Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Get ready for some MACtion
eldonabe
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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by eldonabe » Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:42 am

ZooMass84 wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:08 pm Georgia Southern total athletic budget = 29M vs our 50M. What's wrong with this picture?
Where should I start:

- Stadium
- Geography
- It is Umass
- No conference
- Foxboro for home games
- momentum (lack thereof)
- not enough donors

That is off the top of my head

McKinney
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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by McKinney » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:37 pm

ZooMass84 wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:08 pm Georgia Southern total athletic budget = 29M vs our 50M. What's wrong with this picture?
Not only are there the pressures that eldonabe mentioned, but comparing the total budget could be misleading because the schools are quite different in how they allocate those resources.

Looking at EADA data, UMass has 755 student-athletes in 17 sports compared to GASO's 439 in 13. UMass also spends on average about 60% more per student-athlete in recruiting... which I would guess goes back to the topic of D1 talent in the South vs Massachusetts/New England/Northeast.

The rest of the numbers look to be similar when compared per-capita. But again, UMass has more sports and more student-athletes. So if both spend the same per student-athlete in aid (for example), UMass will end up spending a lot more.

I think the facilities used to be a viable excuse. Maybe the stadium still is, idk. But UMass spent a lot on capital projects in the last few years. Now that we have the FPC and the bubble, I'm hesitant to point my finger at a lack there.
Last edited by McKinney on Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by Mizor » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:42 pm

I saw that we were paid $60000 by GS. Was there any more money coming in when we were bumped up to ESPN2?

ZooMass84
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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by ZooMass84 » Mon Oct 19, 2020 6:53 pm

eldonabe wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:42 am
ZooMass84 wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:08 pm Georgia Southern total athletic budget = 29M vs our 50M. What's wrong with this picture?
Where should I start:

- Stadium
- Geography
- It is Umass
- No conference
- Foxboro for home games
- momentum (lack thereof)
- not enough donors

That is off the top of my head
- Stadium - yes it's small but it is FBS compliant
- not sure I agree. The weather sucks but look at nearby Army, Cuse, Penn State. We're remote but so is Penn State
- you got me there
- Would be better in a conference but look at Liberty
- that's a few years ago
- no momentum
- who needs donors when the University allocates 80% of the shortfall?

McKinney
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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by McKinney » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

ZooMass84 wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 6:53 pm - not sure I agree. The weather sucks but look at nearby Army, Cuse, Penn State. We're remote but so is Penn State
Army is a service academy and as such has to recruit a different kind of player. Not only are there physical requirements/restrictions, but they must be able to handle the service & academic aspects of the academy.

Before the Monken era got going, Army only went to a single bowl game in the span of almost two decades. Navy won the Army-Navy game 14 years in a row.

Cuse & Penn State are long-standing high-major programs.
ZooMass84 wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 6:53 pm - Would be better in a conference but look at Liberty
- who needs donors when the University allocates 80% of the shortfall?
Liberty can buy facilities, buy a coach, buy bowl-ties, and buy a schedule.
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eldonabe
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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by eldonabe » Wed Oct 21, 2020 7:42 am

ZooMass84 wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 6:53 pm
eldonabe wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:42 am
ZooMass84 wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:08 pm Georgia Southern total athletic budget = 29M vs our 50M. What's wrong with this picture?
Where should I start:

- Stadium
- Geography
- It is Umass
- No conference
- Foxboro for home games
- momentum (lack thereof)
- not enough donors

That is off the top of my head
- Stadium - yes it's small but it is FBS compliant
- not sure I agree. The weather sucks but look at nearby Army, Cuse, Penn State. We're remote but so is Penn State
- you got me there
- Would be better in a conference but look at Liberty
- that's a few years ago
- no momentum
- who needs donors when the University allocates 80% of the shortfall?
I think you are missing the point on some of these....

- Sure the Stadium is "compliant" but it is still a concrete barn and it still sucks
- You add to the stadium situation that there is NO atmosphere and the student support is pathetic
- Geography has something to do with weather, but it also has to do with the fact that Mass in general is a pro-state, they only get behind college stuff when someone fires up the bandwagon
- The lack of conference is a killer when you have the the above noted issues
- The Foxboro thing is a thing... Maybe not directly at this point, but the hangover of that decision still looms large. You alienate the locals, then you double down by sucking real bad, and triple down when your coach at the time tells you (the fans) the you suck and that pretty much blows out the chance to build any momentum and loyalty
- Back to momentum - Umass had one promising stretch where things actually looked like they may be turning the corner. Despite a 2-10 2016 record, expectations were really positive going into 2017. They had 3 very winnable games out of the gate and a reasonable schedule after Temple and Tennessee - they choked it out of the gage and rolled out to an 0-5 start - even winning 2 of those 3 and they would have had some solid footing. I remember that stretch vividly. They lost lots of people when that happened.
- You NEED donors and you need them to be visible. Nothing screams support like a "name alum" dropping some dough on your lap. That shit goes a long way directly (the donation) and in an intangible ways (image).


UMass needs a break or maybe a miracle at this point. The odds of them having a bowl eligible season any time in the next 5+ years are in the single digit percentages.

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by Worcester_To_Amherst » Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:30 am

Not sure what people expected in this game? I'd venture to guess that last season's team was one of the worst D1 teams to ever play. They had guys the size of OLB playing DT.

This year's team at least looked the part physically. The defense got gashed, and GaSo could have put up a lot more points, but it was definitely a better defense than last year's team.

Offense was extremely disappointing, especially on the play calling front. No excuses for Bell on that one, he needs to be 100% better when it comes to setting up the offense for success.

Back to my original statement, what did people expect from this game? It seems like for some of us, the point of watching the game is to wait for the inevitable blow-out then go cry about the HC/AD/drop the program, etc.

The state of the program is pathetic and it's going to take incremental improvement on a yearly basis to get back to a semi-respectable place. It looks like they're at least starting to build a roster of legit D1 players. Bell and Bamford can't go back and fix the mistakes of the past 10 years. They need to stop making the mistakes they've been responsible for over the past few years and move forward and improve the team. Bell isn't going anywhere until at least 2022. He was brought in to recruit a legit team and he seems to be heading in that direction. He needs to get a LOT better with his gameday coaching.

It's good to see people posting and that people still care about the program, because they probably don't deserve any support at this point, but this is the situation we're in. I think most people want a football program. The people in charge need to make it happen.

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by TheInsider » Thu Oct 22, 2020 9:06 am

Lets not forget that Georgia Southern can pull players locally that are far better than anyone from the Northeast. Sure the Northeast has good players that go to high major programs, but the drop-off to the next tier talent wise is dramatic. Southern's backyard is flush with talent.

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by TruBluMaroon » Thu Oct 22, 2020 12:41 pm

^ You mean like this?
TruBluMaroon wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:58 pm
ZooMass84 wrote: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:08 pm Georgia Southern total athletic budget = 29M vs our 50M. What's wrong with this picture?
Don’t forget the part of picture that includes Blue Chip recruits from 2015-2019 that shows Georgia having 173 and Massachusetts 2.
The picture also shows Georgia having the highest Per Capita recruits at 34.6 and Massachusetts is at 0.01, good for 43rd (last for states that had any). Also in the picture is Georgia at number 2 with the highest % of HS players recruited by D1 schools, right behind Florida......which is connects to Georgia and if you look in the corner of the picture, you will see that Massachusetts has never had a 5 star recruit. If you are looking at a picture, it is best to look at the whole picture to get a true appreciation of what you are looking at.....

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by Kelz626 » Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:22 pm

Worcester_To_Amherst wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:30 am Not sure what people expected in this game? I'd venture to guess that last season's team was one of the worst D1 teams to ever play. They had guys the size of OLB playing DT.

This year's team at least looked the part physically. The defense got gashed, and GaSo could have put up a lot more points, but it was definitely a better defense than last year's team.

Offense was extremely disappointing, especially on the play calling front. No excuses for Bell on that one, he needs to be 100% better when it comes to setting up the offense for success.

Back to my original statement, what did people expect from this game? It seems like for some of us, the point of watching the game is to wait for the inevitable blow-out then go cry about the HC/AD/drop the program, etc.

The state of the program is pathetic and it's going to take incremental improvement on a yearly basis to get back to a semi-respectable place. It looks like they're at least starting to build a roster of legit D1 players. Bell and Bamford can't go back and fix the mistakes of the past 10 years. They need to stop making the mistakes they've been responsible for over the past few years and move forward and improve the team. Bell isn't going anywhere until at least 2022. He was brought in to recruit a legit team and he seems to be heading in that direction. He needs to get a LOT better with his gameday coaching.

It's good to see people posting and that people still care about the program, because they probably don't deserve any support at this point, but this is the situation we're in. I think most people want a football program. The people in charge need to make it happen.
There are a dozen examples of things that carried over from last year that were easily correctable and have been seemingly ignored by Bell. For instance better personnel decisions, for a 2nd straight year Bell gives the starting QB job to a SR who shouldn’t see the field. What is the purpose of this? Bell preaches “future” and starts a guy that can’t play beyond 2021. And again he’s starting a guy who doesn’t have anywhere near starting talent.

Play calling was a disaster last year yet here is Mirando still calling plays and doing a shitty job of it. Size was an issue last year yet we have size now and those guys are getting blown up on every play. We have 12 men on the field coming out of a media timeout. No one can wrap up and tackle, guys can’t keep contain on the QB. There was a lot the coaching staff could’ve done to prevent a total blowout but they aren’t good coaches.

As far as Bamford goes the guy has been an absolute disaster. Of the 4 most important sports at UMass (MBB, FB, Hockey and WBB) he’s 1 for 4. He’s had to bring in Paul Cormier and Jimmy Reid to try and teach McCall and Bell how to coach and if it wasn’t for Bergeron everyone would be calling for the end of the McCall Era and Verdi hasn’t done anything either. So at this point going on 6 years Bamford has had 2 years of success with the 3rd most important sport in the department, if that’s the standard there should be a John McCutcheon statue on campus

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by Worcester_To_Amherst » Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:36 am

Kelz626 wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:22 pm
Worcester_To_Amherst wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:30 am Not sure what people expected in this game? I'd venture to guess that last season's team was one of the worst D1 teams to ever play. They had guys the size of OLB playing DT.

This year's team at least looked the part physically. The defense got gashed, and GaSo could have put up a lot more points, but it was definitely a better defense than last year's team.

Offense was extremely disappointing, especially on the play calling front. No excuses for Bell on that one, he needs to be 100% better when it comes to setting up the offense for success.

Back to my original statement, what did people expect from this game? It seems like for some of us, the point of watching the game is to wait for the inevitable blow-out then go cry about the HC/AD/drop the program, etc.

The state of the program is pathetic and it's going to take incremental improvement on a yearly basis to get back to a semi-respectable place. It looks like they're at least starting to build a roster of legit D1 players. Bell and Bamford can't go back and fix the mistakes of the past 10 years. They need to stop making the mistakes they've been responsible for over the past few years and move forward and improve the team. Bell isn't going anywhere until at least 2022. He was brought in to recruit a legit team and he seems to be heading in that direction. He needs to get a LOT better with his gameday coaching.

It's good to see people posting and that people still care about the program, because they probably don't deserve any support at this point, but this is the situation we're in. I think most people want a football program. The people in charge need to make it happen.
There are a dozen examples of things that carried over from last year that were easily correctable and have been seemingly ignored by Bell. For instance better personnel decisions, for a 2nd straight year Bell gives the starting QB job to a SR who shouldn’t see the field. What is the purpose of this? Bell preaches “future” and starts a guy that can’t play beyond 2021. And again he’s starting a guy who doesn’t have anywhere near starting talent.

Play calling was a disaster last year yet here is Mirando still calling plays and doing a shitty job of it. Size was an issue last year yet we have size now and those guys are getting blown up on every play. We have 12 men on the field coming out of a media timeout. No one can wrap up and tackle, guys can’t keep contain on the QB. There was a lot the coaching staff could’ve done to prevent a total blowout but they aren’t good coaches.

As far as Bamford goes the guy has been an absolute disaster. Of the 4 most important sports at UMass (MBB, FB, Hockey and WBB) he’s 1 for 4. He’s had to bring in Paul Cormier and Jimmy Reid to try and teach McCall and Bell how to coach and if it wasn’t for Bergeron everyone would be calling for the end of the McCall Era and Verdi hasn’t done anything either. So at this point going on 6 years Bamford has had 2 years of success with the 3rd most important sport in the department, if that’s the standard there should be a John McCutcheon statue on campus
That all seems pretty accurate, but did you expect to see a better team on the field than you saw against GaSo? The program is such a mess, the only feasible options are to give Bell a few more years or get rid of football. Personally I'd like to see a functional football program, so I'll have 0 expectations and hope Bell pulls something together with all "his recruits" soon (within the next 2 years).

As for Bamford, he does seem to be swayed by the "young up-and-comer" like Bell and McCall, who so far have not been successful. Hard to dismiss Carvel though. And I don't follow WBB closely, but aren't they heading in the right direction?

UMass has never been a powerhouse (or even relevant besides MBB for 7 years) on the national level in big sports, can't expect Bamford to change that. If MBB doesn't take the leap we all expect, and football looks the same in 2 years, then he should get fired then.

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by eldonabe » Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:19 am

Worcester_To_Amherst wrote: Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:36 am That all seems pretty accurate, but did you expect to see a better team on the field than you saw against GaSo? The program is such a mess, the only feasible options are to give Bell a few more years or get rid of football. Personally I'd like to see a functional football program, so I'll have 0 expectations and hope Bell pulls something together with all "his recruits" soon (within the next 2 years).

As for Bamford, he does seem to be swayed by the "young up-and-comer" like Bell and McCall, who so far have not been successful. Hard to dismiss Carvel though. And I don't follow WBB closely, but aren't they heading in the right direction?

UMass has never been a powerhouse (or even relevant besides MBB for 7 years) on the national level in big sports, can't expect Bamford to change that. If MBB doesn't take the leap we all expect, and football looks the same in 2 years, then he should get fired then.
Young-up-and-comer is also code for "coach on a budget" and/or "on the cheap". The DK contract was a major burn. They tried to pay some respectable money to a coach, they just picked the wrong guy and now I am sure they are gun-shy to pay someone real good money out of the gate.

Frankly, from where the school is coming from (on the field performance) there are not many big dollar coaches knocking on their door either. This will continue to be a revolving door until the right guy establishes some upward movement. Then Umass has to pay them to keep them here or step up the pay for the next guy to pick up from there and keep it going.

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by Kelz626 » Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:58 am

Worcester_To_Amherst wrote: Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:36 am
Kelz626 wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:22 pm
Worcester_To_Amherst wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:30 am Not sure what people expected in this game? I'd venture to guess that last season's team was one of the worst D1 teams to ever play. They had guys the size of OLB playing DT.

This year's team at least looked the part physically. The defense got gashed, and GaSo could have put up a lot more points, but it was definitely a better defense than last year's team.

Offense was extremely disappointing, especially on the play calling front. No excuses for Bell on that one, he needs to be 100% better when it comes to setting up the offense for success.

Back to my original statement, what did people expect from this game? It seems like for some of us, the point of watching the game is to wait for the inevitable blow-out then go cry about the HC/AD/drop the program, etc.

The state of the program is pathetic and it's going to take incremental improvement on a yearly basis to get back to a semi-respectable place. It looks like they're at least starting to build a roster of legit D1 players. Bell and Bamford can't go back and fix the mistakes of the past 10 years. They need to stop making the mistakes they've been responsible for over the past few years and move forward and improve the team. Bell isn't going anywhere until at least 2022. He was brought in to recruit a legit team and he seems to be heading in that direction. He needs to get a LOT better with his gameday coaching.

It's good to see people posting and that people still care about the program, because they probably don't deserve any support at this point, but this is the situation we're in. I think most people want a football program. The people in charge need to make it happen.
There are a dozen examples of things that carried over from last year that were easily correctable and have been seemingly ignored by Bell. For instance better personnel decisions, for a 2nd straight year Bell gives the starting QB job to a SR who shouldn’t see the field. What is the purpose of this? Bell preaches “future” and starts a guy that can’t play beyond 2021. And again he’s starting a guy who doesn’t have anywhere near starting talent.

Play calling was a disaster last year yet here is Mirando still calling plays and doing a shitty job of it. Size was an issue last year yet we have size now and those guys are getting blown up on every play. We have 12 men on the field coming out of a media timeout. No one can wrap up and tackle, guys can’t keep contain on the QB. There was a lot the coaching staff could’ve done to prevent a total blowout but they aren’t good coaches.

As far as Bamford goes the guy has been an absolute disaster. Of the 4 most important sports at UMass (MBB, FB, Hockey and WBB) he’s 1 for 4. He’s had to bring in Paul Cormier and Jimmy Reid to try and teach McCall and Bell how to coach and if it wasn’t for Bergeron everyone would be calling for the end of the McCall Era and Verdi hasn’t done anything either. So at this point going on 6 years Bamford has had 2 years of success with the 3rd most important sport in the department, if that’s the standard there should be a John McCutcheon statue on campus
That all seems pretty accurate, but did you expect to see a better team on the field than you saw against GaSo? The program is such a mess, the only feasible options are to give Bell a few more years or get rid of football. Personally I'd like to see a functional football program, so I'll have 0 expectations and hope Bell pulls something together with all "his recruits" soon (within the next 2 years).

As for Bamford, he does seem to be swayed by the "young up-and-comer" like Bell and McCall, who so far have not been successful. Hard to dismiss Carvel though. And I don't follow WBB closely, but aren't they heading in the right direction?

UMass has never been a powerhouse (or even relevant besides MBB for 7 years) on the national level in big sports, can't expect Bamford to change that. If MBB doesn't take the leap we all expect, and football looks the same in 2 years, then he should get fired then.
I don’t think it needs to be Bell or no program at all, we just need the right head coach. There are tons of examples of programs in the basement that turned their programs around in 2-3 seasons. What Bell is trying to do is something that frankly I can’t see him accomplishing. Bell is not a good coach, he’s, supposedly a good recruiter and he’s surrounded himself with a bunch of inexperienced coaches who had much less experience then even he had and with much less responsibility. Most every coach he brought in is a Grad Assistant or an assistant position coach now filling coordinator and position coach spots.

Bamford’s biggest fault in this hire is much like his biggest fault running this department, it’s all hype, Twitter promo, catch phrases and no substance. Mike over at FightMassachusetts said Bamford opted for a strong recruiter but the problem with football is a well-coached team with a good game plan beats talent 99 of 100 times. If Bell is the strong recruiter then his coordinators need to be the X’s and O’s guys but that’s not who he brought in. At the end of the day whether his guys are FR and SOPH a couple years from now when they’re JR and SR this will be an undisciplined, non-fundamentally sound, sloppy team with no game plan.

Unless they get some real assistant coaches in here then Bell needs to go or have his hand forced much like McCall and seeing as Mirando was atrocious calling plays last year and got promoted to offensive coordinator it doesn’t seem Bell wants to reevaluate his coaches

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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by econalum » Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:12 pm

Another factor on costs would be GASO has lower costs of attendance and recruits within the state for a lot of its roster, MASS has higher costs of attendance and recruits many OOS students at that high OOS price tag.
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Re: Game 1A: Georgia Southern

Post by dennisdent » Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:03 pm

Kelz626 wrote: Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:58 am
Worcester_To_Amherst wrote: Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:36 am
Kelz626 wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:22 pm

There are a dozen examples of things that carried over from last year that were easily correctable and have been seemingly ignored by Bell. For instance better personnel decisions, for a 2nd straight year Bell gives the starting QB job to a SR who shouldn’t see the field. What is the purpose of this? Bell preaches “future” and starts a guy that can’t play beyond 2021. And again he’s starting a guy who doesn’t have anywhere near starting talent.

Play calling was a disaster last year yet here is Mirando still calling plays and doing a shitty job of it. Size was an issue last year yet we have size now and those guys are getting blown up on every play. We have 12 men on the field coming out of a media timeout. No one can wrap up and tackle, guys can’t keep contain on the QB. There was a lot the coaching staff could’ve done to prevent a total blowout but they aren’t good coaches.

As far as Bamford goes the guy has been an absolute disaster. Of the 4 most important sports at UMass (MBB, FB, Hockey and WBB) he’s 1 for 4. He’s had to bring in Paul Cormier and Jimmy Reid to try and teach McCall and Bell how to coach and if it wasn’t for Bergeron everyone would be calling for the end of the McCall Era and Verdi hasn’t done anything either. So at this point going on 6 years Bamford has had 2 years of success with the 3rd most important sport in the department, if that’s the standard there should be a John McCutcheon statue on campus
That all seems pretty accurate, but did you expect to see a better team on the field than you saw against GaSo? The program is such a mess, the only feasible options are to give Bell a few more years or get rid of football. Personally I'd like to see a functional football program, so I'll have 0 expectations and hope Bell pulls something together with all "his recruits" soon (within the next 2 years).

As for Bamford, he does seem to be swayed by the "young up-and-comer" like Bell and McCall, who so far have not been successful. Hard to dismiss Carvel though. And I don't follow WBB closely, but aren't they heading in the right direction?

UMass has never been a powerhouse (or even relevant besides MBB for 7 years) on the national level in big sports, can't expect Bamford to change that. If MBB doesn't take the leap we all expect, and football looks the same in 2 years, then he should get fired then.
I don’t think it needs to be Bell or no program at all, we just need the right head coach. There are tons of examples of programs in the basement that turned their programs around in 2-3 seasons. What Bell is trying to do is something that frankly I can’t see him accomplishing. Bell is not a good coach, he’s, supposedly a good recruiter and he’s surrounded himself with a bunch of inexperienced coaches who had much less experience then even he had and with much less responsibility. Most every coach he brought in is a Grad Assistant or an assistant position coach now filling coordinator and position coach spots.

Bamford’s biggest fault in this hire is much like his biggest fault running this department, it’s all hype, Twitter promo, catch phrases and no substance. Mike over at FightMassachusetts said Bamford opted for a strong recruiter but the problem with football is a well-coached team with a good game plan beats talent 99 of 100 times. If Bell is the strong recruiter then his coordinators need to be the X’s and O’s guys but that’s not who he brought in. At the end of the day whether his guys are FR and SOPH a couple years from now when they’re JR and SR this will be an undisciplined, non-fundamentally sound, sloppy team with no game plan.

Unless they get some real assistant coaches in here then Bell needs to go or have his hand forced much like McCall and seeing as Mirando was atrocious calling plays last year and got promoted to offensive coordinator it doesn’t seem Bell wants to reevaluate his coaches
Agree with your post 100%!

I remember being at the UMass/Western Michigan game when WMU was terrible in PJ Fleck's first season. I watched Fleck (who was the youngest head coach I think in FBS at the time) during warm ups and the game and he was an animal--involved in everything going on. It was the same way he played at NIU--wild man. He went from 1-12 to 8-5 in two seasons with all young players and transfers. Bell on the other hand stays off to the side and acts like a bench warmer, walk-on in warmups and the game. He would rather play with his hair and flex then get fired up and involved. He just isn't really a head coach or leader material. I have many years in the military/corporate world and I've seen Bell's type--empty uniform/suit! I wish I was wrong but pretty sure that I'm not...

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