CSNbbs

http://footballscoop.com/news/middle-ten...-district/

This just pushes the ball for ODU to step up with the stadium and better practice facilities.

Looks like a great cohesive master plan. But it won't mean much until they have the money in hand and shovels are ready.

Wow. Thats very impressive. ODU is definitely going to have to step it up or we simply will not be able to compete. Facilities are a huge part of recruiting, and winning is directly tied to recruiting. I would love to see some type of video and vision plan for ODU football of this type. As it is, Im afraid our brand new stadium won't even compare to what MT has now, much less the practice facility and athletics village. We're in almost big boy football now, and ODU and the state of VA are going to have to fund it like that or we will be embarrassed. Hopefully good news comes soon in regards to our stadium.

I don't have any insight into how ODU handles it's finances, but it's pretty amazing that so many CUSA schools can build such nice facilities on a fraction of our budget.

We really can't beat MTSU at anything.

(02-16-2018 02:36 PM)ODUBB35 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't have any insight into how ODU handles it's finances, but it's pretty amazing that so many CUSA schools can build such nice facilities on a fraction of our budget.

I would venture to guess, for one, that it is much cheaper to build in that area than our area. Location, amount of available land, soil, flood area, etc.

(02-16-2018 02:36 PM)ODUBB35 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't have any insight into how ODU handles it's finances, but it's pretty amazing that so many CUSA schools can build such nice facilities on a fraction of our budget.

Way too cautious, way too slow, not innovative, and so small time thinking has paralyzed our ability to move forward. Typical paralysis by analysis.

I hope to be proven wrong but it just feels like we are falling farther and farther behind in our football program. As has been stated many times, it just feels like we have lost all of the momentum that we had from moving up to FBS which has been reflected in our ability to recruit at a high level. I fully expect to hear that we weren't able to get our plans finalized in time to get approval from this year's General Assembly so we will have to push things back another year. Again, hope to be proven wrong on that as well.

(02-16-2018 02:06 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote: [ -> ]Looks like a great cohesive master plan. But it won't mean much until they have the money in hand and shovels are ready.

Exactly. ODU had plans too. Let's see what happens when there's a price tag attached to those plans.

As for those wondering how other schools can do what ODU can't or isn't, remember that a) they already have a FBS-quality stadium, which ODU is still trying to obtain, and b) ODU has unique land challenges. They couldn't link Foreman and the Ted with an "athletic village" even if the had their hearts set on it, for example.

(02-16-2018 03:27 PM)ODU804 Wrote: [ -> ]I hope to be proven wrong but it just feels like we are falling farther and farther behind in our football program. As has been stated many times, it just feels like we have lost all of the momentum that we had from moving up to FBS which has been reflected in our ability to recruit at a high level. I fully expect to hear that we weren't able to get our plans finalized in time to get approval from this year's General Assembly so we will have to push things back another year. Again, hope to be proven wrong on that as well.

Last year wasn't what we wanted because of the QB position, but why would we care more about recruiting rankings than actual results on the field?

(02-16-2018 02:41 PM)Gilesfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 02:36 PM)ODUBB35 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't have any insight into how ODU handles it's finances, but it's pretty amazing that so many CUSA schools can build such nice facilities on a fraction of our budget.

I would venture to guess, for one, that it is much cheaper to build in that area than our area. Location, amount of available land, soil, flood area, etc.

All of that + how we have to show our money.

I was thinking recently that perhaps ODU could sell bonds for construction of the stadium. I haven't seen that idea floated yet. Is this something state schools are allowed to do? Seems they could get a lot of cash up front from that, get the stadium built right and then have the suite money and increase in ticket sales to pay off the bonds later.

(02-16-2018 03:33 PM)Gilesfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 03:27 PM)ODU804 Wrote: [ -> ]I hope to be proven wrong but it just feels like we are falling farther and farther behind in our football program. As has been stated many times, it just feels like we have lost all of the momentum that we had from moving up to FBS which has been reflected in our ability to recruit at a high level. I fully expect to hear that we weren't able to get our plans finalized in time to get approval from this year's General Assembly so we will have to push things back another year. Again, hope to be proven wrong on that as well.

Last year wasn't what we wanted because of the QB position, but why would we care more about recruiting rankings than actual results on the field?

Valid point on the rankings which i somewhat agree with. I tend to focus more on who we are beating out for recruits. Are we getting guys with other decent G5 offers and the occasional P5 offer or are we getting guys with FCS offers or no other offers. There are outliers for sure but for the most part it has been the latter for the last 2-3 years after the 2014 class (when we were selling playing time and the idea of a new stadium). This is the last year of the 2014 redshirt class so we will all find out more beginning next year i guess.

(02-16-2018 03:33 PM)Gilesfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 03:27 PM)ODU804 Wrote: [ -> ]I hope to be proven wrong but it just feels like we are falling farther and farther behind in our football program. As has been stated many times, it just feels like we have lost all of the momentum that we had from moving up to FBS which has been reflected in our ability to recruit at a high level. I fully expect to hear that we weren't able to get our plans finalized in time to get approval from this year's General Assembly so we will have to push things back another year. Again, hope to be proven wrong on that as well.

Last year wasn't what we wanted because of the QB position, but why would we care more about recruiting rankings than actual results on the field?

Care about both, but recruiting is important \because recruiting is your future, results on the field are now. Its not hard to see whats coming down the pike if you follow recruiting. Take Blaine's basketball team for instance. Once Frank, Darius etc graduated you knew the team would take a step back because there were few quality freshman and sophomores in the pipeline to take their place. Same happened at the end of Capel's tenure. When your future is the likes of Freddie Bryant and Joe Principe things don't look good and you could see it coming. No disrespect to those guys. They took a scholly offered and did their best. So back to football, we had 1 very good recruiting class 4 years ago. Some of those guys just graduated and many of them graduate next season. At that point, unless we got some real diamonds in the rough, nice surprises as walk-ons or get some transfers, we will see a serious drop in talent everywhere except QB. We have some good guys coming in, we just need a whole class of them, not 4 or 5 surrounded by a bunch of FCS caliber guys and walk-ons. To do better we need facilities comparable to our conference mates. Why did we skyrocket through FCS? Our facilities were better than most and our crowd support better than most. We cant say that in CUSA much less the whole G5.

(02-16-2018 04:17 PM)monarx Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 03:33 PM)Gilesfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 03:27 PM)ODU804 Wrote: [ -> ]I hope to be proven wrong but it just feels like we are falling farther and farther behind in our football program. As has been stated many times, it just feels like we have lost all of the momentum that we had from moving up to FBS which has been reflected in our ability to recruit at a high level. I fully expect to hear that we weren't able to get our plans finalized in time to get approval from this year's General Assembly so we will have to push things back another year. Again, hope to be proven wrong on that as well.

Last year wasn't what we wanted because of the QB position, but why would we care more about recruiting rankings than actual results on the field?

Care about both, but recruiting is important \because recruiting is your future, results on the field are now. Its not hard to see whats coming down the pike if you follow recruiting. Take Blaine's basketball team for instance. Once Frank, Darius etc graduated you knew the team would take a step back because there were few quality freshman and sophomores in the pipeline to take their place. Same happened at the end of Capel's tenure. When your future is the likes of Freddie Bryant and Joe Principe things don't look good and you could see it coming. No disrespect to those guys. They took a scholly offered and did their best. So back to football, we had 1 very good recruiting class 4 years ago. Some of those guys just graduated and many of them graduate next season. At that point, unless we got some real diamonds in the rough, nice surprises as walk-ons or get some transfers, we will see a serious drop in talent everywhere except QB. We have some good guys coming in, we just need a whole class of them, not 4 or 5 surrounded by a bunch of FCS caliber guys and walk-ons. To do better we need facilities comparable to our conference mates. Why did we skyrocket through FCS? Our facilities were better than most and our crowd support better than most. We cant say that in CUSA much less the whole G5.

I see your point, but recruiting rankings honestly mean nothing at the level we are. They aren't kids that are scouted by recruiting rankings. They would mean something if they ever actually translated to performance on the field.

Our recruiting now is bettter than any recruiting cycles we had prior to 2014 so that really don't make a ton of sense.

OUr 2014 recruiting class is ranked as the best that we've had. Let's look and see why it was ranked as highly as it was and the results:

Yorke- Never played
Lawry- Star
Noye- Backup
Boothe- Backup
Appouph-Backup (fringe starter)
Bentley-Gone
Martinez- Backup
Lowe- Gone
Byrum- Backup
Little-Backup
Ximines- Star
Reynolds- Gone
Worthy-Gone
Tyson-Backup/Gone
Swann-Backup

THats the top 15 recruits, which are the reason the class was rated so highly (as well as sheer number of recruits). Other guys in the class:

Davila
Harper
Toal
Duhart
Clarke
Garcia
Branch
Fulgham

Cool, that we had a highly ranked class, just the reason we had a high class never materialized on the field (outside of 2 players out of the top 15). Does that tell you we just developed guys better? That the lower ranked guys were better? Recruiting rankings at this level just suck?

Why is it that our recruiting rankings have had no predictive power on how our recruits will end up? Why do we have so many 0-2 star players that become all conference players and so few 3 star guys that become all conference? This isn't some situation where "oh, a few lower ranked kids came out as surprises," we consistently have multiple low rank kids blossom.

Miskel
Ward
Sosebee
Williams
Hannan
Cox
Headen
Weaver
Storment
Blue
Young
Lawson
Cate
Meiser
Williams

All recruits lower than .80 (247 sports) that instantly became starters or fringe starters (in the last 3 recruiting cycles). There could possibly be 3-4 all conference players in that group (maybe more?) as well as a very good candidate for the first ODU player drafted (Ward).

(02-16-2018 04:32 PM)Gilesfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 04:17 PM)monarx Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 03:33 PM)Gilesfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 03:27 PM)ODU804 Wrote: [ -> ]I hope to be proven wrong but it just feels like we are falling farther and farther behind in our football program. As has been stated many times, it just feels like we have lost all of the momentum that we had from moving up to FBS which has been reflected in our ability to recruit at a high level. I fully expect to hear that we weren't able to get our plans finalized in time to get approval from this year's General Assembly so we will have to push things back another year. Again, hope to be proven wrong on that as well.

Last year wasn't what we wanted because of the QB position, but why would we care more about recruiting rankings than actual results on the field?

Care about both, but recruiting is important \because recruiting is your future, results on the field are now. Its not hard to see whats coming down the pike if you follow recruiting. Take Blaine's basketball team for instance. Once Frank, Darius etc graduated you knew the team would take a step back because there were few quality freshman and sophomores in the pipeline to take their place. Same happened at the end of Capel's tenure. When your future is the likes of Freddie Bryant and Joe Principe things don't look good and you could see it coming. No disrespect to those guys. They took a scholly offered and did their best. So back to football, we had 1 very good recruiting class 4 years ago. Some of those guys just graduated and many of them graduate next season. At that point, unless we got some real diamonds in the rough, nice surprises as walk-ons or get some transfers, we will see a serious drop in talent everywhere except QB. We have some good guys coming in, we just need a whole class of them, not 4 or 5 surrounded by a bunch of FCS caliber guys and walk-ons. To do better we need facilities comparable to our conference mates. Why did we skyrocket through FCS? Our facilities were better than most and our crowd support better than most. We cant say that in CUSA much less the whole G5.

I see your point, but recruiting rankings honestly mean nothing at the level we are. They aren't kids that are scouted by recruiting rankings. They would mean something if they ever actually translated to performance on the field.

Our recruiting now is bettter than any recruiting cycles we had prior to 2014 so that really don't make a ton of sense.

OUr 2014 recruiting class is ranked as the best that we've had. Let's look and see why it was ranked as highly as it was and the results:

Yorke- Never played
Lawry- Star
Noye- Backup
Boothe- Backup
Appouph-Backup (fringe starter)
Bentley-Gone
Martinez- Backup
Lowe- Gone
Byrum- Backup
Little-Backup
Ximines- Star
Reynolds- Gone
Worthy-Gone
Tyson-Backup/Gone
Swann-Backup

THats the top 15 recruits, which are the reason the class was rated so highly (as well as sheer number of recruits). Other guys in the class:

Davila
Harper
Toal
Duhart
Clarke
Garcia
Branch
Fulgham

Cool, that we had a highly ranked class, just the reason we had a high class never materialized on the field (outside of 2 players out of the top 15). Does that tell you we just developed guys better? That the lower ranked guys were better? Recruiting rankings at this level just suck?

Why is it that our recruiting rankings have had no predictive power on how our recruits will end up? Why do we have so many 0-2 star players that become all conference players and so few 3 star guys that become all conference? This isn't some situation where "oh, a few lower ranked kids came out as surprises," we consistently have multiple low rank kids blossom.

Miskel
Ward
Sosebee
Williams
Hannan
Cox
Headen
Weaver
Storment
Blue
Young
Lawson
Cate
Meiser
Williams

All recruits lower than .80 (247 sports) that instantly became starters or fringe starters (in the last 3 recruiting cycles). There could possibly be 3-4 all conference players in that group (maybe more?) as well as a very good candidate for the first ODU player drafted (Ward).

Thats a good, well reasoned post. Thanks for doing the research too. I hope you're right and that the rankings mean little across the board in conference. Your post shows that is true for ODU at least. Though Appouh, Lawry and Ximines were highly touted. I do think theres cause for concern when we are finishing next to last in our division consistently in recruiting ratings though. At some point I'd think the so-called experts would be right. I'll be rooting hard win or lose. But ODU cant really afford to put a stinker on the field at the same time we're fundraising to build a new stadium.

I'm still under the opinion that the new stadium should have gone on the empty plot over by Norva Plastics. Plenty of room for other sports related buildings to go up around it and make something like MT's plan.

(02-16-2018 05:48 PM)GhentFan Wrote: [ -> ]I'm still under the opinion that the new stadium should have gone on the empty plot over by Norva Plastics. Plenty of room for other sports related buildings to go up around it and make something like MT's plan.

Does ODU own that property? If not, did they or have they ever tried and purchase it?

Just as an aside, we should also be pretty satisfied about MTSU when they upgrade their infrastructure. I know we all wish we could be in the AAC but the reality is we are in CUSA for the foreseeable future. When our conference mates are doing something to better themselves, it means the conference is bettering itself.

(02-16-2018 06:11 PM)ODU_NYG Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-16-2018 05:48 PM)GhentFan Wrote: [ -> ]I'm still under the opinion that the new stadium should have gone on the empty plot over by Norva Plastics. Plenty of room for other sports related buildings to go up around it and make something like MT's plan.

Does ODU own that property? If not, did they or have they ever tried and purchase it?

Yes, most if not all was taken by Eminent domain






I had put a bunch of pics up a few years ago regarding the stadium in this location. I'm too lazy to dig in my history to find them though.