I’m tired of all the name-calling and ad hominems directed at David Bailiff. Whatever he is as a football coach, he is a better person than to be subjected to that kind of abuse. We’re not Horns Fans, nor should be want to be. For the sake of trying to start some more productive discussion, I would like to propose either of two hypothetical scenarios:
1) Bailiff is gone, and you are on the committee to select a successor; or
2) Bailiff remains, and you have the opportunity to interview him.
I think the two cases are functionally equivalent for my purpose here. What I am asking is, what questions would you ask?
I would offer seven, which would obviously be adjusted slightly for which of the two scenarios above I was addressing, and most of which are compound questions that would likely lead to follow-on questions:
1) What is your philosophy of winning football? In other words, how do you plan to win football games at Rice?
2) Rice football operates under a number of constraints including academic requirements, small size of school, and limited resources. How do you plan to overcome those limitations and restrictions? What changes would you advocate in any of those restrictions?
3) What do you believe to be reasonable aspirational goals for Rice football, both long term and for next season?
4) What schemes do you plan to employ on offense, defense, and special teams, and what is your rationale behind your choice of each?
5) What will be your recruiting focus, and how do you plan to differentiate Rice from other universities for potential recruits?
6) How do you organize practice sessions? If I were to attend practice sessions, what would stand out as different from the way other coaches organize and conduct practices?
7) How would you go about assembling and organizing a coaching staff?
I would be interested in what questions others might propose, or what others would want to hear in answers to these questions. I would appreciate anyone who can contribute insight into what David's answers to these questions might be.
I would hope that these questions would raise more objective points that would take the conversation away from the rather nasty place where it has been.
The sad thing is I personally like Baliff but we are not where we need to be to keep Rice football relevant on a FBS level. The fans are not interested in our current CUSA opponents and we have to do better to have a change to get in a better conference (American, Mountain West or P5). I do not know if changing out coaches is all that we need to do to get better.
I think you should start a blog so you can get a press credential for the football games.
Great list of questions. I think the only other question I would ask DB, or any incoming coach, is how they view their role in regards to operating the offense and defense, and how much responsibility do they give their coordinators in regards to determining the overall offensive or defensive philosophy. This obviously overlaps a few questions, but I am interested in how hands on any coach is/would want to be.
(11-30-2015 05:44 PM)75src Wrote: [ -> ]The sad thing is I personally like Baliff but we are not where we need to be to keep Rice football relevant on a FBS level. The fans are not interested in our current CUSA opponents and we have to do better to have a change to get in a better conference (American, Mountain West or P5). I do not know if changing out coaches is all that we need to do to get better.
It isn't, but it's a good place to start.
Perhaps that could fit into the line of questioning.
Because of the academic requirements at Rice, we believe can recruit players with higher than average mental capacity. How would you take advantage of that on the field?
Lack of discipline has been an issue as illustrated by numerous unnecessary penalties. How would you plan to correct this?
(11-30-2015 05:49 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote: [ -> ]Because of the academic requirements at Rice, we believe can recruit players with higher than average mental capacity. How would you take advantage of that on the field?
Lack of discipline has been an issue as illustrated by numerous unnecessary penalties. How would you plan to correct this?
This. We are amazingly simplistic in our schemes and amazingly undisciplined. For a school with a lot of smart kids, we play really really dumb.
Of course, any problem most coaches are going to have at Rice is that their players are going to be smarter than they are.
Nothing was more frustrating to me this year than the lack of discipline. At 2:49 in the video, you can hear that the team was determined to shed the "nice guys" image for a tough guy image. I like what Owl 69 has said on many occasions about Bear Bryant teams: quiet intensity. It seems that we forgot how to play with intensity between the whistles and some how thought that being tough meant playing tough after the whistle. When you look at teams like Army, Navy, or Air Force, what sets them apart is their discipline. Perhaps Coach Rhodes knows a good drill Sargent or Navy Seal that can help build our football team's toughness and discipline. With that said, my questions for Coach Bailiff would be:
1. How do we correct our lack of discipline for 2016 and beyond to ensure that our players play together and play for the name on the front of the jersey?
2. Do you think that our offensive and defensive schemes been fully vetted by opponents? If so, what is to be our response?
3. Do we have enough speed on kick coverage? In what ways are we going to address the shortfall of special teams?
4. Do we have the personnel for our defensive scheme? Is it time to consider another defensive approach?
5. Is our S&C producing? How can we ensure that our gains are not accompanied by decreased mobility and quickness?
My question - how do you plan to ignore and block out 50 years of irrelevance and excuses and find a way. What would be your reaction if someone said that it can't be done?
(11-30-2015 05:26 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: [ -> ]3) What do you believe to be reasonable aspirational goals for Rice football, both long term and for next season?
I believe this is the one of the most important questions for a hypothetical candidate.
I also believe that most of the nasty stuff on this board is, at root, about our mis-directing our frustration with the administration's low expectations on Bailiff. He has demonstrated he can win 40%+ of his games and win 10 once every five years. If that is good enough for the administration, then we should applaud the man for doing his job with grace and being supportive of the university's academic mission
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The questions I would like to ask Bailiff would be the following
1. What contributions do you believe Kyle Martens and Chris Boswell made to winning football games?
2. Since each team only has one punter and one place kicker, do you believe those are positions where Rice should have access to top shelf talent? What is standing in your way of reloading at those positions?
3. What would be the pros and cons of seeking more transfers, be they JUCOs, graduates, or traditional, say from service academies and P5 programs?
Can you go undefeated through CUSA*? IF not, then only 1 loss? If so how soon? How many consecutive years can you do that, a la what Boise usually does and what TCU did to climb back up after they were dropped by the SWC?
*keeping in mind this is CUSA 3.1, not the SEC or BiG or even the AAC)
Follow ups: What is college football pre-season, exactly? Can you turn some of our non-conference opportunity games into what fans nationally would by consensus call a Signature win (keeping in mind Rice currently appears to schedule at least 1 or 2 opportunities per season)? How many can you reasonably get over how long a period? Can you get us to an Access Bowl? What is your goal for how long that will take?
(11-30-2015 11:04 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Can you go undefeated through CUSA*? IF not, then only 1 loss? If so how soon? How many consecutive years can you do that, a la what Boise usually does and what TCU did to climb back up after they were dropped by the SWC?
*keeping in mind this is CUSA 3.1, not the SEC or BiG or even the AAC)
Follow ups: What is college football pre-season, exactly? Can you turn some of our non-conference opportunity games into what fans nationally would by consensus call a Signature win (keeping in mind Rice currently appears to schedule at least 1 or 2 opportunities per season)? How many can you reasonably get over how long a period? Can you get us to an Access Bowl? What is your goal for how long that will take?
So far, David's answers appear to be: No. No. It'll take at least 10 years, and likely several more than that. Not consecutively.
and: Pretty much most or all non-conference games. No. None over 9 years. No. I've got to do a better job and figure it out.
(11-30-2015 11:04 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Can you go undefeated through CUSA*? IF not, then only 1 loss? If so how soon? How many consecutive years can you do that, a la what Boise usually does and what TCU did to climb back up after they were dropped by the SWC?
*keeping in mind this is CUSA 3.1, not the SEC or BiG or even the AAC)
Follow ups: What is college football pre-season, exactly? Can you turn some of our non-conference opportunity games into what fans nationally would by consensus call a Signature win (keeping in mind Rice currently appears to schedule at least 1 or 2 opportunities per season)? How many can you reasonably get over how long a period? Can you get us to an Access Bowl? What is your goal for how long that will take?
So far, David's answers appear to be: No. No. It'll take at least 10 years, and likely several more than that. Not consecutively.
and: Pretty much most or all non-conference games. No. None over 9 years. No. I've got to do a better job and figure it out.
Fact Check:
Rice was 7-1 in CUSA play in 2008.
Keeping in mind that was CUSA 2.0
(11-30-2015 11:04 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Can you go undefeated through CUSA*? IF not, then only 1 loss? If so how soon? How many consecutive years can you do that, a la what Boise usually does and what TCU did to climb back up after they were dropped by the SWC?
*keeping in mind this is CUSA 3.1, not the SEC or BiG or even the AAC)
Follow ups: What is college football pre-season, exactly? Can you turn some of our non-conference opportunity games into what fans nationally would by consensus call a Signature win (keeping in mind Rice currently appears to schedule at least 1 or 2 opportunities per season)? How many can you reasonably get over how long a period? Can you get us to an Access Bowl? What is your goal for how long that will take?
So far, David's answers appear to be: No. No. It'll take at least 10 years, and likely several more than that. Not consecutively.
and: Pretty much most or all non-conference games. No. None over 9 years. No. I've got to do a better job and figure it out.
Fact Check:
Rice was 7-1 in CUSA play in 2008.
Keeping in mind that was CUSA 2.0
Well, you're right. David went 1 loss in CUSA one time 7 seasons ago, when it was a somewhat tougher conference than it is today, when he went 3-5. That IS impressive. Kudos.
1) For a variety of reasons, some good and some not, it seems apparent that Rice doesn't plan to put significantly more University financial resources towards football. How do you plan to substantially outperform your financial resources?
2) Rice has a small alumni base and no significant historical ties to 'success' that would attract the casual viewer who can pick and choose from dozens of games featuring higher rated teams on any given Saturday. How do you plan to attract fans (and/or revenue) to increase your financial resources?
It is true that part of these answers are questions for the AD as much as the coach, but it is clear that they must work together on a plan.
Doing exactly what everyone else does and somehow expecting to be 'better' at it than they are without some 'Ace up your sleeve' seems like a plan for failure/frustration. We already draw roughly 2.5 times our enrollment and perhaps 1/3 of our living alumni. We aren't going to offer a better product on the field than TV can. Even if we ever get to be top 25, it seems obvious that we won't have more than 2-3 OTHER top 25 teams in a season to match up against and not often at home, while The SEC, B1G etc have 2-3 games between top 25 teams every week. These are major obstacles to overcome and we need to have plans to do so.
I'm not 100% convinced that even if we had a Tillman Fertita or SMUs gang of 20 to fund $2-3mm/yr for a coach plus more for his staff, that the University would allow it. There has always been some resistance to paying a coach more than we pay our President/Nobel Prize winning staff, even if those resources don't compete. That doesn't mean we can't find some other ways to sweeten the pot, but I suspect the salary itself is capped... Unless of course Rice Football (or basketball) becomes a MAJOR source of National attention for the University
(11-30-2015 11:04 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Can you go undefeated through CUSA*? IF not, then only 1 loss? If so how soon? How many consecutive years can you do that, a la what Boise usually does and what TCU did to climb back up after they were dropped by the SWC?
*keeping in mind this is CUSA 3.1, not the SEC or BiG or even the AAC)
Follow ups: What is college football pre-season, exactly? Can you turn some of our non-conference opportunity games into what fans nationally would by consensus call a Signature win (keeping in mind Rice currently appears to schedule at least 1 or 2 opportunities per season)? How many can you reasonably get over how long a period? Can you get us to an Access Bowl? What is your goal for how long that will take?
So far, David's answers appear to be: No. No. It'll take at least 10 years, and likely several more than that. Not consecutively.
and: Pretty much most or all non-conference games. No. None over 9 years. No. I've got to do a better job and figure it out.
Fact Check:
Rice was 7-1 in CUSA play in 2008.
Keeping in mind that was CUSA 2.0
And 7-1 in 2014 (8-1 counting the championship game).
So once every six years.
If we are to climb out of CUSA, that needs to be 4 of the other 5 as well. That's the real question, will we ever be able to SUSTAIN it year after year?
The penalties this year were far too many. Lots of stupid penalties. I hadn't noticed this being a problem in previous seasons. One (valid) excuse is our youth. But I think it's part of the trade off of having a "player's coach" vs a tough disciplinarian. A good case can be made that Rice needs the latter, as preparation and discipline have at times been questioned. What kind of coach would minimize Rice's liabilities and make the most of our strengths?
(11-30-2015 11:04 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Can you go undefeated through CUSA*? IF not, then only 1 loss? If so how soon? How many consecutive years can you do that, a la what Boise usually does and what TCU did to climb back up after they were dropped by the SWC?
*keeping in mind this is CUSA 3.1, not the SEC or BiG or even the AAC)
Follow ups: What is college football pre-season, exactly? Can you turn some of our non-conference opportunity games into what fans nationally would by consensus call a Signature win (keeping in mind Rice currently appears to schedule at least 1 or 2 opportunities per season)? How many can you reasonably get over how long a period? Can you get us to an Access Bowl? What is your goal for how long that will take?
So far, David's answers appear to be: No. No. It'll take at least 10 years, and likely several more than that. Not consecutively.
and: Pretty much most or all non-conference games. No. None over 9 years. No. I've got to do a better job and figure it out.
Fact Check:
Rice was 7-1 in CUSA play in 2008.
Keeping in mind that was CUSA 2.0
And 7-1 in 2014 (8-1 counting the championship game).
So once every six years.
If we are to climb out of CUSA, that needs to be 4 of the other 5 as well. That's the real question, will we ever be able to SUSTAIN it year after year?
Sustainable? Unsure.
Sustainable with Bailiff? Absolutely not.
(12-01-2015 11:08 AM)Hambone10 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not 100% convinced that even if we had a Tillman Fertita or SMUs gang of 20 to fund $2-3mm/yr for a coach plus more for his staff, that the University would allow it. There has always been some resistance to paying a coach more than we pay our President/Nobel Prize winning staff, even if those resources don't compete. That doesn't mean we can't find some other ways to sweeten the pot, but I suspect the salary itself is capped...
If this were ever to be actually confirmed I would never give another dime to Rice. Are Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, etc. prostituting their academic integrity by paying 7-figure coaching salaries? Please. The sooner we trash our standards to their level the better, obviously.
(I understand you do not hold the mindset you described, but are just saying you think it exists, so my scorn is not at all directed at you, Hambone.)
(12-01-2015 11:08 AM)Hambone10 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not 100% convinced that even if we had a Tillman Fertita or SMUs gang of 20 to fund $2-3mm/yr for a coach plus more for his staff, that the University would allow it. There has always been some resistance to paying a coach more than we pay our President/Nobel Prize winning staff, even if those resources don't compete. That doesn't mean we can't find some other ways to sweeten the pot, but I suspect the salary itself is capped...
If this were ever to be actually confirmed I would never give another dime to Rice. Are Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, etc. prostituting their academic integrity by paying 7-figure coaching salaries? Please. The sooner we trash our standards to their level the better, obviously.
My, how times have changed.
"Football is big business" began the Thresher editorial of March 19, 1926, in the waning years of John Heisman's coaching tenure at Rice. It recalled the shock of his salary demands -- "When Coach Heisman was hired two years ago at a salary unofficially reported to be as high as that of the president of the Institute, there was a great deal of objection raised ..."
But continued ...
"President Edgar Odell Lovett is quoted as saying in effect in a matriculation address that the emotional calm that succeeds the excitement of a football game, the quiet mental reaction that follows a period of elation or suffering with and for your team on the gridiron, is conducive to the very best of study and prepares the brain for prolonged reasoning and retentive thought.
"Football in the college has been the "drawing card to education." It is what has made the over-crowded conditions in colleges today; and the idea that over-crowded conditions have been brought on by a lack of interest in scholastics and an increasing interest in football is an erroneous one.
"The attractiveness of the modern college has drawn young men and women to it; education has become more popular. Take away the "big business" of college and the attractiveness of the college is taken away with it. Philosophy and football are not strangers but go along hand in hand."