BoogerJ

Great looking piece. Getting the name out and about is key.  It's not about television and radio spots anymore - things like this are placed where people are every day.  Smart moves.

10 hours ago, Tigerfan said:

The game last night reminded me of Ambrose's tenure at Towson the last 10 years. Good offense(scored 45 points) and poor defense .

It's  been the same the last 10 years including the Terrence West years. Not sure why we cannot develop a great defense at Towson,

Is it recruiting or coaching or both? Ambrose give's you a "B" grade. He does enough to keep his job and is an alum.

We will lose 4-5 games this year. The question is could we do better with another coach? We are not a football school(avg 7,000-9,000 a game).

Would an "A" coach even stay at Towson a long time? Would have to be an alum.

It would be nice to move off status quo or become a regular top 10-15 FCS team.

This team is not going to lose 4-5 games.  This is a solid team and will contend for the CAA title.  

And we kept baseball around for what?  The team has few scholarships and just like men's swimming and men's golf, is a filler sport while all of the men's sports $$$ gets sucked up by football, basketball and lacrosse. 3 up, 3 down.  You could have the greatest coach in college baseball history but without scholarship support Towson Baseball will be a consistent loser.

14 hours ago, Tgr4life said:

Without knowing much of this fellow from Mason, the AD has to make a decision on the style of basketball she wants. Perhaps Paul Westphal/LMU up and down the court or more defense oriented Skerryball. Often the hire is based on the style the AD wants

No shit.

Mic Drop

8 hours ago, sr16 said:

Overhaul - but agreed with someone else's point as a private institution they may just have more funds to work with. 

William & Mary is a STATE SCHOOL, not private.

29 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Again, read the thread.

I read the thread, and there is no logical reason to extend someone when there is not any inherent risk of them leaving for another job, no recruiting benefit from an extension (Skerry already had 5 years remaining on the deal), and due to no extraordinary success.  

Please help me with the reasoning why TL needed to give Skerry a bump from 4 years to 6 years in 2017?

The ironic thing about Kennedy, Nee and Miel is that they were some cheating SOB who, despite doing a ton of unsavory things, still could not manage a winning season out of the 7 years of Pats Cats.  Before Skerry's 2nd season, Towson Men's Basketball had 16 straight losing seasons. That's zero credibility.  Even as bad as Towson Football was they never have had more than 4 straight losing seasons (2007-2008-2009-2010 & most recently 4 of the last 5 years).

Skerry needs to reboot the staff. He's not going anywhere.

TL needs to quit giving extensions to football and men's basketball and instead focus on men's lacrosse, which is the real team that stirs the drink on campus and with alumni who actually give money back.

On 3/4/2018 at 7:31 PM, Tgr4life said:

Other coaches were nice guys or ladies and got fired. Greg P (women’s soccer) Gottleib (baseball) Erricker (track), if winning is important in the less relevant sports, why not in high profile. In fact it should me more so.

None of those coaches had big dollar contracts and had 7-figure buyouts. Erricker was a joke, which has been pointed out by his successor being a major success.  Outside of Lacrosse, Swimming and now Track this program lacks discipline and an identity.

On 3/4/2018 at 5:19 PM, Tgr4life said:

Very talented. Just needed to grow up

Troy Franklin, the guy who got caught cheating on an exam and took a swing at a Professor. Yeah, needed to grow up. Transferred to Coppin and Fang punched his ticket not  3 months into the season as he was a POS.

5 hours ago, Tgr4life said:

I thought Kenny Johnson left while Kennedy was here. I know his name came up before they hired Skerry. Waddell thought he wouldn’t be a good choice.

Johnson was hired by Skerry, who along with Luke Murray, gave Towson a 1-2 punch with AAU coaches in DC and NYC.  Johnson was also the key to getting Benimon to Towson.  He left Towson to go to Indiana and then matriculated to Louisville and got swept up in the scandals with adidas while an assistant with Rick Pitino.  He is now an assistant coach at LaSalle.  https://goexplorers.com/news/2018/5/9/mens-basketball-assistant-coach-release.aspx

Forgot the first extension by the interim AD back in 2013 https://www.wbaltv.com/article/towson-extends-contract-with-skerry/7082030

Skerry is now on his 4th contract.  Regardless of where you come down on his abilities, there is much to review in why Towson would continually give Skerry a new contract, and likely more money, for a job performance which has not included an NCAA Tournament.  It's a lot easier to make the NCAA FCS Playoffs as 24 of 125 teams make the field, and 44 of those 125 have 2/3 the scholarships that we do.  I'd make the logical argument that Ambrose has done less with more than Skerry, but that both coaches should have been dismissed over lack of progress.  That is incredibly difficult to do at a place like Towson when new and improved contracts are given out like candy.

No one goes to the games when the team is good, no one goes when the team is bad.  There are about 300 people who care, about the same as with football.  Other than that, our fan support is dismal.  What is the motivation to spend millions of dollars on football and basketball talent when there is no ROI?  

No one with a brain expected this team to do anything this year.  To NOT think that at some point during this throwaway season that the group would evaporate into what we saw against JMU is poor logic.  The fact that it took this long is amazing.

Skerry's first staff had Kenny Johnson (AAU Guy /DC) and Luke Murray (AAU Guy / NYC) along with a few others, but these were the recruiters.  Since then his staff has fallen off - pretty much off the deep end since 2014.  Kevin Clark is a tired old coach.  Shake up needs to happen.  

First Extension was in 2016 https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/ncaa/towson-extend-hoops-coach-skerry-through-2020-21

Second Extension was in 2017 https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/basketball/mens/bs-sp-towson-skerry-extension-1220-story.html

6 more years before this one is done...  like compound interest 

This is 2019. Skerry is signed through 2025.  AD gave him another 5 years after the hot start last year.  This buyout makes Ambrose's look like a tip at Ocean Pride.

New offensive coordinator, specifically play caller

New defensive coordinator

12 hours ago, mat1992 said:

 

If these are the only changes and the defense gets the blame, with not any accountability for the offensive play calling, this boat has major holes in it. Specifically, if you keep looking at the head coach's little brother and expecting different results year after year, that is text book insanity.

1 hour ago, mat1992 said:

Yes thinking about future HS events and lax quarterfinals 

So you would spend $20,000,000 on the ability to host HS Football Championships and Lax Quarterfinals one day a year - two if you include women?

Show me how these numbers make sense?

16 hours ago, sr16 said:

I think if you build it they will come 

Nice movie line, not reality.

SECU Arena was built and no one comes. Unitas Stadium was built, and no one comes.  Final Four in Lacrosse and Zero Sellouts.  National Championship Game in Football and not a single sellout.  

I love that a handful of people on a messageboard want to expand a stadium to 30,000, but who are the ones writing the checks?  Alums dont give.  Student Fees? They are paying too much already.  Corporate?  Why would anyone invest in expanding a stadium with no demand.

Wow, an 8 year extension for a coach that has never been to the finals of the CAA Tournament?

Indoor facility and a weight room are smart ideas.  Stadium Expansion?  What kind of ridiculous mindset is that?  Towson has not had a crowd approaching 75% of the capacity in a long time, and cannot sell more than 2,000 football season tickets even the year after playing for a national title. But someone, somewhere, thinks that expanding the stadium is a smart move?  

Unitas Stadium seats 11,198 and if you are saying that people on campus want to move to D1, it's a nice dream, but it makes no sense. While there is no minimum stadium size, to maintain FBS status, a school must average 15,000 in paid or actual attendance a game at least once every two seasons. Towson has only drawn over 10,000 maybe a handful of times.  Just to make the move TU would have to add in another 5,000 seats minimum and would be a lot of dough.  The NCAA used to require Division I-A schools to have a stadium with a minimum capacity of 30,000, but that rule was scrapped in 2004. FCS has no attendance requirements. https://www.sportsrec.com/division-1-college-football-requirements-6660709.html

There is no demand, on any level, for Towson to be FBS Football.  That is a remarkably poor idea and use of state money.

Sure, with all of the excess money from the donors and ticket sales the Athletic Director is going to fork out contract buyouts and then pay more for the next staff to come in.  

Not going to happen.

Skerry got his latest extension 355 days ago, which pushed his deal back to a 5 year term.  https://towsontigers.com/news/2017/12/19/mens-basketball-skerry-signs-contract-extension.aspx?path=mbball No one is buying out 4 years of a coaching contract at Towson.  

Dream on.

No different than when Ambrose got his extension in January 2014 through 2020 and no buyout was done on him when Towson failed to make the playoffs in 2014-2015-2016-2017.

Towson does not buyout contracts.

Why?

Towson does not have donors who write big checks and even more depressing, Towson does not have alumni who buy tickets and support the program. 70% of the football attendance is made up of comp tickets to students and player families, bands.  Take out the comps and you get about 2,000 people a game who care paying about $25 bucks a piece. That's $50,000 gate per game x 5 home games = $250,000 a year in revenues.  That does not even cover 75% of Rob Ambrose's base salary. Football is a MAJOR financial drain on Towson University. There is no factual financial argument that can state otherwise.

Basketball attendance is worse, so where is this magic money coming from?

Skerry is at Towson through March 2023 - 4 more seasons.

Ambrose just got a rollover year so he is in place through at least December 2021 - 3 more seasons.

These are the facts and they are indisputable.

On 11/18/2018 at 4:24 PM, Chris Datres said:

Do you even hear what you’re saying or did another personality seep out?

Save for expecting a win over SD State, this post aged well as it was point on.

Good for the kids.  < I am happy for the players.

There will be extensions for all of the coaches, no waiting for the playoff run or not.  < Rob got an automatic extension with the playoff bid

6 teams from one league is a joke and lumping the bulk of them in one side of the draw is ridiculous.  < The CAA proved to be overrated with 6 teams making it and only Maine winning more than one game.

If Towson does not win at least the first two games it's a bad run.  Not a real challenging draw. < Towson got smoked by an NEC team who does not give out the full compliment of scholarships allowed by the NCAA for the FCS level. Expecting Towson to beat SD State was a stretch, and I will chalk that up to the Bourbon that night.

Pat Skerry's contract goes through 2022-23, meaning four more years after this one, unless someone is going to pony up his buyout.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/basketball/mens/bs-sp-towson-skerry-extension-1220-story.html

He is going no where, just like Rob Ambrose is going no where.