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Post by aggiechamp on Jan 7, 2009 23:29:35 GMT -5
I didn't like the process either; but, the process was what it was. That is behind us. What we have now in front of us is "the choice". In my view, the choice is being unfairly disparaged simply because he was not a proven head coach or stated differently, because he was a assistant coach. I do believe that Aggies have a right to be critical. If, however, we are going to be critical of our AD's decision, let's at least be honest and reserve some of that criticism for ourselves. After all, we pushed for the AD. He was our choice to right the program and in some of our opinions, he has done a poor job with his first major decision. I,personally, am unwilling to go that route. With all that I know, I believe he made the right choice because we chose him to make this choice. I will support his decision and give his choice the benefit of the doubt until he proves that he is unworthy of my support.
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Aggie77
Official BDF member
Member Since: September 2004
Posts: 5,570
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Post by Aggie77 on Jan 7, 2009 23:37:49 GMT -5
Hell, why not just bring back Wayne Hicks and Alan Gerber. They won a black college national championship for us and we didn't even have to fire them. Since we are just gonna play "one degree of separation" here, let's just reassemble the entire coaching staff we had under Hayes. We could probably get most of those guys back here with little or no hassle. The last I heard, Hicks was coaching at some high school in Hickory. And his defenses were waaaay more dominant than the defenses Lee had when he was last here. This whole saga is sounding more and more asinine with each passing day. I can't believe I'm the only one who sees how ridiculous this process has been and will likely continue to be. You're not the only one, I'm just to stunned to post. After all there are only ten of us that really give a crap, and most of them have bought in to this mockery of a search, so what’s the point. Wasn’t the term “national search” used? Since none of us can give a million dollars or two a year, since 90% of our alums give with their lips, since we don’t have a national fundraiser to fund an athletic endowment, we get what we can afford, and apparently this what we can afford. Will Coach Lee bring Aggie Football back to respectability? Likely Will Coach Lee be as successful as our expectations? Unlikely While I will maintain my membership and donation levels, I think this is my last year as an active member of the Aggie Club, my goals and the Athletic Department appear to be different, but my goals and the Alumni Association appear to be more in sync. Therefore, I think my time and energy will be better spent there.
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aggie62
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Three Generations of Aggies
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Post by aggie62 on Jan 8, 2009 1:16:04 GMT -5
aggiechamp,
As I'm sure you know, A&T is one of the LARGEST HBCUs in the nation and with it recent $250 million building program the campus is beautiful. It has a good academic rating and is considered one of the most desireable HBCUs colleges for students to attend, particularly, minority students. With all that going for it, I fail to see why A&T can't attract very good coaches and players and quite frankly I think we do attract them. It appears we just don't go after the top-of-the-line coaching staff and that seems to be the case when we hire perennial assistant coaches. Let the 50 or whatever assistant coaches prove themselves somewhere else and we hire the one that comes out on top. That's all I'm saying. We did that with Bill Hayes and he worked out very well for us. We didn't do that with Smalls and Fobbs and neither one of them worked out well for us. Why should we follow the same poor business model and expect different results. By the way, I understand Smalls had been a head coach at a small school where he failed and went back to a coordinator's job. In my opinion, this should have been a good indication that he was not the assistant coach who came out on top so we should have left him in his coordinator's job. That's what I'm talking about......................
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Post by Bornthrilla on Jan 8, 2009 8:53:21 GMT -5
Well, it looks like Allan Gerber is now coaching in some HS in Florida named Brandenton Christian. We could probably get him back for $50 grand a year: www.maxpreps.com/florida/football/bradenton-christian-(bradenton,-fl)-(bradenton)/preview.aspx?schoolid=1e5451e2-383e-4049-bbc6-4d0e08342579&gendersport=boys,football&urpath=,local,team
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Post by Bornthrilla on Jan 8, 2009 8:56:13 GMT -5
Here's his resume: Hired in the spring of 2005, Allan Gerber begins his third year as Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach for L-R. In 2006, Gerber coached quarterback Justin Sanders to South Atlantic Conference Offensive Freshman-Of-The-Year honors. Prior to Lenoir-Rhyne, Gerber served as the Offensive Coordinator for Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. From 1998 to 2001, Gerber coached at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C., where helped lead the Aggies to 35 wins (to only 11 losses), four NCAA Division I-AA Top 25 Final Rankings and a MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) Title in ’99.
That same season, the Aggies finished 11-2, won the Historically Black College National Championship and earned a trip to the NCAA Division I-AA Quarterfinals.
Gerber coached a 1,000-yard rusher every season at N.C. A&T St. including Maurice Hicks, who set the NCAA Division I single-game rushing mark with 437, and seven All-MEAC linemen.Gerber coached with Wayne Hicks (N.C. A&T’s defensive coordinator) all four years. Prior to North Carolina A&T, Gerber coached at Washington & Lee (1997), Gardner-Webb (1996), North Greenville College (1995) and got his start at Virginia Military Institute (1993-95), where he coached offensive tackles, tight ends and was the team’s coordinator of recruiting. All told, Gerber coached six players who made it to the NFL. Gerber graduated from Trenton State College (N.J.) in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and was a two-year starter and four-year letterwinner with the Lions. Gerber and his wife, Bethany, have two sons: Brett and Drew.
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Post by aggiejazz on Jan 8, 2009 9:00:30 GMT -5
"I fail to see why A&T can't attract very good coaches and players and quite frankly I think we do attract them. It appears we just don't go after the top-of-the-line coaching staff and that seems to be the case when we hire perennial assistant coaches."
Aggie62, It is called not having enough money. Good people who wins want to get paid what winners get paid. It is simple as that.
Those nice buildings on campus are being financed by the people of NC. If A&T wants to pay a coach top money that will have to come from A&T's alumni and supporters and not from the coffers of NC state government.
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Post by aggiejazz on Jan 8, 2009 9:05:04 GMT -5
I like Hicks and Gerber, too. I know one thing, Hicks loved A&T and no doubt still does. Hicks was also a member of the Aggie Club at one time.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Jan 8, 2009 9:55:31 GMT -5
I don't honestly want Hicks and Gerber back on the staff, but I am just pointing out that they had a better track record and accomplished way more than Lee and Berry did when they were last here.
If we are just going to build a virtual time machine in Aggieland, Hicks and Gerber would be the first coordinator tandem that I would bring back.
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Post by DOOMS on Jan 8, 2009 10:58:57 GMT -5
Well I don't think that's going to happen.
Aggie62, we fired arguably the best coach in school history for going 4-8 in what everybody knew was a rebuilding year with a whole new staff. Not to mention he was in every game in the fourth quarter. Three years later his replacement and the majority of his staff is tossed after consecutive 3-8 seasons, but a conference championship and playoff visit just prior to that (and little chance to put their recruits out there to see what they could do). Two and a half years later, another coach is fired. The fans constantly complain. There have been four athletic directors in the past six to seven years. It seems shortly after a new a.d. comes aboard, a football coach vanishes and is unable to resurrect his coaching career.
Would you apply? The only people I would expect to show avid interest would be somebody who had little job security (James Webster comes to mind), an assistant, maybe a lower-division coach, a high school coach, or an @sshole.
All that stuff we have is nice, but it ain't so great if history shows you'll only see it for three years.
Our best bet (to me, anyway) is to get a proven coordinator that knows the conference already, has established recruiting connections, has a stonger demeanor than the last two head coaches, can bring a staff, and can work with the a.d. All this dreaming about Ty Willingham, Henry Frazier, Rod Broadway, or any white coach on earth with job security is just that, dreaming.
If you didn't need a job, would you pick a job based on how pretty the building is or your chances of success? When I think of the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" an established coach's impression of the coaching job at A&T immediately comes to mind.
I understand people's desires. I don't understand their inability to face reality.
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Aggie E
Official BDF member
Posts: 764
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Post by Aggie E on Jan 8, 2009 11:04:56 GMT -5
I don't know about everybody else, but in spite of some of the negative views on the hiring process, it seems like Wheels is executing a plan that has been in the works for a long time. Now that Lee and Rags are in place, the next piece of the puzzle is the OC. It very well could be a familiar name, but it wouldn't surprise me if Wheels is thinking "outside of the MEAC box" for the OC choice.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Jan 8, 2009 11:13:02 GMT -5
Dooms, if that is the case, then have enough respect for your fans to state that those are the obstacles we are facing from the outset. Don't tell everybody that A&T is one of the best and most sought-after jobs in the country and that we are going to launch a national search (and form a national search committee) to find the best and brightest candidate out there who will be able to raise our program to a level of being perennial playoff contenders.
Just say we are going to hire Alonzo Lee because he is a solid defensive coordinator and we already know him and we don't have enough jack to attract an experienced head coach.
This whole charade only helped to get fans' hopes up and right now it has left a lot of people like me disappointed.
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trues
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Post by trues on Jan 8, 2009 11:16:26 GMT -5
Why is that? We did not get a proven Head Coach.
Dooms we know where you stand with this. You never like the fact that Small and his staff was fired. So we know you will make a case to bring them back.
I bet you 50% of Small Staff will be hired by A&T this year.
Getting back to WB. I love the guy as well. We always email each other and I respect him as I AD. Having said that I just genuinely disagree with settling for average. I cannot help but think about A&M hiring not just a HC but a legend in the MEAC. And in one year A&M is on the map of winning a MEAC championship this fall. We may not have the fund to hire a legend but surely if we are ranked number 6 in the MEAC AD budget we should be able to afford at the very least a Division II Head coach.
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Post by DOOMS on Jan 8, 2009 11:24:54 GMT -5
'thrilla, I can’t argue with that viewpoint (well, most of it) because I share it and have shared it since Hayes was fired and the A&T covert ops division hired Coach Small. But after the last round of hiring (led from Florida by Doug Williams) and the resultant happiness of the good Aggie people when it was announced that a career position coach was getting the job, I realized that I wasn’t going to change the hiring practices.
How many months passed after Dee Todd finally came out and gave a presentation showing just how broke A&T was before she got fired? She ain’t get fired for that, but telling the truth didn’t help her case. I tell the truth on this board all the time and people hate me for it. Now you want the school to tell us the truth?!?
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!
You really can’t tell your fans the truth. You have to tell them it’s one of the best jobs and all that stuff to keep enthusiasm high. I can’t blame them for saying it. I can blame us for believing it.
There was no point in getting your hopes up. I’ve told y’all this school is not interested in being a playoff contender. No meac school is. History shows that. History has told y’all no meac school in interested in being a playoff contender. If they were, first of all they wouldn’t be in the meac. If you pay attention you won’t have your hopes dashed.
What’s unfortunate is that Coach Lee wasn’t hired in 2003 or Coach Hayes was fired in 2002. We wouldn’t be in this position otherwise.
trues, you have to be kidding. I wanted the whole staff fired before you did. It's far too early in the day to be inebriated. I pointed out numerous problems even when we were winning under the staff and y'all told me I was crazy. No, I don't want the staff back. I want to win. This gives us the best chance to do that and Knute Rockne is dead and wouldn't coach here anyway. I don't see what is so very hard to understand about that.
We just hired arguably the best defensive coordinator in black college history and you don't think we could hire a "legend." Man, we just did. You just don't realize it yet.
What good is affording "at least a division II coach" going to do? That sounds like settling. Did you not read what I just typed? Do you think we just locked up the application process or do you think maybe the people that would make you happy didn't show interest? Hmmmmm.
As far as being ranked number six in the meac in budget, there are what, 11 schools? Two don't play football. That leaves nine schools. Morgan and Howard clearly don't care about football and don't support their programs. Norfolk just started and have already slowed it down. That's leaves six schools that care about and support their football programs. We're sixth. That tell you anything?
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Post by Bigboy on Jan 8, 2009 11:39:45 GMT -5
The deal is done. We all need to calm down and give Lee a chance to do his job. Sure he has only been a coordinator and so was Broadway before he got the NCCU job and turned it around, and so was Webster before he got the job at TSU. The two of them worked out fine. None of us know how any of the other coaches that were mention as possible hires would have faired if they were hired. Wheeler feels confident that he has made the right choice for A&T and I trust his judgement. We can all either jump on the "band-wagan" and support Lee or take a wait and see attitude and jump on the "band-wagon" when we feel he deserves it as evidenced by his coaching performance. We all just want a winner!!!!
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Post by DOOMS on Jan 8, 2009 11:41:40 GMT -5
If I had two hours I'd go through the threads and bump the ones where people said the same thing to me after I threw a fit about Fobbs' hiring.
I bet most of the same folks who are upset now were telling me to shut it up then. What irony.
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