towson2006

7 hours ago, RundaPower said:

Let’s also have Deb M personally invite all students to the game this week.  She can also send a broadcast email (video message) assuring the students will not be harassed bu SAFE and that tailgating is a go!  Have her department fund a large prize( $1000) to be given away at the end of the game. RA can deliver the check to the student in the stands following the playing of the fight song with the team.

this won't happen. our best bet is to encourage students who love the squad to keep showing and bringing their friends. let's also hope that we keep being awesome. 

There's a confluence of events that has historically worked:

1. The team has to be good (we have that)

2. There has to be a rabid and engaged students (we don't have that)

3. Administrative support for lightly "policed" tailgating (we don't have that)

The problem with this is that:

1. only happens from time to time and is difficult to sustain when you are counting on 18-22 y/o kids to stay healthy, improve, and make good choices. 2. This ebbs and flows from season to season almost regardless of how good we are, because 3. Administration often takes control of these types of groups, corporatizes them, is unwilling to be flexible, and generally looks down on football.

To complicate the problem, when 1. 2. and 3. happened historically bad things resulted. If you think tailgating is bad now, just know that it was BANNED completely from 1986-1995 because students burned a float that the marching band was on during Homecoming. When tailgating came back it was again curbed because students threw full beer cans at cop cars. When it was allowed to go toward what is needed a few years ago a student face planted off a truck in the parking lot. Admins live their lives in complete fear of being sued, that is what their job is. Is it annoying yes, and I don't agree with it, but it is how they are trained to operate. This is why it is difficult to generate support for the football team at Towson.

I've researched and written and changed some of my opinions over the years (ask Mat) about athletics at Towson, but this isn't a new thing. This school has gotten screwed over so many times because no one comes to games. I remember being laughed off the old boards after the FCS Championship game when I correctly predicted that it wasn't going to matter. That being said, I love this team, helping the staff out in recruiting, and hoping that I will one day be wrong. The fact of the matter is no one gives an eff over the types of marketing we do (even if it is creative). I was working with a student on a paper today about how we got our 3rd highest crowd ever to a morgan game in 2011, and how it could be done again (and it can)...Then she asked what happened since, and I didn't even know how to answer with anything other than Towson is Towson sometimes.

History shows that if we don't make the pollsters put us in we don't make it in. Gotta take care of business.

On 4/14/2018 at 10:59 PM, mat1992 said:

I guess he's loyal and wants to coach in the ACC. That's the best there is whether he's at a mess or not. Luke is a sharp guy. He'll be a head coach in 2-3 years. I'd be shocked if he isn't.

Louisville also pays a TON of money for athletics. Before he got canned Jurich was one of the highest compensated ADs.

It's going to be cool, but my personal favorite part of that press release is that the Union will have food stalls modelled after R. House, with Dunkin' Donuts and a Chick Fil-A. Knowing the people of R. House I am pretty sure that Dunkin's and Chick Fil-A are pretty much the opposite of what they were going for haha.

“The money came from four places,” Dodson-Reed wrote in an email. “Savings over the years to prepare for this need, a contribution from the University System of Maryland, sponsorships and gifts, and the remainder (the bulk of it) was borrowed.” The school did not raise tuition to pay for the building, she said.

Also this quote is nonsense, how they going to pay back what they borrowed? Student fees. So technically tuition doesn't go up, but the students will still have to pay via a mandatory fee for auxiliary services. We still have 25 years of loans to pay off the $56.5 we borrowed for SECU. 

I very much dislike some of the intellectual dishonesty going on in this article. SECU Arena has not boosted attendance...it's the same as it always has been when the team is good people go and when it isn't they don't. In fact Gary Neale's team in the Towson Center outdrew the second or third year in SECU squad. I suppose the notion that the USM Chancellor blew $78 million on a stadium that doesn't have locker rooms, and costs thousands in overtime dollars because we chose not to have a push button for the seats to retract doesn't make for good Baltimore Sun copy though. 

Michigan was a 2 for 1, and we got the hardwood. Louisville was on the old composite, and we fell apart after that win. 

yeah i didn't mean to make a big deal of it, Skerry is doing just fine, it just seemed that the reporting was a little lazy. 

well we snuck one back

how is he considered the most successful coach in program history? that was an odd proclamation with no qualifiers. either way this is the best team we've had in awhile and hopefully it gets figured out soon.

awesome guy and family...congrats

On 11/20/2017 at 1:28 AM, DocMinnegan said:

 "The level of student this staff brings in is consistently higher than it ever was"

 

When I first got here there was a oft-repeated motto that if you ain't cheating you ain't trying, and there was literally no onus on academics. With 100 players odds are there will be some crappy students, but they are definitely better now. The football team actually saw a huge bump in their GPA last year, and classes aren't any easier than they were before.

Good finish to the year...now my favorite part of the season begins - recruiting. Getting student-athletes to sign because they want to play, be students, and meeting parents looking for a good place for their child to learn. The level of student this staff brings in is consistently higher than it ever was (when I got here "cheating doesn't count if you don't get caught" was a thing), and it's pretty awesome. Of course winning matters on this board, and I'd like to see it happen, but really, at Towson, it doesn't matter all that much to me. 

Just finished class how did it go tonight?

Hey, I may agree with some of what Doc is laying down here, but I am still here just haven't posted in awhile. Also Cole Field House is nowhere near close to being paid off by donors. That thing is like $196 million and they used $40 Million of state funds on it. The rest will probably come from students.

On 9/11/2017 at 7:57 PM, Tigerone94 said:

No doubt we've struggled in conference tournaments since Chris Riley left for VA Tech years ago. As for field hockey, until the University and donors provide the team with an AstroTurf field, the team will be one of the worst Div 1 programs in the country year after year. It's not fair to the student-athletes that they are not given basic resources to be successful on the field. 

great start for volleyball, and i hope they keep it going. field hockey was promised that astroturf field a long, long, long time ago. we used to be really competitive in that sport, but not so much anymore. 

WBB - She lost most of her staff last summer then left to go home to Georgetown. Super nice, but never lived close to Towson. Replaced by someone who has never coached a D1 game.

Baseball - 30 years here. Towson AD and friends of the school waited until the last player from the 2012-3 experience graduated then let him and his staff go for an older gentleman that cost twice as much ... curious.

MGolf - 20 years here. He was a superior pain in the ass in the department, because he was an excellent fundraiser, had no problems telling admins the truth, and ran a fairly successful program given the conditions he was working in. Replaced by a former player.

Tennis - Head Coach left last Fall for Florida and hasn't been officially replaced.

WGolf - Left after 6 years for Georgetown to be closer to family. No word on a replacement.

Field Hockey - When Caret put in field turf on the football field for "big time" sports their was an ancillary promise that the field hockey team would get a turf field. It never happened, but Caret is the Chancellor now so there's that. Good luck to the new coach.

We also lost a number of people in administrative positions in the past year that were jobs created by Waddell. It's always a carousel here, but not general in the coaching ranks.