(09-22-2014 11:01 AM)emu79 Wrote:  This question was asked in another thread. The answer I think it is too soon to tell...

Okay, back on thread...

What the start shows, I believe, is that we should not ascribe a sense of 'magic' to replacing one coach with another (that is popular in sports, the magic bullet).

It is not like trading a 15 year old clunker (car) which just doesn't run right for a brand new vehicle which runs perfectly.

The new coach has the same players, same schedule (yep, Florida and MSU), same stadium, same fans (or lack thereof), etc.

A new coach is but ONE element in the total mosaic we call a football program...

Steve, I don't think anyone thought Eastern was going to be good this year from a W-L standpoint. But the utter confusion, the lack of fundementals and execution are huge red flags for me.

(09-27-2014 06:44 AM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  Steve, I don't think anyone thought Eastern was going to be good this year from a W-L standpoint. But the utter confusion, the lack of fundementals and execution are huge red flags for me.

I have to admit that I (!) thought that we'd get more out of our players' abilities and that new coaching would be the reason.

Our players underachieved last season and I thought they would show more this year.

I remember posting scenarios where EMU had a big lead going into the 4th quarter versus Morgan State.

The Morgan State game (unfortunately) set the tone. Had Morgan State not fumbled away an EMU TD, they probably win. I really thought the problem for this team was that they'd be too keyed up emotionally and make a bunch of aggressive/mental mistakes. Instead we appear listless and unorganized. That to me has to rest squarely on the shouders of the coach (es).

Unbelievable. The EMU football program has been lousy for how long ? Too bad Vince Lombardi is dead, maybe he could turn the program around in 3-4 games.

Have faith, Chris Creighton is a proven winner. I wish we had him at JMU. Instead we got the assistant defensive coordinator from Ohio State. Last time I saw him they giving up half a hundred and we turn around and hire him with nothing but a failure record at the FBS level. I'm willing to be patient and give him 3 years....



I suggest you dissenters learn some patience or else keep enjoying your recent history. TWO butt kickings to sweeten the athletic coffers while trying to point a team in a new direction with someone elses players....that seems like it might be a bit of a challenge.

CC will build you a program and also build you some fine young men your program can be proud of.

I agree with the random JMU fan's assessment

I appreciate the familiar WMU fan's appraisal.

No, you guys don't understand. You have to have watched this team play to see how bad it is. English didn't leave the cupboard bare. There is some talent. Akron is going to blow this team out next week. It's pretty grim.

Dear Bob,
I know Akron beat Pittsburgh this past week end, but Pittsburgh has not really played anyone of note. In fact two of their wins are against Delaware and Florida International.
We may lose to Akron, but I don't believe it will be a blow out. Plus your lauding of Coach Bowden is a little out of wack when comparing him to Coach Creighton. Isn't this Bowden's third season at Akron? Meaning he has had time to develop his program, which Creighton has only had part of one year, yet you are claiming he is in over his head.

I don't think this is an "either or" scenario, as in if Creighton is in over his head he will never be a good coach. I have faith that Creighton will turn EMU around (as an emu fan, faith is all we have). However, up until now he has made some pretty big mistakes and has appeared to be a little overwhelmed. Now that being said lets look at the monumental task Creighton has undertaken; he inherited a losing program with almost no fan support. Last years team saw a player murdered and a coach fired. So far this year three of his players have been arrested and a couple more injured. Add to all of this one of the toughest schedules in the MAC (probably the toughest) and you have a disaster of a year. Five home games, 4 of the first five games on the road, two of them against Florida and Michigan State. Would I have preferred the football team win at ODU, play Florida and Michigan State more competitively, YES Absolutely. But that didn't happen. I haven't given up on EMU football and I'm not willing to trash Creighton for the struggles of this team. As I stated before I think his biggest mistake has been the quarterback situation. I also wonder about the complete lack of a running game the last few weeks, but then when you look at the fact that we can't pass the ball, well that allows defenses to stack the box and of course we can't run. So, in closing. Creighton has not been perfect, mistakes have been made. But after looking at the schedule, circumstances surrounding player arrests, injuries and historical issues with EMU football, I consider our program lucky to have a man like Creighton as the head coach. This season will not get better, we may not win another game. Next season will not be much better. This has to be a 5 year rebuilding effort.

(09-28-2014 01:15 PM)emdypo Wrote:  I don't think this is an "either or" scenario, as in if Creighton is in over his head he will never be a good coach. I have faith that Creighton will turn EMU around (as an emu fan, faith is all we have). However, up until now he has made some pretty big mistakes and has appeared to be a little overwhelmed. Now that being said lets look at the monumental task Creighton has undertaken; he inherited a losing program with almost no fan support. Last years team saw a player murdered and a coach fired. So far this year three of his players have been arrested and a couple more injured. Add to all of this one of the toughest schedules in the MAC (probably the toughest) and you have a disaster of a year. Five home games, 4 of the first five games on the road, two of them against Florida and Michigan State. Would I have preferred the football team win at ODU, play Florida and Michigan State more competitively, YES Absolutely. But that didn't happen. I haven't given up on EMU football and I'm not willing to trash Creighton for the struggles of this team. As I stated before I think his biggest mistake has been the quarterback situation. I also wonder about the complete lack of a running game the last few weeks, but then when you look at the fact that we can't pass the ball, well that allows defenses to stack the box and of course we can't run. So, in closing. Creighton has not been perfect, mistakes have been made. But after looking at the schedule, circumstances surrounding player arrests, injuries and historical issues with EMU football, I consider our program lucky to have a man like Creighton as the head coach. This season will not get better, we may not win another game. Next season will not be much better. This has to be a 5 year rebuilding effort.

This

(09-28-2014 10:26 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Bob,
I know Akron beat Pittsburgh this past week end, but Pittsburgh has not really played anyone of note. In fact two of their wins are against Delaware and Florida International.
We may lose to Akron, but I don't believe it will be a blow out. Plus your lauding of Coach Bowden is a little out of wack when comparing him to Coach Creighton. Isn't this Bowden's third season at Akron? Meaning he has had time to develop his program, which Creighton has only had part of one year, yet you are claiming he is in over his head.

Yes Ken, Akron will absolutely blow out EMU. Secondly, I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but...Terry Bowden once went undefeated at Auburn. There is no way he would have ever considered coaching at EMU. He knew Akron was a program on the rise with their commitment to football as evidenced by their outstanding new stadium. Two years ago Akron was 2 yards away from beating U-M in the Big House, something us EMU fans could never dream of happening.

(09-28-2014 01:15 PM)emdypo Wrote:  I don't think this is an "either or" scenario, as in if Creighton is in over his head he will never be a good coach. I have faith that Creighton will turn EMU around (as an emu fan, faith is all we have). However, up until now he has made some pretty big mistakes and has appeared to be a little overwhelmed. Now that being said lets look at the monumental task Creighton has undertaken; he inherited a losing program with almost no fan support. Last years team saw a player murdered and a coach fired. So far this year three of his players have been arrested and a couple more injured. Add to all of this one of the toughest schedules in the MAC (probably the toughest) and you have a disaster of a year. Five home games, 4 of the first five games on the road, two of them against Florida and Michigan State. Would I have preferred the football team win at ODU, play Florida and Michigan State more competitively, YES Absolutely. But that didn't happen. I haven't given up on EMU football and I'm not willing to trash Creighton for the struggles of this team. As I stated before I think his biggest mistake has been the quarterback situation. I also wonder about the complete lack of a running game the last few weeks, but then when you look at the fact that we can't pass the ball, well that allows defenses to stack the box and of course we can't run. So, in closing. Creighton has not been perfect, mistakes have been made. But after looking at the schedule, circumstances surrounding player arrests, injuries and historical issues with EMU football, I consider our program lucky to have a man like Creighton as the head coach. This season will not get better, we may not win another game. Next season will not be much better. This has to be a 5 year rebuilding effort.

EXACTLY. It is going to be real bad for at least 2-3 years, then you will start to see some daylight. There is no instant fix.

Right now my alma mater is faced with not getting rid of a coach when our slide started, all because we managed to beat Va. Tech. that bought him an extra 2 years.

I was a 22 year season ticket holder. Fever at JMU was so rampant that at our height, we took a 22,000 seat stadium and spent $63 million to expand to 35,000. Since then attendance has decreased 10 percent each of the last 3 years. Attendance yesterday...21,000

I would kill for 21,000.

(09-28-2014 08:24 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  I would kill for 21,000.

I would kill for 17,500.

That would force us to put students/band on the East side.

BTW, anyone know are there problems on the East side (I don't mean on the East side of Detroit), I mean the stands, e.g., late afternoon sun, etc.???

Lets not forget CC pulled a decent recruiting class last year with little time and staff turnover (ie Mike Hart) it took a while to get this staff stabilized (we lost a WR coach, hired a TE coach and then let him go etc.).

So far we have I believe 16 verbals-that's unheard of from any prior football from Rasnick on through English to have 16 verbals at this time of the year. And the early verbals have steadily been moving up in the ESPN and Scout rankings for position via national rankings. Hopefully we don't lose any of them.

(09-29-2014 08:35 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Lets not forget CC pulled a decent recruiting class last year with little time and staff turnover (ie Mike Hart) it took a while to get this staff stabilized (we lost a WR coach, hired a TE coach and then let him go etc.).

So far we have I believe 16 verbals-that's unheard of from any prior football from Rasnick on through English to have 16 verbals at this time of the year. And the early verbals have steadily been moving up in the ESPN and Scout rankings for position via national rankings. Hopefully we don't lose any of them.

I'm not impressed by CC's recruiting.

Hopefully he has high character players but the football caliber of the recruits isn't good enough to turn the program around.

Getting verbals early (CC) or late (English, Murphy) is more the recruiting strategy of the coach then some 'early bird gets the worm' manifestation.

(09-29-2014 08:51 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(09-29-2014 08:35 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Lets not forget CC pulled a decent recruiting class last year with little time and staff turnover (ie Mike Hart) it took a while to get this staff stabilized (we lost a WR coach, hired a TE coach and then let him go etc.).

So far we have I believe 16 verbals-that's unheard of from any prior football from Rasnick on through English to have 16 verbals at this time of the year. And the early verbals have steadily been moving up in the ESPN and Scout rankings for position via national rankings. Hopefully we don't lose any of them.

I'm not impressed by CC's recruiting.

Hopefully he has high character players but the football caliber of the recruits isn't good enough to turn the program around.

And you base this impression on what?

http://sports.yahoo.com/footballrecruiti.../MIDAM/all

Currently we're not at the bottom of the 2015 recruiting class. Please recall that generally EMU has ranked dead last in MAC recruiting especially during the Genyk era and also the first two years of Ron English.

(09-29-2014 08:52 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(09-29-2014 08:51 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(09-29-2014 08:35 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Lets not forget CC pulled a decent recruiting class last year with little time and staff turnover (ie Mike Hart) it took a while to get this staff stabilized (we lost a WR coach, hired a TE coach and then let him go etc.).

So far we have I believe 16 verbals-that's unheard of from any prior football from Rasnick on through English to have 16 verbals at this time of the year. And the early verbals have steadily been moving up in the ESPN and Scout rankings for position via national rankings. Hopefully we don't lose any of them.

I'm not impressed by CC's recruiting.

Hopefully he has high character players but the football caliber of the recruits isn't good enough to turn the program around.

And you base this impression on what?

http://sports.yahoo.com/footballrecruiti.../MIDAM/all

Currently we're not at the bottom of the 2015 recruiting class. Please recall that generally EMU has ranked dead last in MAC recruiting especially during the Genyk era and also the first two years of Ron English.

We were ranked #107 overall (I believe out of 123 FBS teams) last year. MAC recruiting (2014), other than WMU and Akron, was very mediocre. (Time for our Terry Bowden + Nice Stadium = good recruiting possibilities comment).

So we have a very blah stadium and history of very blah recruiting and folks wonder why we struggle.

Sorry, I don't see 'green sprouts', YET.

Will things improve in the next couple years, let's hope so but they haven't turned around yet.

I haven't seen the 'difference maker' recruit. I haven't seen a 10, 20, 30 or 40M plan to improve Rynearson (yet).

Dear Bob,
Yes I am aware of Coach Bowden's tenure at Auburn University. During that tenure were you aware of the scandal that forced his resignation from that school? They were paying players to come to Auburn.
After leaving Auburn, he showed up at Northern Alabama. Had a few winning records there ( probably paying players again), and then came on to Akron. I would not want this guy as my coach if he were the only choice. People don't change what they consider works for their endeavors.