DocMinnegan

My man Tgr4life, it's not putting words in your mouth when I simply mention the person responsible for the very action that you called out.  You say that the key is fundraising, so I pointed out the person responsible for doing that job. If the HEAD COACH is accountable for ON THE FIELD, shouldn't the HEAD FUNDRAISER be held responsible for RAISING MONEY.  I mean, this is the job they were hired to do.  You cannot make excuses for the lack of performance of the team on the field by sharing that "all of the significant advances are made through outside donations, not budget. Cole Field House was redone through donations, many SEC schools are building new facilities through donations....not budget. Money needs to be raised from outside of the budget process in order to appropriately fund the program." and then back off in your next post.  C'mon man, don't be that guy. 

Tgr4life actually went on to double down on the comment with "but there is NO question that in order for a program to succeed regularly, outside money is necessary. Budget covers the bare necessities. Football and basketball, nationally, are the sports where alumni donate the least. For a FCS school to succeed regularly, someone needs to change that trend at that school." 

So who is responsible for "changing the trend at the school" in fundraising?

It's not the head coach, his job is to recruit, coach, and manage the football program.

It's partly the Director of Athletics, expressly when the AD, like TL, is supposedly a "fundraiser".

But, more than anyone else, RAISING MONEY is the absolute focus of one person more than any other, the TOP FUNDRAISER for Towson Athletics, which, as I have shown above, is simply not qualified to do the job in comparison to his peers at Delaware and James Madison.

You cannot complain about not having fundraising dollars, tie that to the non-performance on the field, and not hold the people accountable who are charged with actually raising money.

I do not disagree that Towson needs to raise more money.  That's an absolute fact.  You have to wonder why the head of the athletics fundraising efforts is not a professional fundraiser.  Dan Crowley may have been a great quarterback, as his bio states, but he is not a fundraiser.  Why was he hired as the Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Development, when he had no development leadership experience at all?  Don't take my word for it, read his bio  http://www.towsontigers.com/staff.aspx?staff=28

Delaware's fundraiser was the lead development guy at the University of Michigan for 5 years before going to be the #2 in the Blue Hens department http://www.bluehens.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=29100&ATCLID=211075115

JMU's top money raiser came from Duke. http://jmusports.com/staff.aspx?staff=550

What experience did Towson seek out?  No fundraising experience at all, but he played football at Towson.

This is exactly our problem.  Other schools hire professionals to lead fundraising, we hire a former player who everyone knows.  How's that working out Tgr4life?

Yes, TL is a fundraiser, but he's also running the department and paying attention to 19 sports, not just football and not just fundraising.

It also helps fundraising when you make the National Championship game, and then, do not lose to low scholarship Central Connecticut State in the home opener the following season.  CCSU had 1/3 the scholarships that Towson did, and was playing it's first game under a new coach, on the road.  Do you think their fundraising went up after coming in and beating us at Minnegan Field?  Perhaps, but they finished 3-9 that season, also beating URI and St Francis.  So, to your point Tgr4life, CCSU had 1/3 the scholarships that Towson had, a new coach, was playing on the road, and got it done.  St Francis had 1/3 the scholarships of TU and came within a 41 yard FG of beating us this year.  You're making the case that an $8,000,000 football budget is not competitive enough at Towson to expect 7-8 wins on an annual basis? If that's the case, perhaps we don't need to be spending money on football, as it's clearly not captivating anyones attention.  Bring back soccer, drop football, and save 7 million bucks in the process.

 

 

Numbers never lie, and Towson is in the best shape in terms of athletics budget in the history of the program.  The football budget is 250% that of the men's basketball budget and 600% of the men's lacrosse program in 2017.

As of 2015-16, Towson's TOTAL expense budget was TOP 4 for the CAA:  http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/#

1   James Madison   $47,442,648     • 18 sports, will not be in the CAA much longer as they are looking to move up to FBS

2   Delaware           $34,309,705     • 21 sports and a $41,618 out of state cost of attendance, with only 28 in-state kids on their 2017 football roster, that means that 112 of their student-athletes                                                        coming from outside of Delaware, that they are spending at least $3,780,000 annually on out of state scholarships for football.

3   Stony Brook       $30,968,765     • 17 sports, Long Island Cost of Living inflates this budget as does the $41,290 cost of attendance 

4   Towson              $29,412,429    • 19 sports, Football has the largest budget of any sport - over $8m in 2017-18 and one of the lowest tuitions in the league, $35,336 in-state and $37,004 for                                                        out-of-state students, with 35 students on the current football roster from Maryland

5   UNH                  $28,908,841    • 19 sports, with TWO Ice Hockey programs which are very expensive + a $46,000 out of state cost of attendance

6   W&M                 $26,499,511    • 23 sports - the largest athletic program in the CAA with in-state cost of attendance being $35,900 and out of state a whopping $56,475

7   Maine                $20,888,618    • 17 sports, with TWO Ice Hockey programs which are very expensive, off-set by the cheapest cost of attendance in the league at under $10,000

8   URI                   $26,170,562    • 18 sports, including A-10 men's and women's basketball programs and a Football program that was de-emphisized a few years ago. In-state is $28,100 cost of attendance and out of state is $44,100

9   Albany               $20,904,597    • 18 sports with in-state costs at $24,700 and out-of-state at $39,800

NOTE:  Elon, Villanova and Richmond are Private and do not report figures

Elon just moved to the CAA from the Southern Conference and has the #3 CAA cost of attendance at just under $46,670 > contrast that with Towson's which is $35,336 in-state and $37,004 for out-of-state students

Villanova plays basketball, and all other sports other than football, in the Big East and has 24 sports overall - their cost of attendance is $62,773, #2 among CAA football playing schools

Richmond has 19 sports, and is the most expensive school playing football in the CAA at with a $63,000 cost of attendance > contrast that with Towson's which is $35,336 in-state and $37,004 for out-of-state students

The argument used in the earlier post that TOWSON ATHLETICS is cash poor compared to the rest of the CAA is a total, outright, misleading statement.  

Ambrose coached teams have winning records against only URI, W&M and Maine - all have inferior budgets to Towson.

URI                              5-2

W&M                            4-3

MAINE                          3-2

RICHMOND                  3-3

UNH                             3-4 

DELAWARE                  3-5

VILLANOVA                  3-6

ELON                          2-1

STONY BROOK             2-3

ALBANY                       1-0

JMU                             1-5

TOTAL VS CAA            30-34

 

Ambrose coached teams have winning records against only URI, W&M and Maine - all have inferior budgets to Towson.  

The non-conference numbers are also pretty pedestrian, with the highlight of the win over UCONN and the lowlights of the losses to Central Connecticut State and Dartmouth.

18-9 vs FCS teams   /    4-1 vs Low Scholarship teams    /    3-2 in FCS Playoffs   /   2-2 vs Non-Scholarship teams   /   1-8 vs FBS teams

 

St Francis                     4-0                   Low Scholarship FCS

Coastal Carolina            2-0                   Now FBS, was FCS at the time of the games

NC Central                   2-0                   FCS

Holy Cross                    2-0                   Non-Scholarship FCS

Delaware State              2-0                   FCS

Fordham                       1-0                   FCS Playoffs     

E Illinois                       1-0                   FCS Playoffs

E Washington               1-0                   FCS Playoffs

UCONN                  1-0                   FBS

Colgate                         1-0                   FCS

Morgan State                2-1                   FCS

Kent State                     0-1                   FBS

LSU                              0-1                   FBS

Northwestern                0-1                   FBS

Northeastern                 0-1                   FCS, no longer has a football program

Indiana                         0-1                   FBS

Columbia                      0-1                   Non-Scholarship FCS

UMASS                         0-1                   Now FBS, was FCS at the time of the game

Lehigh                          0-1                   FCS Playoffs

ECU                             0-1                   FBS

N Dakota State              0-1                   FCS Playoffs

CCSU                     0-1                Low Scholarship FCS

USF                              0-1                   FBS

Dartmouth           0-1                 Non-Scholarship FCS

WVU                             0-1                   FBS

Maryland                      0-2                   FBS

TOTAL

vs Non-Conference Foes          19-17

Perhaps if Rob Ambrose didn't hold up the Towson Athletics Budget to get paid so much they could spend more on the program.  In the end, Rob is out for Rob, not the program.  Not that it's a bad thing, but let's park the notion that he is loyal to Towson, as in the end, he is going to stay here as long as he can and bank the cash with the assumption that no one will ever fire an "Alum" and that he can always play the "we are not funded card" and keep his job.  

 

 

Yeah, West had 29 touchdowns as a freshman, and before he set foot on campus, Rob Ambrose was 3-19.  Since he left Rob's not been to the playoffs, so if that line of thinking is to be disproven then Rob needs to make the playoffs without West on the field, which he has not done.  In fact, The OL made some holes, and West ran through them.  The OL could not push a Patriot League team off the line when it counted in the playoff game, so maybe that colors my impression of them.  Booker was a change of pace back, but with no West, he's not memorable on any level.  If anyone was an equal to West's importance it was Enders, who had to keep the offense moving forward amidst the myriad of personality clashes between West and Ambrose during both 2011 and 2012.  The other guys were nice players, but take West and Enders out of the mix and that was a 4-7 team at best.  I get a little lightheaded thinking of Athens and Booker leading that group, and I'd bet so would Ambrose, as he would not have made it to a 4th season if the 2011 team had put up another below par season.  My bet is that Waddell would have bounced him along with Kennedy and Seaman.

The whole line of thought that playing the redshirt freshman now is a reason to think they will be better later is bunk.  The only reason we are playing redshirt and true freshman is because of the obvious fact that our coaches cannot recruit, or develop talent.  If your who roster comes down to a handful of people getting hurt, well then you don't have much of a program.

Towson is now 17-24 since 2013

Towson has now lost 9 of the last 12 CAA games.

Rob Ambrose is now 49-53 overall as the head coach at Towson University. 

In CAA play, Rob Ambrose is 32-38.

Rob Ambrose's contract runs through 2020.  http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/football/bs-sp-towson-rob-ambrose-0108-20140108-story.html

According to the Baltimore Sun, Rob Ambrose's base salary is $334,000. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/bal-how-much-do-maryland-assistants-and-smaller-college-coaches-make-20170525-story.html

I am told that there are less than 600 season ticket holders for 2017. http://www.towsontigers.com/sports/2014/7/29/FB_0729144135.aspx#IndividualGameTickets  

 

The atmosphere at Minnegan Field has never been the same since 2013 when Leonard and his minions took over.  60% of that is due to the team not winning.  40% is due to the lack of attention to detail that the AD and his staff have put into creating atmosphere.  Adding in fence and tents does not get kids out to the games.  The fact that Leonard has completely rolled over to the Student Affairs people, led by Deb Moriarty, has pretty much killed off students wanting to go to games as they are afraid that they will be stalked by Moriarty and the Towson U PD if they are ever seen with any alcohol (can't print that)  Moriarty killed off the tailgating with her 4 pages of tailgating rules.  If we were lucky there would be a giant house that would land on this Witch and take her out.  She hates athletics behind the scenes, see below the proof.

 

 

That's his job.  I do not give Rob credit for taking responsibility for the mess he has made of a program where he was given absolutely everything he has ever asked for and has taken us from the Penthouse, to the Outhouse.

He's a few drunken nights over at Joey Chui's to be called the Pat Kennedy of Towson Football.  

Olsen was on campus a month, tops, if that.  Yet, using that as an example, you are on point in that the Ambrose Brother's inability to spot talent on the high school level, recruit them to campus, and then develop those players into contributing members of the program, leads to even more questionable decisions in bringing in the lauded "players to be named later", such as Kevin Olsen, who was a multiple time loser at other programs. The fact that their investigation into this kid's past was so lacking in detail that they could not see that he had major character flaws, and had to be bounced from the program so quickly, is truly sad.

Setting the program back years is a bit extreme, as Olsen came in after a recruiting class was signed and was gone before the end of spring ball, so there was absolutely 0 lost opportunities to sign another high school kid the following February or, to sign another player to be named later at the end of the Spring Semester or the end of the following season.  No matter what, Ambrose made the decision to bring in the flawed kid and thus, he alone, as the head coach, was the person responsible.

None of this matters, as Ambrose is never going to get fired, or bought out from his contract.  

 

"You know who the greatest QB in the history of Maryland college football is Dan Crowley."

This is proof positive that Ambrose is completely off his rocker and truly has no ability to evaluate talent.

Crowley was not better than, nor led his team to more wins than, the following:

Boomer Esiason

Frank Reich

Neil O'Donnell

Scott Zolak

I would even make the claim that in terms of WINNING and delivering actual value to the program, Grant Enders did much more, and that was in spite of the fact that his career was cut short from Rob Ambrose's inability to recognize his talents as a HS player, when Enders was committed to Towson, but then was told that the scholarship offer from dismissed coach Gordy Combs would not be honored by the new head coach, RA.  Enders then goes to Holy Cross, then to Lackawanna JUCO, and eventually back to Towson for two years, when he could have been here for 4.

A quick scan of the record books shows Crowley with only 1 Minnegan Field record, a 95 yard TD pass to Shawn West, which was a much more impressive reception and run than it was a pass.  Sean Schaefer has more Towson Records than Crowley. So does Joe Lee. Crowley's best season yardage is 5th on the Towson all time list, trailing even the less than impressive Peter "one year wonder" Athens. Crowley was an Honorable Mention All American in 1993, along with a handful of other guys who you have never heard of.

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with Mat, the kid is hurt and he's not on the field, that's all you need to know.  

What is a legitimate concern is that despite all of the on-field success in 2011-2012-2013 the coaching staff did not recruit a single quarterback to campus who has been a consistent player.  That's 0-6 in the last recruiting classes.  That's on the Offensive Coordinator, and the Head Coach.  No one else.  

This is now 4 straight seasons of not making the playoffs.  How many, if any, members of the on-field playing roster have actually been on the field for a postseason game? Only 40 or so members of the program have known what it was like to be on a team with a winning record (2015).  2-4 with UNH, Delaware, Elon, William and Mary and URI remaining.  3-8 is the best possible outcome, which would be the worst record since going 1-10 in 2010.

This was not just Matt Hachmann shortcomings.

Multiple turnovers, lack of speed, skill, and such.  Not as many penalties as in the past, which is nice.

Outside of URI it's hard to see another win this season.  Stunning decline in the program over the last 4 years. Bit by bit, slowly like being waterboarded, this program is inching back to what it was in terms of results under Gordy Combs.

This is nothing new from the last few seasons.