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Beating A Dead Horse

I'm still not sure why so many are getting their dander up. Rocco gave this interview to GoHens.com. It's one of his first, if not his first, in depth interview with them since he was hired. The questions about why he left Richmond and how he ended up at UD had to be asked and he answered them. In addition, there's nothing new in his answers. Its not like he rehashed this to John O'Connor and it's on the front of your Sports section.

Not really, he could have easily just said that he enjoyed his time at Richmond and now all his focus is on rebuilding the Delaware program.

Instead he chose to take a few more shots months after he left.
 
I might be able to buy it if, you know, we hadn't won a national championship less than a decade ago.

His continued statements are befuddling and classless.

In this "changing landscape" Richmond has had more success than 90%+ of the FCS programs, most of them having lower admissions standards. Only 6 schools have won national championships in the past decade - Villanova and Richmond are 2 of them. His landscape comments are nonsense.

"I had a difference of opinion with my boss, so I took another job." Then take the f***ing high road.
 
Not to beat a dead horse but there is a good interview on gohens.net with Rocco that sheds some more light into his recent move. Talks about the "model" at UR needing to be changed and that our admissions requirements were "extraordinarily high." Sounds like the admissions issues was at the top of his list for the move. Worth a read.

Yes this is what came out right after he made the move to Delaware that it was one issue the administration felt was non negotiable
 
I have no problem with Rocco's words. If our admissions staff has standards that are too rigorous to allow our men's bball and men's football teams to compete at the highest level, someone should say something.
 
Our football team does compete at the highest level of FCS. There's absolutely no reason we can't win a(nother) national championship.
 
Our football team does compete at the highest level of FCS. There's absolutely no reason we can't win a(nother) national championship.
Exactly!! UR has made three play-offs in a row with our "high" admissions standards making runs to the semi-finals and quarter-finals. Let's see how fer Delaware goes over the next 5 seasons. I will bet right now that they won't be as good as our last three seasons.
 
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Our football team does compete at the highest level of FCS. There's absolutely no reason we can't win a(nother) national championship.
I agree with this, but believe it more probable that Delaware will win one before us. In Rocco's departure he exhibited poor judgment and taste, but he is a hell of a coach (as is Huesman, no comparison intended).

Hens have a proud tradition and are hungry (desperate) to field a winner again. UD will give him everything he needs/wants. Throw in that he is a superb recruiter and program organizer, very good with Xs and Os, and personally driven to succeed. We and the rest of FCS will face a formidable opponent once he gets his program established.

Perhaps not the most popular thing to say, but I read many posts about us whipping their butts. Want that too. I'm suggesting with the difference in admission standards (I like our standards if tweaked a bit) and a school desperate and determined to win again, Rocco holds a strong hand and promise for success.
 
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I think it is time to bring back the Spiderclub bus trips and I do not want to hear that there is not enough interest in it! Lets put the pressure on Allison and the Spider club to get it done. Bet we can make a little noise of our own ! Guess Rocco never heard us while at Richmond

Not to mention the men's basketball team playing in a pre Thanksgiving tourney at the Cayman Islands
 
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I think it is time to bring back the Spiderclub bus trips and I do not want to hear that there is not enough interest in it! Lets put the pressure on Allison and the Spider club to get it done. Bet we can make a little noise of our own ! Guess Rocco never heard us while at Richmond

SC may not take a bus, but I think we've demonstrated there's enough interest on this board to justify one. Spidernation.com will be looking to sponsor a bus up this fall. Will post details as we get closer.
 
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From his Twitter page:

Thank you @DelawareFB for being a first class University with such a rich football tradition. I have greatly enjoyed my time in Delaware!

0 replies2 retweets8 likes
 
Probably didn't like the vision they had in place in the landscape in Newark
 

23mFontel Mines‏ @Coach_Mines
Thank you @DelawareFB for being a first class University with such a rich football tradition. I have greatly enjoyed my time in Delaware!

Why would anyone move from UR to Newark,DE in the first place anyway?
Greener aint always better.

Where is Fontel's fiancé ?Also a reason to move closer to Richmond.

JMU Spring game April 8th.
 
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I am hearing rumors that he may be leaving the chicken coop and heading down to the pig farm of I-81.
 
Yeah he just started following a bunch of JMU coaches on Twitter.
Yuck...having him at UD isn't going to hurt us nearly as much as it would at JMU...he's a world class recruiter. Really close with Thweatt An even better person which disgusts me even more now if he's there.

JMU has 4 of our former assistants if true.
 
Yuck...having him at UD isn't going to hurt us nearly as much as it would at JMU...he's a world class recruiter. Really close with Thweatt An even better person which disgusts me even more now if he's there.

JMU has 4 of our former assistants if true.

It's true...........
 
Probably more to this than meets the eye.
There is the thing about moving back to Virginia to live for obvious reasons, the likes of Newark being high on that list, but also likely that JMU, now being more determined than ever to move up to FBS since their intellectual equal, Liberty, has done so, may have offered him a coaching nugget tied to that move. I doubt that money was the reason. I'm thinking that this move may make more sense within the next several months. Houston is certainly destined for a better job than the one at JMU. It will be interesting to see how things evolve in Harrisonburg.

As for our other assistants that they have at JMU who formerly coached at UR, some may disagree, but I feel that they are more than welcome to Hanson and Trott. Trott left under the Rocco regime for reasons relating to his prior connections with Houston and, to a lesser extent, the desire of Houston to have an experienced coach and only able to obtain one by offering a higher salary. Many on this board criticized Trott while at UR. I tended to agree with the criticism and I think we now have a better defense than we would have had with him, especially in light of RH's defensive coaching abilities and my confidence that Adam Braithwaite coaching under his supervision will do as stellar a job as he did at UTC.

We lost Byron Thweatt, a coach I held in higher regard, to Virginia State University who offered him a job as head coach. I am told that he left VSU because the school was making drastic cuts negatively impacting the football program and the job at JMU was the best first opportunity to get out of that situation. As for Hanson, whom I am loathe to criticize, being both a UR alum and hailing from the great state of Wisconsin, he has been all over the place in coaching for the last forty years and left with Threatt from VSU. I would not take Jeff to replace anyone on our current staff or the staff we had before Russ.
 
Really hate to see Mines go to jmu. The more competency they have with their coaching staff, the worse for us. We may be staring at a monster in our same conference for a while. They are about to be the next ndsu but even better because they have so much speed on the offensive side of the ball. They now have a better coaching staff and have already JD the talent over us. This really isn't good.
 
Really hate to see Mines go to jmu. The more competency they have with their coaching staff, the worse for us. We may be staring at a monster in our same conference for a while. They are about to be the next ndsu but even better because they have so much speed on the offensive side of the ball. They now have a better coaching staff and have already JD the talent over us. This really isn't good.

Right. Except for when Houston leaves in a year, their accountants take over the coaching search, hire a moron like Withers and the Withers-like moron brings a whole new staff in.
 
This was an easy decision for Coach Mines. He had no interest in leaving Richmond for Delaware from day one. He followed DR to Newark because of loyalty and availability of opportunities. There isn't a better assistant coaching job in the FCS than one at JMU right now. They are fresh off a National Championship, They have top notch facilities and fan support, but most importantly, Mike Houston's future is very bright. His coaching life at JMU may last one or two more years. Fontel realized that in Newark, Danny is complacent staying long term while in Harrisonburg, Mike Houston is looking to move up. If he is able to create a relationship with Houston, it will catapult him to that job at the FBS level he has been wanting and wishing for. I don't think this affects Richmond one way or the other. I may benefit us because it adds fuel to the "us against the CCA" fire.
 
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This was an easy decision for Coach Mines. He had no interest in leaving Richmond for Delaware from day one. He followed DR to Newark because of loyalty and availability of opportunities. There isn't a better assistant coaching job in the FCS than one at JMU right now. They are fresh off a National Championship, They have top notch facilities and fan support, but most importantly, Mike Houston's future is very bright. His coaching life at JMU may last one or two more years. Fontel realized that in Newark, Danny is complacent staying long term while in Harrisonburg, Mike Houston is looking to move up. If he is able to create relationship with Houston, it will catapult him to that job at the FBS he has been wanting and wishing for. I don't think this affects Richmond one way or the other. I may benefit us because it adds fuel to the "us against the CCA" fire.
Good insight and summary but have to disagree with that last statement. Sure adds fuel to the first but Fontel can walk into any HS in RVA and automatically has that coaches/recruits ear. If Brian Brown was a HS senior today, doubt he comes here and is a Duke instead. He has that much recruiting clout in the area. Hate to see him at JMU but that's not his final stop. Have to imagine it screws Rocco over a bit, something I'm fine with.
 
Good insight and summary but have to disagree with that last statement. Sure adds fuel to the first but Fontel can walk into any HS in RVA and automatically has that coaches/recruits ear. If Brian Brown was a HS senior today, doubt he comes here and is a Duke instead. He has that much recruiting clout in the area. Hate to see him at JMU but that's not his final stop. Have to imagine it screws Rocco over a bit, something I'm fine with.

He does have serious recruiting ties in the Richmond area, but my hope and belief is that he won't be at JMU long enough to overtake the University of Richmond's relationship with Hermitage, Henrico High, and LC Byrd. I don't think DR has another Levern Belin lying around in purgatory, waiting for an open position on his staff. He will definitely downgrade at the WR coaching position.
 
55, your last 2 posts make a load of sense. Thanks for being a poster on the board.

The point about Houston moving up and Rocco staying in the FCS and how that relates to Fontel's career trajectory is not something I thought of.
 
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I think this is a sign that our asst. coaches are not paid well. Mines goes to UD with increase and I am sure he didn't take a salary cut to leave for JMU. I am sure there were other reasons for leaving but just saying this is a sign that we need to up our asst. salaries. I feel certain that our administration has no idea about any of this.
 
R&B - is this just speculation or do you have numbers?

Only reason I ask is that is constantly amazing me how coaches salaries get inflated on message boards. I know the HC has a lot of say in how assistants are paid and where dollars are allocated. My understanding for the past few years is that we've spent the dollars on the coaching staff - not the admins fault if they were allocated funky.
 
I think this is a sign that our asst. coaches are not paid well. Mines goes to UD with increase and I am sure he didn't take a salary cut to leave for JMU. I am sure there were other reasons for leaving but just saying this is a sign that we need to up our asst. salaries. I feel certain that our administration has no idea about any of this.
Whew!
 
I know for a fact that Mines got a large increase to move to UD. I do not know facts about JMU but I doubt very seriously he took a cut to move to JMU.
 
Gotcha. Think it's a shame we lost Mines. I had heard rumblings assistant salaries was driven by DR, so hoping it's better now, but don't have a lot of hard facts. Would add that last I heard UR offered benefits the state schools couldn't match. I continue to hope we are hiring assistants that are upwardly mobile. Think we have some good assistants now but will have to wait to see the product.
 
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Gotcha. Think it's a shame we lost Mines. I had heard rumblings assistant salaries was driven by DR, so hoping it's better now, but don't have a lot of hard facts. Would add that last I heard UR offered benefits the state schools couldn't match. I continue to hope we are hiring assistants that are upwardly mobile. Think we have some good assistants now but will have to wait to see the product.
Seems like a very good Richmond assistant coach has come home. :)
 
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I think this is a sign that our asst. coaches are not paid well. Mines goes to UD with increase and I am sure he didn't take a salary cut to leave for JMU. I am sure there were other reasons for leaving but just saying this is a sign that we need to up our asst. salaries. I feel certain that our administration has no idea about any of this.
Considering JmUs football staff has four of our former coaches, I would agree.
 
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