A Sea Of Red

Good call bballfan84!

Can't really blame fans for being upset initially about him leaving. Disappointment usually leads to upset fans. That is the nature of sports. We finally had a good thing going and he derailed it in our minds. Obviously after hearing the entire story, most people understood the reasoning. He even admitted he didn't like being an asst after being a HC for so long. The chance to fine tune his defensive philosophy and compete at the highest level of college basketball has brought us back an even better version of RMK for sure. His outspoken faith combined with coaching experience really is a perfect fit for Liberty.

With that being said, if he up and leaves after his 2nd season this time, the guy will never be able to step in Lynchburg again.

ha I would agree with that!

I know Ritchie has a track record as a ramblin man, but he is 50 years old now, and I fully expect him to be our coach til he retires or is fired In addition to his affinity with the school's mission and the potential he sees to build a great program and leave a lasting legacy, he now has some compelling family and financial motivations he didn't 7 years ago His daughter is a student at LU and he has 2 sons at LCA who also plan to attend He will save 6 figures just in tuition, plus have a unique opportunity to share in his kid's college experience

olldflame wrote:I know Ritchie has a track record as a ramblin man, but he is 50 years old now, and I fully expect him to be our coach til he retires or is fired In addition to his affinity with the school's mission and the potential he sees to build a great program and leave a lasting legacy, he now has some compelling family and financial motivations he didn't 7 years ago His daughter is a student at LU and he has 2 sons at LCA who also plan to attend He will save 6 figures just in tuition, plus have a unique opportunity to share in his kid's college experience

Tuition costs for college wouldn't really factor in if he took another job. I don't see him as a 'Lifer' here at LU. But I see him sticking around for a few more years

Purple Haize wrote:

olldflame wrote:I know Ritchie has a track record as a ramblin man, but he is 50 years old now, and I fully expect him to be our coach til he retires or is fired In addition to his affinity with the school's mission and the potential he sees to build a great program and leave a lasting legacy, he now has some compelling family and financial motivations he didn't 7 years ago His daughter is a student at LU and he has 2 sons at LCA who also plan to attend He will save 6 figures just in tuition, plus have a unique opportunity to share in his kid's college experience

Tuition costs for college wouldn't really factor in if he took another job. I don't see him as a 'Lifer' here at LU. But I see him sticking around for a few more years

Not sure how they don't factor in, unless you mean he would be making so much coin the tuition would be a small matter to him Yes, lots of other schools (but certainly not all) offer free tuition to employees kids, but obviously only if they go to that school His boys want to go to Liberty He said in his introductory presser that he had already written checks to LU for a total of $60,000 for Ellie while he was at UVA, and JB quickly pointed out that he would not need to spend that any more, but like I said it's more than money

I think it is possible that RMK still has aspirations to be the HC at a big time program I also think he would greatly prefer that program be Liberty, with the legacy of building it that would go along with that If his successes turn out to be somewhat more modest, I doubt there will be that many major college programs beating down his door anyway, leaving little reason for him to leave

olldflame wrote:I know Ritchie has a track record as a ramblin man, but he is 50 years old now, and I fully expect him to be our coach til he retires or is fired In addition to his affinity with the school's mission and the potential he sees to build a great program and leave a lasting legacy, he now has some compelling family and financial motivations he didn't 7 years ago His daughter is a student at LU and he has 2 sons at LCA who also plan to attend He will save 6 figures just in tuition, plus have a unique opportunity to share in his kid's college experience

I agree with this 100% oldflame for all of the reasons that you mentioned. He chose to come back to Liberty. That wouldn't have happened if he wanted this as a stepping stone. He was the Associate HC of the ACC Champs, a Top 5 team in the country, with a very strong reputation as a recruiter and has lots of HC experience. He had better options than Liberty if he wanted to coach at a bigger conference. There were a few rumors of A-10 and C-USA openings when we got him back.

Family and age of his children played a huge factor plus the school mission supported by excellent facilities/administration. The program really is more equipped to succeed than ever. This most likely was a long term decision for RMK. If somehow we have great success over the next few years and a high major came calling, we will have to see but that would mean exciting things were happening for us.