I posted 3 years ago lauding your hire of Chris Creighton as HC. At least half of the posters seemed to be disappointed, which I found puzzling given your record over the last 20 years. I had followed CC career all through Drake, both the man and the coach, and found him to be a class man in both areas. In fact I was hoping my alma mater James Madison University would make a move on him not realizing that a !-A might be his next stop.

I have passively followed your board over the last 3 years and watched everything he did being dissected (a lot of it derisively), which is what we do on these boards. Our JMU board is no different.

So my question...now, 3 years later, how is CC perceived by all of you ?? Are you anxious to extend him or let the contract and next 2 years play out ?? I realize EMU got a huge break when a QB of Roback
quality wound up at your school. But how about the rest of his recruiting quality and what I can only assume the quality upgrade in your football student athletes ?? Has it been a representative program in the quality of people he has brought in...drama and headline free??

And finally how has the program upswing affected your attendance (both current student and alumni) and future upgrade plans for your stadium, if any ??

This coming season is a big one for him, as it is almost all his recruits now. Do we regress with a somewhat harder schedule? Or do we improve with many returning starters? I'm still not a fan of his decision-making in regards to offensive play calls and short-yardage decisions, but he gets the most out of his players, something his predecessor couldn't do at all.

I'm a supporter of Roback, but he is only as good as his receivers, and that showed this past season. Sergio Bailey had three (three!) go ahead/game winning TD receptions that probably should've been intercepted. We were THAT close to being 4-8 instead of 7-5. You can lump Johnnie Niupalau in there as well, who made a miraculous catch at the end of the Ball State game, a win which made us bowl eligible. Roback has improved quite a bit from his sophomore season, but he's had the help of a massively-improved receiving corps. And he gets all of those guys back in '17.

As for recruiting quality, you should check the pinned recruiting thread for some info. Some pandemonium in there right now.

We sometimes forget that this board does not represent the entirety of our fan base. I have two friends who closely follow EMU athletics that don't post on this board, for example.

Most fans have a highly positive view of Creighton. We respect his integrity, but more importantly, they respect that he's given us our best season since 1995. I'm not saying they don't believe he is free of criticism (I personally don't believe that, like in recruiting for example), but the fact that he put 7 wins in the win column has most fans putting faith in Chris Creighton.

I respect his ability to manage all aspects of a program well camps training academics coaching and his integrity. I am lukewarm on his recruiting so far this year actually I am disappointed so far

Next year year four should be interesting