Long overdue news from Muncie:

<a href='http://ballstatesports.com/article/0,1335,8012~4~team,00.html' target='_blank'>http://ballstatesports.com/article/0,1335,...~4~team,00.html</a>

Perhaps the Marshall embarassment tipped the scale over.....

Although most BSU'ers 'round here seemed to want a change, I am a tad surprised as BSU had a pretty decent season given the tough competition in the conference this year. BSU has been embarking on an aggressive upgrade of its facilities, and by 2006 will likely have one of the conference's premier stadiums.

FWIW, Lynch was a nice guy that I had the pleasure of knowing who graduated his kids and ran a clean program........but that's not always enough these days.

This leaves only 2 active coaches in the MAC with a MAC Championship, Pizza the Hut and Bobbi P. I think this was a mistake by Ballst. You don't fire .500 coaches in the MAC who have won MAC Championships. Most recruiting services placed last year's Bill Lynch recruiting class in the top 5 of the MAC. What more could you want in a MAC coach? I could understand firing Lynch after 2003 in an effort to revive fan interest during the 2004 15k qualifing season, but I think this was premature.

KC

Premature!?!

Let's see, Bill Lynch gets hired in March 1995 and takes over a program that won MAC football championships in 1989 and 1993. Goes 7-4 and 8-4 (wins MAC championship) with his predecessor's (Paul Schudel) players and then promptly pukes up the following results: 5-6, 1-10, 0-11, 5-6, 5-6 and now 6-6.

With the exception of Toledo in 1997 and 2001, BSU hasn't beat a Division IA team with a winning record since 1996. Losses to Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Toledo, and Marshall reveal how far the program still has to go.

Sorry KitKat (and HuskieDan), this call was long overdue. But it still comes as a complete shock to me.

bsudn79_80 Wrote:Premature!?!

Let's see, Bill Lynch gets hired in March 1995 and takes over a program that won MAC football championships in 1989 and 1993. Goes 7-4 and 8-4 (wins MAC championship) with his predecessor's (Paul Schudel) players and then promptly pukes up the following results: 5-6, 1-10, 0-11, 5-6, 5-6 and now 6-6.

With the exception of Toledo in 1997 and 2001, BSU hasn't beat a Division IA team with a winning record since 1996. Losses to Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Toledo, and Marshall reveal how far the program still has to go.

Sorry KitKat (and HuskieDan), this call was long overdue. But it still comes as a complete shock to me.

Thinking about it a little more, the move to fire Lynch might have been to remediate the number #1 reason why attendance has been below 15k:

Bill Lynch

KC

Sorry to whom everyone calls a very good guy, who in turn was a mediocre (not horrible) coach.

All the best to BSU, and w/ their tradition, the west might be that much tougher (ugh).

So, when is CMU going to own up to their mistake?



<!--EDIT|DrTorch|Dec 2 2002, 12:22 PM-->

Ahh, KC. Now you've got the picture.

Here's Ball State's average home attendance (and season records) after our last MAC football championship in 1996:

1997: 21,597 (5-6)
1998: 20,421 (1-10)
1999: 18,385 (0-11)
2000: 14,653 (5-6)
2001: 16,481 (5-6)
2002: 12,849 (6-6)

And we practically give the damn tickets away!

Bill Lynch's teams' on-field performance has lost a generation of alums and driven off everybody except the most die-hard of fans. I believe our new AD recognizes the importance of getting things turned around before the new NCAA attendance mandates apply in 2004.

Is Urban Meyer now a candidate for the Ball State job? :D

bsu_dn - be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Without vastly overdue improvements to that dump of a stadium you have, you'll continue to be .500 or worse and wonder why.

Changes often have to be made to re-invigorate interest in a program. I hope the change does that, but I just don't see you gaining 5,000 in attendance all of a sudden because you've let Lynch go.

I'll say this, our O-coordinator is going to be a commodity this offseason, and if we need to replace him, I'd love to have Bill Lynch as our OC.

DrTorch Wrote:All the best to BSU, and w/ their tradition, the west might be that much tougher (ugh).

Wait...the West could get TOUGHER?

Do you realize how many more fans could end up developing ulcers because of that?

Ahhhh, football's fun.

I can certainly see why BSU felt they had to let Lynch go........I think the decline in alum interest and attendance was the main reason (which of course goes "hand in hand" with winning). He's a "class act" IMHO, though, but his mild-manner demeanor might work better as a Head Coach in DII or DII, where his emphasis on academics and his ability to be an ambassador for the University would be more appreciated (and W's and L's less important, not that he couldn't win at that level). He'd be a good OC as mentioned above, but I don't think that he could settle for the salary of MAC ass't coach.

As for BSU's facilities, HuskieDan, not sure when you visited Muncie last, but they've made great strides in improving their stadium. They built a new away side (admittedly more aluminum than concrete) with 40 rows for about $2 mil, and then built a neat-looking endzone facility that doubles for weightlifting and conditioning and seating. It's picture was posted here sometime during the pre-season, and it looked pretty cool with glass walls so you could look out on the field while working out. In the process capacity has gone from 17K to 21K to 23.5K now. By 2005 (I think), they will horseshoe the stadium in to bring it up to 30K. When they finish that, I'd guess that BSU's stadium will be one of the MAC's nicest facilities.

He wont be missed in Toledo. He sure knew how to be the spoiler against the Rockets.

exCincy Kid Wrote:I can certainly see why BSU felt they had to let Lynch go........I think the decline in alum interest and attendance was the main reason (which of course goes "hand in hand" with winning). He's a "class act" IMHO, though, but his mild-manner demeanor might work better as a Head Coach in DII or DII, where his emphasis on academics and his ability to be an ambassador for the University would be more appreciated (and W's and L's less important, not that he couldn't win at that level). He'd be a good OC as mentioned above, but I don't think that he could settle for the salary of MAC ass't coach.

As for BSU's facilities, HuskieDan, not sure when you visited Muncie last, but they've made great strides in improving their stadium. They built a new away side (admittedly more aluminum than concrete) with 40 rows for about $2 mil, and then built a neat-looking endzone facility that doubles for weightlifting and conditioning and seating. It's picture was posted here sometime during the pre-season, and it looked pretty cool with glass walls so you could look out on the field while working out. In the process capacity has gone from 17K to 21K to 23.5K now. By 2005 (I think), they will horseshoe the stadium in to bring it up to 30K. When they finish that, I'd guess that BSU's stadium will be one of the MAC's nicest facilities.

I went this year, and the endzone facility is very nice and long overdue, but who thought to build that and leave out the coaches' offices?

There may be stadium plans, and I certainly hope so - the away side is where I sat, and it's really a pretty unspectacular but functional aluminum unit. But sitting over there and looking across at the decrepid cement/press box side was not pretty....it just looked cruddy. They're making strides, and IMO, they are long overdue.

Quote:I went this year, and the endzone facility is very nice and long overdue, but who thought to build that and leave out the coaches' offices?

?? The new end zone building is a fully functional football-only training facility. It has a new weight room, new coaching offices, new meeting rooms, new training rooms, a mini-pool, trophy lounge, one of the best digital video film systems, etc. It's probably one of the MAC's or maybe even the MAC's best Sunday-Friday football facility.

A little info about the digital film setup: All the meeting rooms have laptop hookups where the coaches plug in their computers and go over film...er, I ment files...from any room. NFL and other top programs across the country came in to check the system out.

As for finishing the stadium...it seems the new AD has change plans. It looks as though BSU is going to build a Navy style stadium. Big 25' hill on the north end instead of bleachers, add more rows to the east stands and rebuild the press box/tower and remodel the place.

Removing Lynch was long overdue. For some reason, half the games he coached, the team's game plans were very agressive. Then, other games (look at Saturday's Marshall game) the team's game plan went ultra-conservative and they lost big. Lynch and staff had a tendancy to play teams trying not to lose big. That's why he lost and that's why he is no longer head coach.

Bill Lynch had a win at Miami a couple of years ago vs a winning team.

And beat an undefeated Toledo last year in Muncie.

I was told that the end zone facility did not have coaches offices. Plenty of meeting rooms, etc, but no offices - those are still located in the same place they had been, which is in another building. I don't know where they were before, but they're still there. Otherwise, I have heard wonderful things about the facility, and as I said, it's long overdue.