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I think Wilder has AT LEAST a couple more years. It doesn't make since to part ways with a fairly popular coach right when opening the new stadium. It would also be tough to replace a basketball and football coach at the same time, considering both would probably require a pretty significant jump in salaries.

(07-26-2018 08:30 AM)Monarchblue Wrote:  I think Wilder has AT LEAST a couple more years. It doesn't make since to part ways with a fairly popular coach right when opening the new stadium. It would also be tough to replace a basketball and football coach at the same time, considering both would probably require a pretty significant jump in salaries.

I get your point. I think BW can get back on steady ground with a bowl game this season. I wish I was more optimistic for next year though. Opening a new stadium with a CUSA champ contender would be a great way to get the curious new fans in the stadium hooked. I'm hoping he gets some good Jucos and transfers in this years recruiting class for that reason.

As far as JJ goes. Nothing short of an NIT is acceptable next season IMO. Otherwise, I think Im ready to move on to the next guy. I'll give him credit for stepping up recruiting this year though. I hope its not too late for him.

Let's not forget that Wilder is one year removed from a 10-3 season with a Bowl Victory, and almost got to a bowl game last year with a 17 year old QB and a rash of injuries. That, and his previous FCS success, has earned him some capital at least until the new stadium is completed. By then he will hopefully have ODU competing for CUSA titles. If not, then we can consider moving on.

JJ has one NIT Final Four, which seems like eons ago. As much as I like the way his recruiting has stepped up, I'm tired of waiting for "Next Year". This season needs to be NCAA's or bust.

(While our frontcourt will be formidable in 2019-20, we will be totally rebuilding our backcourt).

(07-26-2018 08:30 AM)Monarchblue Wrote:  I think Wilder has AT LEAST a couple more years. It doesn't make since to part ways with a fairly popular coach right when opening the new stadium. It would also be tough to replace a basketball and football coach at the same time, considering both would probably require a pretty significant jump in salaries.

Most likely. But if ODU was ever going to switch, right before the stadium opening would be prime to creating even more buzz. This upcoming season won't be very impressive, so who knows how that will hinder going into a new stadium.

(07-26-2018 11:24 AM)Nukesquad Wrote:  

(07-26-2018 08:30 AM)Monarchblue Wrote:  I think Wilder has AT LEAST a couple more years. It doesn't make since to part ways with a fairly popular coach right when opening the new stadium. It would also be tough to replace a basketball and football coach at the same time, considering both would probably require a pretty significant jump in salaries.

Most likely. But if ODU was ever going to switch, right before the stadium opening would be prime to creating even more buzz. This upcoming season won't be very impressive, so who knows how that will hinder going into a new stadium.

I still have hope this season might be impressive. We'll know early on. If we soundly beat LU, FIU, UNCC and ECU this could be one of our very best teams. On paper, it should be. Its our deepest, most experienced, biggest team yet. The only question mark is QB (and the chemistry with the WRs). If that clicks, this season could be memorable. I don't expect to beat VT, FAU or Marshall, but everything else could be winnable if SW steps up. I'm not sure I expect that to happen, but there is some reason for hope.

I split this from the recruiting thread and mistakingly didn't include the initial posts that started the conversation.

(07-26-2018 07:44 AM)Nukesquad Wrote:  

(07-25-2018 01:00 PM)odu09 Wrote:  I think we are all well aware of the dire situation we are in. You didn't ask, but I was in the camp for moving to the next coaching staff THIS season since missing the NCAAT. But comic relief is exactly that, and it is welcome here. You may be as serious as you'd like though.

I wouldn't be surprised if you start seeing this for both FB and MBB by the end of their respective seasons.

(07-26-2018 09:52 AM)odu09 Wrote:  I agree, I think it would be a bad call to fire Wilder this season even he only wins 4 games like I'm predicting. I want to see what he can do with a new stadium first.

I'm fairly sure BW is safe for a while regardless of this season. Personally I think he's a better salesman than he is a coach. I feel the opposite about Jones. What stinks for us is that the most likely scenario for both guys is that the next place they coach will be a downgrade to ODU.

When you are only one season removed from the most accomplished season of your program's history, its a little early to be talking like this. The recruiting has to get better and the 30+ point blowouts to conference mates is unacceptable.

If i were making the decisions for the AD and that is a big if, I would let go Wilder if he doesn't get us to a bowl game. We have already accepted being mediocre in Basketball and i don't want to see that happen to FB as well.

Okay.. Just a few things, this is the first FBS class to be graduating. We have 20+ seniors this year. We've never had more than 14. We've scheduled really good OOC games that generate revenue and help us become more visible to recruits that are being competed for by AAC teams and in some cases, were winning those guys now. This will be the second year (barring injuries) that the majority of our starters will be upperclassmen since joining the FBS. I understand the desire to win, but We have been successful. Every single year since moving up we've been one game off of being bowl eligible have with our record being 6-6, 5-7, 10-3, and 5-7. Last year, even with the amount of injuries and young QB, we had two games that we could have easily had go our way but unfortunately didn't and could have flipped our record and had us in another bowl game. I think we're going to win, or tie for first in the east.

Wilder has earned a huge amount of goodwill so this season isn’t make or break. However, we at some point have to expect to start competing for conference (or at least division) titles. He was amazing at getting us competitive at the FCS level and you can only expect so much in the transition years. The ‘16 season was great but we rode a lot on some of our conference mates being down. We’ve been middling CUSA team so far which is fine but that’s not where we want to be. Wilder needs to break through and I hope he does but it’s certainly too early to talk about replacing him. If we lose to Liberty though.....

Coach Wilder will decide when to call it quits.

(07-27-2018 12:01 AM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Coach Wilder will decide when to call it quits.

Bingo! You hit the nail squarely on the head!

I think this year could be the most critical of Wilder's career to this point. An 8-4 (9-4 with a bowl win) season or better would be huge and with the new stadium we could see success for a number of years to come.

On the flip side a 5-7 campaign or worse could send us into mediocrity for years to come.

(07-27-2018 12:01 AM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Coach Wilder will decide when to call it quits.

Geez i hope woody goes too if that's the case.

(07-26-2018 09:53 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  Wilder has earned a huge amount of goodwill so this season isn’t make or break. However, we at some point have to expect to start competing for conference (or at least division) titles. He was amazing at getting us competitive at the FCS level and you can only expect so much in the transition years. The ‘16 season was great but we rode a lot on some of our conference mates being down. We’ve been middling CUSA team so far which is fine but that’s not where we want to be. Wilder needs to break through and I hope he does but it’s certainly too early to talk about replacing him. If we lose to Liberty though.....

Wilder did a great job at FCS, but he also had a lot of advantages. In order to compare what he did at FCS level to our FBS beginnings we would have needed to be invited to the SEC and have one of the nicest, largest stadiums in the country considering the CAA was the SEC of FCS and our fanbase and stadium were HUGE compared to most FCS programs.

(07-27-2018 10:53 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(07-26-2018 09:53 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  Wilder has earned a huge amount of goodwill so this season isn’t make or break. However, we at some point have to expect to start competing for conference (or at least division) titles. He was amazing at getting us competitive at the FCS level and you can only expect so much in the transition years. The ‘16 season was great but we rode a lot on some of our conference mates being down. We’ve been middling CUSA team so far which is fine but that’s not where we want to be. Wilder needs to break through and I hope he does but it’s certainly too early to talk about replacing him. If we lose to Liberty though.....

Wilder did a great job at FCS, but he also had a lot of advantages. In order to compare what he did at FCS level to our FBS beginnings we would have needed to be invited to the SEC and have one of the nicest, largest stadiums in the country considering the CAA was the SEC of FCS and our fanbase and stadium were HUGE compared to most FCS programs.

So you are saying he would be a highly successful SEC coach?

(07-27-2018 12:34 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote:  

(07-27-2018 10:53 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(07-26-2018 09:53 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  Wilder has earned a huge amount of goodwill so this season isn’t make or break. However, we at some point have to expect to start competing for conference (or at least division) titles. He was amazing at getting us competitive at the FCS level and you can only expect so much in the transition years. The ‘16 season was great but we rode a lot on some of our conference mates being down. We’ve been middling CUSA team so far which is fine but that’s not where we want to be. Wilder needs to break through and I hope he does but it’s certainly too early to talk about replacing him. If we lose to Liberty though.....

Wilder did a great job at FCS, but he also had a lot of advantages. In order to compare what he did at FCS level to our FBS beginnings we would have needed to be invited to the SEC and have one of the nicest, largest stadiums in the country considering the CAA was the SEC of FCS and our fanbase and stadium were HUGE compared to most FCS programs.

So you are saying he would be a highly successful SEC coach?

Well, I guess Im saying that we don't really know how good he is because he had all the advantages as an FCS coach that an SEC coach does in FBS. Could Bobby have had the same level of success on the FCS level with a Big South team? Thats basically what we're asking of him on the FBS level. So I think he's proven he can take a start up team from a privileged conference and turn them into a winner. I think if ODU were in the SEC with a stadium like Georgia etc and tons of money, he could likely turn us into a winner. Winning and recruiting against teams in a lesser conference, with low cash, small stadiums, no natural rivals and no TV is a different animal. I hope he can do it.

(07-27-2018 01:40 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(07-27-2018 12:34 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote:  

(07-27-2018 10:53 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(07-26-2018 09:53 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  Wilder has earned a huge amount of goodwill so this season isn’t make or break. However, we at some point have to expect to start competing for conference (or at least division) titles. He was amazing at getting us competitive at the FCS level and you can only expect so much in the transition years. The ‘16 season was great but we rode a lot on some of our conference mates being down. We’ve been middling CUSA team so far which is fine but that’s not where we want to be. Wilder needs to break through and I hope he does but it’s certainly too early to talk about replacing him. If we lose to Liberty though.....

Wilder did a great job at FCS, but he also had a lot of advantages. In order to compare what he did at FCS level to our FBS beginnings we would have needed to be invited to the SEC and have one of the nicest, largest stadiums in the country considering the CAA was the SEC of FCS and our fanbase and stadium were HUGE compared to most FCS programs.

So you are saying he would be a highly successful SEC coach?

Well, I guess Im saying that we don't really know how good he is because he had all the advantages as an FCS coach that an SEC coach does in FBS. Could Bobby have had the same level of success on the FCS level with a Big South team? Thats basically what we're asking of him on the FBS level. So I think he's proven he can take a start up team from a privileged conference and turn them into a winner. I think if ODU were in the SEC with a stadium like Georgia etc and tons of money, he could likely turn us into a winner. Winning and recruiting against teams in a lesser conference, with low cash, small stadiums, no natural rivals and no TV is a different animal. I hope he can do it.

That is a bit of a stretch. Larger stadium, passionate fanbase....yes. But, its certainly not one of the nicer stadiums and it was a team completely from scratch in a stadium that was 100 years old. All the advantages JMU has over us and they couldn't beat us.

I don't think an FCS startup was easy at all. You are starting from no team and selling players on a vision that they cannot see. The FBS startup is incredibly difficult, especially in a conference like CUSA and an old stadium. To prove that he could win right off the bat in FCS and then FBS is an accomplishment. There aren't many schools that win right away at the FBS level and it includes a ton of schools that had decades of successful FCS experience beforehand.

(07-27-2018 02:07 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(07-27-2018 01:40 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(07-27-2018 12:34 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote:  

(07-27-2018 10:53 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(07-26-2018 09:53 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  Wilder has earned a huge amount of goodwill so this season isn’t make or break. However, we at some point have to expect to start competing for conference (or at least division) titles. He was amazing at getting us competitive at the FCS level and you can only expect so much in the transition years. The ‘16 season was great but we rode a lot on some of our conference mates being down. We’ve been middling CUSA team so far which is fine but that’s not where we want to be. Wilder needs to break through and I hope he does but it’s certainly too early to talk about replacing him. If we lose to Liberty though.....

Wilder did a great job at FCS, but he also had a lot of advantages. In order to compare what he did at FCS level to our FBS beginnings we would have needed to be invited to the SEC and have one of the nicest, largest stadiums in the country considering the CAA was the SEC of FCS and our fanbase and stadium were HUGE compared to most FCS programs.

So you are saying he would be a highly successful SEC coach?

Well, I guess Im saying that we don't really know how good he is because he had all the advantages as an FCS coach that an SEC coach does in FBS. Could Bobby have had the same level of success on the FCS level with a Big South team? Thats basically what we're asking of him on the FBS level. So I think he's proven he can take a start up team from a privileged conference and turn them into a winner. I think if ODU were in the SEC with a stadium like Georgia etc and tons of money, he could likely turn us into a winner. Winning and recruiting against teams in a lesser conference, with low cash, small stadiums, no natural rivals and no TV is a different animal. I hope he can do it.

That is a bit of a stretch. Larger stadium, passionate fanbase....yes. But, its certainly not one of the nicer stadiums and it was a team completely from scratch in a stadium that was 100 years old. All the advantages JMU has over us and they couldn't beat us.

I don't think an FCS startup was easy at all. You are starting from no team and selling players on a vision that they cannot see. The FBS startup is incredibly difficult, especially in a conference like CUSA and an old stadium. To prove that he could win right off the bat in FCS and then FBS is an accomplishment. There aren't many schools that win right away at the FBS level and it includes a ton of schools that had decades of successful FCS experience beforehand.

Exactly. Georgia Southern and UMass won titles (multiple titles in GS's case) and they've largely struggled in the FBS transition. Western Kentucky won a title, moved to I-A and lost 26 games in a row at one point. And while obviously Boise State is kind of the exemplar for transition success stories, it took them four years to get to 10 wins and a bowl victory, compared to three years for ODU.

Wilder has more leash than JJ does, or he should. Because given the constraints of the stadium along with the usual roadblocks of moving up (and particularly moving up after having just started the program -- see also Georgia State and Charlotte), ODU is doing plenty fine all things considered. That doesn't mean repeated 5-7 seasons isn't going to get old, or hasn't already, but the 50,000-foot view of the program is a lot better than a lot of people are willing to admit.