If Bartow would leave tomorrow, I would take Wagers in a freaking heart beat.

How old is Pitts now? His picture on King's website makes him look 100.

I don't understand why Wagers would be the obvious next coach. ETSU now has to settle for lets promote the assistant? Not saying Wagers is a bad choice I don't know. Not saying Pitts is the choice either. I would like to see them actually open a real coaching search and interview people, not just settle. I guess ETSU has fallen so far that actually doing a search for a new coach would be pointless.

I'd offer an opinion but it's just not worth the effort. Bartow isn't leaving. Whether it be by force or his own accord. Not happening.

I do agree with the good Doc. Bartow isn't going anywhere.

If we ever get a new coach I would like them to give Mister a shot for an assistant job.

The next ETSU coach has to have head coaching experience and I mean successful. Pitts qualifies. He wins. I understand he's never played a game on this level... oh, excuse me. He took little ole King College from the Appalachian Athletic Conference and beat Appalachian State on the road worse than ETSU did. The point is, that just one game. I wonder if Rick Byrd is available. If you can't beat them...hire them!

(02-02-2010 03:03 PM)Bucster Wrote:  If we ever get a new coach I would like them to give Mister a shot for an assistant job.

[b] Yes!

Why would Byrd leave the successful program he has built and step down to ETSU? Byrd is happy where is.

I don't want Rick Byrd....I want to beat Rick Byrd.

I agree it's pretty unlikely Bartow leaves on his own, just an observation and a little bit of a hunch. Byrd's not coming here, although we would be lucky to have him, quite honestly. His teams are typically well-prepared and well-coached.

Rod: There's this thing called an economy. It sucks. ETSU has taken major budget cuts - survived them, but the cuts are pretty deep. Wagers might get the offer w/ the economy in the tank because he may be a cheaper option and not only that, a viable one.

Yeah, Byrd got heavy interest from more than one program a couple of years ago, - maybe even interviewed somewhere in the Midwest - he made it clear at that point that he's very happy where he is. Something *way* back in the back of my brain says that maybe he'd be interested if Vandy asked, but he likes where he is and what he's doing..........

A few things-

Please- let's retire the Pitts talk. He's too old to be considered, there isn't another college in the country that would look at him, and the academic record of his players at SHHS was abysmal.

I will go so far as to say I know for a fact Mullins once said that his worst nightmare was if Pitts applied to the head coaching search in 2003.

And what does it say about the area that Jimmy Patsos, an assistant on the National Champs, was campaigning for the job at ETSU and you'd still have more people saying "NO! HIRE THIS HIGH SCHOOL COACH!"

Second- Bartow isn't going to be fired. I assure you that ETSU looks at this as the time to rehire him- he'll come cheaper. And trust me, he's beginning to TALK like ETSU administration- "It's not our fault! It's the fans! Why don't you want to watch soccer or tennis instead of football, etc."

Which, if they haven't come out and said directly, ETSU has said with their actions.

(02-01-2010 11:29 PM)Running_Fool15 Wrote:  I just don't buy the sky is falling BS. If Sheldon makes that dunk people more than likely praise Bartow for his end of the game pressing decisions because we probably win. One missed opportunity does not change a coach from great to terrible. Bartow is a fair coach - not the best we've had, but certainly not the worse. Look around us at the majority of the coaches in the A-Sun and Socon. Most are far worse than Bartow. And he's a GREAT recruiter. When it's said and done, the recruiting class that brought in Tiggs, Hamlin, Hubbard, Brown, and Davis is probably going to be one of the top 3 of the past 20 years. 4 of those 5 are/were definitely CRUCIAL to the team's success, and Jacolby is making a case for himself to be included in that list.

ETSU fans, myself included, are way too harsh after losses and way too happy after wins. I swear, I think we're all bipolar when it comes to the team, especially this particular version. Although, when you think about it, their performance this year has been somewhat bipolar...

It WAS a good coaching decision to go to the press, and we executed it very well. And maybe the outcome is different if Cooley doesn't get stuffed by the goal. BUT - it was a TERRIBLE coaching decision to stick with the zone until we were down 30 the first Belmont game this year, and we had no idea what we were trying to do offensively in this game or where points are coming from in general, to cite a couple of recent examples. For me at least, Murry's bad decisions > good ones.