Campbell has announced that Coach Steele will be released at the conclusion of this season.

And, Davidson also announced today that Coach Tripp Merritt will be released from his contract there at the end of the season.

I am certainly not suprised, but personally dissappointed.

My belief and will remain my belief until proven wrong, is that the program suffers from more than just a "bad coach." The team will obviously be better a year from now because experience will once again be on CU's side, but the overall "championship" success of this program is yet to be seen. My reasons for that belief is well documented on this site.

Now the big question is who do you hire? What level of assistant or current head coach can you get at the DI-AA non-scholarship level?

A few years ago another non-scholarship D1-AA program was able to land a guy named Harbaugh who had several good years in the PFL. Why would we expect anything less?

I am very happy the school made this decision. About mid way through the first season I had issues with the play calling and the coaching staff. I have expressed my opinion and been consistant throughout about how I have felt about it. Have received some heat for it from others but I think I was right about Steele all along.

Glad this decision was made. It was way overdue. I do not know who we will get but atleast the Steele tenure is over.

Looking forward to some changes.

(11-06-2012 06:23 PM)wacamel Wrote:  A few years ago another non-scholarship D1-AA program was able to land a guy named Harbaugh who had several good years in the PFL. Why would we expect anything less?

Assignment for any sports management students--compare and contrast Buies Creek with San Diego, CA

One more stinker like last Saturday and Tom O'Brien will be available to send in a resume.

There were and still are some things within the San Diego program that make it an easier sell than Campbell and its not all just location. Like I have been saying all along, Campbell isn't playing on equal footing with other schools in this league. It is not just coaching. Plus, Harbaugh was making nearly $400k per year with incentives. Dale Steele is roughly 25% of that number.

If CU is to improve, it will have to make some other concessions besides getting a new coach and paying more salary. Plus as I have already stated NC is flooded with programs with minimal amounts of talent to go around. This job and Davidson are NOT easy fixes.

Chad4Life, Tom O'Brien is a great example of a coach who is struggling in the state of NC. He is considered by his peers and by MANY administrators to be a GREAT coach. The talent in NC just does not lend itself to winning. Outside of App St, who isn't even at the level it was in the early 2000's, there really isn't a program who is consistently a championship contender in NC.

There isn't a single FBS team getting votes in ANY Top 25 poll from NC and Appalachian State (#13) is the only team in the FCS poll, while NCCU for some reason is getting 2 points. That is it! I think it shows the epidemic that is NC recruiting. The overall talent really isn't there to win consistently at any level. Out of 14 total Division I programs in the state, ONE is in a top 25 poll and if that one somehow loses at home to Furman, it won't even be in the playoffs and even with a win its iffy.

Re: Harbaugh

A former Charger QB, he was already living in the area when he applied for the USD job.

Talked to a buddy of mine (UNCC grad) yesterday and realized our new coach's first test will be quite a challenge vs the scholly 49ers' in their first game.

The buzz at the game is that we might have an announcement naming our next coach as early as a couple of weeks (end of November).

The rumor mill is churning out some well-known names!

Rumor on the Pioneer board is the former Coastal coach, that would be a really good hire

What about a former Panther?!!

http://coachingsearch.com/coaching-searc...-2012.html

Interesting. Anybody know any details on this and if this is a possibility?

Mike Minter is an interesting name with very little (two years of being an assistant) to zero coaching background. He certainly has no head coaching experience (Which if I recall correctly, everyone was upset about the entire time with Steele). I realize NFL experience is awesome, but there are a TON of guys in the pro-ranks in all sports who I wouldn't trust with any head coaching job until you see some type of coaching pattern as an assistant (two years doesn't qualify in my mind) and yes there are obviously successes.

Anyone remember Isaiah Thomas? What a disaster that experiment was at both the NBA and college levels and that guy was a fantastic player with a great basketball mind.

Now Dave Bennett would be a great hire and what I believe is a coup for Campbell. I think Bennett would also challenge the University on some issues that I personally think hold the football program back. Things that until changed will keep CU from winning championships or even competing for them on any type of a regular basis regardless of who the head coach is.

From what I hear, the players have a meeting about the new coach tomorrow afternoon. Does that mean a hire has already been made?

(11-26-2012 12:43 PM)fightingcamel2594 Wrote:  From what I hear, the players have a meeting about the new coach tomorrow afternoon. Does that mean a hire has already been made?

Sounds like it.....

http://blogs.charlotte.com/tom_talks/201...pbell.html

99.9 the Fan confirms Mike Minter. ::mind blown::
https://www.facebook.com/99.9thefan/post...9387981324

I know that the Campus Ministries department has invited him many times to speak on campus, so I wonder if thats how we got onto his radar.

Statman, what University issues are you talking about? It's not like we are going to compete for national titles, I personally was almost happy with last year. If we do that every year (compete for top-4 finish in league, quit losing to Valpo!) I would be ok with it.

(11-26-2012 02:09 PM)oldcamel Wrote:  Statman, what University issues are you talking about? It's not like we are going to compete for national titles, I personally was almost happy with last year. If we do that every year (compete for top-4 finish in league, quit losing to Valpo!) I would be ok with it.

I am curious about these issues as well?

(11-26-2012 02:09 PM)oldcamel Wrote:  Statman, what University issues are you talking about? It's not like we are going to compete for national titles, I personally was almost happy with last year. If we do that every year (compete for top-4 finish in league, quit losing to Valpo!) I would be ok with it.

I agree. Last year was GREAT, but this program will never have 30+ seniors again in a single season (Again that class had two years worth of players, not one).

We compete with Valpo for wins because the schools are mirrors of each other in terms of how they approach I-AA NON-scholarship football. That is actually really a good comparison.

I will answer the "issue" question by drawing a comparison to four programs in the PFL (JU, Drake, Dayton, and San Diego), but especially JU. After that I will let you draw your own conclusions. I have seen the Dolphins play every year but one against CU (2011) and I am quite familiar with both programs.

***NOTE: I am NOT saying these schools are cheating. They all are playing within the rules established.***

What changed at JU in the spring of 2007? They hired Kerwin Bell and JU made a decision to starting "winning" in the PFL. His first team went 3-8, but after that a nine win season and even a 10-1 season. What changed other than the coach? Ask yourself this, do you think ALL the players at JU (San Diego, Drake, Dayton) over the last 5+ seasons are paying full or any tuition to play football?

I will answer the question...absolutely 100% no way! See the attached article from the NCAA about the Patriot league and pay VERY close attention to Colgate AD Dave Roach's comments.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/publ...ship+model

It is "need-based" system of offering scholarships. See quote:
“I feel like more middle class kids will be able to come to our institutions,” Roach said. “(In the past), the kids who had a lot of need could get a lot of aid. And the kid who was wealthy, we had a chance of getting. The kid in the middle, if we can offer him 100 percent now and they have a chance to get a Colgate education, we have a chance of getting that kid now, too.”

Now it is up to EACH institution how much "need-based" money it spends in a given year. Essentially I am saying that the schools who spend the MOST "need-based" dollars wins both on and off the field.

So to sum it up if JU and others in our league (The consistent top tier) are offering significantly more "NEED based aid" than everyone else, how is a team offering very little supposed to compete? Let's just say for argument's sake JU is offering the equivilant of 30 need based scholarships a year (roughly $1,200,000/year). If CU is offering five ($205,000/year), do you expect them to be able to find enough athletes to be competitive? Essentially JU and others are playing with scholarship athletes.

With all of that being said, I think Minter brings a great name to the table and who knows might have some say in changing the culture. I want to win as much as the next person and he certainly brings some name recognition. Lets win but if the things above don't change this staff, the next staff and so on and so forth will be battling the same issues. Also, my assessment from previous posts about the diluted local recruiting pool still stand.

Regardless lets win some games and Go Camels!