UPDATE : 6PM

MCNEESE HAS RELEASED THE NAMES OF THE FOOTBALL SEARCH COMMITTEE

Committee members include:

Ben Bourgeois

Local Businessman and former McNeese Football Player
Bobby Keasler

Former McNeese Head Football Coach

Lester Langley Jr.

Local Businessman

Dr. Jeff Lemke

Faculty Athletic Representative and Professor in the College of Liberal Arts

Kedrick Nicholas

Associate Dean of Students and Former McNeese Football Player
Dr. Michael Snowden

Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Officer
Dennis Stine

Local Businessman
Tanner Stines (Chair)

Associate Athletic Director

NOVEMBER 30 FRIDAY

MCNEESE BLOWN OUT AT SMU

My wife and I made our way out to Moody Coliseum on Thursday night in hopes to see an improving McNeese Cowboy team take on a solid SMU ball club. I have to admit the highlight of the night was seeing Mathew  Bonnette and visiting with Cowboy supporters Kenny and Dee.  The rest of the night was pretty much a wash although I was impressed with the renovations at Moody as well as getting to see former president George Bush and Laura Bush sitting on Row 1 with three secret service agents stacked around them.

The Pokes played with SMU for the first 15 minutes of the game, but it was obvious from the opening tip that this was not a good match up. SMU killed the Pokes on the boards which limited any fast break opportunities for McNeese, as well as limited the Pokes to one shot on offense. McNeese still lacks continuity on defense as they allowed way too many back door slams and easy layups. There is just not enough help on the backside of the defense . I doubt if SMU shoots this well from the 3-point line most nights. They made some ridiculous shots that were 3-6 feet behind the arc.

McNeese tried to play some zone, but SMU just drilled the three pointers early in the game. When the Pokes went to man to man, they were taken advantage of with backdoor cuts and good passing. After seeing the Loyola game, I predicted that word would get out that the Pokes are not a good shooting team from the outside, thus they would see mostly zone in conference. Low and behold, SMU switched to a zone after a couple of McNeese drives to the bucket and the rest is history. Turnovers with poor passes trying to penetrate the zone led to many easy outlet passes for slams.

Heath Schroyer fought it for a half by making various substitutions and trying everything in the playbook, but the big lineup was not physical and got pushed out of the way by the tougher inside game of the Ponies. He got frustrated with that performance and kept trying smaller lineups which caused mix-matches at the guard and wing positions. For example, Will Robinson playing the four at 6’4 could not match up with 6’9.

However, I got the impression that McNeese would keep the game within striking distance going into half. The Pokes were down by 14, but their shots were not falling while SMU was hot. After about five minutes of the second half, it appeared Heath had seen enough of his starters and he just cleared the bench. Thus the game got out of hand and ballooned to plus 25 points in the final two minutes.

I don’t think SMU was as good as St.Mary and I know they are not as good as Arizona State, but they played well last night. I am not giving up on the Pokes because I can tell they are a work in process. You cannot play 11 or 12 guys against the good teams, but you can tell he is searching and he is sending a message. At some point, hopefully before January, I think the puzzle will look clearer. However, there is no doubt he must find a couple of classic outside shooters in order to be a more rounded team in 2019-2020.

COACHING SEARCH

Kansas State’s  Bill Snyder will retire today. What a great ride this guy has had at KSU. Texas Tech has hired Utah State coach Matt Wells. I am expecting an announcement out of SFA any day now.

I find the chatter on the McNeese job as very entertaining, but very inaccurate. I don’t know why fans take everything they read on the Internet as facts. I have been following the dialogue of the SFA fans on their forum as to who will get their job. Everyday somebody will list someone new and claim they have inside information. After three months, the most serious posters have come out and said ,”I sure wished we could bug Ryan Ivey’s car and find out whom he is talking to. The SFA administration has not given us one indication of who has applied.”

That is because Ryan Ivey is a professional and realizes that most people that have contacted him have contacted him in good faith that he will not leak their names. I fully understand the situation coaches are in at their respective schools. Do you think someone like Tim Leger wants Billy Napier to find out he is talking with McNeese during the week of his most important game of the year? Napier would say “What, you are not happy here”?. These types of rumors can ruin a relationship with the boss in the coaching world. Maybe it is OK for business people to apply for six or seven jobs every year and the boss just laughs at it, but it is not that way with fans and AD’s of college programs.

Believe me; it also can ruin recruiting if Utah State’s Matt Wells lets the rumors drag on for a month. The correct way is to keep your mouth shut and have “no comment” until an agreement is reached with your new employer. Tell your boss first; then tell your assistants, and finally tell your team.

I can tell you from experience from both applying for jobs and having secret interviews at Burger King, etc. in order to not be seen by other coaches, etc. that most of these Internet rumors are false. There are two things that generally happen. The school with the opening contacts you, or you contact the school with the opening. You can bet you have a much better chance of getting the job if they contact you. My bet is that McNeese is not contacting anyone at this time, but letting the applications pile up on the desk.

I am getting emails that tell me that they know that Joe Blow has been contacted by McNeese. Well, if I call a friend and ask him if he is interested, does that make McNeese as someone who has contacted him? The answer is NO! Does someone’s wife writing a note on a message board and posting a resume make that person a “person of interest.” I think NOT.  I have read all the ridiculous postings at SFA and Texas Tech and other forums and everyone has seen a plane carrying some coach landing in their city. Did you know that Bruce Hemphill was having lunch with R.C. Slocum on Wednesday? Just kidding, but that is the type of stuff that is being repeated on these forums.

David Berry can write all he wants about how McNeese is mishandling this job search, but just because the media cannot find out information does not mean they are mismanaging the situation. In fact, it tells me the opposite. When guys at the Advocate follow every lead they can find and stir up newspaper sales by saying that Joe Aleva and Jimbo Fisher are meeting secretly, or that Tom Herman is close to signing a 5 million dollar deal, it usually kills the interest by those coaches. They do not want to be preparing for a big game and have to answer questions from their bosses and their players, fan base, etc.

I have known and worked with McNeese employees who have been on search committees and on athletic committees. I was right in the middle of three on the athletic committee through about six searches for head football coach, head basketball coach, head track coach, and head baseball coach. I have actually read several resumes and been in discussion with past applicants. So I have witnessed coaches hired through political pressure, and I have seen clean open interview processes in which it was a very close vote on who got the jobs. They always tell you that it was unanimous, but that is only after much discussion like a jury vote. You have to convince the stubborn ones.

So my best guess is that this is a legit open process to find a new coach. I think I would have heard through proper sources if we have a guy targeted and we were offering a certain person. Other than that, I do expect this process to be carried out secretly, and finally 5 applicants will be pulled as having the best resumes and they will be set up with probably Skype interviews. If the committee can get this down to maybe two names, then they bring them in for man to man interviews. I am just guessing how they will handle the final process, but so far they are doing a good job of handling it correctly. When they are good and ready, I am sure the media will be given some names.

Last year I was actually shocked when Billy Napier got the ULL job because the forums and Coach Scoop had targeted someone else. So most of the time the fans do not know. My son is tied to Texas State and he called me two days ago to tell me that Kendal Briles had been offered the job and he was putting together a staff. All this did for Kendal was get him a big raise. Sometimes agents intentionally create competition for their clients as was the case of Jimbo Fisher and Tom Herman. In fact, the agent played LSU against Texas and forced UT to make a decision quicker than anticipated because the agent told them he was hours from signing with LSU for X amount of dollars.

 

BOWLING FOR DOLLARS

Wyoming, Army, BYU, and ULM are four programs waiting to see if there is a spot for them in a bowl game. Unfortunately for ULM, they do not travel well and most bowls are showing little interest. However, all bowls must be filled and we have a round of games this weekend that could add teams or knock them out. If you think this selection process is all on the up and up, think again. I have read that ESPN owns 13 bowls just for the sake of filling time. We have four in the DFW region plus the Final Four semi-final. I did not realize it, but some programs have signed contracts with ESPN that they must find them a bowl because they gave ESPN some TV rights to their games. This is from a site discussing the bowl situation in which BYU is expecting a bowl for a 6-6 record.

“We are in the middle of a multiyear contract with ESPN to provide BYU with bowl games,” BYU Associate Athletic Director for Communications Duff Tittle told The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday. “The agreement is that ESPN will find us a bowl. We were told this summer that we likely wouldn’t find out about the bowl destination until Selection Sunday [Dec. 2].”

NOVEMBER 29 THURSDAY

 

UPDATE: 8:30AM

I previously gave an opinion this morning that Jeff Traylor was my pick for the SFA job. I have researched his salary and found that he is making $370,000 at Arkansas. I doubt that SFA can come close to this salary, I know McNeese cannot. I will eliminate him from the SFA search and see what still remains.

 

POKES VISIT SMU TONIGHT

McNeese basketball is back in action tonight against the SMU Mustangs in historic Moody Coliseum. Moody opened in 1956, the same year as the McNeese Arena. It was the home of the Dallas Mavericks for a season or two and has hosted many concerts over the years including the Rolling Stones in 1969. The original capacity was over 9,000, but a renovation a few years ago chopped out over 2,000 seats to bring the arena down to a cozy 7,000. I have been to games in the old gym, but tonight will be my first in the new Coliseum. It really is just an over-sized gym, but it is a classic.

Older readers may recall the old ABA professional basketball league that players like Dr. J (Julius Erving) got their start. Moody was home to the ABA Dallas Chaparrals. This team played in Dallas from around 1969 to 1974. It was not supported very well so a San Antonio group headed by Red McCombs offered to buy them. They became the San Antonio Gunslingers in 1975 before changing their name to the San Antonio Spurs. This old gym sits right in the middle of campus like the Arena does at McNeese.

This photo is of the grand opening under Coach Larry Brown.

SMU will present a good challenge to compete, but this team is not a Top 20 as shown in this picture. SMU defeated Lamar on Tuesday night by the count of 79-64. SMU has been without Jarrey Foster until this game, so the Stangs should be a little better than in their first six games of the season.

COACHING SCOOP

Texas State did not get Kendall Briles after all. Kendall used Texas State as leverage to get a big raise out of Houston. Texas State immediately offered the job to West Virginia OC  Jake Spavital. Jake was at Texas A&M in 2014 and 2015 and was involved in the mismanagement of quarterbacks that eventually led to three QB’s leaving including OU’s Kyler Murray. Most of the blame went to Kevin Sumlin, but there was some strife between the two in alternating three quarterbacks.

It is ironic that after one year at Arizona, star quarterback Khalil Tate is expected to transfer. Sumlin met with Tate on Tuesday and is trying to keep his quarterback. Insiders say that if Tate can graduate by May, he will go anywhere he wants.

Jake is 33 years old, but another offensive minded coach that programs are searching for. Jake’s dad is the long time high school coach up at  Broken Bow , Oklahoma, and his brother is DB coach at Texas Tech. Look for Zack Spavital to be hired at Texas State as DC.

Paul Johnson has retired from Georgia Tech. Johnson was the coach at Georgia Southern during the “Golden Years” of national title quest. Scott Satterfield of Arkansas  State might be the front runner if Troy’s Neil Brown turns it down. Ken Whisenhunt of the NFL is an ex-Georgia Tech player who could be the guy.

I am coming to the conclusion that Ryan Ivey is not going to get Colby Carthel of Texas A&M-Commerce. I expect Ivey to make an announcement on Friday, or wait to the news cycle settles down on Monday and make a big splash on a slow day. My guess is they will hire Jeff Traylor of Arkansas. Coach Traylor is a legend in East Texas as the mastermind behind the long run of Gilmer High School. Chad Morris hired him at  SMU for his recruiting contacts in East Texas, then took him to Arkansas. This could be a case of Traylor coming back to his roots.

If Traylor is not hired at SFA, I would check him out at McNeese.

Josh Eargle has Texas roots and has ties to Ryan Ivey at Austin Peay. Eargle is the OL coach at Peay.

In reviewing Eargle as a possible McNeese applicant, I ran across a young coach that Eargle thinks the world of. When Eargle left East Texas Baptist, he recommended a 26 year old coach to replace him. Scott Walden stepped up and went 7-3 at East Texas Baptist after Eargle left. Walden was hired at USM two years ago and is now the WR coach at Southern Miss. He is now approaching 29, but appears to be an up and coming coach who will be a huge success. Here is a story on Scott Walden from 2016.

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/d7mypk/the-great-expectations-of-scotty-walden-the-youngest-college-football-head-coach-in-america

It appears that James Madison will be searching for a new coach again after only three years. Everett Withers went 18-7 at JMU, but Texas State liked his NFL background, so they hired him. He was a huge bust. Mike Houston took over at JMU and has gone 37-5 in three years with a national title. Unfortunately, more and more FCS coaches are being looked at during the FCS playoffs. UNC-Charlotte has offered the job to Houston and reports he will take it. Madison plays this week for an opportunity to go to Fargo, North Dakota in the semifinals.

Jeff Brohm is staying at Purdue after being offered the Louisville job. Louisville will now turn to the hottest four names this year. Seth Littrell at UNT may get one of these open jobs, but it seems every job open likes Neal Brown of Troy, Matt Wells of Utah State, and Scott Satterfield of Appy State. It is my guess that UNT will pony-up for Littrell.

LOUISIANA LINEBACKER FLIPS

One of the top high school players in Louisiana flipped on his commitment to Texas A&M last night. U-High 4-star LB Christian Harris notified Nick  Saban he wanted to continue his athletic career at Alabama.

https://t.co/GUmQwTYbzw—
Christian Harris (@Charris_36) November 29, 2018

LATEST VIDEO

This video clearly shows that A&M assistant coach Dameyun Craig was the instigator in the post game fight. Here is the latest video with Craig running around cussing the LSU players and coaches with young Cole Fisher trying to hold him back.

NOVEMBER 28 WEDNESDAY

FOOTBALL COACHING SEARCH CONTINUES

No accurate news on the coaching search, but there were several more coaches released from their contracts. Mike Haywood of Texas Southern was fired on Tuesday for winning only eight games in three years which ended with a 60-14 loss to Prairie View. Doug Ruse of Tulane was let go as well. Ruse is the former offensive coordinator at Sam Houston who put together those great offenses with Willie Fritz. Ruse has previously coached at Northwestern State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern,Western Illinois, Sam Houston, and Tulane.

One hot name on the market is former Sam Houston offensive coordinator Phil Longo. Coach Longo came to Sam after Ruse left with Fritz for GSU. K.C. Keeler hired Longo and the rest is history. Sam Houston led the nation in offense for two straight years which got Longo the OC at Ole Miss . It was stated that Longo had gotten several calls about head coaching positions. I am assuming they are either FCS jobs or mid-major jobs.

I have been thoroughly entertained by the name dropping some of the readers have been sending me through email. It is only my opinion, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that I do not think Bobby Keasler or Kirby Bruchhaus are coming back. Nor do I think R.C. Slocum at age 73 and very involved in the good life in College Station would want to work for less than $200,000. In fact, I bet he does not ever want to coach again.

It is true that Mack Brown worked for Bruce Hemphill at North Carolina, but we fall about $3 million dollars short on our offer. LOL I told one group of fans that if we wanted a guru offensive genius with McNeese ties, I know just the man. He is a LaGrange graduate, a former McNeese quarterback, and a 45 year veteran coach at the NFL level. His name is Don Breaux. Oh, he is also 78 years old.

If we are really going to go all the way with our wishes, I recommend my buddy Greg Davis. Greg was a quarterback at McNeese, played some baseball, coached at Barbe as well as PNG, and been a head coach at Tulane. Greg was with Mack Brown for many years at North Carolina and Texas. He retired two years ago after being the OC at Iowa. Greg is only 66 and married to a LaGrange and McNeese grad.

Of course, I am only having fun. There are tons of coaches who have McNeese ties if you are interested in going up that tree. Robert McFarland played at McNeese and worked his way up the coaching ranks from GA at Notre Dame to OC at various programs. He was also head coach at SFA. He is currently offensive line coach at Louisiana Tech.

My personal opinion is that McNeese will look to hire outside the normal ties. Every AD has a list of names that he has contact with for various sports. I have talked to enough principals over the years to know most have names in their head that have been recommended by other head coaches and principals. If Dr. Burckel is involved, which I think he is, he too would have crossed paths with people who know people. I was offered jobs at seven different high schools in my 20’s. All seven had “political ties” if you want to call it that. In other words, these coaches and principals knew me, or had been recommended by my ex-coaches or principal.

I applied for two big jobs without the contacts and did not get either. So I think we can assume that McNeese has a few names in mind which can speed up the process. This does not mean that a fresh face can’t send in an application that catches the eye of the committee. We are still over 20 days away from Signing Day so there is time to get this done. Hanging on to commitments might be a problem, but the good news is there is still a February signing period. I am not going to cry over losing recruits at this stage because the new guy may have some new contacts.

McNeese football commitment Johnson remains committed to McNeese.

https://www.livingstonparishnews.com/sports/football-live-oak-s-johnson-remains-committed-to-mcneese-plans/article_47402f3a-f19c-11e8-aca3-a33e5dd43a53.html?fbclid=IwAR0AIHTybMg4jPjIEVrDjME22YwGqCq261ATMbO8XiCmAAF9XxzhB8p1T8c

 

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FANS MAY ENJOY SEEING MCNEESE ALUM RILEY DODGE PLAY IN THIS GAME ABOUT 12 YEARS AGO. THE ATTENDANCE WAS MUCH GREATER THAN THE ANNOUNCED ATTENDANCE BECAUSE PEOPLE KEPT COMING IN. TRINITY AND SOUTHLAKE CARROLL PLAY THIS SATURDAY IN A REMATCH AND RILEY WILL BE COACHING.

FANS IN THE HOUSTON AREA MAY WANT TO CHECK OUT NORTHSHORE VS KATY THIS SATURDAY AT RELIANT STADIUM. THESE MAYBE THE TWO BEST 6A TEAMS IN SOUTH TEXAS.

NOVEMBER 27 TUESDAY

ATTENDANCE WOES

I will be doing an article on McNeese attendance after all the smoke clears and we have a new coach. In the meantime, there is enough evidence that it is a national problem. ULM and ULL played for a bowl game as well as a spot in the Sun Belt Championship on a beautiful afternoon in Monroe. Coach V was very happy with the turnout, but having watched the game, I would guess there were probably about 15,000 folks there although the announced figure was 18,167. ULL brought a pretty large group as well as their band.

This picture is earlier in the year, but as you can tell they do not use the upper deck much on either side. The Warhawks drew 13,787 for GSU,13,250 for Homecoming, 15,700 for the big Troy game, and 10,137 for the home opener. The 14,200 average this year was a large increase over the 9,988 average in 2017.

The Wall Street Journal called 2017 the worst in recent history. They even went after ULM for having only 26% of their 2017 total attendance scanned. Thus the Warhawks averaged 2660 tickets scanned per game.

Only 71% of the reported announced attendance actually scanned their ticket to enter the stadium. Taking that into consideration, 2017 was the biggest drop in attendance in modern history. Some schools numbers were skewed at an alarming rate. For example, Louisiana Monroe reported a total attendance of 49,640 for their five home games in 2017. However, according to the wall street journal reporting, they only drew 13,302 fans in tickets scanned. That is just a 26% clip of the total attendance.

 

The folks bringing the LA Tech game said that there were about 7,000 there for the first half and about 3500 after halftime. They were playing 2-9 WKU and fell behind 20-0 which ran off most of the fans. The announced crowd was 11,459 due to a good season ticket base.

The announcers for Texas A&M and LSU said that A&M failed to sell over 10,000 tickets for this game. Also, the Ohio State vs Michigan game fell 6,000 short of a sellout for a game that has been sold out for many years.

I just wanted to mention this now while the radio guys this morning were discussing the drop in attendance. It was a holiday weekend, so there are some circumstances, but the game has lost about 3% annually for a while.

This is an actual photo of the student section at the University of Arkansas for the UNT game in September.

OK, ENOUGH OF THAT. I JUST WANTED TO SET UP THE DISCUSSION FOR AFTER THE HOLIDAYS.

COACHING SEARCH

I know the most interest in chat rooms and forums is on the coaching search. Officially there is no legit information being discussed. It is fun for everybody to throw out names for the administration to look at; but in the end, this search will have to follow state protocol for advertisement and transparency. The job was posted on Monday afternoon. Signing day is December 19.

MCNEESE HAS PUT AN ADVERTISEMENT IN THE NCAA JOB MARKET FOR A HEAD FOOTBALL COACH WITH D1 OR D2 EXPERIENCE AS EITHER A COORDINATOR OR A HEAD COACH. THIS SHOULD ELIMINATE A BUNCH OF APPLICANTS FROM JUCO AND POSITION COACHES AT EVERY LEVEL. TANNER STINES IS THE CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE.

My best guess is that we will have a coach by December 10. Thus, there will be a quick cutoff point for applications, and my guess a quick decision to the Final Three and then interviews. I do not see this as being 45 people apply and McNeese sets up 10 interviews by Skype. I am not privy to who is actually calling the shots; but as I mentioned earlier, Dr. Burckel is involved in athletic future planning and will have a say in this decision. I would bet he had a say in the decision to have an opening.

Instead of throwing out names which would only stir up more rumors, let me give my hope for the job. College and high school football is undergoing a great change from the previous era’s that everyone wants to point to. I am an advocate for a balanced defense, offense, and kicking game, but I am very aware of the shift in rules and direction the game is going.

My point is that we have to find a guy who can juice up the offense. The head coach can be a defensive specialist like Northwestern State’s Brad Laird, but you have to bring in an offensive guru who is staying ahead of the new curve that is developing. I am not so certain the Pokes may have to look at making some updates to the 4-2-5, or even going to a different scheme. I say that only because I see the trends nationally leaning to offense.

Teams like UIW and Rockwall spread 5 WRs out that force the linebackers to move out wider to protect slants, etc. It used to be that no OL could support a QB if five guys are spread. But defensive teams are being forced to spread out as well which eliminates a lot of the blitzing. In most cases it is 5 OLs blocking 4 DLs. You can blitz your linebackers, but those crossing routes are wide open. It is also more difficult to play zone or a cover two when offenses are so spread.  When you have a Tua or Kyler Murray running an offense with no spy on the QB, they are going to kill you with their legs. Joe Burrow and Kellen Mond had plenty of rushing yards on Saturday.

This past weekend we had the #1 offense in the Big 10 going up against the #1 defense in the country statistically. Ohio State hung 62 points on this defense. We saw the highest paid defensive assistant in the country at LSU give up 31 points to a very average A&M team that has an excellent scheme as well as a great play caller. Both teams were tired I am sure, but it was also two OCs cooking up some pretty good plays in overtime.

I could go on and on and give examples of great offenses at Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, etc., but you just have to accept the fact that stats are not lying. The discussion on Monday on national radio was who would get in the playoffs between Ohio State and Oklahoma. The consensus was that both were super offenses with OU being maybe the best in the country . But they all agreed that their defenses cannot stop Clemson or Alabama. They just have to outscore them.

Why has this developed? It all begins with the year round high school development of quarterbacks that is going on. 7 on 7 in Texas has gotten so big that these summer offenses have carried over to the fall schemes. In 1999 I saw Garland whip Katy in the 5A state title game. We had 8 of our top 10 athletes on defense. We signed 7 off of defense and two off of offense. The coaches told me they wanted athletic linemen to be placed on defense, the slower more powerful guys on the offensive line. The three top middle school quarterbacks went to the defensive backfield; we kept two 5’10 field generals for QB. We won state by running 90% of the time out of a wing-tee power offense and playing great defense.

We advanced 19 years and I watched a very talented Allen team play a very talented Rockwall team last Friday and it was 35-33 at half. There was not one punt the entire game. These coaches put their best athletes on offense and dare you to stop them. Allen has good players on defense as well, but these 4 and 5 star WRs around the state just wear out the typical 4.6 to 4.7 corner. So high school has changed the way the college coaches think.

The Clemson quarterback is one year out of high school and the guy looks like he could play in the NFL right now. They are going to camps every weekend in the summer and they are fantastic passers.

When you factor in the rule changes that help the offense, and the 7 on 7 development of skilled players, you have an imbalance in competition. It may not be that way in every state because some states are still 10 years behind. In the 1960’s and 1970’s Louisiana was producing more quarterbacks than any state in the union. It all started in Shreveport with the progressive schemes that Woodlawn’s A.L Williams had developed. At one point in the 1970’s, Texas did not have one single quarterback in the NFL while Louisiana had 9. For whatever reason, the NFL was not signing wishbone quarterbacks.

Schemes change from decade to decade. You have to be able to score in 2018-2019. I just marvel at what the UIW, HBU, and ACU coaches have done with less recruited players, but with players who fit a certain system. Coaches at any level who refuse to change with the times are often passed by. Defenses over the years were built to stop the “I” formation, the two back veer system, the pro set, etc., but these offensive minds never rest. There is only so much you can do on defense and remain sound. But these enemies of the defense are drawing up routes that take advantage of every rule there is. I have seen more screens and picks in football this year than what I see at a college basketball game.

Rockwall and Allen both had TE’s who were 6’4 or better that lined up everywhere. Their top WRs were 6′ to 6’3. So the poor defensive coordinators were matching up 5’9 to 5’10 DB’s against these guys. Good luck when you are trying to convince your head coach that you want the 6’3 4.5 guy as your safety and you want the 6′ 4.4 guy as your corner. Even at Barbe I bet they go to offense.

So it is my opinion that our next coach can be either a former DC or a former OC, but he needs to hire the very best person to offset his weaknesses. I really don’t care what they run scheme wise as long as they fill in the slots with players who can run that system. Both ACU , HBU, and UIW found undersized quarterbacks who played in the exact style of Air Raid type of offense in high school and were smart guys who could follow the coach’s transcript.

LSU VS A&M POST GAME FIGHT

I may have jumped the gun in putting all the blame on the Aggie student manager Cole Fisher. New video shows that Fisher was pushing Coach Craig of A&M away from the LSU bench while he was running his mouth. Coach Kragthorpe is shown going after Craig in which Fisher turned and shoved him in the chest. It was reported that he punched him and caused a head injury. Now it makes sense that a pacemaker on Coach K may have been affected.

It was after this shove to Coach K that LSU coach Kevin Faulk swung at Cole Fisher. Then after Fisher was shouting a LSU player(Battle) came in and threw a hook to Fisher. Jimbo said both he and Orgeron are watching video and working with their administration to figure all of this out.

 

NOVEMBER 26 MONDAY

I got a chance to watch the 7 overtime periods on the SEC Network on Sunday. It was a thrilling game. I learned a lesson after the LSU complaints about the officiating in the Mississippi State game in which Devin White got the targeting call. I know the majority of my readers are LSU people, so my words have to be chosen carefully. My intent of that article was to talk about the absurdity of raising money to buy billboards in Alabama ripping the SEC. I also thought James Carville made a fool of himself on the Paul Finebaum Show as well as Gameday. But some readers took it as my defending the targeting call and got upset with me.

So here is a couple of articles about officiating that puts everything in perspective.

I thought the guy at The Advocate website did a great job of being neutral in evaluating all of the five calls that are being called “collusion” with the SEC office. There is even talk of buying more billboards to rip the SEC. Several forum fans want to leave the SEC entirely.

Two of the “blown calls” are easily explained. The yellow line on your TV is not on the field. Fans go nuts when an official signals a first down when the ball is short of the yellow line. However, the Aggie ball carrier needed only the 43 yard line, not the 41 which the TV showed. The yellow line was off by near 2  yards.

 

All the LSU fans going crazy on an illegal formation on the spike can save their breathe. There can be more than 7 guys on the line of scrimmage. Many teams tell their WRs to just line up even with the OL on a quick alignment. They are ineligible for a pass, but they are just lining up. The official is even with them and sees the play correctly. He probably knows the rules as well.

There is a photo of the ball on the ground on the spike and 1 second remains. All of the officials I have seen commenting have said the catch and hit in overtime on the tight end from A&M was a bang-bang play and the ball may have been moving when he was hit. Even at slowdown speed it is questionable, but they said you have to go with the call on the field.

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/lsu/article_06501fc2-f079-11e8-86e6-afd6045d332a.html

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/9/17/17867296/college-football-week-3-reaction-auburn

AFTER GAME FIGHT

POSTGAME | #LSU director of player personnel Kevin Faulk and an unknown man with what appears to be an #Aggie bench… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…—
Hilary Scheinuk (@hscheinukphoto) November 25, 2018

You will read and hear much news about this post game fight. From what I heard, LSU Coach Steve Kragthorpe witnessed A&M wide receiver coach Dameyune Craig running his mouth at several LSU coaches including Coach Orgeron. He was cussing wildly at the LSU guys because Coach fired Craig as soon as he took over for Les Miles. I can promise you that if Dameyune Craig had pulled this stunt 20 years ago with Orgeron, he would be seeing a dentist today.

Coach Kragthorpe, who has Parkinson’s Disease, asked Craig to shut up and just leave. “You won; go celebrate with your people.” Craig mouthed off and then young Cole Fisher of A&M stepped up and punched Kragthorpe in the head. This set off his pacemaker and could have been a fatal mistake. Kragthorpe was examined by A&M doctor, Dr. Jesse Pharr. I have known of Jesse since his days as a center on the Lake Charles Wildcats and his marriage to a friend of mine. Jesse gave the OK to Coach Kragthorpe, but Steve has an appointment with his neurologist on Monday.

This is going to get dicey because it appears that Cole Fisher is the nephew of Coach Jimbo Fisher and is not an A&M official. Fisher just had a sideline pass to the game. If this is all true, the SEC should suspend Craig, and Texas A&M should fire his butt. He is a loudmouth dude who played QB at Auburn as well as being hired on the Auburn staff. He was fired from Auburn. That should tell you something. I like Jimbo Fisher and I hope he handles this situation properly and gets his nephew to apologize and then ban him from ever stepping foot on a football field again.

The picture shows former LSU star Kevin Faulk grabbing Mr. Fisher in defense of Coach Kraigthorpe. Jimbo has some explaining to do as to his response in a post-game press conference in which he denied knowing anything about a fight. There is a video of Cole Fisher stopping Jimbo on the field after the incident and talking to him. The expression of Jimbo’s face tells me he was told of the incident.

COACHING NEWS

Mack Brown has been hired at North Carolina. So the first two hires have been 65 year old Les Miles and 67 year old Mack Brown.

Houston QB coach Kendal Briles has been contacted for the Texas State job. ……USC is retaining HC Clay Helton for three more years(mistake)…………….Kliff Kingsbury received a $4.2 million dollar buyout to leave Texas Tech. He will be widely recruited for a Power 5 offensive coordinator. …………….For whatever reason, Illinois will not get rid of Lovie Smith at Illinois. Smith is 9-27 at Illinois so they gave him an extension through 2023!……………….Mike Sanford has been fired at Western Kentucky. Ty Helton, Butch Jones and Hugh Freeze have been mentioned as interested.

MCNEESE NAMES

I have to admit that I will be very disappointed if the list of the names in the LCAP is where this job search is going. I listed most of these guys in my list last week, but I made sure to note that it was only a list of people who might be interested. McNeese needs to spread its wings and do an actual search. I am going to refrain from just throwing names out on the web for the sake of debate. We are either going to have an actual search and accept applicants from all directions, or we are not. I would like to see who would be interested in the job and the only way to find out is to advertise the position and accept applicants.

I do not see anyone in Louisiana that we should just limit our pursuit in order to offer the job to. I am not even sure that a successful D2 with a great resume might be something we should look at. But you will never know unless you advertise and convince coaches that this is an actual fair open market.

 

NOVEMBER 25 SUNDAY

I have to say I am in absolute shock this morning. I had a good day at the offshore window on my games of Saturday. I predicted the Ohio State win, the ULL win, the Washington win, and finally the Baylor win. I had a chance for a huge payday if Troy had stayed within 10.5 points of Appy State, but they lost by 11. I also lost on Notre Dame not covering 10.5 points. Now comes the shocker. I took LSU plus 3 points which was on two of my three team parlays. I was tired on Saturday night after going to a basketball tournament and watching multiple games.

So as I saw Grant Delpirt intercept the Texas Aggies with 29 seconds to go and LSU players drowning Ed Orgeron in Gatorade, I went to bed. I read the Lake Charles paper this morning and was dumbfounded why Scooter Hobb’s article was not on the front page of the sports. Yet, they had the Notre Dame result which ended after the LSU game(in my mind). So I checked my offshore account and I had the money deposited for an LSU win, so I moved on.

It was not until I started browsing around the web that I saw a story from the Baton Rouge Advocate that said epic game of 7 overtimes. WHAT? I am writing this article without knowing all the ends and outs of the game. All I wanted to know is how could A&M get the ball back after throwing the interception? Then I saw that there was a replay of Mond’s knee touching the ground. When the snap was made, I was surprised the officials did not stop the play because it appeared to me that his knee had touched the ground.

So my account showed an LSU win on my bet, but it was because they covered three points. I am just startled! I missed one of the greatest college games of all time.

I had a list of coaches who were earning huge bonuses on Saturday as well as the most ridiculous bonus .I had Ed Orgeron receiving $250,000 for his win over Texas A&M to get to 10 wins. I had Kirk Ferentz down for receiving a $750,000 bonus for 8 wins.

Then the most ridiculous bonus of the day went to Randy Edsall. Edsall coaches 1-10 UConn. His contract looks like a betting sheet from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He gets $2,000 for every halftime lead, $2,000 for every win, $1,000 for every time UConn scores at least 20 points, $2,000 for at least 30 points, and so on. He even gets a bonus if his team holds another team to the same standards. Mr. Edsall collected $2,000 for his one win, and another $38,000 in year long bonuses. UConn lost 57-7 on Saturday so he did not get too many bonuses. As the old Russian comedian use to say, “Isn’t America a great country”?

I am sorry, but I just cannot get into the material I was planning on covering today. ULL and ULM had an epic battle to see who will finish with a winning record. Coach Viator’s Warhawks had the ball on the 15 yard line with 3 seconds to go and missed a chip shot field goal to send the game into overtime.

Speaking of missed opportunity, how about those Lamar Cardinals? I am really proud of the effort both UIW and Lamar had on Saturday. Lamar went toe to toe with UNI in their Dome and should have come out of this game with a win. A missed extra point and two missed field goals did the Cardinals in. In fact, they missed a game tying field goal with just two minutes to go. UIW had to play in the snow without their starting quarterback and their top offensive weapon was hurt early in the game. They lost 35-14, but under these circumstances, they proved they could compete in the playoffs. Nicholls State blasted San Diego University and will now be sent as far as they can go to Eastern Washington.

Regardless of what Sagarin says, the Southland Conference bottom teams really improved this year. Sagarin’s computer rankings carry over from one season to the next, so once you are down low like McNeese, Northwestern, and others, it take years of winning to move up the chart. All it is going to take is for Sam Houston, SFA, UCA, and McNeese to get back to where they belong and we are going to have a very balanced conference. I am not even including Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana.

The coaching carousel has begun. Kliff Kingsbury may have been fired last night at Texas Tech. This will set off a chain reaction as others line up to apply. UNT’s head coach maybe the choice, which will create several assistant coaches looking for jobs. There are several on the UNT staff that have ties to the Southland Conference and the Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana recruiting base.

Tarleton State defeated A&M-Commerce by the score of 34-28 on Saturday. Coach Carthel of Commerce is now having to say “no” to SFA and maybe even Texas State. We will see shortly. Tulane won and qualified for a bowl, so all is good in New Orleans for Willie Fritz.

MCNEESE BASKETBALL RECRUIT

My wife’s place of employment, Collin College, was hosting a Thanksgiving Holiday basketball tournament this weekend. I noticed several top JUCO’s were playing in this tournament including last year’s national champion South Plains. McNeese recruit Chris Orlina plays for South Plains so I decided to check out their game with Cowley CC of Kansas.

If you have never been to a JUCO game, you have missed a treat. However, this game was not typical of JUCO action because South Plains is really well coached and their players play under control. In fact, I was really impressed just how this team played together and was not selfish. Cowley was more typical of what I have seen prior in which all five guys are looking to shoot and put up numbers.

This gym had seating only on one side and I counted a crowd of 28 fans of which five were college coaches. The gym was hard to find because I had to walk through the Art Department to find it, but I have a keen sense of smell to find popcorn popping. I paid $4 to get in, but a guy sitting behind a small table sold me a coke and popcorn for a $1 a piece. Better than going to the movies.

I was somewhat surprised by Chris Orlina because when you watch highlight videos, you get only highlight offensive shots. Orlina is a sleek 6’6 guy that reminds me more of a second guard than a forward. He is definitely not a power-forward or even a rebounder. For the first 10-12 minutes I was very disappointed because the guy was not aggressive , nor showed much attempt to score. I now know why he is averaging 11 points per game. However, the more I watched him play, the more impressed I was. The best player was #44 who is signed with Missouri State and is a fine inside player. This team has 10 players that they interchange throughout the game. They had  7’1 and  7′ Nigerians sitting on the bench in street clothes.

Chris is going to be a very coach-able player. He shows skills to want to play defense and has the quickness for his size to be a great defender on the perimeter. Chris also showed a great knack for passing the ball. He played mostly small forward, but moved to second guard in some player exchanges. This team moves the ball well and feeds the inside post players, so Chris very seldom shot the ball. However, I watched him knock down 8 three pointers in a row from the corner during warm-ups. He also shows good rotation on the ball when shooting free throws.

I am not sure if he is just trying to fit in with this system, or if he is really just a team player who is not aggressive. I thought he handled the ball well for 6’6 and could play the second guard for McNeese if needed. I just do not want to paint a picture of a Roydell Brown or Will Robinson who loves contact and is willing to crash the boards. This is not Chris Orlina. However, overall, he is more skilled in all phases than both. I left the game with Chris having six points and probably four assists. I checked the score-sheet this morning and he ended up with 17 points and five boards.

He appears to be a soft spoken guy who takes coaching and does what his coach wants him to do. I have no doubt if he played on a different style team, he would score much more. The 6’9 center is averaging around 23 points a game and they feed him the ball every time down the court. The point guard is fast and can drive the ball to the hoop. The second guard is Australian and a pure shooter. So you can see how this team is set up perfectly much like the Reeder, Wallace, Rudd, Lawrence type team at McNeese that fit perfectly to what each position needed.

I left the gym thinking that Heath Schroyer has found a gem who is undervalued due to his role on this team. I am never disappointed in a team player who is coachable and fits nicely into a system without drawing attention to himself. He reminded me of a good basketball official that you do not notice during the game, but at the end of the game you realize these guys did a good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During a survey prior to the 2017 season, an anonymous Big 12 coach said Kingsbury wasn’t ready for the role when Texas Tech hired him, according to Athlon Sports: “Kingsbury is a hard worker and super talented, but he wasn’t prepared to be a head coach when he got the job and just hasn’t put it all together at this point. He tries to do so much.

NOVEMBER 24 SATURDAY

Photo of Allen fans 45 minutes prior to 6PM kickoff.

Last night was one of the most frustrating football games I have ever attended as well as one of the most entertaining. I mentioned on Monday that the squabble between Rockwall and Allen in deciding where to play their playoff game would come back to haunt them. Well, it did.

A 6A venue with the fan base that both of these schools needed a stadium of at least 18,000. RHS turned down a chance to play at SMU (32,000), and neither wanted to play at Mesquite (20,000). So they agreed to play at GISD’s Williams Stadium(10,000), The problem is that Rockwall sold their 5,000 tickets on Monday and Allen used the Internet to sell their 5,000 tickets. What about all neutral fans who wanted to see this game? What about the people who do not know to use the computer to order their tickets?

We showed up at 4:50 PM for a 6 PM game. Rockwall side was about 50% full, but they made the Allen fans stand in line as they did not have the personnel ready to take the electronic tickets. My line was about 200 yards long. Once we got into the stadium, we went directly to the top on the 20 yard line because the other seats were already taken.

The bottom line is concession lines were 80-100 feet long and 20-30 minute wait. Women’s restroom lines were 15 minute waits and men about 5 minutes. At 6 PM they had to call four squad cars to settle down the people who wanted into the stadium with computer tickets. They had shut the gates because of being over-crowded. People were not rowdy, just ticked off because they had paid $8 for a ticket and were not allowed in. I looked down the road and the traffic was bumper to bumper as far as I could see.

Allen had requested that bleachers be added to both end zones, but GISD refused. There were a hundred or so fans on each side that got in and were allowed to stand along the fence that went from the goal line to the street. No one was allowed to get onto the track or in the end zone area. By 6:15 there were fans lines  up along the street for the entire width of the stadium, but this is about 150 feet beyond the goal post. The electronic scoreboard showed the game live so that fans in the parking lot could sit on their cars and watch it.

The reason I was so miserable is that you were out of luck if you were thirsty and you were out of luck if you had to go to the bathroom. I fought it at halftime, but I had to bang over about 10 fans to either side to get to an aisle that had kids sitting in it so it became rather difficult to walk down the steps.

It was very short-sided on the administrators of both parties. The lost revenue of probably 6-8,000 fans who either were shut out or decided to stay home due to the lack of facilities. Plus, they had about 50 handicapped, older people who must have connections because the GISD people had to steal half the team benches to set up in the end zone for people who could not get around in this 50 year old stadium . There were too many state of the art facilities with easy access and plenty of restrooms and concessions. Did I say the parking lot was full 50 minutes to game time and people were walking a half mile to get to the stadium?

Rockwall has one of the best offenses I have ever seen in high school football.  Their 6’5 quarterback looked like Vinnie Testaverde in the shotgun. The junior wide out who is committed to Ohio State was more dominate that the Allen 5-star receiver headed to Oklahoma. Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught 14 passes for 267 yards and 4 TDs. He scored on the first play of the game on a 75 yard tunnel screen, and on the second play that Rockwall had the ball on a 70 yard bomb. He is terrific and only a junior. I don’t know why the QB is going to Minnesota, but he is the real deal. Rockwall had 380 yards passing at halftime and trailed 35-33.

I was certain that Allen could not pull this win out because this was UIW’s offense on steroids. However, the difference was the huge Allen OL that just kept pounding away. Neither team ever punted, but Rockwall went for it on fourth down four times. Once they faced 4th and 15 from their own 40 and failed to make it. They really felt they could not be stopped. In the end, Allen rushed for 363 yards and wore down the Rockwall defense. Allen won 52-40, but it was much closer than that. Rockwall finished with 608 yards offense with 477 coming through the air. Jacob Clark was 29-42 for 477 and 4 TDs.

The sad part is so many people did not get to see it.

MCNEESE WINS 80-42 OVER MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE

I was at the football game so I did not see this basketball game. McNeese controlled the boards and intimidated the smaller Mississippi College team into a poor shooting percentage. The good news is that all 12 players got to play and Coach Schroyer is slowly finding out the pluses and minuses of what his players can do. I look forward to seeing the Pokes live this Thurday night at THE PIT at SMU. This will be a challenge, but it is good competition.

GAMEDAY

The Heisman race is down to two players after last night. Kyler Murray is really challenging Tua and many feel he has a good chance to win it if they make the Final Four. Kyler went into a cold, hostile environment on the road at West Virginia and went 20 of 27 for 364 yards and rushed the ball 9 times for 114 yards in posting a 59-56 win. He threw for 4 touchdowns. Many of the fans around me were watching the game on their cell phones because 28% of the Oklahoma offense was playing for Allen just four years ago. Lee Morris is a starting WR, Bobby Evans is the starting left tackle, and Kyler is the QB. OU gets two 5-star Eagles next year when the WR and OT enroll.

I felt sorry for Mike Leach’s offense last night because a snow storm and 28 degrees are not suited for the spread. I took Washington and the two points because Chris Peterson is 5-0 against Mike Leach and UW is 9-1 the last ten years. I like trends.

If you are looking for more great football, check out the blood bath that Ohio State and Michigan promises at 11 AM at the Horseshoe. Michigan is 5 point favorite and UM fans demand that Harbaugh finally break the jinx. I have heard all of the negatives on Urban Meyer and how this team is dysfunctional. I have chosen this game as an UPSET SPECIAL. I hope UM breaks the streak, but Urban Meyer has not lost a home game as a dog since his days at Utah.

Auburn is at Alabama at 2:30 PM on CBS for those that want to see a butt-kicking. LSU is at Texas A&M tonight at 6:30 PM in a huge game for Coach O. A 10 win season going into a New Year’s bowl game will add $250,000 to Orgeron’s Christmas present. Knowing LSU fans, if they lose, he will be the Scrooge. Jimbo Fisher could really gain some equity with fans if they could pull off the win. LSU owns this series in recent years so I took the Tigers plus the 3 points.

Notre Dame is at USC at 7 PM on ABC.  This is a quarterfinal playoff game for Notre Dame. A win and the Irish are in the semi-finals. This might be Coach Helton’s last game at USC.

FCS playoffs has UIW at Montana State in probably 30 degree weather and snow. If this affect UIW’s Air-Raid like last night’s snow affected Mike Leach’s offense, this will get ugly because UIW is all offense.

I don’t give Lamar much chance against UNI. This game comes on at 4 PM on ESPN 3. Nicholls is expected to win today against San Diego. Unfortunately, North Dakota State is next. If Lamar and UIW can be competitive, it will restore my confidence that they deserved to be in the playoffs.

Southland Basketball

DON’T LOOK NOW , BUT ABILENE CHRISTIAN AND HBU HAVE GOOD BASKETBALL TEAMS. ACU UPSET PACIFIC LAST NIGHT ON THE WEST COAST 73-71. THE WILDCATS ARE 5-0 AND HAVE BEATEN ARKANSAS STATE(20 POINTS), DENVER, AND ELON ALONG THE WAY.

HBU HAD ONE OF THE BIGGEST WINS IN SOUTHLAND HISTORY WHEN THEY KNOCKED OFF WAKE FOREST(93-91) LAST NIGHT ON THEIR HOME COURT.

NOVEMBER 23 BLACK FRIDAY

MCNEESE BASKETBALL HOSTS MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE TONIGHT 6:30 PM

Today is the day I always put up my predictions for the weekend, and this is a great weekend of football rivalry games. The first round of the FCS playoffs will be mostly blowouts, but should have a couple upsets as well. Before I put up Zem’s Gems, I will give my opinion on the coaching search. I know this is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, but we have to realize that we are just getting started in the process.

I would assume that the screening process will begin with Bruce Hemphill, but something tells me that Dr. Burkell is going to be involved. I have heard three interviews with Dr. Burkell and in all three he discussed his vision for the future of Cowboy football and his invested interest in this program not only winning, but balancing the books. I have not heard of a committee approach to narrowing the applicants, but that has been the standard around here for years.

Fans need to keep a level head and not get blown away with favorites due to their more recognizable names. There are many coaches out there who will apply for this job. The tricky part will be to separate the guys who have been to a higher level, but failed vs the up and coming coach who has not proven himself as a head coach at an equal level. There will be several staffs let go after this weekend, so it is not the head coach that we might be interested in, but a coordinator.

I know that there is a portion of the fan base that believes it is important to hire someone with McNeese ties. Normally I would agree with you, but not this time. That is not to say that a coach with ties to McNeese would not be a good choice, but new blood is needed to create the excitement that is needed to rejuvenate the fan base as well as the high school coaches who we depend on for recruits. There are several ex-McNeese athletes who would be interested in the job such as Hud Jackson (Southern Arkansas), Tim Leger (ULL), or Slade Nagle (Tulane). There are some ex-coaches such as Scott Stoker (ULM) who will have interest in the job.

There are ex-coaches from the Southland Conference who will be interested. I don’t know if Ray Woodard (Lamar) would be interested this year, but his name was mentioned last year when Lance was close to going to Florida State. Jay Thomas was successful at Nicholls State, but fell from grace at Northwestern State. Ken Cullums is OC at Central  Arkansas, but has six years of head coaching experience at ACU. Todd Whitten was run off at Sam Houston State, but is 11-0 this year at Tarleton State. Would Clint Conque be too hot to touch?

I could go on and on with guys who might throw their names in the hat. I am not recommending these guys, just pointing out that applicants will not be a problem.

A guy like Kim Dameron is going to be looking for a new landing place. He was fired at Eastern Illinois this past week. I would not be shocked if he applied at SFA because he has roots in the Southland Conference and Louisiana. Dameron was DC at SFA from 2001-2004, DC at ULM, DC at Louisiana Tech, and DC at Murray State. He is well known for his defenses. EIU cut their budget by about 30% two years ago for football. Personally, I am not in favor of a 58 year old retread.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is an offensive guru at Blinn College. Ryan Mahon is much younger and has been in the top five in JUCO offense. They averaged over 500 yards per game this year. He has not set the world on fire with a 18-12 record in three years, but he has contacts. He has been in Texas for about 13 years, but is a native of the west coast.

I have mentioned that Ryan Ivey has to be interested in both Colby Carthel of A&M-Commerce and Will Healy of Austin Peay. These are the last two hires of Ryan Ivey in football. Carthel was a homerun for Ivey and all he has done is win,win, and win. He is a great recruiter and a tireless worker. He actually won the national D2 championship last year and is in the semi-finals tomorrow at Tarleton State. This was one of my main choices, but I have been informed that Colby signed a three year extension in January for $150,000 a year. I have my doubts that SFA would buy out the remaining part of his contract, but you never know if he put in his contract with a buyout as low as $50,000 on his end.

Healy was red hot last year after turning around a losing program and putting them in the FCS playoffs. His stock is down a little after a 4-7 record this year.

Shannon Dawson is a reach for both McNeese and SFA, but he is a possibility for SFA. Dawson was the OC at SFA when they were putting up 500 yards per game. He was so successful that Dana Holgerson brought him to West Virginia. Dana calls the plays and I think this pushed Dawson to Kentucky for about $1.25 million. Coach Stoops fired Dawson in 2016 and he ended up at USM working for $50,000 a year due to his money owed from Kentucky. USM has one  of the lowest payrolls in D1A and his Kentucky money is running out. I am guessing that Dawson probably makes in the $125,000-$150,000 range this next year.

A name that caught my eye was Jack Curtis at Tulane. I do not believe that Willie Fritz will be fired if he losses to Navy, but it is a possibility. Curtis is from Alabama, but has been DC at Northwestern State, Arkansas State, and Georgia Southern prior to Tulane. Curtis may make too much money, but then again he could become unemployed. Tulane does not publish their assistant’s salaries.

These are all just names who come to mind who might be available. In my opinion, we need to find the next up and coming head coach that we may not be familiar with.

This is Matt Moore of Troy University. Moore is considered one of the top offensive line coaches in the south. He is from  Georgia, but has roots in Texas and Louisiana. He was offensive line coach at Texas Tech as well as Louisiana Tech. He makes $170,000 at Troy, but has not been a collegiate head coach.

A very intriguing coach I ran across is Will Hall. Hall is 38 years old, but led West Alabama for four years as a very young head coach and won big. He then went to West Georgia for three years. His record is something like 58-20 at both places. In 2017 Hall was recruited to be ULL’s OC to try to save Mark Hudspeth. Hall only stayed there about six months before landing this year at Memphis as tight end coach. I am guessing his salary is around $170,000. Young, from Mississippi, coached in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

I will have more later, but you get the picture. There are candidates!

                                                                                    ZEM’S GEMS

Montana State 38 UIW 24

Northern Iowa 42 Lamar 14

Nicholls State 38 San Diego 24

LSU 24 Texas A&M 21

Alabama 42 Auburn 24

ULL 31 ULM 28

Ohio State 21  Michigan 20 (Upset Special)

West Virginia 48 Oklahoma 45 (Upset Special #2)

BASKETBALL TONIGHT 6 PM

 

 

 

 

THANKSGIVING DAY

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

The Dallas Cowboys will be hosting around 90,000 fans today at ATT Stadium and will treat the fans to a Turkey Day meal. ATT Stadium is set up with several kitchens for banquet areas, high school proms, and wedding rehearsals. The many chefs employed at the stadium began preparing to feed 90,000 fans on Tuesday.

To feed some 90,000 fans, it’ll take a lot of food.

Here’s a look at just how much.

• Turkey: 9,200 lbs.
• Ham: 3,200 lbs.
• Yukon Gold Potatoes: 1,800 lbs
• Cornbread for Dressing: 3,800 lbs.
• Broccoli, Rice and Cheese Casserole: 4,500 lbs.
• Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole with Crispy Onions: 2,700 lbs.
• Praline Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole: 1,200 lbs.
• Mac and Cheese: 5,100 lbs.
• Cranberry Sauce: 180 gallons
• Gravy: 420 gallons
• Heavy Cream for Whipped Cream Topping Desserts: 140 gallons

CONGRATULATIONS TO COWBOY FOOTBALL FOR ALL-SLC HONORS

B.J. BLUNT- SLC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

ALEX KJELLSTEN- 1ST TEAM PUNTER

COLBY BURTON -1ST TEAM CORNERBACK

GRANT BURGUILLOS- 2ND TEAM OL

CHRIS LIVINGS-2ND TEAM DL

CODY ROSCOE -HONORABLE MENTION DL

GUNNER RABORN- HONORABLE MENTION K

CYRON SUTTON -HONORABLE MENTION WR

WEEKEND LINES

LSU AT TEXAS A&M -2.5

ULL AT ULM -3

WESTERN KENTUCKY AT LA TECH -11

NAVY AT TULANE -7.5

GRAMBLING VS SOUTHERN -5

LAMAR AT UNI -27

UIW AT MONTANA STATE -10

SAN DIEGO AT NICHOLLS STATE -15

MISSISSIPPI STATE -13 AT OLE MISS – TONIGHT

COACHING SEARCH

I am in the process of coming up with some names that match the pay scale at McNeese and of guys who might be interested. I expect several openings after this weekend which will make hiring more competitive, yet more displaced coordinators will be available. In most cases, FBS position coaches are above the pay grade at McNeese. However, position coaches and even coordinators at Power Five conferences may fall into the pay scale of under $200,000.

Some of the most successful D2 head coaches are certainly in the $125,000-$140,000 range.

I am expecting Texas Tech to release Kliff Kingsbury after this weekend. I know the rumors have UNT head coach Seth Littrell as a primary target. If Littrell leaves UNT, speculation is that OC Graham Harrell will be a candidate for the head coaching position. The hammer fell on Coach Withers at Texas State and there is speculation that K.C.Keeler and UIW coach Eric Morris would interview. My guess is that Morris is too young and without enough skins as a head college coach.

There is some speculation that Willie Fritz really needs to win Saturday to retain his job. I am not buying that, but it is something to keep an eye on because so many of his coaches have Southland Conference affiliation.

Ryan Ivey is looking for a new coach and has stated he wants the search narrowed down by December 1. We can expect a new coach at SFA really soon after the first day of December. My guess is he is going after A&M-Commerce coach Colby Carthel, although just last year Will Healy of Austin Peay was in all the rumors. Ivey hired Carthel at Commerce and Healy at Peay. Austin Peay is having a losing season this year.

Former Sam Houston head coach Todd Whitten has resurrected his career at Tarleton State.  Whitten was a great quarterback at SFA during the 1980’s so he is an alum from SFA. He was head coach at Sam Houston from 2004 to 2009 but ended up getting run off. However, he still has a winning percentage of nearly 70%. Whitten has a 11-0 record this year and is set to host Colby Carthel in the semifinals on Saturday in Stephenville. A national championship and 13-0 record would certainly get him some consideration for a FCS job.

These rumors are not meant to be my list of potential McNeese applicants. I am just warming the reader up for a busy week next week on the Rumor Mill.