AtlantaTiger

I realize it’s highly unlikely to happen but if Towson was going to hit the eject-button on CAA football (or maybe all sports) perhaps a good potential landing spot would be the SoCon. - SoCon currently has 9 member schools, by adding Towson they get to a nice even 10. - SoCon has some solid programs with histories of football success. - I think there’s something to be said for the benefit of its geographic footprint with regard to football. There’s definitely a deeper appreciation and distinct culture for college football in the south, even for smaller FCS programs. I think there could be a beneficial “halo effect” for Towson being associated with that culture. -Maybe most importantly, it would expand Towson’s brand visibility within some extremely fertile recruiting areas throughout the south. It would be much nicer to be playing late November games in Macon, Georgia than Orono, Maine.

Make no mistake, the Richmond move is an indictment of the inept CAA leadership. As evidenced by what happened at the FBS level where the SEC and B1G leapfrogged all the other conferences by being assertive, aggressive and forward-thinking, you can see the same thing happening at the FCS level among programs with historically strong leadership, success and AMBITION. Delaware, Richmond, Stephen F. Austin, JMU, Missouri State….even upstart Kennesaw State. Making bold decisions that are in their best interests. Meanwhile, the CAA is managed by reactive, small-minded, milquetoast-weenies, who broker god-awful media deals and “poach” random, marginal, snooze-worthy programs to simply fill the void when marquee schools walk out the front door.

What would be our realistic options? We’re not going up to FBS and no current FCS has any real “juice” outside of MVC which we’re not a geographic fit for. Unless we drop to Patriot League ourselves for the academic-prestige-by-association factor, I don’t think there are many good options on the table.

Will any of that money be going to secretive contract extensions for any of our coaches?

Completely agree. Furthermore this is a kid from Virginia. I understand that Towson is not a national brand but shouldn’t we at least be a pretty familiar name and brand in neighboring Virginia at this point in our almost 160 years of institutional existence?

“…..you can’t teach size.” Add that to the long list of things Skerry is unable to do. (sorry, I couldn’t help myself)

I’m getting stoked for football season. Trying to not drink my own kool-aid but can’t help but feel like Towson football is going to take a major step forward this season (regardless of what happens in Cincinnati).

Impossible to watch Oakland take down Kentucky and not realize why some of us so desperately want new leadership for Towson’s program to possibly improve our chances for a similar shot at glory. But hey, I should just be grateful we get our coveted 20 wins a year. 😉

Is Towson having a pro day? If so, when?

If you were a betting man, which is more likely to happen first?…. Pat Skerry takes Towson to the NCAA Tournament or Pete Shinnick gets Towson back to the FCS National Championship Game?

Not an apples to apples comparison because it’s football but even Nick Saban eventually relented and changed his offensive philosophy years ago to be more uptempo because he knew his offensive system was falling behind and becoming passe. The game had changed and evolved. Pat Skerry is a relic from yesteryear but he’s so enamored with his own philosophy and approach he’s willing to sabotage his own program’s success to try to prove it still works in today’s game. Tony Bennett got the wake up call last night…..meanwhile, Skerry is still asleep at the wheel.

Believe me, I ask myself that very question often.

My tournament allegiances are as follows Dayton (wife) Creighton (mom & dad) St. Peter’s (dad undergrad)

How about the top 4 seeds in the A10 all taking a nose dive in their tournament? Wild stuff….March Madness!

What’s even more disheartening is that there’s not much chance that help is coming through that door in the form of recruitment. What’s the old Bill Parcels quote? “If you want me to cook the dinner, let me buy the groceries.” Well, the groceries that Pat Skerry has been “buying” tend to be the leftovers and scraps from other programs and lately the groceries have been rotten. How often is Towson a player’s first choice? Pat only recruits the players that he considers to be good fits for HIS preferred style of offense, which I think we all agree is a dreadful style of offense. So to think we’re going to magically get a slashing guard or high-flying explosive 3 or 4, probably not going to happen. I feel like we’re too often everyone’s “backup” school or fallback option. If I’m a decent recruit and Pat is pitching me and my parents in my living room one of the first questions I would ask (after “how much will I make from NIL at Towson?”) would be, “hey Coach how many times have you taken Towson to the NCAA tournament?” In the ruthless world of recruiting beggars can’t be choosers and right now I think Pat is more beggar than a chooser.

After giving it some more thought, this whole Pat Skerry contract extension could really come back to bite Steve and impact the trajectory of his own career. How will potential future employers view Steve’s decision to extend a coach who is just north of .500 with ZERO NCAA Tournament appearances over the course of 13(?) seasons? ”So Steve, in your opinion it made sense to extend Pat Skerry, based on what exactly? Would you use those same standards/criteria here at University X when evaluating our coaches?” Steve has hitched his wagon to Skerry with no clear or practical contract exit strategy. No one will be able to bail Steve out of this other than Skerry and that’s highly unlikely. What if the Tigers take a massive step backwards next season and only win 10-12 games? These two are married to one another….for better or for worse.

Meanwhile, #7 Stony Brook about to advance to the final.

I honestly don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but to be speculating on who comes back, who leaves, who starts, etc. is a bit like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. Have we not learned that the players that come into our program make little or no difference?? As long as the captain of the ship remains Skerry, this ship will ultimately sink.

I thought Jon Rothstein’s post-game analysis was great. Telling the audience Pat Skerry needs to go without explicitly saying Pat Skerry needs to go. Far too many golden opportunities over the years to capitalize on either superior talent (Benimon) or circumstances and never able to get it done, adding tonight’s game to that list.

It took all of about 3 minutes after this complete collapse before some people started mentioning the possibilities of “next year”. Next year?? That’s laughable. There’s ZERO reason, !ZERO!, to believe that next year will be any different. Maybe 18 wins and get bounced in the quarter finals, or maybe 24 wins and semi-final tournament loss, who knows maybe a complete regression and only a 10 win season. Give Pat long enough and the bottom will completely fall out. Wanna talk about tonight’s game? Let me refer back to something I brought up about two weeks ago. The need for a bona fide sports psychologist for this program. Case in point, air-balling a crucial free-throw attempt late in close game. How on earth do you completely miss the rim in that situation? That issue is entirely in the players head. The “yips” as golfers call it. We are a mentally fragile team. No amount of mediocre coaching from Pat Skerry is going to solve that problem. Bring in a professional shrink.

“University of Towson”. I don’t mean to be overly sensitive to this but I think it speaks to the lack of brand awareness and/or respect our school has even within a 2 hour radius of our campus. This is a Virginia kid who isn’t aware of the proper name of the school…..I can understand if kids from Texas or Minnesota or California, etc. botch it but c’mon, VA should be “Towson country”.

In addition to our game today I’m going to be keeping a close eye on that Arkansas State vs. JMU game in the Sun Belt. Bryan Hodgson is aiming to take Arkansas State to the big dance in his first season as HC. They took down #1 seed App State yesterday. Good for Bryan Hodgson…..first year HC.

I don’t disagree at all. Winning this tournament is the very least he can do after all the time, grace, patience and extensions he’s been given. The college basketball coaching world is littered with fired coaches who have achieved far more than he has in much shorter time frames.

https://x.com/jonrothstein/status/1766934511663669515?s=46&t=fR0BE-ZSjjxLQwcKb42n4w