The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

1. Hired the worst WBB coach in ODU history. in Karen Barefoot.

2. Waited too longer to let BW go.

3. Exceeded all budgets, in a 14 team league.

4. Lost 1/2 million dollars on football tickets this year.

5. When the basketball board was deadlocked, he chose JJ, who was a close friend of his, at UVA. note: JJ was 18 years at American and never moved up, due to his recruiting and wins. In other words, UVA meant nothing to teams looking for a new coach, at a higher level.

6. Again, hired a baseball coach from WKU (a friend) who has done nothing to get ODU, in the NCAA playoff's or C-USA.
7. New stadium has no restrooms on upper deck. Elevators are a joke.
Only fits 13 at a time. Long lines for food and the food is too costly and cold when you get to your seat.

8. Travel is too costly. Maybe a bowl could make up for it. But we have only had one and I am not sure what revenue we get out of it.

9. Woodie has said nothing to JJ about his profanity/screaming at players, during games. Who would want to have a coach like that. If the recruit's family was watching, I am assure they would be hurt.

10. In JJ's 6/7 years he has recruited only one good freshman, and that is A. Caver. Most of his offers go to low D-1 teams. People talk about our 20 wins in each season, but C-USA has 14 teams and 75% are very weak. Add that to the previous years of OOC cupcakes and any coach could win in the twenties. Lets not forget these wins came with Key transfers or JUCO's, without them I don't Wood would be happy. Bragging just fools the fan base. I don't see any good big men that JJ has recruited in 7 years, as a freshman.



12. I will give credit to Woodie, as he hired a good women's basketball coach, but for how long?

13. Yes, I know good young coaches are going to move up but while they are here, they established a base for the future. In hind sight Woodie should have hired Keats ( who is now a head coach in the ACC)
Keats could bring in a coaching staff that could replace him, when he leaves like VCU did, not a friend who is going to be at ODU as long as wants or retire.
14. Woodie should not have given JJ an extension, now a buyout again (BW) is more costly. The fans deserve more attractive teams in home games. Maybe we will beat UMEC, they are 0-10. I think at this time of the season, we have about 4 teams with winning records in the C-USA. At least the A-10 usually gets three in the NCAA tourney.
JJ has wasted money. sitting on the bench for four years. Are you listening Mr. Ballard or the Priority owner?

15. Lastly, with ODU's budget already high, Woodie needs more big givers, to at least carry us through this weak C-USA.

I don't have as much of a problem with his personnel decisions as much as the high level results he is responsible for. No rivalries, attendance down across the board, media money is gone, ECU is gone, broadcasts are an embarrassment, football is hemorrhaging money, wasted $70M on an erector set stadium, and basketball is a badly overmatched 14 seed in its best year. There is no energy in ODU athletics right now. Think of all the energy and pride that we had here upon his arrival. Big events, ODU merchandise all over the place in retail outlets all over Virginia, real sell-outs with butts in seats, office conversations and banter centered around ODU athletics. It's all gone. This is Lil' Woody's responsibility... 100% on him. He made some poor decisions that have left us a financial mess. That's fine, we all make poor decisions and some of his I supported at the time. Instead of steering us to a better state of solvency, he keeps doubling down. Feels like we are being taken for a ride in a Ponzi scheme. Now he wants us to pay out of our pocket for a football coach because he has mismanaged the general funds. What happens when the new coach shows mediocre results... or even decent results and the fans and the energy doesn't come back? He needs to go and we need to bring in someone completely removed from all this to make independent, unbiased decisions.

Yall want him to pony up and buy a football coach and then blame him for having to ask for it? If you want to have better coaches, you gotta pay. That is consistent everywhere.

The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

I will say it again, we will not land Shane Beamer. He will want too much with an unproven resume. We are going to go after a successful FCS coach, this is my opinion and mine only. Shane is slumming around with the likes of OU for a reason. He wants a big name gig, not a CUSA team with fair weather fans.

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

So would you rather him ask for money to hire Shane Beamer or would you rather him hire John Grass?

If ODU were to go back down to FCS, I would bet that we aren't getting full houses to see other FCS teams. The newness wore off and now the team needs a draw. FCS aint it.

(12-05-2019 09:58 AM)BigBlueMonarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

I will say it again, we will not land Shane Beamer. He will want too much with an unproven resume. We are going to go after a successful FCS coach, this is my opinion and mine only. Shane is slumming around with the likes of OU for a reason. He wants a big name gig, not a CUSA team with fair weather fans.

I don't believe that ODU has a majority of fair weather fans for a second. There are some for every school. If you are calling our fans fair weather then its not fair to them because how long do you want them to sit through the massacre, game after game? I say three years is long enough to stay at home than coming into the stadium to watch that crap turn into compost.

(12-05-2019 10:14 AM)12thmonarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:58 AM)BigBlueMonarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

I will say it again, we will not land Shane Beamer. He will want too much with an unproven resume. We are going to go after a successful FCS coach, this is my opinion and mine only. Shane is slumming around with the likes of OU for a reason. He wants a big name gig, not a CUSA team with fair weather fans.

I don't believe that ODU has a majority of fair weather fans for a second. There are some for every school. If you are calling our fans fair weather then its not fair to them because how long do you want them to sit through the massacre, game after game? I say three years is long enough to stay at home than coming into the stadium to watch that crap turn into compost.

Im not saying its where I want us to be, but we were a win in the last game of the season away from a bowl game 3 years ago. If our fans consider that "crap," we are going to have a hard time filling up the stadium ever.

I can understand fans not showing up when the team is 1-11.

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

I've read several arguments relating to the excitement of CAA rivalries and attendance. Speaking only for myself, I had already started to tire of playing FCS teams almost exclusively. I really like having UVA, VT, Wake Forest, N C State, UNC come to Ballard. True UTSA, UTEP an some others don't excite, but neither would Elon, Towson or Delaware. We are all hoping to move up to aac, but until we give that a reasonable amount of time to happen, I,m not sure we can actually make a firm decision if the move was a good idea or not.Need a few more years.

IMO, a good HC coach that brings the abilty to win some P5 against ACC teams would generate tons of excitement. So would playing NAVY, ECU, Temple and other AAC teams

Just to play Devil's Advocate:

One of the arguments against Wood has been that we would have been better off staying in the CAA for football and joining the A10.
That is a JMU-like argument as there is absolutely no evidence that we would have been offered a place in the A10.
Indeed the fact is that we were still in the CAA when GMU and VCU moved on, and that dilution was one of the reasons that justified our move to CUSA. The CAA is not the one we left.
The playoffs are great, but even the FCS national championship game has a lower TV rating than all but maybe one bowl. Further, the CFB payout is still more than any revenue generated by the playoff process.
With App State, GoSo, among others moving up, and now Liberty, FCS football has a diluted and predictable product. A handful of good teams. The dichotomy is even more glaring than P5/G5.
I miss the closeness of JMU, UR and W&M , but otherwise I would rather play UVA, VT, NC State and ECU any day.
The CUSA we moved to that included ECU was the correct choice. No one could have foreseen the abrupt change there.
Bottom line, I believe we made correct and best choice at the time to move to CUSA, and unless the AAC becomes a realistic option, we should stay here.

As far as holding onto BW too long, I am not sure what else could have been done. Even after this season, there was apparently significant pushback by some major donors.
Only after this season was there even a hint of consensus on this board, which is likely much more critical than the average fan and donor.
IMHO there were obvious signs of distress in the program for years, and maybe Wood should have been more forceful in addressing those earlier, as was done with Blackwell and Stinespring. However, I am not sure how that could have worked.

The same goes for JJ. There are and have been specific signs of distress in the program for a number of years, most obviously the lack bigs recruitment, foul shooting, and generation of offense when needed. However, JJ has essentially equaled the overall numbers of the best of his predecessors. There will need to be a season of epic disaster, like football's 2019, to swing Broderick and major donors.

The most obvious mistake of WS was Karen Barefoot, and that was rectified, albeit a bit too late for some.

Baseball is wanting, and LAX is not what it once was but Tennis, Wrestling, Swimming and the other non revenue sports seem to be at least acceptable, if not very good.

(12-05-2019 10:17 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 10:14 AM)12thmonarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:58 AM)BigBlueMonarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

I will say it again, we will not land Shane Beamer. He will want too much with an unproven resume. We are going to go after a successful FCS coach, this is my opinion and mine only. Shane is slumming around with the likes of OU for a reason. He wants a big name gig, not a CUSA team with fair weather fans.

I don't believe that ODU has a majority of fair weather fans for a second. There are some for every school. If you are calling our fans fair weather then its not fair to them because how long do you want them to sit through the massacre, game after game? I say three years is long enough to stay at home than coming into the stadium to watch that crap turn into compost.

Im not saying its where I want us to be, but we were a win in the last game of the season away from a bowl game 3 years ago. If our fans consider that "crap," we are going to have a hard time filling up the stadium ever.

I can understand fans not showing up when the team is 1-11.

A bowl game is just a .500 record. A .500 record is barely acceptable. Yes. I consider losing records crap. 3 in a row is a giant pile of crap. To your point though, yes, fans should be in the stadium and excited when the last game of the season can make you bowl eligible.

(12-05-2019 10:17 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 10:14 AM)12thmonarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:58 AM)BigBlueMonarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

I will say it again, we will not land Shane Beamer. He will want too much with an unproven resume. We are going to go after a successful FCS coach, this is my opinion and mine only. Shane is slumming around with the likes of OU for a reason. He wants a big name gig, not a CUSA team with fair weather fans.

I don't believe that ODU has a majority of fair weather fans for a second. There are some for every school. If you are calling our fans fair weather then its not fair to them because how long do you want them to sit through the massacre, game after game? I say three years is long enough to stay at home than coming into the stadium to watch that crap turn into compost.

Im not saying its where I want us to be, but we were a win in the last game of the season away from a bowl game 3 years ago. If our fans consider that "crap," we are going to have a hard time filling up the stadium ever.

I can understand fans not showing up when the team is 1-11.

Well different shades for different people. I see your one game away from bowl argument while its enticing as it may you have to look at the entertainment factor and how we got those 5 wins. An awesome win against the great Danes of Albany, UMess, An abhorring game with Charlotte that ended up with a whopping 6-0 win, The only win against a decent team in FIU and then minute rice. The way MTSU spanked us at the end was a indication of how good we would've performed had we been to a bowl that year. We were a mediocre at best team and that is not gonna fly when you want fans in the stands.

https://fbschedules.com/ncaa-2017/team/old-dominion

(12-05-2019 07:37 AM)bluelight Wrote:  13. Yes, I know good young coaches are going to move up but while they are here, they established a base for the future. In hind sight Woodie should have hired Keats ( who is now a head coach in the ACC)
Keats could bring in a coaching staff that could replace him, when he leaves like VCU did, not a friend who is going to be at ODU as long as wants or retire.

When VCU made the decision to step up our program, they did it in concert with building a new building and a commitment to hire better coaches. They also stepped up other programs, in an effort to complement our men's basketball program. You know the result.

What you might not know is that each year donors got THE call. We were told that we needed to pony up to get or keep a good coach. They did it over and over. To the point that some donors gave up and actually left the program. Now many can only get to a game by buying from scalpers or StubHub.

My point is that if you want success you have to be willing to help the program take the steps to achieve that success. That means money. And yes, now the first step might be to let Wood go. But as one of our ADs once told me, "support" is more than buying a ticket. If you go to Food Lion and buy your groceries you are not supporting Food Lion. You are buying a product. Same with tickets. Support is more.

I came over here to read about our upcoming game. I knew things were a wreck, but in all honesty I'm sorry that it has gotten to the point that it is. A once great rivalry has all but disappeared.

Good luck guys, hope to see some of you Saturday.

(12-05-2019 10:24 AM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  Just to play Devil's Advocate:

One of the arguments against Wood has been that we would have been better off staying in the CAA for football and joining the A10.
That is a JMU-like argument as there is absolutely no evidence that we would have been offered a place in the A10.
Indeed the fact is that we were still in the CAA when GMU and VCU moved on, and that dilution was one of the reasons that justified our move to CUSA. The CAA is not the one we left.
The playoffs are great, but even the FCS national championship game has a lower TV rating than all but maybe one bowl. Further, the CFB payout is still more than any revenue generated by the playoff process.
With App State, GoSo, among others moving up, and now Liberty, FCS football has a diluted and predictable product. A handful of good teams. The dichotomy is even more glaring than P5/G5.
I miss the closeness of JMU, UR and W&M , but otherwise I would rather play UVA, VT, NC State and ECU any day.
The CUSA we moved to that included ECU was the correct choice. No one could have foreseen the abrupt change there.
Bottom line, I believe we made correct and best choice at the time to move to CUSA, and unless the AAC becomes a realistic option, we should stay here.

As far as holding onto BW too long, I am not sure what else could have been done. Even after this season, there was apparently significant pushback by some major donors.
Only after this season was there even a hint of consensus on this board, which is likely much more critical than the average fan and donor.
IMHO there were obvious signs of distress in the program for years, and maybe Wood should have been more forceful in addressing those earlier, as was done with Blackwell and Stinespring. However, I am not sure how that could have worked.

The same goes for JJ. There are and have been specific signs of distress in the program for a number of years, most obviously the lack bigs recruitment, foul shooting, and generation of offense when needed. However, JJ has essentially equaled the overall numbers of the best of his predecessors. There will need to be a season of epic disaster, like football's 2019, to swing Broderick and major donors.

The most obvious mistake of WS was Karen Barefoot, and that was rectified, albeit a bit too late for some.

Baseball is wanting, and LAX is not what it once was but Tennis, Wrestling, Swimming and the other non revenue sports seem to be at least acceptable, if not very good.

I am not completely sold that we should have stayed in CAA for football, but I will say that the failure to recognize that ODU is and likely will always be, a basketball school is a failing of this admin. They though they could make decisions that would negatively affect basketball to help football and that everyone would be fine with that. Long term, this fan base will not be happy if basketball is not competing at the top of the mid major heap.

(12-05-2019 10:20 AM)VB Monarch Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 09:50 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  The issue is compounding poor decisions led to this. He isn't begging for money to buy Nick Saban, he is begging for money for Shane Beamer, who has never won a game as a head coach and could very well be a complete dud. Personally, I'd rather he not dig a deeper hole and buy a football coach. I'm not ponying up anything other than maybe a couple of single game tickets and a hot dog to watch Shane Beamer coach against FIU in front of a 25% full stadium... and I'm more likely to spend the money to watch Bobby Wilder coach against JMU in front a full house. But this isn't about me. Nobody can deny the financials are alarming and the energy is gone.

I've read several arguments relating to the excitement of CAA rivalries and attendance. Speaking only for myself, I had already started to tire of playing FCS teams almost exclusively. I really like having UVA, VT, Wake Forest, N C State, UNC come to Ballard. True UTSA, UTEP an some others don't excite, but neither would Elon, Towson or Delaware. We are all hoping to move up to aac, but until we give that a reasonable amount of time to happen, I,m not sure we can actually make a firm decision if the move was a good idea or not.Need a few more years.

IMO, a good HC coach that brings the abilty to win some P5 against ACC teams would generate tons of excitement. So would playing NAVY, ECU, Temple and other AAC teams

I agree with this 100% - staying in the CAA would have been much worse!

(12-05-2019 10:24 AM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  Just to play Devil's Advocate:

One of the arguments against Wood has been that we would have been better off staying in the CAA for football and joining the A10.
That is a JMU-like argument as there is absolutely no evidence that we would have been offered a place in the A10.
Indeed the fact is that we were still in the CAA when GMU and VCU moved on, and that dilution was one of the reasons that justified our move to CUSA. The CAA is not the one we left.
The playoffs are great, but even the FCS national championship game has a lower TV rating than all but maybe one bowl. Further, the CFB payout is still more than any revenue generated by the playoff process.
With App State, GoSo, among others moving up, and now Liberty, FCS football has a diluted and predictable product. A handful of good teams. The dichotomy is even more glaring than P5/G5.
I miss the closeness of JMU, UR and W&M , but otherwise I would rather play UVA, VT, NC State and ECU any day.
The CUSA we moved to that included ECU was the correct choice. No one could have foreseen the abrupt change there.
Bottom line, I believe we made correct and best choice at the time to move to CUSA, and unless the AAC becomes a realistic option, we should stay here.

As far as holding onto BW too long, I am not sure what else could have been done. Even after this season, there was apparently significant pushback by some major donors.
Only after this season was there even a hint of consensus on this board, which is likely much more critical than the average fan and donor.
IMHO there were obvious signs of distress in the program for years, and maybe Wood should have been more forceful in addressing those earlier, as was done with Blackwell and Stinespring. However, I am not sure how that could have worked.

The same goes for JJ. There are and have been specific signs of distress in the program for a number of years, most obviously the lack bigs recruitment, foul shooting, and generation of offense when needed. However, JJ has essentially equaled the overall numbers of the best of his predecessors. There will need to be a season of epic disaster, like football's 2019, to swing Broderick and major donors.

The most obvious mistake of WS was Karen Barefoot, and that was rectified, albeit a bit too late for some.

Baseball is wanting, and LAX is not what it once was but Tennis, Wrestling, Swimming and the other non revenue sports seem to be at least acceptable, if not very good.

We snubbed the A10 to make the move to CUSA, whether you believe it or not. They were courting us hard and I can say this with 100% certainty. It was a bad bet. Regardless, the answer isn't to keep throwing good money after bad and bankrupting the Athletic Department. I am more concerned about the decisions that have been made since the CUSA decision, which may have been the wrong bet but was at least logical. But no matter how you interpret every individual decision and event over the last 8 years that got us here, the end result is no energy, attendance down across the board, media money is gone, broadcasts are an embarrassment, football is hemorrhaging money, we wasted $70M on an erector set stadium, and basketball is a badly overmatched 14 seed in its best year. If not Lil' Woody, who is responsible for these results?

Things are not a wreck. These are far from our best times but EVERY program goes through tough stretches--and it won't be ODU's last either.

But I will agree with Rick's comment, here. Program movement is highly driven by donors--and ODU has them. This program (led by its AD) raised a ton of money in a hurry when the CAA was crumbling and we had an opportunity to move football to a place where UVA and VT would visit. And today this same program will try to solve another program--get a new coach in here that can restore winning. There are no guarantees but I'm not sure there are many G5s around that can solve problems like this "no energy" institution. Guess we'll see about that soon.

Anyone that thinks that Wood doesn't hear it from the very people that are pledging and giving 6 and 7 figure gifts probably needs to step away from the boards for awhile. I'd read less here and watch more there.

It might seem like a good time to start a long post about how we'll never be good again but football and basketball won't remain at a low point for long. ODU athletics has some real good stuff going when one looks at what Angie Hind, Alan Dawson, Nikki McCray, Andrew Griffiths, Mallory Hetzel, Dominic Manilla, and Steve Martin are all getting done. And Jeff Jones was still in the last NCAA tournament.

A new football coach will have a great opportunity to add to it. Just my take though. Looking forward to the announcement and supporting the new coach.

(12-05-2019 10:36 AM)fmrick Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 07:37 AM)bluelight Wrote:  13. Yes, I know good young coaches are going to move up but while they are here, they established a base for the future. In hind sight Woodie should have hired Keats ( who is now a head coach in the ACC)
Keats could bring in a coaching staff that could replace him, when he leaves like VCU did, not a friend who is going to be at ODU as long as wants or retire.

When VCU made the decision to step up our program, they did it in concert with building a new building and a commitment to hire better coaches. They also stepped up other programs, in an effort to complement our men's basketball program. You know the result.

What you might not know is that each year donors got THE call. We were told that we needed to pony up to get or keep a good coach. They did it over and over. To the point that some donors gave up and actually left the program. Now many can only get to a game by buying from scalpers or StubHub.

My point is that if you want success you have to be willing to help the program take the steps to achieve that success. That means money. And yes, now the first step might be to let Wood go. But as one of our ADs once told me, "support" is more than buying a ticket. If you go to Food Lion and buy your groceries you are not supporting Food Lion. You are buying a product. Same with tickets. Support is more.

I came over here to read about our upcoming game. I knew things were a wreck, but in all honesty I'm sorry that it has gotten to the point that it is. A once great rivalry has all but disappeared.

Good luck guys, hope to see some of you Saturday.

The rivalry is still alive, we did just beat VCU last year. Its just not as strong as it once was. You make a lot of good points about how VCU has stepped up, but I disagree with or think you downplay a few things. 1. Im not certain there was a strategic decision for VCU to "step up" any more than ODU or anyone has. Fact is, with all due respect, you got lucky to get in the NCAA tournament in the F4 year because it was the first year they expanded the field, and the CAA was quite good that season in large part due to ODU and GMU. You all got a great draw and made the most of it. Congrats. But it really should never have even happened. But, That F4 run is what ignited the opportunity to step up your game. You took advantage of it, unlike GMU. So that does deserve credit. 2. The Stu is not really a great arena. It has a great atmosphere but the facility sucks IMO. Not sure how that played a role in stepping up, other than now the place full and raucous. Theres a difference between atmosphere and facilities. Now, I'll give you the practice facility is top rate and that is making the investment. The Seigel Center... not so much. JMUs new arena will be better. 3. I do wish VCU, ODU and GMU never left the CAA. If we could have held that together I truly believe the CAA would have surpassed the A10 by now. Perhaps Davidson would have joined the CAA too. That was a special conference and a special time. I don't think any of us will have rivalries like that again unless ODU and JMU find themselves in the A10 in the future.

Regarding the game. You guys are having an up year and doing exceptionally well this season. At the same time ODU is having a down year and doing uncharacteristically poor. We all expect a loss in this one. Im sure if the tables were turned, you guys wouldnt be too excited to get a likely whooping by your most hated rivals either. Thanks for stopping by though FMRick. You've always been a cool poster for a VCU fan. :)

This thread is unnecessary. Some people won't be happy until we fire everybody. And even then....

Agreed. JJ is fresh off a championship year. Granted, not as high (or often) as we expect, but a slow start to this year is hardly the right time to call for his head. I was critical of him until last year, when we checked off all of the boxes. I think the future is bright for the program, but we have some current players that need to find their role and get it together, along with a few more pieces.

(Having said that, losing at home to JMU was pretty bad.)