This forum is pure hardball. Bring the heat in this discussion of Flames baseball.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

By Letsgoflames
Posts
#509299
BJWilliams wrote:Id hold off on FB and MBB at this point LGF...MBB is in a rebuilding mode and trending in the right direction. FB will be in the first season with all Gill recruits so we shall see how he does with his own players. BB...Barber is going to have to make a tough decision or two about that as soon as the season is over and heading into this summer. Im not sure what Toman's contract status is at this moment but you have to think they will go under the hood for this one after a season like this (although Flameshaw may probably disagree)
Have you watch the same programs I have? JB pushes Rocco so at "Little Richmond" (trumpism) compared to our facility, budget & national appeal builds a team to National Semi-finals and we can't beat CSU, Monmouth, & Presbyrterian! Baseball has been a ticking time bomb that has exploded in a 30 million dollar facility. And did you watch the MBB get destroyed by 30 in BSC tourney quarterfinal! How about what Layer provided for a once proud MBB program. Time for the Barber train through NCAA D1 Disneyland to stop.
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#509308
Letsgoflames wrote:
BJWilliams wrote:Id hold off on FB and MBB at this point LGF...MBB is in a rebuilding mode and trending in the right direction. FB will be in the first season with all Gill recruits so we shall see how he does with his own players. BB...Barber is going to have to make a tough decision or two about that as soon as the season is over and heading into this summer. Im not sure what Toman's contract status is at this moment but you have to think they will go under the hood for this one after a season like this (although Flameshaw may probably disagree)
Have you watch the same programs I have? JB pushes Rocco so at "Little Richmond" (trumpism) compared to our facility, budget & national appeal builds a team to National Semi-finals and we can't beat CSU, Monmouth, & Presbyrterian! Baseball has been a ticking time bomb that has exploded in a 30 million dollar facility. And did you watch the MBB get destroyed by 30 in BSC tourney quarterfinal! How about what Layer provided for a once proud MBB program. Time for the Barber train through NCAA D1 Disneyland to stop.
While I agree with some of what you're saying, I'm not on board the fire AD train. I think JB is pretty good at what he does and I think he has a good team of people around him in Athletics Admin. I just think it's time for him to get a bit more rigid with the standard of winning.

Also, your exaggeration of an estimate of the baseball stadium is off by about $10 million. Just sayin...
By jam90
Posts
#509314
Humble_Opinion wrote:
Letsgoflames wrote:
BJWilliams wrote:Id hold off on FB and MBB at this point LGF...MBB is in a rebuilding mode and trending in the right direction. FB will be in the first season with all Gill recruits so we shall see how he does with his own players. BB...Barber is going to have to make a tough decision or two about that as soon as the season is over and heading into this summer. Im not sure what Toman's contract status is at this moment but you have to think they will go under the hood for this one after a season like this (although Flameshaw may probably disagree)
Have you watch the same programs I have? JB pushes Rocco so at "Little Richmond" (trumpism) compared to our facility, budget & national appeal builds a team to National Semi-finals and we can't beat CSU, Monmouth, & Presbyrterian! Baseball has been a ticking time bomb that has exploded in a 30 million dollar facility. And did you watch the MBB get destroyed by 30 in BSC tourney quarterfinal! How about what Layer provided for a once proud MBB program. Time for the Barber train through NCAA D1 Disneyland to stop.
While I agree with some of what you're saying, I'm not on board the fire AD train. I think JB is pretty good at what he does and I think he has a good team of people around him in Athletics Admin. I just think it's time for him to get a bit more rigid with the standard of winning.

Also, your exaggeration of an estimate of the baseball stadium is off by about $10 million. Just sayin...
Humble speaks the truth
User avatar
By adam42381
Registration Days Posts
#509318
ballcoach15 wrote:How can anyone go to a movie during a home baseball game ?
Not everyone's life revolves around mediocre college athletics.
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#509320
I was just joking actually. But I support the LU teams regardless of strength of the team.

I am not a "Fair Weather Fan", like so many are. All schools are loaded with Fair Weather Fans.
User avatar
By Jonathan Carone
Posts
#509328
Jeff has made incredible hires in the Olympic sports. He's overseen the building of great facilities and an awesome game day experience. Unfortunately, the main men's sports haven't fared well under him. The average conference finish for our men's teams over the last four years is right around 3.5 in the league (this year it's fourth). Football's average finish in that time is second. Men's basketball is ninth. Baseball is 4.5. Soccer is sixth. Tennis is fourth. Other than golf and anything track related, it hasn't been an awesome four year run.

While all that is true and not good, I don't want to get rid of Jeff. I think the politics and inner workings of Liberty are extremely tough to navigate and he's done a great job working within the system. If a change were to be made, it would be solely off the results of some of those programs and not the overall health and strength of the department. I don't know that there are many people out there willing to work at Liberty who could do a better job at that position than Jeff has. Remember, we are a monarchy, not a traditional structure. The politics and ego managing is a gigantic part of the job in ways normal ADs never have to experience.

With that said, I think there has been a marked decline in results since we started focusing on buildings and facilities. Since 2012, our men's team's results have declined fairly significantly (average finish of 3.5 to average finish of 4.5). The women, overall, are only slightly down (average finish of 2.5 down to 2.6). We need to shift our focus from marketing and facilities back to results and winning. Too many of our programs (especially the men) got too comfortable and lost their edge. We have to get back to winning or else there'll be no choice but for Jeff's seat to get a little hot. If he has to fire his football, basketball, and baseball coaches (all of which he hired) within three years, there's no way you can justify having faith in his hiring decisions.

I like Jeff a lot and want him to succeed. We just have to have a change in results or we won't have a choice.
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#509330
I think LU is fortunate to have Jeff as AD. It would be almost impossible to find one better than him.

As for on field results, we need to find a way to win games we should win, especially over BSC schools. We lose to some schools that "do not belong on the field with us".

Best example I can think of, is the G Webb football game last year. For some unknown reason, we were not ready to play that day. We should have hammered G Webb, yet we lost.

As I have posted before, we are 2 or 3 players away in every sport. Coaches need to find these 2 or 3 players.
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#509331
Totally agree Jon/SJ. Nothing builds a program faster than winning on the field of play consistently regardless of what you have. In terms of wins, we are not getting a great ROI on our investments in facilities and overall resources at the moment. We need to find coaches that have a deep seeded yearning to teach their players how to win. I think RM in MBB is moving in the right direction. I am still holding out hope for Gill and FB. WBB is already there. At this point though, BB is really struggling.
User avatar
By jinxy
Registration Days Posts
#509339
Bingo. Well said and they hype machine is what gets me so agitated. We get destroyed and we keep talking about attendance and attendance records. Let's talk about winning. Jeff is a great guy and takes time to speak and share the program with folks that are years away from contributing financially. We've been so close in football and baseball. Downing should help if he's as good as advertised on special teams. We probably have 3 more wins the last 2 years with legit special team play. I think we need a change at pitching coach. Under quinn we've had nothing but Tommy John surgeries and terrible pitching recently. For the better part of the toman era we've always hit the ball well. Give us a legit pitching coach that can make adjustments and we look a lot different. I'm not a player and I'm sure quinn is a nice guy but it sure doesn't sound like there's a lot of development there.
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