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Post by brandon on Dec 1, 2021 8:55:54 GMT -6
This program is ruining itself. Willis has to be gone next year, right? How are you supposed to recruit any offensive guys without o line coach, OC, QB coach, and your 3 most experienced guys are defensive minded!? I disagree about this one... I witnessed first hand with these coaches (and one more frankly) at certain functions, acting like they are in high school. It's not a good look for the players or the supporters of the program to watch a few coaches ack like they did in public while the head coach is trying to do his job. This was the only real problem I had with Willis in the past, not putting his foot down with his assistant coaches. Looks like he is doing that now. I am glad he is. It was either bad enough he don't care if it sets them back in recruiting or he already has coaches waiting (Chip)...
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Post by unaman on Dec 1, 2021 9:35:11 GMT -6
Glad Willis isn’t afraid to make decisions. Listen the offensive miscues kept this team from winning several games this year. The defense wasn’t fumbling the ball, or throwing interceptions for scores. I watched coach Willis in his interviews with Ben, every week he would make known his frustration over the offense doing the same dumb mistakes without improvement. Willis made the right decision, Ellis and Bunches on offense are still there to recruit. Coach Willis is an excellent recruiter, he loves to recruit and has a passion for it. We can’t want those coaches to be gone all year and then be upset when those coaches are gone. I imagine there are a couple of coordinators he has his eye on. The oline coach change is very exciting. We have underperformed at oline for years now. If you aren’t excited about these moves, you need to stop and evaluate the past season. The losses happened due to those coaches responsibilities. Offense turnovers and linebackers were just out of position way too often. We didn’t make any splash plays from linebacker position. How? I am excited to see what the spring will look like this year. Playoffs are bust. Didn't Willis hire these guys? So hiring them was the wrong decision, and that is also on Willis for putting himself in this situation?
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Post by unaman on Dec 1, 2021 10:18:17 GMT -6
This program is ruining itself. Willis has to be gone next year, right? How are you supposed to recruit any offensive guys without o line coach, OC, QB coach, and your 3 most experienced guys are defensive minded!? I disagree about this one... I witnessed first hand with these coaches (and one more frankly) at certain functions, acting like they are in high school. It's not a good look for the players or the supporters of the program to watch a few coaches ack like they did in public while the head coach is trying to do his job. This was the only real problem I had with Willis in the past, not putting his foot down with his assistant coaches. Looks like he is doing that now. I am glad he is. It was either bad enough he don't care if it sets them back in recruiting or he already has coaches waiting (Chip)... Chip would have to make more than the HC to come back and be OC for UNA. Willis would also have people wanting Chip to be the HC over him. He would be foolish to make that move. Also, I know the offense had its problems, but defense also didn't play well either, and it wasn't just LB play that struggled. Gave up 5 TD's in second half against SELA (1 was a 99 yard drive), 4 straight TD drives to Campbell, last place in Total Defense in Big South games. It's also not good for your HC to blame everything else but himself. Countless times, he puts the blame on players, other coaches that HE hired, facilities, and administration, but it is never Willis's fault.
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Post by unafied on Dec 1, 2021 10:24:59 GMT -6
I think the whole staff shares blame for this past season. But if you aren't going to fire everyone, I guess you have to pick the worst offenders.
The early signing day makes this even more difficult. You either fire guys now, and hope you don't lose any recruits that were tied to the outgoing coaches, or you go ahead and sign kids knowing you'll be firing the coaches later. That's not fair to the kids and to the coaches you're letting go. Kinda like the transfer portal, it just makes this whole cat-and-mouse game even tougher.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Dec 1, 2021 10:50:56 GMT -6
Glad Willis isn’t afraid to make decisions. Listen the offensive miscues kept this team from winning several games this year. The defense wasn’t fumbling the ball, or throwing interceptions for scores. I watched coach Willis in his interviews with Ben, every week he would make known his frustration over the offense doing the same dumb mistakes without improvement. Willis made the right decision, Ellis and Bunches on offense are still there to recruit. Coach Willis is an excellent recruiter, he loves to recruit and has a passion for it. We can’t want those coaches to be gone all year and then be upset when those coaches are gone. I imagine there are a couple of coordinators he has his eye on. The oline coach change is very exciting. We have underperformed at oline for years now. If you aren’t excited about these moves, you need to stop and evaluate the past season. The losses happened due to those coaches responsibilities. Offense turnovers and linebackers were just out of position way too often. We didn’t make any splash plays from linebacker position. How? I am excited to see what the spring will look like this year. Playoffs are bust. Didn't Willis hire these guys? So hiring them was the wrong decision, and that is also on Willis for putting himself in this situation? Hired all could get to come to a program in transition. We are different now, lot of things will be different in a good way.
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Post by unalions on Dec 1, 2021 12:03:28 GMT -6
This move wasn’t even viewed as important or interesting enough for Football Scoop to comment on. Lol. Sigh.
In their defense, these guys didn’t have a lot of experience as coaches before they joined the UNA staff. Poe played for Wallace and Hall at UWA before transferring to UNA to play when Wallace returned. He joined the staff after he graduated. Rice is a Wayne Co guy with three years on a college staff at UT Martin (where he did not call the plays) as an assistant. Lisko was hired by Wallace and worked with the D line when the Lions went to the D2 title game. He was part of that (still) weird move to change Campbell from offense to defense.
Do we even have the budget to hire experienced assistants?
To me, the problem is at the top.
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Post by RoaringlikeaLion on Dec 1, 2021 20:26:56 GMT -6
Glad Willis isn’t afraid to make decisions. Listen the offensive miscues kept this team from winning several games this year. The defense wasn’t fumbling the ball, or throwing interceptions for scores. I watched coach Willis in his interviews with Ben, every week he would make known his frustration over the offense doing the same dumb mistakes without improvement. Willis made the right decision, Ellis and Bunches on offense are still there to recruit. Coach Willis is an excellent recruiter, he loves to recruit and has a passion for it. We can’t want those coaches to be gone all year and then be upset when those coaches are gone. I imagine there are a couple of coordinators he has his eye on. The oline coach change is very exciting. We have underperformed at oline for years now. If you aren’t excited about these moves, you need to stop and evaluate the past season. The losses happened due to those coaches responsibilities. Offense turnovers and linebackers were just out of position way too often. We didn’t make any splash plays from linebacker position. How? I am excited to see what the spring will look like this year. Playoffs are bust. loves recruiting where? Has a passion where? The guy can’t even keep his dynamic receiving core in tact. Hall is the only one left. Luckily Kenebrew is there but damn man
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Post by roaringsince96 on Dec 1, 2021 21:07:38 GMT -6
Boykin has a chance to play at FBS level…understand it. Broderic Martin is part of a championship at Western Kentucky…get why he left. We will lose really good players every year. We are not any different than any other D1 program. Ohio State lost their best receiver to Alabama. Georgia lost Fields to Ohio State. The portal created this wonderful college free agency without strings. Wallace Cowins Jr. and KJ Smith stayed and are great ambassadors for our program. Big transfers we got here even in the transition. We had a shot at some big time 1 year players last year, but the transition killed our shot. Coach Willis has brought in some talent in these lean years. Now can he hire the upcoming offensive coordinator, offensive line coach, and linebacker coach to mesh with our current staff? We will see. Next year will be the first true year for coach Willis. Apples to apples, let’s see what he can do. We also hopefully have an athletic director capable of providing support to our athletic programs in terms of vision and implementation.
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Post by unafied on Dec 2, 2021 7:18:20 GMT -6
Without knowing kids personally, it's just hard to know what their motivation is. If the transfer after sitting the bench for a few seasons, I get that. Everyone wants to play. Someone like Boykin? The only thing I can imagine is that he thinks he has a shot at the league, and he wants to go play somewhere with more "visibility". I'd argue that the league will find you regardless, but still. Or maybe it's just the thought of "hey, I have one chance to play major college football in front of 70,000 fans, I've got to take this".
That's why the portal is so maddening. I WANT to be happy for the kids. But for the fans? It stinks. Yeah, we might pull up some guys from D2 that want to play on a slightly bigger stage. Might find some disgruntled guys from other FCS teams. Might find a guy from FBS that wants more playing time. Regardless, every time we have a player here that is a standout, there will be a nagging thought in the back of my mind that he'll look for greener pastures once the season is over. I don't think it will always be a reflection on UNA or the coaching staff, I think it will just be the reality of playing in an FCS conference instead of the SEC.
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Post by unaman on Dec 2, 2021 9:53:20 GMT -6
Without knowing kids personally, it's just hard to know what their motivation is. If the transfer after sitting the bench for a few seasons, I get that. Everyone wants to play. Someone like Boykin? The only thing I can imagine is that he thinks he has a shot at the league, and he wants to go play somewhere with more "visibility". I'd argue that the league will find you regardless, but still. Or maybe it's just the thought of "hey, I have one chance to play major college football in front of 70,000 fans, I've got to take this". That's why the portal is so maddening. I WANT to be happy for the kids. But for the fans? It stinks. Yeah, we might pull up some guys from D2 that want to play on a slightly bigger stage. Might find some disgruntled guys from other FCS teams. Might find a guy from FBS that wants more playing time. Regardless, every time we have a player here that is a standout, there will be a nagging thought in the back of my mind that he'll look for greener pastures once the season is over. I don't think it will always be a reflection on UNA or the coaching staff, I think it will just be the reality of playing in an FCS conference instead of the SEC. Based on TD article, Boykin has a kid and wants to move closer to home (Birmingham). NCAA did not want to do the transfer or NIL, but they were pushed back so hard on it. It has opened up "Pandora's Box," and the NCAA has basically said y'all wanted this, Universities will have to handle it.
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Post by unafied on Dec 2, 2021 10:04:28 GMT -6
Without knowing kids personally, it's just hard to know what their motivation is. If the transfer after sitting the bench for a few seasons, I get that. Everyone wants to play. Someone like Boykin? The only thing I can imagine is that he thinks he has a shot at the league, and he wants to go play somewhere with more "visibility". I'd argue that the league will find you regardless, but still. Or maybe it's just the thought of "hey, I have one chance to play major college football in front of 70,000 fans, I've got to take this". That's why the portal is so maddening. I WANT to be happy for the kids. But for the fans? It stinks. Yeah, we might pull up some guys from D2 that want to play on a slightly bigger stage. Might find some disgruntled guys from other FCS teams. Might find a guy from FBS that wants more playing time. Regardless, every time we have a player here that is a standout, there will be a nagging thought in the back of my mind that he'll look for greener pastures once the season is over. I don't think it will always be a reflection on UNA or the coaching staff, I think it will just be the reality of playing in an FCS conference instead of the SEC. Based on TD article, Boykin has a kid and wants to move closer to home (Birmingham). NCAA did not want to do the transfer or NIL, but they were pushed back so hard on it. It has opened up "Pandora's Box," and the NCAA has basically said y'all wanted this, Universities will have to handle it. Good deal, it had slipped my mind that Boykin had said that. Can't be too upset at a guy for that.
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Post by unalions on Dec 2, 2021 15:25:08 GMT -6
Without knowing kids personally, it's just hard to know what their motivation is. If the transfer after sitting the bench for a few seasons, I get that. Everyone wants to play. Someone like Boykin? The only thing I can imagine is that he thinks he has a shot at the league, and he wants to go play somewhere with more "visibility". I'd argue that the league will find you regardless, but still. Or maybe it's just the thought of "hey, I have one chance to play major college football in front of 70,000 fans, I've got to take this". That's why the portal is so maddening. I WANT to be happy for the kids. But for the fans? It stinks. Yeah, we might pull up some guys from D2 that want to play on a slightly bigger stage. Might find some disgruntled guys from other FCS teams. Might find a guy from FBS that wants more playing time. Regardless, every time we have a player here that is a standout, there will be a nagging thought in the back of my mind that he'll look for greener pastures once the season is over. I don't think it will always be a reflection on UNA or the coaching staff, I think it will just be the reality of playing in an FCS conference instead of the SEC. Based on TD article, Boykin has a kid and wants to move closer to home (Birmingham). NCAA did not want to do the transfer or NIL, but they were pushed back so hard on it. It has opened up "Pandora's Box," and the NCAA has basically said y'all wanted this, Universities will have to handle it. UAB would be a good landing spot for him if that’s the case.
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Post by lion1979 on Dec 2, 2021 15:34:21 GMT -6
Dex was impressive this year. He’s the one I really worry that we won’t be able to get back in talent, recruiting wise. Went up and made plays this year that I thought were sure to be intercepted or batted away. I hope he catches on at UAB and does well so that he can be in a position to make a camp in the NFL.
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Post by unalions on Dec 6, 2021 11:18:36 GMT -6
Ryan Aplin is the new OC of GA Southern.
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Post by unalions on Dec 21, 2021 21:56:50 GMT -6
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