Time for cooler heads to prevail!!!

[West]

I have held my silence for a long time. I will not say that I want Woodard to stay or go, but I will say this:

 

Since we have brought our program back, the only thing that has been consistent is our inconsistency. I have not seen any improvement from year to year.

 

I HAVE seen 2 offensive coordinators, 4 different (not counting the HC) wearing the defensive coordinator title next to their name. If Woodard can't show any faith in the product that he is putting out, then why should fans show faith in him?

 

Harper turned SFA around after 1 bad season. Fritz turned SH around instantly. Roberts has SELA 2-0 in his first season. We are 0-1 going on the road (Woodard has only won 2 road games, both at SELA). I don't like our chances to turn it around.

 

Some coaches have it, and some coaches don't.

[Redrain07]

I am going to say my piece and let it be known I was a college athlete as well. I think the product we are seeing on the field can be attributed to rebuilding program with a hungry fan base. Yes, Lamar was great at one time but that team is no longer around. In 4 years Woodard has barley had time to see his first recruiting class graduate. Give it time guys. Look at Baylor for instance. Horrible forever they hire Art Briles and they called for his head early in the process. Now look at the change in the atmosphere around Baylor and their program. They might not be the best but they are dang fun to watch play. I guess with that ramble I will conclude with that it takes time to build a program. I think everyone has been spoiled with our recent success in Basketball. While Pat knight inherited players that weren't his, Ray Woodard inherited lofty expectations and a plea for overnight success. That is simply not how football works guys.

[jettyman]

Tom Coughlin gets fired by the fans every year and all he does is win Super Bowls.

[TBonesLU]

I am going to say my piece and let it be known I was a college athlete as well. I think the product we are seeing on the field can be attributed to rebuilding program with a hungry fan base. Yes, Lamar was great at one time but that team is no longer around. In 4 years Woodard has barley had time to see his first recruiting class graduate. Give it time guys. Look at Baylor for instance. Horrible forever they hire Art Briles and they called for his head early in the process. Now look at the change in the atmosphere around Baylor and their program. They might not be the best but they are dang fun to watch play. I guess with that ramble I will conclude with that it takes time to build a program. I think everyone has been spoiled with our recent success in Basketball. While Pat knight inherited players that weren't his, Ray Woodard inherited lofty expectations and a plea for overnight success. That is simply not how football works guys.

 

Well said all around, and I haven't posted in a while, so you must've posted something worth me coming out of hibernation.

[lcard05]

Only problem with all this is trying to keep these kids here. Why would a spread kid want to stay and run that boring offense? As a receiver would you want to stay?? I don't think so. These kids came to be a part of an air attack and now the offense doesn't amount two women fighting at a white sale...

we will be lucky if we do not lose a bunch of these kids although I hope not...

[coachacola]

Only problem with all this is trying to keep these kids here. Why would a spread kid want to stay and run that boring offense? As a receiver would you want to stay?? I don't think so. These kids came to be a part of an air attack and now the offense doesn't amount two women fighting at a white sale...

we will be lucky if we do not lose a bunch of these kids although I hope not...

I would think the players know that the program is new plus there's a new offensive coordinator so it's going to take more than a few games to get the offense running smoothly. I doubt there are very few players who are already giving up on the team and want to leave. If there are any, do we really want them on the team?

[lcard05]

I don't know Coach but if you are a receiver would you really want to be somewhere they want to run and throw short slants and never go down the field? This offense could not even score in the scrimmages. Coach, spread players want the ball. This offense is not getting it done and its not by execution, its by scheme. We are not missing receivers down field. We are not creating space for running backs. We are playing for 5 yids at a time and the defense knows it. They are stacked up because they know we are not going down field.

[Redrain07]

There is no need to overhaul the offense. The spread works at our leverl or even in FBS. It is the great equalizer as they say.

[puddin tane]

i know some of the ex-players posting here played for kueck before....is there any similarity between that record setting offense, and what we are seeing now? seems to me Kueck is trying something totally different than at his first LU stint.

[Guest CardAmbassador]

I have held my silence for a long time. I will not say that I want Woodard to stay or go, but I will say this:

 

Since we have brought our program back, the only thing that has been consistent is our inconsistency. I have not seen any improvement from year to year.

 

I HAVE seen 2 offensive coordinators, 4 different (not counting the HC) wearing the defensive coordinator title next to their name. If Woodard can't show any faith in the product that he is putting out, then why should fans show faith in him?

 

Harper turned SFA around after 1 bad season. Fritz turned SH around instantly. Roberts has SELA 2-0 in his first season. We are 0-1 going on the road (Woodard has only won 2 road games, both at SELA). I don't like our chances to turn it around.

 

Some coaches have it, and some coaches don't.

 

I agree with this sentiment. I've been out for a bit but I've been paying attention to the games. Early in this season I was confident that we would be better than last year, that we would show improvement. We have not really done that, we've regressed, the Defense is a little better than last year, but not what I was thinking, surprising the special teams is still BAD.

 

Some people are saying that if you have constant turnover you will never get this program running, I agree. Some people wanted to fire Woodard after last year, that would have been a bad idea. One thing that hasn't been discussed much is how coaches view a start up program that fired their first coach after his first season.

 

Right now, I'm thinking Woodard may not be the coach Lamar needs, the disorganization has to come from leadership and we look disorganized. But if we fired him now (mid season) or at the end of the season I'm not sure how many applicants you would get lining up for a tough gig. ULMs coach might make less, but he at least has the FBS tag to work with. Coaches that come here will have to fight for recruits with FBS teams, and inherrit a relatively new program.

 

I'm not sure what we should do at the end of the season. But we should think about it very hard, we don't want to the next guy to be the same or worse.

 

I for one want to see what type of recruiting Woodard is going to do again this offseason, (assuming he is still here). I admit I was completely wrong about us going so heavy on the JUCO players the first two years. Part of the reason we probably don't see any progress is that we relied too heavily on bringing in guys that would only be here 2 years not worrying about what was going to happen in our third year. It would be fine if we had a some good freshman classes, but we've got virtually no notable freshman besides Justin Brock still here from last year. That's not good, I didn't think about it at the time but having such a small freshman class last year and the year before that was a really bad thing. Who are some of our more consistent players? Oh how about Gilliam the center thats been here since he was a freshman.

 

There's my thoughts for what they're worth.

[jdcurran235]

I would add that we have not built upva redshirt class either

 

[coachacola]

I would be really, really surprised if Woodard isn't back next year. What I've read is that he's got friends in high places, so to speak. He has been able to bring money to the program and that is important.

 

If you look around at the other programs that started football around the same time Lamar did, it's been hit and miss. ODU has been the most successful while Georgia State's program is a mess right now. UTSA is doing very well in their second year while South Alabama seems to have taken a step backwards (their only win is a 6 point win over Nicholls State).

 

Both UTSA and Georgia State went with older BCS coaches and Coker is winning while Curry is losing and stepping down after this season. ODU and South Alabama went with coaches who had no D1 head coaching experience. ODU is winning big while USA is not. There is no simple answer.

 

Woodard has a pretty young team on his hands, especially on offense. He has a new coaching staff and a lot of young talent. They are going to give this staff at least one more year to develop the talent and see if they can win next year. Woodard did sign a lot of good HS players this past year, we'll see if he can do that again.

[geezer]

What did LU have to offer the first recruiting class? Three years to play two, crappy facilities with the promise better were coming and a less than realistic chance at winning. For the second recruiting class the only real improvement was the chance to play immediately and you could see the facilities were coming. This past recruiting class is the first to have everything in place.

[Guest CardAmbassador]

What did LU have to offer the first recruiting class? Three years to play two, crappy facilities with the promise better were coming and a less than realistic chance at winning. For the second recruiting class the only real improvement was the chance to play immediately and you could see the facilities were coming. This past recruiting class is the first to have everything in place.

 

??? I'm pretty sure the recruiting class of Justin Brock and Dionte Forney had the best incentives, (crowds were still all sell outs) and we had finished our facilities.

[puddin tane]

What did LU have to offer the first recruiting class?

 

...... a college degree.......

 

 

[jdcurran235]

I think last week was an anomaly as far as attendance goes. Lets wait and see what homecoming is like before we say people are not coming to games now. We had a very good crowd the first couple of home games. Lets see how the McMurry game goes.

 

Even though it did not rain it still kept people away cause the rain was so hyped up. "Monsoon" conditions were prevalent.

[cardinal]

What did LU have to offer the first recruiting class?

 

...... a college degree.......

 

Huh? College football players get one of those?

[cardinal]

I think last week was an anomaly as far as attendance goes. Lets wait and see what homecoming is like before we say people are not coming to games now. We had a very good crowd the first couple of home games. Lets see how the McMurry game goes.

 

Even though it did not rain it still kept people away cause the rain was so hyped up. "Monsoon" conditions were prevalent.

 

I agree (and hope we are both right). The other things that led to it: afternoon game, televised, and the huge Gift of Life event that took place at the same time.

[LUSportsFan]

I think last week was an anomaly as far as attendance goes. Lets wait and see what homecoming is like before we say people are not coming to games now. We had a very good crowd the first couple of home games. Lets see how the McMurry game goes.

 

Even though it did not rain it still kept people away cause the rain was so hyped up. "Monsoon" conditions were prevalent.

 

I agree (and hope we are both right). The other things that led to it: afternoon game, televised, and the huge Gift of Life event that took place at the same time.

 

Sad to admit that the weather forecast kept us from driving over from Houston last weekend. I told the wife that's the last time I'll let a weather forecast affect attendance plans. It was pouring down here about the time we needed to leave for Beaumont and we took the easy way out. Pretty bad on our part since we were in attendance at last year's "monsoon" game.

[coachacola]

I drove in Saturday morning from Austin and it rained the whole time. It didn't stop raining until about 1 hour before the game. When I got to the stadium the seats were dry and the sun actually came out briefly during the second half. I bet if it would have been a sunny day there would have been over 12K at the game, but still far from having a full house.

[jdcurran235]

I still think we can easily pull in over 20K for a McNeese game, especially if the weather is good and the game is not at 3. Basically if we play anyone interesting I would expect more people at the game. Noone cares about Langston and others. They barely care of SFA and SHSU. If we played LaTech or ULL it would be a full house. Or if we followed suite with TxSt and played Tech, I would expect the same result. I would go into the move up topic but I think most people are tired of talking about it. Or think that we need to win first even though TxSt wasn't and GeorgiaTech wasn't winning either.

[cardinal]

I still think we can easily pull in over 20K for a McNeese game, especially if the weather is good and the game is not at 3. Basically if we play anyone interesting I would expect more people at the game. Noone cares about Langston and others. They barely care of SFA and SHSU. If we played LaTech or ULL it would be a full house. Or if we followed suite with TxSt and played Tech, I would expect the same result. I would go into the move up topic but I think most people are tired of talking about it. Or think that we need to win first even though TxSt wasn't and GeorgiaTech wasn't winning either.

 

I'm on board as long as it is to the Sun Belt. Hell, we can't win in the SLC might as well move up and get pounded at the FBS level.

[coachacola]

I still think we can easily pull in over 20K for a McNeese game, especially if the weather is good and the game is not at 3. Basically if we play anyone interesting I would expect more people at the game. Noone cares about Langston and others. They barely care of SFA and SHSU. If we played LaTech or ULL it would be a full house. Or if we followed suite with TxSt and played Tech, I would expect the same result. I would go into the move up topic but I think most people are tired of talking about it. Or think that we need to win first even though TxSt wasn't and GeorgiaTech wasn't winning either.

 

I'm on board as long as it is to the Sun Belt. Hell, we can't win in the SLC might as well move up and get pounded at the FBS level.

 

That seems to be Georgia State's game plan!

[Guest Crawfish]

Ok then, here are the facts:

 

Overall, when FBS teams play FCS teams, the FBS team wins 87% of those games.

 

For example, the Cajuns have played 7 FBS teams in the past 10 years and have lost once to McNeese.

 

FCS teams only have 63 scholarships to give as opposed to 85 for FBS schools, thus there is much less depth on FCS schools roster. You cannot expect FCS schools to compete consistently with FBS schools.

 

Until and unless Lamar moves up to the FBS level, it is unfair to expect them to compete with these schools. They should however be competitive with Southland Conference opponents.

 

These are facts; it seems you are relying on your own opinion. I want to see the Cardinals win, but it starts by competing in the Southland.

 

Cardinal Stated:

 

"You know, one thing I get sick and tired of hearing is how impossible it is for a lowly FCS school to compete with a might FBS school...sorry but that is total BS. Granted a top level FCS school cannot hang with a top level FBS school. But there are FCS schools that can play with FBS schools and there are many cases of FCS schools beating FBS schools. So, take your load of bunk somewhere else. We played ULL not Alabama. We played the current day Hawaii not the high powered Hawaii of old. Ask BYU how awesome Hawaii is."