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Coach Gilligan To Retire


KABrother88

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About damn time. Now my only issue is if they give the team to Ricklefsen or Patton. What we have seen in the past few years have essentially been their teams as Gilligan has done very little of the recruiting. Lets start from the ground up with this team.
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We need to start clean. Hatton and Ricklefsen need to move on too. Jim has been a legend, but it was way past his time. Hope we can get a young, energetic coach that can get recruiting back in stride

 

I agree, go out an hire the best coach we can get. We have sorta passed the torch down to the asst. coaches in the past with poor results in other sports (IMHO). We should expect a good baseball team at Lamar, no excuses.

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I'm not advocating not hiring Ricklefsen or Hatten, if either of those are the best candidate. But hire someone you are willing to fire if this program is not turned around in 5 years. (that's it, hold all the coaches in the athletic department accountable for their success, just not FB & BB - I'd even hold the athletic director accountable!). To be successful in college athletics the key to success is mostly recruiting and the judging of talent, coaching ability is important, but at the college level most coaches know what they are doing. Championship teams are not made, they are recruited. But I don't care how good a guy he is or how hard he works or how smart he is, he "can't make chicken salad outta chicken sh*t, so he better get some talent". Lamar made the mistake of just handing the program to an assistant coach when Gilligan left the first time and considering where the baseball program is now, holding the "status quo" is not acceptable.
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I am for a true search for the next head coach of the Lamar baseball Cardinals. Experience is a good thing but youthful enthusiasm and energy are hard to beat if properly focused. I will take 6thstapp's advice and read the face book page but I want to say that while these two coaches have done well as mentors I am not digging the results on the field. I'm not saying we need a guy in his mid 20's to try to lead players almost his age but we don't need guys in their 50's and 60's who can't relate to the players either. There must be some balance and there are a lot of programs with successful head coaches who may have an assistant or two ready to make the jump to being a head coach. We have a year to find the next HC at Lamar, use the time wisely and get somebody like Jim Gilligan was years ago when Lamar took a chance on him. A guy who knows the game, can relate to players and brings something to the program. This can get done and if it's Coach Rick or Coach Hatten so be it. But, if it's not we need to give the new guy at least 4 years for his freshman recruits to get to be seniors before passing judgement. I know that it didn't look good for a while and the jury is really still out on Coach Woodard but a little patience seems to be paying dividends now. I'm just saying.
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My fear (and almost my assumption) is that the decision has already been made and it will just be passed along to one of the two current assistants. I have met both of them over the years and they seem to be fine men. BUT, the product on the field for the last 4-5 yrs is a direct reflection on them, and that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. I will check out the FB page, but FB likes do not a head coach make.
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I would like to applaud all of you for speaking out on the issue but i see a common trend here minus 6th street. Everyone is going under the assumption that the past failures should be on all of the coaching staff as a whole. while that is somewhat true, myself speaking on a condition of anonymity have been associated with this program for that past several years and love lamar baseball. the fact of the matter is this until you know how things are run at the office inside vincent beck stadium do not make assumptions that the other coaches have free reign to coach the way they want to or teach the way they want to. these two men are and have been handcuffed by G for a very long time and they can not and are not allowed to coach in any way other than the "gilligan" way. it is unfair to put the failures of the past teams recently on these two men, yes they recruit the players for giligan but they are not allowed to do anything new or fresh to develop them such as this game dictates. in no way am i bashing G he is a legend and deserves his glory but the bashing of Ricklefsen and Hatten is unfair and unwarranted. these two men have been the backbone of this program for quite sometime but have hidden quietly behind the shadows of G. the right thing to do and should be done is to name Jimmy Ricklefsen Head Baseball coach.
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My nagging question is, if Ricklefson is such a prime head coaching candidate, why is he still at Lamar as an assistant? You would think some school somewhere would have picked him for their head coach. My experience is in the college coaching community, pretty much everyone knows everyone else, so wouldn't it be logical to assume that a young assistant coach at a nationally recognized program be a prime candidate for this level of job. The reason to stay local (promote within) at Lamar has in the past had more to do with money tham competancy, but in too many sports we have gotten what we paid for - not much.
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I would like to applaud all of you for speaking out on the issue but i see a common trend here minus 6th street. Everyone is going under the assumption that the past failures should be on all of the coaching staff as a whole. while that is somewhat true, myself speaking on a condition of anonymity have been associated with this program for that past several years and love lamar baseball. the fact of the matter is this until you know how things are run at the office inside vincent beck stadium do not make assumptions that the other coaches have free reign to coach the way they want to or teach the way they want to. these two men are and have been handcuffed by G for a very long time and they can not and are not allowed to coach in any way other than the "gilligan" way. it is unfair to put the failures of the past teams recently on these two men, yes they recruit the players for giligan but they are not allowed to do anything new or fresh to develop them such as this game dictates. in no way am i bashing G he is a legend and deserves his glory but the bashing of Ricklefsen and Hatten is unfair and unwarranted. these two men have been the backbone of this program for quite sometime but have hidden quietly behind the shadows of G. the right thing to do and should be done is to name Jimmy Ricklefsen Head Baseball coach.

 

While I agree to some extent with what you are saying, I am also going to call bull crap. Yes, these coaches are under Gilligan and have to do what Gilligan tells them. However, think back to 2012 they were both out. One for his back and one for a medical emergency. They both missed significant time and the team was terrible. They were making four to five errors a game and lucky to string together five to six hits. They were getting blown out 8-2 10-1 just about every game. Both guys came back around the same time and you saw immediate improvement in both defense and offense. However, even with the improvements Lamar was nowhere near par in the SLC. I was a reporter for the University Press, and even though I wasn't covering sports at that time, I was asked to do a story on Lamar baseball. I centered my story around the return of the two though my main interview was Gilligan. In his words he told me that he had given them complete control in hopes that they could turn it around. In brief follow up interviews with both assistant coaches they both talked about the amount of freedom being given to the by Gilligan. In other words, we have already seen them with little to no reigns and both of their jobs were lacking. There was improvement but Lamar ended below .500 in the SLC.

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