Head coach Doug Williams (yes, the Super Bowl QB for the Redskins) was fired after going 0-2 with a combined score of 71-19. Now that the Tigers are 0-7 (0-4 in SWAC play), players met with administrators to voice concerns over the firing of Williams, as well as traveling by bus instead of plane to Kansas City and Indianapolis. The meeting did not go well; the players walked out and did not report to practice Wednesday.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...s-practice
Players then said they would boycott practice Thursday unless interim HC George Ragsdale, formerly the RB coach, was fired. He was, and DC Dennis Winston replaced him.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...is-winston
Good Lord that sounds like a train wreck.
Understand they were upset about getting bussed to Indy. But its really the inmates running the asylum if they get to fire a coach. Sounds like your need to fire a bunch of players.
(10-18-2013 12:17 PM)bullet Wrote: [ -> ]Understand they were upset about getting bussed to Indy. But its really the inmates running the asylum if they get to fire a coach. Sounds like your need to fire a bunch of players.
Looks like the program was already an insane asylum before the inmates tried to run it.
Very poor leadership in the athletic department if they failed to discuss with the players why they were put on long bus rides and why they fired Williams. Usually these kind of rebellions happen when coaches and administrators are non-communicative and essentially say "Talk to the hand" when players express unhappiness.
(10-18-2013 12:23 PM)Wedge Wrote: [ -> ] (10-18-2013 12:17 PM)bullet Wrote: [ -> ]Understand they were upset about getting bussed to Indy. But its really the inmates running the asylum if they get to fire a coach. Sounds like your need to fire a bunch of players.
Looks like the program was already an insane asylum before the inmates tried to run it.
What a train wreck for such a proud, historically successful program. Sheesh.
(10-18-2013 01:40 PM)quo vadis Wrote: [ -> ] (10-18-2013 12:23 PM)Wedge Wrote: [ -> ] (10-18-2013 12:17 PM)bullet Wrote: [ -> ]Understand they were upset about getting bussed to Indy. But its really the inmates running the asylum if they get to fire a coach. Sounds like your need to fire a bunch of players.
Looks like the program was already an insane asylum before the inmates tried to run it.
What a train wreck for such a proud, historically successful program. Sheesh.
Unfortunately, QV, there are more problems there then just the Football team.
George Dohrmann of SI shines a light on Grambling here:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college...&eref=sihp
Quote:Near the start of the season, the Grambling Legends, a group unaffiliated with the school, funded much-needed replacement flooring for the weight room. Doug Williams, then the Tigers coach, a popular alumnus, former Super Bowl MVP and member of the Grambling Legends, helped arrange the purchase of the new rubber flooring, just as he had done earlier with new flooring for the team's locker room. Williams had a history of ruffling administrative feathers -- in April 2012 he sued the school for a performance bonuses he says he was owed -- and he often circumvented the school's chain of command. The funds to pay for the new weight room floor were yet another instance of that, as the money had not been filtered through the school's foundation, as Pogue and athletic director Aaron James demanded.
In response, Pogue and James ordered the flooring to be stored in a another building near the team's practice field. Then, a week after the large rolls of flooring were mothballed, Williams was fired as Grambling's coach.
The players, unaware of the politics, knew only that one minute they were getting the badly needed new floor and then they weren't. They knew only that Williams, who led the team to a SWAC title as recently as 2011, was their coach and then suddenly he was not.
Their revolt earlier this week was reported to be a protest of long bus trips, a lack of food on the road, and a general decline in the support of the program, and that is true. But as SI learned while at Grambling as the events of the past week unfolded, the players' actions were also driven by the need for answers they have long sought: Why can't they get a new floor in the weight room and other things they feel they need to win games? Why did Williams get fired? And, the overarching question: What has happened to Grambling football?
I bet Eddie Robinson is turning in his grave...
Reports are surfacing that the players at Grambling are boycotting tomorrow's game at Jackson State.
(10-18-2013 02:57 PM)Hokie4Skins Wrote: [ -> ]Reports are surfacing that the players at Grambling are boycotting tomorrow's game at Jackson State.
Hope it's settled before the Bayou Classic, I have tickets.
(10-18-2013 02:57 PM)Hokie4Skins Wrote: [ -> ]Reports are surfacing that the players at Grambling are boycotting tomorrow's game at Jackson State.
Quote:The Gramblinite @TheGramblinite 35m
BREAKING: Members of the GSU football team have chosen NOT travel to Jackson State University for their Homecoming game tomorrow.
It seems that the players have decided not to play.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college...&eref=sihp
Quote:Their revolt earlier this week was reported to be a protest of long bus trips, a lack of food on the road, and a general decline in the support of the program, and that is true. But as SI learned while at Grambling as the events of the past week unfolded, the players' actions were also driven by the need for answers they have long sought: Why can't they get a new floor in the weight room and other things they feel they need to win games? Why did Williams get fired? And, the overarching question: What has happened to Grambling football?
Great article that details a lot of what is killing this program.
Read More:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college...z2i6kB5A6J
It is not just the program - the entire school is under-funded.
Just need to close it down and merge with Louisiana Tech - only 6 miles away.
They gave the players what they wanted and they decided they needed more. Crazy to fire the interim coach.
If I were President, I'd just cancel the rest of the season and tell the players their scholarship was gone at the end of the semester.
They had some legitimate gripes, but striking is over the line.
(10-18-2013 03:43 PM)dbackjon Wrote: [ -> ]It is not just the program - the entire school is under-funded.
Just need to close it down and merge with Louisiana Tech - only 6 miles away.
Louisiana kept open Southern U New Orleans and U of New Orleans even though they serve similar populations and are 1 mile apart.
Louisiana really is overpopulated with schools in the north. Louisiana Monroe, Grambling, Louisiana Tech, LSU-Shreveport, Southern-Shreveport (I think that one is still open), NW Louisiana. There was talk a year or two ago about closing 3 or 4 schools.
They ought to just shut Grambling down and merge it with Southern in Baton Rouge. Make it easy to transfer to one of the other Northern Louisiana schools if that's what they want to do.
(10-18-2013 03:43 PM)dbackjon Wrote: [ -> ]It is not just the program - the entire school is under-funded.
Just need to close it down and merge with Louisiana Tech - only 6 miles away.
Louisiana Tech is under-funded as well. Under the Jindal administration, all public universities, including LSU, have had their state funding cut drastically.
But the fundamental problem goes beyond Jindal to how the state budget is structured: Almost everything the state spends money on is protected in the state constitution, except higher education. So if tax revenues decline, as they have been declining since the 2008 recession, the only thing the governor and legislature are free to cut is college money.
Of course the other option is to raise tax rates (e.g., on the booming oil industry or the wealthy) to make up for the declining revenue, but as a tea party republican, Jindal has no ideological inclination to do that.
(10-18-2013 06:52 PM)quo vadis Wrote: [ -> ] (10-18-2013 03:43 PM)dbackjon Wrote: [ -> ]It is not just the program - the entire school is under-funded.
Just need to close it down and merge with Louisiana Tech - only 6 miles away.
Louisiana Tech is under-funded as well. Under the Jindal administration, all public universities, including LSU, have had their state funding cut drastically.
But the fundamental problem goes beyond Jindal to how the state budget is structured: Almost everything the state spends money on is protected in the state constitution, except higher education. So if tax revenues decline, as they have been declining since the 2008 recession, the only thing the governor and legislature are free to cut is college money.
Of course the other option is to raise tax rates (e.g., on the booming oil industry or the wealthy) to make up for the declining revenue, but as a tea party republican, Jindal has no ideological inclination to do that.
So they are letting them die on the vine.
Still, with THREE colleges in a thirty-mile stretch of I-20 (ULM, La Tech, and Grambling), serving a lightly populated area, maybe a tough choice needs to be made.
Wow As Much As I Feel For The Grambling Players dealing With Their Situation its A Horrible Situation For Jackson State Having To Cancel The Homecoming Game.