Post by unafied on Jan 28, 2021 11:55:47 GMT -6
With the ASUN moving towards being its own football league, I know I'm excited, and I think most UNA fans are. I would much rather play JSU/UCA/EKU on a yearly basis than any of the Big South schools. No offense to them, they just don't move the needle for me.
I don't want to start this thread to just bitch about the football program. We are still "in transition", so have had some handcuffs the past few years. And yet, we've been competitive in almost every game we've played, except for just a few (Montana, the first Campbell game, we even kept NDSU close for a half).
However, as excited as I am to be bringing in these new teams, I'm concerned that we are going into our playoff-eligible years in a conference with some pretty good programs. Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, and Central Arkansas all made the playoffs in 2019. All of them have had good teams now for several years running. All of them have better facilities than we do (at least as far as from what I can see in pictures on the internet, which admittedly may be misleading). Eastern Kentucky hasn't been a playoff team lately, but they have a history of success with two FCS national championships years ago. Their stadium isn't much more impressive than Braly, but EKU is a pretty campus and is just a few miles down the interstate from a booming metro area (Lexington).
We have some tough competition.
With the transfer portal a huge thing now, it's hard to say who we'll even have on our team from year to year. We have the potential to plug holes quickly. So I'm not saying we'd finish last if the season started tomorrow. I assume we'll be in the Big South at least one more year, and we are ahead of some teams there. We should win the games in the fall.
So, what do you think are our most pressing needs as a program? What do we need to win this conference in the next few years?
I apologize for the length. I'm just excited, and at the same time nervous. I don't think it's exaggerating too much to say this may be the most important time in our history. We either make the right moves and become a perennial Top-25 team, or we make the wrong ones and potentially get passed for a long time to come.
I don't want to start this thread to just bitch about the football program. We are still "in transition", so have had some handcuffs the past few years. And yet, we've been competitive in almost every game we've played, except for just a few (Montana, the first Campbell game, we even kept NDSU close for a half).
However, as excited as I am to be bringing in these new teams, I'm concerned that we are going into our playoff-eligible years in a conference with some pretty good programs. Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, and Central Arkansas all made the playoffs in 2019. All of them have had good teams now for several years running. All of them have better facilities than we do (at least as far as from what I can see in pictures on the internet, which admittedly may be misleading). Eastern Kentucky hasn't been a playoff team lately, but they have a history of success with two FCS national championships years ago. Their stadium isn't much more impressive than Braly, but EKU is a pretty campus and is just a few miles down the interstate from a booming metro area (Lexington).
We have some tough competition.
With the transfer portal a huge thing now, it's hard to say who we'll even have on our team from year to year. We have the potential to plug holes quickly. So I'm not saying we'd finish last if the season started tomorrow. I assume we'll be in the Big South at least one more year, and we are ahead of some teams there. We should win the games in the fall.
So, what do you think are our most pressing needs as a program? What do we need to win this conference in the next few years?
- Coaching: I still don't know where I stand on Willis. He seems to be a great guy, and like I said above, we have been a competitive team. Can he take us to the next level? First I'd really like to see a team that is more disciplined, one that doesn't commit 2 or 3 personal fouls per game. I'd also like to see more balanced offensive production. My biggest gripe has been our lack of a running game for seemingly two decades now, other than perhaps the years we had Lamonte Thompson. Can we win a game against a team that is good at defending the pass? We need to be able to say "yes".
- Stadium: We've all discussed the problems here. Braly was great 20 years ago, but has barely been updated since. It is not up to FCS quality other than the capacity. I fully understand that COVID may impact the budget for a new stadium. I realize things may be in motion in the background. But can we get an update please? They tease us with all of this talk, and illustrations, and then go quiet for a year and a half. If we need to be raising money, shouldn't they be letting us know? And as I've argued on here recently, if the new stadium is more than five years away, PLEASE put some money into upgrading Braly. The scoreboard and press box are embarrassments, the paint is chipping all over the place, and the lights shooting up through the visitors' bleachers has bothered me for 25 years. That doesn't even address the parking situation, which the City of Florence basically laughed in our faces and made worse. We can't be a championship team playing in Braly as it is, IMO.
- Other: An indoor practice facility might be a pipe dream, but it would certainly impress recruits. I don't know how many times I've seen August practice video and felt bad for the guys out there in that brutal heat. What if we forgot a new stadium and just updated Braly and built a practice facility? I'm not so sure that wouldn't be a better solution. Another issue is fan support. Can we make it up to averaging over 10k per game again? 12k? What will it take? Will a better schedule and an improved stadium help with that? Is there SOME WAY we can get the fans engaged, so that they are actually agreeable to making noise that is louder than "golf clap"? Will more interesting opponents help with that as well?
I apologize for the length. I'm just excited, and at the same time nervous. I don't think it's exaggerating too much to say this may be the most important time in our history. We either make the right moves and become a perennial Top-25 team, or we make the wrong ones and potentially get passed for a long time to come.