get the sense he is intrigued by the idea of building a program from scratch and seeing if he can take it to the top but the allure of the SEC and a chance at redemption in that league is pretty great. I would like him to stay another recruiting cycle or two.
I do believe we will continue to put $ in the program.

The only redemption he will from the SEC is the team he coaches, and that only as long as he wins at a high rate. Press, forums, and opposing crowds will roast him each and every week. Don't know that he wants to put his family through that.

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 8:31 pm As I have said before, we have the 3rd best coach in the nation. The other 2 are named Nick Saban and Dabo Sweeney.

How well do you respect a man if you can’t spell his name correctly?

Computer error

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑October 18th, 2020, 11:47 pm Computer error

A true professional never blames his tools.

Not a good leadership trait to say the least.

Speaking of mistakes, I read in Richmond paper yesterday, that our win over Syracuse was our first win over a Power 5 school.

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑October 19th, 2020, 8:10 am Speaking of mistakes, I read in Richmond paper yesterday, that our win over Syracuse was our first win over a Power 5 school.

Probably a computer error.

I've said this offline, but I'll reiterate here. Money doesn't matter. The man is a millionaire without a mortgage.

No matter what else happens any of the below three things keep him at Liberty. But only if they(any one of them) are a top priority AND the situation executes.

1. Personal Fit. If he wants to openly live his faith and not ever be pressured to break the rules for success, Liberty, and his boss, Ian, are the best fit for him in his career. If personal fit is his top priority, this is home.

2. Family Fit. If Jill has veto power(and all things considered, she may) and executes it, Hugh is here for life.

3. Legacy. There are two facets to the legacy claim. Hugh can tie his name to the fastest rise in football here. A true opportunity to build a team from FCS to potential P5 level competitor is a rarity. FCS to FBS is pretty regularly done. But it's almost always tied to a G5 conference. Our rise isn't tied to that. We can take it further. Being an elite G5 level program is a short term goal and we all know it. Hugh has the toolset and the opportunity to build us into a national power. The second is behind his faith. Angel Armies is an example of what I mean here. What if the spring game leads into a benefit concert for Christian charity? If Freeze embraces that football is how God blessed him to give him the opportunity to turn the glory back to Him, that could be a major factor in keeping Hugh in Lynchburg.