Apathy

[wr70beh]

I think spending millions to renovate the Robins Center, and millions on a training center for athletes, shows commitment.

That doesn't show commitment. It shows that we don't want to be embarrassed. We've been lacking for years on that front. Our facilities for football are light years behind the top FCS programs, even with our locker room renovations. Our basketball facilities might catch up once the Queally/Mooney Center is built, but the upper crust of the A-10 have had better facilities for years.

What we're lacking is leadership, competency, and accountability. Chuck Boone was great. Jim Miller was fine. Gill was atrocious, so anyone they would have hired would look good. Hardt is way behind even Miller as far as competency. I just want an athletic department that is competent, and holds people accountable for failures. They aren't doing it with Mooney. COach Russ is still in line.

 

[Wood Hall]

That doesn't show commitment. It shows that we don't want to be embarrassed. We've been lacking for years on that front. Our facilities for football are light years behind the top FCS programs, even with our locker room renovations. Our basketball facilities might catch up once the Queally/Mooney Center is built, but the upper crust of the A-10 have had better facilities for years.

What we're lacking is leadership, competency, and accountability. Chuck Boone was great. Jim Miller was fine. Gill was atrocious, so anyone they would have hired would look good. Hardt is way behind even Miller as far as competency. I just want an athletic department that is competent, and holds people accountable for failures. They aren't doing it with Mooney. COach Russ is still in line.

Sorry, but spending millions does show a commitment, a huge investment to give our athletes what it takes to compete and to give our coaches what it takes to recruit.

Who is upper crust in the A-10? VCU? St. Joe's? SLU? Davidson? SBU? Dayton? Dayton is the only place with a superior arena than the RC. Heck, SLU rents a home arena, it doesn't even own one.

As far as Hardt goes, I'll give him more than 18 months to make his mark. His WBB hire appears to be excellent.

 

[Ferrum Spider]

There is no credible evidence we were headed for the Patriot League under Cooper.

This is factually incorrect. I was on the air (Intern) with Big Al and Ray Tate as sports phone after John O'Conner published an article in february of 2005 that Cooper was holding a board meeting to take a vote on moving to the patriot league. It was spurred on because of the upcoming A10/CAA take over. Remember interviewing Pat Kelly among other former spiders about it. The media put a full on blitz and Cooper/Board saw how bad the backlash would of been.

 

[Spider B]

But that is the past. Cooper is gone. We are NOT moving down to the Patriot League. Let’s spend time on current and relevant issues, like how do we fix our Football Program to compete for championships in the CAA. Let’s bring Richmond Football back to a championship level.

 

[32counter]

Russ lost Cortrelle Simpson,Deontez Thompson,Dejon Brissett.All pretty good ballers.We backfilled with 2-1 year only WRs and an LB from Illinois and DB from Duke.We found a pretty good QB in English with 3 years eligibility basically because Mancuso was not reliable.We also chased a Iowa State QB who ended up at NDSU and a Harvard QB who ended up at Rice.50% of the team are either redshirt frosh or frosh.We lost Castellano this season due to an ACL.
We lost Xavier Goodall with a 3rd ACL.We have no big Running backs.We played only 7 offensive linemen at Fordham including Ryan Coll at 72/90.Our frosh QB is being held on ice and incoming verbal commit QB Hardy will be in mix next year.

It’s tantamount that the staff hang onto our present 11 verbal commits and build from there for the December signing period.We shall be needing graduate Transfers next season also,hopefully as good as our Duke and Northwestern WRs and Illini LB who is presently injured.

Some of the expert football board pundits now and in the coming weeks will likely post their desire to get Russ and the entire staff fired.Hopefully,some of them actually played football and understand the game.

 

[spiderhawk111]

do you have to played football to understand this is a bad team? and all those players we lost you speak of , what was the record last year with them? and with kyle and his team mates was that lack of talent too? fire the staff or not , the rest of the caa passing us by is a good thing? and i think every team has lost players coaches job is to replace them , maybe i am wrong , help me understand why this a good team .

 

[32counter]

do you have to played football to understand this is a bad team? and all those players we lost you speak of , what was the record last year with them? and with kyle and his team mates was that lack of talent too? fire the staff or not , the rest of the caa passing us by is a good thing? and i think every team has lost players coaches job is to replace them , maybe i am wrong , help me understand why this a good team .

What you say?Don't get it.No surprise.Go to the basketball board.Please don’t waste my time.Critics build nothing.Constructive criticism would be helpful.No gooblygook that says nothing.

 

[Wood Hall]

We would have remained a member of the A-10 in all sports sponsored by the league. We would have been an A-10 school. Our athletic program was never headed for the Patriot League.

Cooper was considering us as a possible affiliate member of the PL for football only, as a fallback position if we were not accepted by the CAA. Of course, we were. End of story.

PS: We do compete in the Patriot League as an affiliate member in golf. That doesn't make us a Patriot League school. We do compete in the CAA as an affiliate member in football. That doesn't make us a CAA school.

 

[urfan1]

It was never my understanding he was looking at moving to the PL for football only = you may have had better information than I did.

 

[spiderhawk111]

What you say?Don't get it.No surprise.Go to the basketball board.Please don’t waste my time.Critics build nothing.Constructive criticism would be helpful.No gooblygook that says nothing.

sorry captain cut and paste , didnt mean to waste your time , your post are valuable as a cure for insomnia , and just a hint snotty is not a good trait

 

[urfan1]

both stop the personal attacks

 

[Captain Anderson]

I realize the cupboard may be more bare for Russ than we realize as fans. I just want to see us execute basic fundamentals like tackling and have some kind of identity on both sides of the ball. Jim Reid took over a pretty miserable program back in the mid 90’s and immediately instilled an identity. Fans may have been frustrated by his offense but you knew the identity of his teams and he was able to have success quickly. Dave Clawson established teams with their own identity (power running that wore teams down late in games). I have no clue what the identity of this current team is. We look disorganized and confused. Maybe that’s due to all the young guys but at some point we need to see some progress, some hope, some glimmer of what this team is “supposed” to look like when their Coach's plan is executed correctly.

 

[spiderhawk111]

both stop the personal attacks

my post only pointed out the shape of the program, is not what this forum is about? does it take a expert to see things are not going great? and as far as an attack , that windbag is a keyboard bully , he needs to be told that once in a while , not the first time he has done that

 

[spiderhawk111]

yes mam

 

[32counter]

Kids look engaged

 

[Spiders05]

2005 went to a Board Vote. Absolutely real.

Collegian

 

[Wood Hall]

2005 went to a Board Vote. Absolutely real.

Collegian

For football only. As an affiliate member. We were never going to be a full-time member of the Patriot League.

 

[urmite]

For football only. As an affiliate member. We were never going to be a full-time member of the Patriot League.

"If the school does want to move to the Patriot League, it seems as if they are just trying to get rid of football in the long run," quarterback Stacy Tutt said.

Now if we were going to move as an affiliate member of the Patriot league for basketball only...what would the reaction have been in 2005?

 

[32counter]

yes mam

Apologies to You.No one is happy about football status.

I would say ‘have patience’ but patience is cheap and too easy to write/say.

Some on board are much more vested than others on this board in more ways than you may realize and even might get carried away by attempting to defend a very difficult situation.

 

[Ferrum Spider]

For football only. As an affiliate member. We were never going to be a full-time member of the Patriot League.

The people revisiting the issue aren’t suggesting that it was. I didn’t think I needed to clarify the CAA/A10 was a football thing but that’s exactly what we are talking about.

 

[spiderhawk111]

yes sir i sure will,

Apologies to You.No one is happy about football status.

I would say ‘have patience’ but patience is cheap and too easy to write/say.

Some on board are much more vested than others on this board in more ways than you may realize and even might get carried away by attempting to defend a very difficult situation.

i agree very well said, i will continue to attend games , and be supportive , and hope they win out the season , i think everybody on here wants them to win , just gets a little frustrated sometimes

 

[PhillySpider]

Mr. Moderator - - - I'd suggest moving your recently started thread from the premium boards down into this thread. You chose to put it in premium, so I won't overide that by pulling the topic and your reporting into this thread my self, but believe the community would be best served by greater exposure of those thoughts!

 

[spider23]

I have figured out how to fix football:
https://www.inquirer.com/college-sp...ractice-tj-landis-mark-ferrante-20190927.html
Now if we can convince Queally to ditch Mooney things will be on the upswing.

 

[wr70beh]

I have figured out how to fix football:
https://www.inquirer.com/college-sp...ractice-tj-landis-mark-ferrante-20190927.html
Now if we can convince Queally to ditch Mooney things will be on the upswing.

The NiMBYs in the neighborhood surrounding campus would never allow those. They barely tolerate the stadium as it is now.

 

[DTSpider]

Really lackluster crowd tonight for a day with beautiful weather and a good opponent. I guess we can affirm that apathy has truly set in.

 

[SpiderRick]

My Wife: "You always get so upset when the Spiders lose at anything. Why aren't you upset now? I'm starting to worry about you...

Me: "It's called APATHY. I wish I cared enough right now to even be upset."

Wife:" You're quiet, did they lose again? I thought they were up by 20 points in the second half? You should be furious!"

Me:" First time I've ever been happy to stay home with a cold. Can you bring me my rum and corcidin?..."

 

[Stork3]

We really did give the game to Yale tonight on a silver platter. It was a shame - or worse.

Our defensive line and linebackers played great. Mancuso looked good. And there were other bright spots. We basically outplayed Yale for all but the last 4:30 of the game, even though the play-calling sucked for much of the first half.

I still cannot believe the dropped interceptions. We are playing with a football - the same one our players have played with since middle school. Opposing quarterbacks are throwing the same football; but our defensive backs act like opposing quarterbacks are throwing punch bowls - and the punch bowls are different in size and weight in different games. We gave up so many opportunities tonight ...

And I still can't believe that we are consistently beat with long passes over the middle - including two in a row on the winning drive. Coach West and our players need to solve this problem.

Even our freshman phenom kicker, Larson, missed to make-able field goals. The last one would have prevented a Yale victory.

Let's hope that we can get back on track against Coach Rocco at Delaware. We have Stony Brook and JMU after that.

The apathy concerns me. When the team ran onto the field to start the second half, nobody cheered. The fans in the stands just continued their conversations - many admitted that they never even noticed the team return to the field.

Let's fix these problems fast.

 

[eagle727272]

I realize the cupboard may be more bare for Russ than we realize as fans. I just want to see us execute basic fundamentals like tackling and have some kind of identity on both sides of the ball. Jim Reid took over a pretty miserable program back in the mid 90’s and immediately instilled an identity. Fans may have been frustrated by his offense but you knew the identity of his teams and he was able to have success quickly. Dave Clawson established teams with their own identity (power running that wore teams down late in games). I have no clue what the identity of this current team is. We look disorganized and confused. Maybe that’s due to all the young guys but at some point we need to see some progress, some hope, some glimmer of what this team is “supposed” to look like when their Coach's plan is executed correctly.

Bare cupboard? When he got here, he had 13 starters back from a playoff team and the best quarterback in program history. He went 6-5. If it’s bare now, it’s on him.

 

[Captain Anderson]

Bare cupboard? When he got here, he had 13 starters back from a playoff team and the best quarterback in program history. He went 6-5. If it’s bare now, it’s on him.

I’m not defending Huesman. Hell, it’s FCS football, it’s not like we have rivals.com to show how good or bad our recruiting classes are compared to our competition (I know there are some sites out there for FCS recruiting but good info is certainly harder to come by) All we can go off is results and we haven’t got it done under Russ. I’m not sure if you’re a Rocco guy but he hasn’t exactly been tearing it up in Newark either. Tough times right now.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

Why were we not playing 7 DBs when they had to pass in the last 1:50? They were not
running the ball and it would given us a little more speed.

 

[FrontRoyalSpider]

But that is the past. Cooper is gone. We are NOT moving down to the Patriot League. Let’s spend time on current and relevant issues, like how do we fix our Football Program to compete for championships in the CAA. Let’s bring Richmond Football back to a championship level.

Currently Richmond is no where at the level of competing for a CAA title! Losing to two non football scholarship programs is proof that our football program, just like its basketball counterpart, is a dumpsterfire!

 

[DTSpider]

Why were we not playing 7 DBs when they had to pass in the last 1:50? They were not
running the ball and it would given us a little more speed.

Or at least once bringing one of the LBs up the middle on a blitz? We ran the same percent D and they ran the same route over the middle. I don’t want to call out the players but it was clear where Yale was going with the ball. If we don’t have the guys that can make plays, you’ve got to do something different.

 

[I-M-UR]

But that is the past. Cooper is gone. We are NOT moving down to the Patriot League. Let’s spend time on current and relevant issues, like how do we fix our Football Program to compete for championships in the CAA. Let’s bring Richmond Football back to a championship level.

Then fire Huesman, give the team a new start.....what else can you do.

 

[Spiderwiz]

This is a team laden with freshmen and redshirt freshman. While I personally don’t agree with espousing the argument that Russ should go because he couldn’t or didn’t win over/retain more of Rocco’s recruits and thereby have a better record, I do understand that logic. If you accept where we are with overall team maturity then I think we are in an acceptable position. Yes, we should have won the Yale game. There were passes, interceptions and sacks missed but I saw a young team that could have won and didn’t know how to close. This loss will sting and they will learn from it.

Russ came in saying he wanted to redshirt as much as he could. That tactic may be the equivalent of fools gold in the current grad transfer heavy environment but I think it is worth a try as Russ has shown he will react to player moves and recruit grad transfers. Also, we have yet to see his retention rate with his own fifth year seniors.

 

[urfan1]

This is a team laden with freshmen and redshirt freshman. While I personally don’t agree with espousing the argument that Russ should go because he couldn’t or didn’t win over/retain more of Rocco’s recruits and thereby have a better record, I do understand that logic. If you accept where we are with overall team maturity then I think we are in an acceptable position. Yes, we should have won the Yale game. There were passes, interceptions and sacks missed but I saw a young team that could have won and didn’t know how to close. This loss will sting and they will learn from it.

Russ came in saying he wanted to redshirt as much as he could. That tactic may be the equivalent of fools gold in the current grad transfer heavy environment but I think it is worth a try as Russ has shown he will react to player moves and recruit grad transfers. Also, we have yet to see his retention rate with his own fifth year seniors.

Add to that young kids benefit from a year in the weight room. Especially with the 4 game option, more reason to use the red-shirt year with as many kids as possible.

 

[SpiderTrap]

I’m not defending Huesman. Hell, it’s FCS football, it’s not like we have rivals.com to show how good or bad our recruiting classes are compared to our competition (I know there are some sites out there for FCS recruiting but good info is certainly harder to come by) All we can go off is results and we haven’t got it done under Russ. I’m not sure if you’re a Rocco guy but he hasn’t exactly been tearing it up in Newark either. Tough times right now.

I like Delawares position right now better than UR. Rocco took them to the playoffs last season, and right now they are 4-3 with losses to North Dakota State (#1 team in FCS at the time), Pitt (FBS team by 3 points), and Elon (this one doesn't make sense - they got blown out). But they are coming off a good win against New Hampshire, have UR coming up next and then Towson, Albany, Stony Brook and Villanova. They probably can only lose 1 more game and have a shot at the playoffs - but I feel better about them pulling that off than saying the Spiders will finish out the season 4-1 or 5-0.

 

[Eight Legger]

If we win out, we probably win the league and the autobid, right?

 

[ChoppinBroccoli]

If we win out, we probably win the league and the autobid, right?

Probably. UNH could create a tie by winning out and who knows how the tiebreakers would work.

I probably just sincerely replied to a sarcastic post, too.

 

[ChoppinBroccoli]

Add to that young kids benefit from a year in the weight room. Especially with the 4 game option, more reason to use the red-shirt year with as many kids as possible.

If the young man isn't ready, by all means, redshirt him. But if he's your best option (Wheeler for instance) you have to play him. The odds of good players staying for their fifth year will continue to diminish.

 

[urfan1]

If the young man isn't ready, by all means, redshirt him. But if he's your best option (Wheeler for instance) you have to play him. The odds of good players staying for their fifth year will continue to diminish.

Never said don't bust the redshirt on anyone.