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YSU Penguin Athletics => YSU Penguin Athletics => Topic started by: ysufan0505 on November 23, 2014, 04:58:28 PM
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This coming today from Football Scoop:
Youngstown State (FCS – OH): Per source, “the board” will meet tomorrow to discuss head coach Eric Wolford’s future with the program. Youngstown finished 7-5 this season, Wolford’s fifth as head coach. They have averaged 7 wins over each of the last four seasons.
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Why tomorrow? Should have met today. A day of a HC search and subsequent recruitment of assistants and players lost.
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Why tomorrow? Should have met today. A day of a HC search and subsequent recruitment of assistants and players lost.
Oh relax. Some are never happy. Ever think not everyone was available being it is a Sunday???
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Why tomorrow? Should have met today. A day of a HC search and subsequent recruitment of assistants and players lost.
Oh relax. Some are never happy. Ever think not everyone was available being it is a Sunday???
That's right. They are government employees.
Seriously, this is a time-sensitive matter as the window for recruitment of talent is narrow. Sometimes when you have an important job you get of yer arse when necessary.
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I imagine that Strollo cannot authorize the buyout by himself, and I also imagine there will be some debate about the whether the expenditure is a good idea given the state of university finances.
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I imagine that Strollo cannot authorize the buyout by himself, and I also imagine there will be some debate about the whether the expenditure is a good idea given the state of university finances.
The expenditure is a good idea if you look at how many people are in the stands during a game.
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No butts in the seats is just like the record - not the fault of the coaching staff.
It is because of:
a. OSU
b. aging fans
c. high school football fans
d. ignorant fans
e. television
f. you name it
g. all of the above
h. a,c and d but not f or g
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WKBN had posted that no decison was made yet on their facebook link..somebody posted that they hoped Dan Rivers wouldnt waste 3 Hrs on something that so few show up at the games. She even spelled Penguins with a q. ...That says it all. Youngstown St as an institution of higher learning Nationally recognized is not thought of highly in the community.
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These guys took care of business on a Sunday. :)
http://www.missouristatebears.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112314aaa.html
Don't overexert yourselves on this one YSU suits .....that's what tomorrows are for......and as far as Slocum goes....whats another year?
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Why tomorrow? Should have met today. A day of a HC search and subsequent recruitment of assistants and players lost.
Do you really think BOT members work on Sundays?
IMO, If Wolf stays on as coach for next year, no BOT meeting is needed since it is in his contract. If contract buyout is needed, approval is necessary by the BOT action in their meeting.
Since BOT plans to meet on Monday, what is that telling you.
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whether he stays or goes, it is not a decision that should be made in haste. be calm and think it through
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Why tomorrow? Should have met today. A day of a HC search and subsequent recruitment of assistants and players lost.
Do you really think BOT members work on Sundays?
IMO, If Wolf stays on as coach for next year, no BOT meeting is needed since it is in his contract. If contract buyout is needed, approval is necessary by the BOT action in their meeting.
Since BOT plans to meet on Monday, what is that telling you.
The BOT, seeing that a 7-4 YSU team was playing at NDSU, could have met preemptively last week and established a contingency plan.....or they could meet on a Sunday. Are they prima donnas and cant work a few hours on a Sunday?
Why can MO St do it and not YSU?
And yes...the writing is on the wall for the Wolf....but that's a separate issue.
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Nation, I think you have given BOT too much credit. They are political appointees. They typically react to situations and strategic planning and critical thinking are not their strength. This group micromanaged and ran the university for the last 5 years. They practically drove the university to the ground. I hope Tressel is allowed to run the university as its president. Otherwise, he will walk away frustrated just like Randy Dunn.
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Nation, I think you have given BOT too much credit. They are political appointees. They typically react to situations and strategic planning and critical thinking are not their strength. This group micromanaged and ran the university for the last 5 years. They practically drove the university to the ground. I hope Tressel is allowed to run the university as its president. Otherwise, he will walk away frustrated just like Randy Dunn.
The thread on this board on a new HC was started Oct 12th. We saw it coming. There were no post-season invites for four years. Were they blindsided by the slaughter in Fargo?
I agree, they could have acted preemptively instead of reactively. That is not being hasty, it is having foresight and vision.
I would have developed a short list by now and already had informal interviews with candidates. I would have announced the termination of Wolford's contract Saturday night, and that formal on-campus interviews would start being scheduled in the near future. I'd give the new HC the valuable time he needs to acclimate and recruit his staff and players....and even recruit the fans back to the Castle...
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I would have developed a short list by now and already had informal interviews with candidates. I would have announced the termination of Wolford's contract Saturday night
Unless Wolford is staying.
a) will finally have his own team - J.B. still from the Heacock era.
b) no longer has to run a conservative offense for a freshman QB - he is/was after all a TRUE freshman
c) won't have to worry about crowd noise hurting defensive play calls
d) can recruit more JUCO players
e) a thru d only - TIC
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This isnt a shock to the BOT... Im sure they were hoping for a different outcome but we would be naive to think this issue hasnt already been discussed. Im sure they have received phone calls, emails and visits from the donors and fans who have seen enough... Saturday, Sunday or Monday not sure makes a difference. Keep in-mind this is a local guy and it needs to be done with integrity and respect. This is a damage control situation in my eyes. This will effect alot of people and must be done with some compassion. The fan base has suffered enough....
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Given the dire finances here, I would not be surprised to see him stay. Attendance did not help the situation for a buyout. He could well be gone but I suspect money may play an issue. After all, he only has one year remaining with the extension. Interesting.
Mo. St waited till their contract was over before pulling the plug. And as I understand, employee negotiations are still problematic and not solved with serious complaints about athletic dept. spending. Could get ugly.
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Im sure you can count on 2 hands and 2 feet who is worth their salary and benefits in the faculty and athletic department combined. Chances are you wont need them all. Lastly, athletics is different in that if you dont perform your gone and should be. Not sure you can say the same about the rest of the blood sucking employees?
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Given the dire finances here, I would not be surprised to see him stay. Attendance did not help the situation for a buyout. He could well be gone but I suspect money may play an issue. After all, he only has one year remaining with the extension. Interesting.
Mo. St waited till their contract was over before pulling the plug. And as I understand, employee negotiations are still problematic and not solved with serious complaints about athletic dept. spending. Could get ugly.
From Scalzo:
"As I reported earlier this year, Wolford's buyout is for $150,000 if YSU goes 7-5. But here's the catch: YSU's buyout would be offset by whatever Wolford makes as an assistant coach next season, assuming he doesn't decide to sit out the season. (That strikes me as very unlikely.) Assuming he gets a job as an offensive line coach at a major program — which strikes me as likely — YSU probably won't owe much of anything."
I'm with Scalzo. He has been coaching for 20 straight years. I doubt he would take a year off if he were canned. He shouldn't have that hard of a time finding a BCS level assistant job.
Also, faculty votes tomorrow on their contract. If you haven't noticed, many faculty unions love to target athletics as wasteful spending. Yet when people say anything negative about their deals, you are harshly criticized. Tenure ring a bell?
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Heacock took the year off after they canned him and they had to pay all of his contract. Dicey situation and I expect money is going to be seriously discussed. Do not think anyone here knows the true financial shape they are in. As I said, interesting
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Cut the assistant coaches salaries and they will be no worse off..... They are all 1 year contracts essentially and they either move-on or get fired..... Let them prove themselves... Thats a NEW idea!!!
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From Joe Scalzo's twitter tonight....
"Monday could be an interesting day for YSU football. I'm hearing YSU wants to make a change but Wolford's buyout might be too high."
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Maybe the delay will give them time to have someone donate the $ for the ADs mistakes..... Or it could be lip service until the faculty signs its contract?
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Money is definitely an issue, and here are a few things to consider.
1 - The Tressel and Watson families alone can afford the $150,000 buyout. The Youngstown area has enough people doing well enough financially, who support YSU money wise, for the $150,000 to be raised through donations. Not too mention people no longer living in Ytown area, but who still support the University and Athletic Dept with money.... Cafaro, York's, Eddie Jr, Covelli, Muransky, Jeff Wilkins, Ron Jaworski are just a few names that come to mind. Heck, start a campaign on "kickstarter" or some other site, and those of us who are not the "money people" would likely donate several thousand $$$ combined. I'd pledge $25 to the "Fire Wolford Campaign".
2 - YSU is losing fans left and right. People who buy tickets, pay for concessions at games, pay to park. If you have a Facebook account, check out the comments on the YSU Football Alumni page. I have been to the page a few times in the past, and the overwhelming consensus was former players do not like Wolford. I've also read people post here on this board if Wolford is kept on, they will not attend any more games. And, there was last weeks article by Scalzo, where he mentioned receiving multiple e-mails and comments from people who say they have stopped going to games, and will not return again until Wolford is replaced.
3 - As far as I'm concerned, the so called "weenie games and the "money game" do not count in Wolf's record. The exception is the win in 2012 at PITT. So, here is the record over the past 5 years, with this method:
2010... 1-7
2011... 4-4
2012... 5-4
2013 ... 5-3
2014... 4-4
OVERALL: 19-23
4 - Wolford has had 5 years. He did not inherit a program that was a perennial playoff participant like Heacock, but he also did not inherit a program like Indiana State. 5 years is plenty of time. Wolford has changed assistant coaches several times. Players have come and gone. Yet, the team keeps making the same mistakes year after year after year. Yes, players play the game, but there are obviously things being done that result in the kind of mistakes that keep a team from going to the playoffs, and team from finding a way each of the past 4 years to miss the playoffs by one game. People have been saying "next year is the year" since at least 2011. Well, 12, 13 and 14 were NOT "the year", so why expect 15 to be "the year with Wolford as HC?". THE MVFC has gotten stronger with the addition of NDSU and SDSU. But, only NDSU has been dominant, and that is just these past 4 seasons. Heacock was 2-0 against NDSU. Also, to their credit, Indy State has vastly improved with their 2 most recent HC's. Other programs now appear to be doing what is needed to raise their level of play. NDSU did not waltz through the MVFC this season. They beat WIU 17-10, by scoring 14pts in the 4th qtr. Lost 23-3 at UNI. Trailed SDSU 10-6 at halftime. Early in the 3rd qtr, SIU only trailed 17-10. Then, YSU, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, went into the Fargo Dome and was never in the game. 31-0 before YSU finally scored with about 5 minutes left in 3rd qtr. Worse, it was obvious the game was over after the 1st qtr in terms of which team was going to win.
5 - While it is true most FCS football schools lose money when making the playoffs, these schools also get 3+ hours of advertising, now that all playoff games are at the very least on ESPN3. Also, while the NCAA gets the ticket revenue from playoff games, the team hosting gets to keep money from parking, concessions, souvenir sales. And, when hosting, that is yet another opportunity for a school with an on-campus stadium to get people to the campus, who otherwise may not go to said campus
6 - If the YSU athletic department can come up with the money to host basketball games in the CBI or CIT, then they can find a way to come up with the money to pay the $150,000 buyout.
7 - As has been pointed out, Missouri State fired their coach, and that is a "basketball school" in terms of the primary sport. YSU is supposedly a "football school".
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I thought I saw it mentioned that the $150 k buyout only applies if he doesn't find a position that pays his current salary or more. YSU would be on the hook for the difference. Wolford has a lot of talent in the recruiting area and I'm sure that there are a lot of programs that would want him for more than he's making here. I think he really wants to be a head coach and he has gotten better every year and his teams have gotten better every year (neends to fire Montgomery and ditch his stupic offense) needs to find a better defensive coordinator and move Jamie Bryant back to special teams where he made a tremendous impact. Needs to keep the DL coach ando fire the lb and secondary coaches. Needs to keep the OL coach and RB coach and TE coaches. Then he may get better. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over without change. Either YSU has to make a change or Wolford has to make a change. Either way it is what we need. Wolford runs a good program but may need to add to thingo in the community too. He also need to light a fire under their assets and get them to play inspired. I can't say that I've seven that but maybe it is the messed up defensive philosophy of damage control that we use vs creating damage. I don't think the risk is high for YSU cost wise. The real question is do you keep him? He's got a lot of young talent on this team. Needs to evaluate physical conditioning andand add depth. Kids looked tired at the end of the year. What is up with that? Hands on hipsome after first series against NDSU. Watch the game again on ESPN 3 replay if you don't believe me.
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A lot of you keep claiming that he's (Wolford) gotten better in his tenure. Where? Doing what? I'm sorry, but he hasn't gotten any better, his teams have not gotten better. They continually get worse as the season goes on. In each of the last 3 years (2 November's/1 October), where they literally laid eggs in games that could have allowed this program to jump up in stature. And get him that NEEDED signature win for this fanbase to rally around him and the team. Remember, he's been here for 5 YEARS. Same lack of preparation, same lack of adjusting during a game, same blame game playing after every loss, same horrible clock management, etc, etc.
HE NEEDS TO BE REPLACED!!!
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If YSU could not afford to buy-out Wolford's last year of his contract, than that clause never should have been entered in the contract. You never enter a contract that you cannot fulfill, and if that is what YSU did, than every contract of every type is suspect.
I like Wolford. He has had impressive wins in Fargo against the eventual national champs, Pitt, UNI, and this year...SDSU on the road. His record, except for this year in a highly upgraded MVFC, has improved every year. It is not his fault that YSU is in the SEC of the FCS, and I assure you that YSU would have a better record in the CAA or OVC...or even MAC. A playoff worthy record. And yes, in 2013 the 8-4 Penguins were ranked higher in the SRS than Samford, and were totally screwed by the playoff committee.
However.....the expectation is playoffs and even championships at YSU. IMO, that is a non-negotiable condition of employment.
My concern is that the same person who extended Heacock's contract, hired the Wolf, Hill, and Martin.....will have a hand in picking the new HC. I am somewhat reassured that JT may be involved....but as I mentioned in other posts, a full overhaul of the athletic department is in order. Mediocrity is for the Kents and Akrons of the world.
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Funny how some people talk about moving up to the MAC, or other conferences and doing this.. We can't even afford to buy out our HC so he can pack his bags. That's how bad the financial situation is currently at YSU.
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Jim Tressel raised $300,000 in private money in a week to hire a student recruitment firm. Finding the money to buy out Wolford is not a problem. Looking at this bad situation objectively and without emotion, I come up with two questions:
First, can the university expect to sell tickets to casual fans and even disgruntled loyal fans next season if Wolford is retained? No.
Second, can the football program afford to allow an obvious lame duck coach to recruit one more class and coach one more season? No.
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LOL !
I gave up buying Penguin Club tickets because of Strollo. Not Wolf. The problems here are far greater than the FB coach. But, not to defend Wolf, but I get the impression people think firing Wolf will get a good program here next year with a new coach. ;D
I'll share more later after they decide what they are going to do.
BTW, how much did they raise to buyout Heacock who sat on his butt for a year on their $$$$$$$$$$$$$ ? ;D
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If they fire him they better have someone better standing by. I'm sure Tress's connection will help greatly but why rush just because we didnt get into the playoffs. Thats nothing new.
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Update from the Jambar twitter account:
"The Jambar @TheJambar · 40m 40 minutes ago
The YSU Board of Trustees will not meet today to discuss head football coach Eric Wolford's future with the team."
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As I suspected
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Joe Scalzo @JoeScalzo1 · 15m 15 minutes ago
"YSU spokesman said no announcement planned today re: Wolford. University's main focus today is on faculty contract vote."
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Maybe exploring funding the pay out prior to meeting? Although I'd like to think this all would've been sorted out prior to the NDSU loss.
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Wolford is done. My guess they wait til tomorrow, didn't want to overshadow the new contract signed today by faculty.
18-22 in the conference, no playoff berth in 5 years, and program has become irrelevant in our community. He has no shot to survive.
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If they fire him they better have someone better standing by. I'm sure Tress's connection will help greatly but why rush just because we didnt get into the playoffs. Thats nothing new.
Wouldn't be hard to find... Fired someone better to hire him :'(
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VMI coach gone. Looks like he really sucked.
http://www.vmikeydets.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209780310&DB_OEM_ID=9800
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From very reliable source...he's done. Will announce tomorrow not to overshadow contract with staff.
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BigRed....I could not have said it BETTER. THANKS
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From very reliable source...he's done. Will announce tomorrow not to overshadow contract with staff.
I believe it. I don't see why they would need another day if his job were safe.
The BOT prioritizing this Union vote over the job of Wolford is clearly the right move and is a no brainer. Kudos.
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From very reliable source...he's done. Will announce tomorrow not to overshadow contract with staff.
+1
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He has been fired:
@McMurphyESPN: Eric Wolford fired at Youngstown State, source told @ESPN
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Well, if it is true that Wolf is gone there is still one more thing to do FIRE STROLLO
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Well, if it is true that Wolf is gone there is still one more thing to do FIRE STROLLO
Six conference titles dating back to last school year. Great facilities for our level. Excellent manager of our tax dollars. He is going nowhere.