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Post by gks on Jan 11, 2024 20:13:40 GMT -5
How about a Hockey arena on the Rotman's Furniture campus while I am in fantasy land? There might be historic preservation tax credits or something similar for such an endeavor. Flood plain.....
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Post by gks on Jan 11, 2024 9:00:33 GMT -5
Let's see what the next chapter is for Belichick if he starts somewhere without Brady and take another team to the Super Bowl, than he's up there with Lombardi. Didn't Lombardi leave Green Bay and flop at Washington?
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Post by gks on Jan 11, 2024 8:31:33 GMT -5
Let's put media hype to the side. The media is always looking for a defining event headline to hype ratings. 24 hour "news"/sports cycle. Was Belichik a GOAT NFL coach? Or, was his success due in large part to GOAT QB Tom Brady? Can't be both. Belichik never won a super Bowl w/o Brady. Whereas, Brady won in Tampa Bay w/out Belichik.. I believe Coach B's w-l record w/out Brady was mediocre. Belichik out. Pete Carroll out. Nick Saban unquestionably a college GOAT coach, out. Father Time. Every great coach has great players and visa versa. I can't stand this debate and it's meaningless. It's crazy to think my kids 21 and 19 have never seen a Patriots coaching change until today.
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Post by gks on Jan 9, 2024 15:47:17 GMT -5
"Many folks in JMU Nation have already reached out with their support. The passion at JMU is unmatched, and we can’t wait to be a part of the community in Harrisonburg. Go Dukes!” I am sorry too hear that from him. I know that sort of statement is a bit of a standard wording for a new coach, but was it really necessary? Would you go to a new job and tell people there how much better your previous one was? Come on....
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Post by gks on Jan 9, 2024 10:10:33 GMT -5
SOV & gks I did not bring it up but was merely responding to my fellow alum gks who like others keep "beating the drum" for redshirting and greater emphasis on football. Unfortunately neither of you expressed any understanding of my point . Thankfully, the leadership of HC gets it. Peace. First of all I am not an alum. I've been a fan of HC football since the early 80s. You didn't answer the question. If you want student-athletes to be done in four years do you think the same for regular students? Should the entire student body be on the clock the day they enter HC or any school? And yes a higher emphasis on football is a good thing. Just as a higher emphasis on theater, music, etc is.
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Post by gks on Jan 9, 2024 9:14:40 GMT -5
There is little doubt older 5th & 6th year more experienced players would be better than younger less mature players. But better is not necessarily better. Quality of players is not the issue. Underlying values & degree of emphasis on sports is the controlling dynamic. There are things more important than winning a football game. Hope & expect the Pl & HC continue to reject non-medical redshirting & other similar moves. You beat this drum more than hc87 does the Big East miss. But, while we are on the topic, it's a real tragedy how Jacob Dobbs and Peter Oliver were such jocks that stained the Holy Cross name. Hopefully these folks that think college is four years and out feel the same about regular, non-athlete students. Graduate in four years or you're out the door. Don't care if you have academic concerns, don't care if you have financial concerns. It's a ridiculous, short-sighted argument.
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Post by gks on Jan 9, 2024 7:13:37 GMT -5
The table is set for continued success under Coach Curran, and expectations/perceptions are at an appropriate level from what I can see. There aren't extenuating circumstances with scholarships that Coaches Vaas and Raynor contended with. The issues with redshirts and the AI are real but as was proven by HC playing SDSU tougher than any other team in the playoffs the last two years, nowhere near the obstacle of fielding teams without athletic scholarships was. NIL could end up being the biggest obstacle between HC and a national championship and coaches are not supposed to be involved in that as I understand it. HC football was chock full of 5th years in 2022 and 2023. 2022 proved how valuable 5th years are.
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Post by gks on Jan 6, 2024 22:15:43 GMT -5
Let's be honest for a second. Basketball is no longer HC's 'premiere' or whatever it was referred to as program. Football and even hockey IMO has moved ahead. There are three pages on the latest game and the third page is complaining. PL basketball, for as much as we crush PL football, is terrible. The PL of the Willard era is like Greek mythology at this point. Paulson might be an outstanding coach but who would want to play at any PL school? And even if you get talent to come they're gone in a year. Recruiting is impossible. I think the approach right now to recruiting kids is to show them what HC can do for them if they never set foot on the court. It has to be about a lot more than hoops and it should be that way even with a successful hoop program. I think coach DP really gets that. In a perfect world this would work. But these kids want to play basketball and they want to play it at the highest level possible. We as adults know that there's a whole lot of life ahead after college. PL hoops isn't attractive to the AAU circuit.
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Post by gks on Jan 6, 2024 21:00:10 GMT -5
Let's be honest for a second.
Basketball is no longer HC's 'premiere' or whatever it was referred to as program. Football and even hockey IMO has moved ahead. There are three pages on the latest game and the third page is complaining.
PL basketball, for as much as we crush PL football, is terrible. The PL of the Willard era is like Greek mythology at this point.
Paulson might be an outstanding coach but who would want to play at any PL school? And even if you get talent to come they're gone in a year. Recruiting is impossible.
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Post by gks on Jan 6, 2024 9:29:13 GMT -5
My question about the PL has always been...
If you want to be associated with the best academically why in the world would you not want to be associated with the best, or allows members to be the best, athletically? Both are an important part of any campus.
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Post by gks on Jan 4, 2024 19:16:50 GMT -5
The Patriot League sounds better and better for Holy Cross! For HC perhaps... but where are all the schools to which Rev., Brooks said would follow? The Patriot League is the only FCS playoff conference that has not added a single school in the past 20 years. Six of the seven are among the 20 largest budgets in the subdivision and yet it is still largely a one-bid league that cannot compete as a group outside opponents in the Ivy and NEC. How would Colgate fare against Northern Iowa? How would Bucknell fare versus FAMU? That may not matter if fans doesn't want the team to travel further than New Haven for its opponent list, but the league itself seems incapable of making structural changes necessary to improve the football product against the other leagues that constitute the subdivision. Well said. Truth hurts to some on this board.
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Post by gks on Jan 4, 2024 8:28:22 GMT -5
Certainly, the athletes on those big time teams are not academically representative of the student body. There are other issues w/athletics at those schools which strike at the core of the academic mission of the college. At any rate HC will never go big time. The college will continue to be an academics first institution with restrictions on athletics. There was not a divide between student athletes & students in the past. Is there one now? Hope not. HC does not need nor should want a professionalized football/basketball program. Quite simply HC is not a jock school. Of course there is and always has been a divide between student athletes and regular students. Regular students have it much easier.
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Post by gks on Jan 3, 2024 14:40:18 GMT -5
Brower made Springfield Central HS into a D1 powerhouse in MA. Personally I think this is a great get for more than coaching. Very well connected with MA HS coaches statewide.
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Post by gks on Jan 3, 2024 8:27:32 GMT -5
I welcome bringing this thread back to my original premise and repeating: My question: what is Holy Cross' greatest asset? IMO, our great name, College of the Holy Cross.
Can we trust our BOT and rely on those individuals to make sure that our good name is and NEVER will be for sale in the fashion that selected colleges and universities have clearly sold out to individuals, organizations, industries, and foreign governments?
Has our good name ever been sold? Can't imagine our college board of trustees would tolerate widespread (or even non-widespread) antisemitism on our campus or tolerate a school president who has obviously plagiarized on numerous occasions. Not even for a nanosecond. Thankfully, we are very different and have almost nothing in common with (secular) Harvard.Harvard failed to meet a very low bar in terms of antisemitism and plagiarism. Perhaps the former failure (acceptance of antisemitism) is linked to some big money sources (plus a progressive narrative) but the latter failure (acceptance of plagiarism) is not. Agree 100%. You should post this on the football board.
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Post by gks on Jan 2, 2024 12:14:17 GMT -5
Contender for the most stupid rule in all sports. Every other level of football and it’s up to the defense to figure out the eligible receivers by formation. You get to the NFL and, apparently, the players become stupid, so eligible receivers are identified by specific numbers and if you’re not one of those numbers, you have to tell the ref who has to inform the other team. The refs have a hard enough time enforcing the meaningful rules. Get rid of the rule. 100% agree on this. Remember when the Patriots lined up a RB in an ineligible spot against the Ravens in a playoff game? He reported and the officials even told the defense and the Ravens still guarded him.
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Post by gks on Dec 30, 2023 15:11:40 GMT -5
If Whitley is active, that gives HC 3. Wonder the last time we had 3 actives ? Never? 1940s or 1950s?
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Post by gks on Dec 30, 2023 13:40:55 GMT -5
Have to make it worth someone's while to play in these games. Bonus NIL $, insurance policies, etc. Yes, I feel dirty bringing up that sort of thing. If schools can offer NIL why not bowl games?
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Post by gks on Dec 29, 2023 9:02:16 GMT -5
10 to Army, Navy & Air Force As Breezy makes some final revisions I now count 5 decommits in total from the service academies with 2 choosing elsewhere and 3 remaining UnCommited. Just something to monitor as some kids might use a verbal to an academy as a holding place even more so than other schools given their total roster and scholi flexibility. They are still clearly one of if not our biggest competitor with EIGHT headed there for now. I’ve also asked him to designate (PWO) as there are 5 total on the list choosing P4 PWO offers. This is a trend to monitor especially at a school (like a Penn State) where the NIL account is so massive they might be able to get a stipend to some of their top PWOs as a way to get around the 85 official scholarship limit. I currently count 19 of the 112 that remain UnCommited after the first signing period of which I see 4 names that we will likely continue to recruit in the 2nd period. Thank you for saying this. I'll said this in a different thread and was questioned. This is a big part of the NIL effect. While some get millions many will get their tuition taken care of and will basically be a non-scholarship, scholarship player. Just another thing the NCAA was unprepared for.
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Post by gks on Dec 28, 2023 9:41:44 GMT -5
It’s been raining overnight in Boston and 100 pct chance of rain between 11 and 2 - that natural turf at Fenway will take a beating Sure the field will be fine. The technology is there for excellent grass fields even in crappy conditions. This Fenway Bowl, and I like the idea, has a bit of a curse over it. Cancelled twice for COVID and now playing in miserable conditions. It's too bad.
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Post by gks on Dec 27, 2023 19:27:41 GMT -5
L/S, we may have a different "take" on this comment. I think that you think that he means he will retire from Holy Cross years from now. My read on that statement is he aspired to coach at Holy Cross and this is the perfect fit for him . . . . . now. Not necessarily 5-10 years from now if he is as successful as Chesney and has offers to go to higher paying/more "prestigious" jobs. A fine read. But do you also think Holy Cross is a special enough FCS school for a skilled coach to build a Carm Cozza or Buddy Teevens type long term career through to retirement here? The type of arrangement where the coach becomes identified with the program and the program with the coach? That's what we would have had with Ralph Willard if he stayed until retirement. It's hard to compare any other schools to the Ivies. Those jobs pay really, really well and have virtually no pressure or exposure. Sure someone could come to HC football and stay a lifetime. That's a rare breed in coaching circles. There's always something bigger and brighter.
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Post by gks on Dec 27, 2023 18:00:19 GMT -5
If you want to get MBB out of it's currant morass step one is to stop scheduling these games.
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Post by gks on Dec 24, 2023 12:08:43 GMT -5
Cripes! It's Christmas. Let Fr. Brooks rest in peace. None of us can change the past, including and especially Fr. Brooks. He's gone . . . . . literally. Keep it up, guys and I will start to re-litigate the Crusader mascot/logo/cognomen decision of the dearly departed Fr. Boroughs (yes, I know he's still alive but he's departed Holy Cross). You'll regret it, I promise! To be fair...people keep posting about Fr. Brooks and his decisions and the impact they had/didn't have. Others can't comment?
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Post by gks on Dec 24, 2023 10:54:12 GMT -5
Chesney put HC on the map of top FCS/low level FBS recruits. It's Curran's job to keep the talent train moving. So far, so good.
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Post by gks on Dec 24, 2023 10:17:16 GMT -5
Actually, Fr. Brooks was dead set against post season games. First hand I know he felt it was intrusive on academics. He recognized the seductiveness & dangers of overemphasis. I get a big kick from some of the comments. No sense re-litigating this for the umpteenth time. The past is past. We are what we are. As to the future? Who knows? How is that for a series of cliches? It is my hope HC will continue to maintain a proper perspective on the role of athletics in an elite academics setting. Return to the HC All Stars? Happy Holidays. HIs paradox was that he only felt this way with football. If you're dead set against post seasons then do it for all....and I'm talking hoops and hockey. Perspective is different for every school. HC knows what there's is.
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Post by gks on Dec 23, 2023 16:25:06 GMT -5
Just heard on Cover 3 (podcast) that 10 (!) portal guys from JMU are actually playing. That is odd. Who knows how many stay after all. Air Force hit a nosedive late this season. But no portal type issues I know of. JMU portal guys want to move up. Bowl season is a perfect 'prove it' time for them on a national stage.
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