Seems like he is off to a good start with Houston. Great article in today's DNR on the staff he has built.

Yeah, that is a welcome change and a fresh start.

Fresh starts are always a good thing. With Simmons (RIP) & Withers (bye!) gone .... things are looking up for Matt .....

I can't wait for the first postgame press conference after a loss when he "asks" something along the lines of... so I guess the players didn't play hard today, I guess?

We'll see how long it takes for Houston to give him the stink eye.

Until then things should be great.

So glad to hear this. Maybe I will start subscribing again. I don't mean to be insensitive in anyway but I was looking forward to Simmons retirement one day and hoping the tone of the articles on JMU would change with it.

I hope Matt will now be able to forge a more positive relationship with the new staff and provide a more positive approach to his coverage of JMU football. While I don't expect him to be a complete homer, I would like to see him look for the positives in his reporting. John O'Conner does a nice job of this covering UR and so does Pearsall with VCU.

Another very good article by Matt in the DNR today.

(02-02-2016 02:41 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  Another very good article by Matt in the DNR today.

It's a little easier to write stories about the program when your given access to talk to people within the program.

(02-06-2016 07:28 AM)Dukester Wrote:  

(02-02-2016 02:41 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  Another very good article by Matt in the DNR today.

It's a little easier to write stories about the program when your given access to talk to people within the program.

Amazing how that works. The media can be your best friend, but you must feed them. Give them little to work with and they can be your worst enemy.

In all seriousness, I found that when treated properly, they will not put things out there you don't want. Just give them something that they can write about, they have a job to do and are trying to stay employed. Matt's boss has to sell news. He knows to get JMU fans to spend money Matt has to come up with something. They want JMU in that paper every morning so you may as well feed good stuff rather than allow him to dig.

(02-06-2016 09:44 AM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  

(02-06-2016 07:28 AM)Dukester Wrote:  

(02-02-2016 02:41 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  Another very good article by Matt in the DNR today.

It's a little easier to write stories about the program when your given access to talk to people within the program.

Amazing how that works. The media can be your best friend, but you must feed them. Give them little to work with and they can be your worst enemy.

In all seriousness, I found that when treated properly, they will not put things out there you don't want. Just give them something that they can write about, they have a job to do and are trying to stay employed. Matt's boss has to sell news. He knows to get JMU fans to spend money Matt has to come up with something. They want JMU in that paper every morning so you may as well feed good stuff rather than allow him to dig.

Exactly - should be a win - win situation.

It wasn't just Matt Jones versus EW.

EW was a prick to everyone when things were not going hisway. Recall towards the end he used the "you probably would not understand" to our play by play guy at the beginning of one of his post game press conferences

What makes it worse, is he's far from a x&os guru.

Most coaches can explain things in lay men's terms....

(02-06-2016 10:51 AM)Dukester Wrote:  What makes it worse, is he's far from a x&os guru.

Most coaches can explain things in lay men's terms....

Personally, I think much of his attitude in dealing with others is due to his insecurity. Maybe because he knows he's not a guru...not that I'm a psychologist or anything. That doesn't appear to be an issue with Houston. An insecure coach would never hire assistants with so much experience, especially head coach experience, imo.

(02-06-2016 11:15 AM)POTUS#4 Wrote:  

(02-06-2016 10:51 AM)Dukester Wrote:  What makes it worse, is he's far from a x&os guru.

Most coaches can explain things in lay men's terms....

Personally, I think much of his attitude in dealing with others is due to his insecurity. Maybe because he knows he's not a guru...not that I'm a psychologist or anything. That doesn't appear to be an issue with Houston. An insecure coach would never hire assistants with so much experience, especially head coach experience, imo.

He wanted to be "the man", so he brought in young coaches he could "teach". I think he may have been insecure because he didn't want an assistant overstepping their role.
Houston would much rather take the experienced, tested guy. He does exude a bit more confidence in a way that allows him to be more up front and honest. EW always seemed to have that chip on his back, which helped him be a coach, but it also resulted in some really bad exchanges.
I do still understand why he treated Jones so poorly. Jones did screw up, but Withers never gave the guy a chance to redeem himself.

I thought Withers was pretty childish in some of his exchanges. It's a young guy doing the beat for an FCS team for a paper in the middle of Virginia. Of course he's not going to know all of the Xs and Os. I'd contend that Matt Jones could have been the defensive coordinator and done just as well as Steve Sisa. How could you possibly do worse? When you give up a TD on every drive what's the difference?

It's important to remember that both Matt Jones and the coaching staff's job performances are on display for the world to see. It's easy for us to be critical to both parties but maybe we shouldn't throw stones.

Withers was representing MY university. I feel like his childish antics in press conferences tarnished MY university's image. I own JMU. It's mine.

Withers was a hired gun & his embarrassing behavior should be called out by JMU alums because of the negative public perception it caused to MY JMU.

I don't know what justification you have for that last post, DiceRogerLion. Withers doesn't get a pass because his job is hard. He got paid. He needed to represent MY JMU better.

Well stated Hyper!

(02-06-2016 04:50 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Withers was representing MY university. I feel like his childish antics in press conferences tarnished MY university's image. I own JMU. It's mine.

Withers was a hired gun & his embarrassing behavior should be called out by JMU alums because of the negative public perception it caused to MY JMU.

I don't know what justification you have for that last post, DiceRogerLion. Withers doesn't get a pass because his job is hard. He got paid. He needed to represent MY JMU better.

I agree with you on a lot of stuff, but i just don't think this was that big of a deal. Withers acted poorly in the press conferences and I thought Matt asked some poor questions in the pressers. Regardless, other than those of us on this board I don't know many people that watched those - and almost anybody else was probably a JMU fan. In the end, I think it had a bigger impact on the perception of Withers than of JMU.

(02-06-2016 04:50 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Withers was representing MY university. I feel like his childish antics in press conferences tarnished MY university's image. I own JMU. It's mine.

Withers was a hired gun & his embarrassing behavior should be called out by JMU alums because of the negative public perception it caused to MY JMU.

I don't know what justification you have for that last post, DiceRogerLion. Withers doesn't get a pass because his job is hard. He got paid. He needed to represent MY JMU better.

Wasn't talking about Withers.. I was referring to the post saying a guy on here could do as good as Sisa.

(02-06-2016 08:17 PM)JMUDukeDawg Wrote:  

(02-06-2016 04:50 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Withers was representing MY university. I feel like his childish antics in press conferences tarnished MY university's image. I own JMU. It's mine.

Withers was a hired gun & his embarrassing behavior should be called out by JMU alums because of the negative public perception it caused to MY JMU.

I don't know what justification you have for that last post, DiceRogerLion. Withers doesn't get a pass because his job is hard. He got paid. He needed to represent MY JMU better.

I agree with you on a lot of stuff, but i just don't think this was that big of a deal. Withers acted poorly in the press conferences and I thought Matt asked some poor questions in the pressers. Regardless, other than those of us on this board I don't know many people that watched those - and almost anybody else was probably a JMU fan. In the end, I think it had a bigger impact on the perception of Withers than of JMU.

That's very true. I hadn't thought of how little reach those presser broadcasts have. I still didn't like it, but you're probably right that it hurt him more than it hurt JMU.

(02-06-2016 08:25 PM)DiceRogerLion Wrote:  Wasn't talking about Withers.. I was referring to the post saying a guy on here could do as good as Sisa.

Gotcha. My bad. I misunderstood you.

Yeah, that poster is Duuuuuuuukes, AKA DoubleDDuke, now Dukes2Space. He has a tendency (at his worst) to say the most sensational things & claim he is "telling it like it is". While he can add value to the boards when he's trying to be civil, it's pretty telling of his personality that he's on his 3rd screen name for the JMU message boards (at least).

(02-06-2016 08:17 PM)JMUDukeDawg Wrote:  

(02-06-2016 04:50 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Withers was representing MY university. I feel like his childish antics in press conferences tarnished MY university's image. I own JMU. It's mine.

Withers was a hired gun & his embarrassing behavior should be called out by JMU alums because of the negative public perception it caused to MY JMU.

I don't know what justification you have for that last post, DiceRogerLion. Withers doesn't get a pass because his job is hard. He got paid. He needed to represent MY JMU better.

I agree with you on a lot of stuff, but i just don't think this was that big of a deal. Withers acted poorly in the press conferences and I thought Matt asked some poor questions in the pressers. Regardless, other than those of us on this board I don't know many people that watched those - and almost anybody else was probably a JMU fan. In the end, I think it had a bigger impact on the perception of Withers than of JMU.

It was not just Matt - it was more Matt then others, but he was jerk to our radio guys and other news agencies. If he's winning and you asked him what he credited success - he was a charmer. If you ever asked why the struggles - well, we likely would not understand. he he