What?!!!!

[saguarostang]

If we bring another guy from some Tenn. team I am going to give up on SMU ever pursuing respectability. Who knows, this guy might be the next Vince Lombardi but chances are he is not. This makes me sick that we are looking at someone like this. Whoever said it is right, lets just keep Cavan. I am just praying this is not going to happen.

[PerunaPunch]

The fans are calling for a Stoops, a Spurrier, a Williams or a Waters.

Copeland's earliest calls have been to an analyst (that I've never heard of) and a no-name from MTSU.

Panic has officially set in.

[Kiper]

Settle down, Peruna Punch. Mike Gottfried is a terrific coach. But I also would like to see someone younger. Spurrier and Stoops probably are out of SMU's price range, and the more I think about it, the less I want Waters to get the job. I'm getting on the Doug Williams bandwagon.

[PerunaPunch]

As we've all previously screamed, we really need someone with some notoriety and media appeal. So I'll jump on the Doug Williams bandwagon with you.

So maybe we wont be able to throw MEGA $$$ at this problem (Stoops, Spurrier, Stallings, et al), but I would at least like to get someone with enough charisma so that everyone in Dallas, all the players and alumni will rally behind the program.

Let's learn a lesson from the packed house that Bob Knight brought in yesterday.

#1 candidates have to be a great coach wiith the ability to build a winner
#2 They've got to sell Dallas on the fact that the best football in the city is currently being played on Mockingbird Ln.

[BCPonyFan]

Doug Williams would certainly bring instant media attention. But there are some serious drawbacks as well. Grambling isnt a school with great academic standards. Coach Williams may be a great recruiter but his recruiting job is made easier by the fact that he does not have to meet minimum Division I-A standards for his players. Coach Williams has excelled at getting that second tier player to commit to Grambling rather than UAPB, Southern, Mississippi Valley State or whoever, but he hasnt made a showing against Division I talent or shown the ability to win recruits head to head with Division I schools.

Grambling, the school, is mired in a great deal of economic and academic scandal. There are numerous reports of fraud, mismanagement and threats they may lose their accrediation altogether. I am not one to think it is necessary SMU graduate all of their student athletes in four years. I think he will have a harder time getting kids to come to SMU than he does to Grambling.

[Guest]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by BCPonyFan:
<B>Doug Williams would certainly bring instant media attention. But there are some serious drawbacks as well. Grambling isnt a school with great academic standards. Coach Williams may be a great recruiter but his recruiting job is made easier by the fact that he does not have to meet minimum Division I-A standards for his players. Coach Williams has excelled at getting that second tier player to commit to Grambling rather than UAPB, Southern, Mississippi Valley State or whoever, but he hasnt made a showing against Division I talent or shown the ability to win recruits head to head with Division I schools.

Wait a minute BCPONYFAn,
The requirements are the same under NCAA for all schools except for DIII. Maybe your comments are simply based on the fact that Grambling is a Black school. Maybe you should have check before you wrote anything, Grambling is D-IA in the SWAC. Doug Williams is just as qualified as any other possible candidate for the coaching position. Remember, SMU is not in the PAC10, Big12, Big10, ACC, SEC not the Big EAst. So why down him. He might be able to keep the 16 recruits that has committed. I know personally of one that is looking elsewhere.



Grambling, the school, is mired in a great deal of economic and academic scandal. There are numerous reports of fraud, mismanagement and threats they may lose their accrediation altogether. I am not one to think it is necessary SMU graduate all of their student athletes in four years. I think he will have a harder time getting kids to come to SMU than he does to Grambling.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[WildHorse]

I agree with Peruna Punch -- the Bobby Knight scene last night was indicative of what a name coach can do for infusing a jolt of energy into a program. There was nobody there last night because they wanted to see Will Chavis and Marcus Shropshire flinging three-pointers. They were there to see Coach Knight. Someone with that kind of drawing power will be expensive, but Tech suddenly is in the national spotlight, and early reports are that recruits are calling the school wanting to play in that awful city (ever been to Lubbock? No sane person would seek to go there without someone like Knight as a draw.) Texas Tech will be battling for the top players in the state - and some from outside the state - as early as this year.

Is there a football coach available who has that kind of appeal? I don't know. Charlie Waters isn't it. Neither is Mike Gottfried, as successful as he's been. And it sure as hell isn't that guy from East Central North Middle Tennessee Tech State U., or wherever that Cavan clone is now.

We need a name whose mere presence is going to make people - fans, media, recruits - sit up and take notice.

[PK]

Sorry Motherof, but Grambling is a Div Iaa school, as are all the schools in the SWAC. As such, after our experience with Cavan, I'm not too much interested in any current Iaa coach no matter how well they are known.

[This message has been edited by PK (edited 11-21-2001).]

[PerunaPunch]

Everyone's splitting hairs over the NCAA divisional status of Grambling. Who cares? I don't think that's the core of Motherof's point (just slap me if I'm wrong Motherof).

She's saying Doug Williams would be an excellent selection because he CAN recruit and because people would be excited to play for him.

Here's a hugely simplified parable:

Some athletes are going to be looking at a big schools like LSU and some are looking at smaller schools like Grambling. Doug Williams gives Grambling the ability to convince some of those LSU kids to stay closer to home and attend Grambling.

Somebody said it before, that SMU would be vying for he national championship every year if we could convince all the local kids to stay home and play for us. Doug Williams gives us that.

Listen to Motherof and ProudPonyPa, those are our best barometers of how a potential coach will appeal to kids today.

[smu'06]

I like Doug Williams - but does he have the pull in Texas?

Can he pay enough for Spurrier, Stoops, Tommy Bowden, Jay Paterno, place other big name here - probably not.

Can we pull in a fmr. NFL coach - June Jones brought attention to Hawaii, look at Dennis Erickson at Oregon State, - ????

Gottfried may be able to get SMU some national attention - maybe an inside national tv look at SMU, Arizona hired an ESPN guy, and got some national tv out of it.

Do any of the assts - Pearce, Jumbo, Mangino - have enough name recognition?

Do we want another georgia born - directional Tenn. State coach ala Mike Cavan - as in McCollum - no.

What about Cincy's head coach - rumor is he will be fired because he's hard to work for.

I may have the solution to the Bobby Knight syndrone - Lee Corso or John Madden - well known and well respected - but can we land them with enough $$$$ - probably not.

[PerunaPunch]

Aaaaaagh! Please, anybody but Madden. I can see the Monday press conference now...

"This week, I've decided to bench ShanDerrick because there wasn't enough sweat on his pants during practice. On the positive side, the Turkey Leg, goes once again to Vic Viloria for his 8 tackle, 2 sack gam against Fresno. Furthermore, I've decided to add him to the all-Madden team cause of his cool eye black paint job.

[BCPonyFan]

"The requirements are the same under NCAA for all schools except for DIII. Maybe your comments are simply based on the fact that Grambling is a Black school. Maybe you should have check before you wrote anything, Grambling is D-IA in the SWAC. " - Motherof

Academic requirements for D-I and I-AA and II are the same for first year and transfer players. Where I-AA, which Grambling is, has an advantage is in recruiting transfers. I-AA schools can get players who ride the pine at I-A schools, give them a scholarship, and they can come in immediately and make a contribution without having to sit out a year. To make your baseless allegation that I dont like him because he is at a traditionally minority institution is ludicrous. I just reported a fact on their viability as a school and suggested that maybe he has been able to take advantage of some rules granted to I-AA programs.

I think Williams is a good coach, he is a great man, (By the way, how many times have your rubbed elbows with him?) and has done wonders for the pride in that program and has been a savior for a university which has been beaten up horribly in the last year. For him to get ANYONE to come to that school considering the bad publicity they have had is truly amazing and a credit to his ability to rebuild a program. But he is a I-AA coach, whose only other coaching experience is with Zachary(LA)High School, one season at Morehouse College and one season as an assistant with Navy, and I just do not think SMU needs to go for a a coach who has no real Division I-A experience, again.

[Big D]

Motherof has semi-threatened this board before, i guess hoping someone will beg her son to come here. We've had this conversation before, if your son wants to go elsewere, there is nobody on this board that can help you make that decision. If your son has to play for a black head coach, there are 5 Div.1 schools in America to choose from, and we might possibly be the sixth. But right now, everyone is expressing their opinion about their choice of who should or should not be the new coach. There are a lot of players family members posting on this board, so we've got something invested here, which means we have our opinions about what coach we would like. I personally would not pick Doug Williams, but being black or coaching at a black school has absolutely nothing to do with it.

[Mickey]

Well said Big D. Motherof complained about being embarrassed at the TCU game and that a lot of Bowie players who were ready to commit backed off. Billups is the only player from Bowie that SMU is interested in. Bowie was maybe 3-7 this year, so there weren't a lot of D1 players there to begin with.

[Guest]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Big D:
<B>Motherof has semi-threatened this board before, i guess hoping someone will beg her son to come here. We've had this conversation before, if your son wants to go elsewere, there is nobody on this board that can help you make that decision. If your son has to play for a black head coach, there are 5 Div.1 schools in America to choose from, and we might possibly be the sixth.
But right now, everyone is expressing their opinion about their choice of who should or
should not be the new coach. There are a lot of players family members posting on
this board, so we've got something invested
here, which means we have our opinions about what coach we would like. I personally would
not pick Doug Williams, but being black or
coaching at a black school has absolutely nothing to do with it. </B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As usual, you didn't understand a word I wrote, and I don't have to threaten this board or any other board. The statement was made about Coach Williams not being a good choice because of some academic problems at Grambling. I stated he is. As for the comments about players at Bowie, let me enlighted you: Deandre Carey --TCU, Baylor, Texas A&M, Colorado State, Coutney Jones ---Colorado State, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, Dewitt Kindred---Baylor, San Jose State, TCU, just to name a few. The players are good players, with a new coaching staff, but with a connected head football coach. So always comment on what you know about. It doesn't matter if the coach is black,white or orange. Also, by the way Grambling has a winning record and history speaks for that. Whether it's a D-IA or D-IAA. My son will continue to look, and it has nothing to do with a threat. But you obviously forgotten: THE PURPOSE OF FIRING COACH CAVEN, A WINNING PROGRAM NEEDED.
No -one other than the recruiter has contacted any of the commitments, not the AD. and if my job is questionable, the recruiter shouldn't be the one calling, his job is up in the air. The AD should call. Furthermore, since you know everything, commitments are non-binding and if you want a player to stay committed then someone like the AD should call. With a new coaching staff coming in, commitments don't have to be honored. He might not like his style or want to go with a different type of player or whatever. The other coaches jobs are up in the air as I stated before. I know better than you do what five D-I schools have black head coaches, I'm just so surprise that you do !!!!!! IF YOU WANT PLAYERS TO STAY COMMITTED IN MY OPINION:
1. AD SHOULD CONTACT THE COMMITMENTS OR SOMEONE ON HIS STAFF AND GUARANTEE SOMETHING
2. HIRE A COACH BLACK OR WHITE WITH THE ABILITY TO COACH AND TURN AROUND A LOSING PROGRAM
3. THE ABILITY TO COMMNICATE WITH ATHLETES
4. HIRE A STAFF WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE.
AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE.