FB at No. 24 JMU, 3:30 p.m., ESPN+

[Saint3333]

I want to give him an offseason before judgement, but the reaction at the end of this game is disappointing.

[WASU 93]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

We didn't have to hire a first time head coach. I'm all about giving second chances. But, usually you give a second chance to someone who showed promise and screwed up. What's one thing that DLo has been great at, since he took over the program? What are we excelling at? What's one way the program has improved?
From my understanding, he was hired because he gave a great analysis of the state of our program and laid out a plan. Are we on schedule for that plan?
GaSo and Coastal had a shootout tonight with flea flickers, half-back passes off jet sweeps, designed QB runs....In Week 1 we showed some wrinkles. Now, the offense is plain vanilla (and tonight and against Boise it was out of date, rancid vanilla)

[bcoach]

When can we start pointing fingers at Doug Gillin?

A few years ago.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

He’s trending downwards, there’s not only been no improvement, but I’d say we are worse now than beginning of season. Playcalls are terrible, same mistakes continue (or increased), the team plays with no passion. He’s got another year, but that just means my Saturdays will be freed up next fall.

I will say I think the play calling has been predictable (re: not good) is because we have no oline. At some point we will figure that out, but we have to pay for a line. Moreso than any other position.

Yes, another year and a good oline and dline could make a difference.

[rbarthle17]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

We didn't have to hire a first time head coach. I'm all about giving second chances. But, usually you give a second chance to someone who showed promise and screwed up. What's one thing that DLo has been great at, since he took over the program? What are we excelling at? What's one way the program has improved?
From my understanding, he was hired because he gave a great analysis of the state of our program and laid out a plan. Are we on schedule for that plan?
GaSo and Coastal had a shootout tonight with flea flickers, half-back passes off jet sweeps, designed QB runs....In Week 1 we showed some wrinkles. Now, the offense is plain vanilla (and tonight and against Boise it was out of date, rancid vanilla)

You, and others, are correct we didn't have to give the job to someone without any head coaching experience. But we did. So given that we did, we should give him the bare minimum opportunity to sink or swim. That's not one season. That absolutely could be two seasons.

As for the play calling, what's the point in calling advanced plays when they can't even execute the simple ones? Be it talent level or injury, no coach was going to do much better given the circumstances of this roster.

Supposedly there are a lot of horses coming here next fall. And we can definitely say by that point all the horses in the barn will be his. I'm fine with 2026 being his make or break season. Whatever else is true, it will take many years to earn back the goodwill he has burned through.

[ah59396]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

We didn't have to hire a first time head coach. I'm all about giving second chances. But, usually you give a second chance to someone who showed promise and screwed up. What's one thing that DLo has been great at, since he took over the program? What are we excelling at? What's one way the program has improved?
From my understanding, he was hired because he gave a great analysis of the state of our program and laid out a plan. Are we on schedule for that plan?
GaSo and Coastal had a shootout tonight with flea flickers, half-back passes off jet sweeps, designed QB runs....In Week 1 we showed some wrinkles. Now, the offense is plain vanilla (and tonight and against Boise it was out of date, rancid vanilla)

You, and others, are correct we didn't have to give the job to someone without any head coaching experience. But we did. So given that we did, we should give him the bare minimum opportunity to sink or swim. That's not one season. That absolutely could be two seasons.

As for the play calling, what's the point in calling advanced plays when they can't even execute the simple ones? Be it talent level or injury, no coach was going to do much better given the circumstances of this roster.

Supposedly there are a lot of horses coming here next fall. And we can definitely say by that point all the horses in the barn will be his. I'm fine with 2026 being his make or break season. Whatever else is true, it will take many years to earn back the goodwill he has burned through.

I'm willing to hear out an explanation but I still think the most egregious thing he did tonight is let Swann stay in that game. It was beyond over and he let the guy limp out onto the field to throw wounded ducks down 35+.

I know I'm being repetitive I just do not understand how it continued given it was visible to everyone with eyes and a functioning brain.

[311neers]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

He’s trending downwards, there’s not only been no improvement, but I’d say we are worse now than beginning of season. Playcalls are terrible, same mistakes continue (or increased), the team plays with no passion. He’s got another year, but that just means my Saturdays will be freed up next fall.

I will say I think the play calling has been predictable (re: not good) is because we have no oline. At some point we will figure that out, but we have to pay for a line. Moreso than any other position.

We haven’t had a good OL in years. Really haven’t been good in the trenches in 5+ years. Recipe for losing ball.

[Mjohn1988]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

We didn't have to hire a first time head coach. I'm all about giving second chances. But, usually you give a second chance to someone who showed promise and screwed up. What's one thing that DLo has been great at, since he took over the program? What are we excelling at? What's one way the program has improved?
From my understanding, he was hired because he gave a great analysis of the state of our program and laid out a plan. Are we on schedule for that plan?
GaSo and Coastal had a shootout tonight with flea flickers, half-back passes off jet sweeps, designed QB runs....In Week 1 we showed some wrinkles. Now, the offense is plain vanilla (and tonight and against Boise it was out of date, rancid vanilla)

You, and others, are correct we didn't have to give the job to someone without any head coaching experience. But we did. So given that we did, we should give him the bare minimum opportunity to sink or swim. That's not one season. That absolutely could be two seasons.

As for the play calling, what's the point in calling advanced plays when they can't even execute the simple ones? Be it talent level or injury, no coach was going to do much better given the circumstances of this roster.

Supposedly there are a lot of horses coming here next fall. And we can definitely say by that point all the horses in the barn will be his. I'm fine with 2026 being his make or break season. Whatever else is true, it will take many years to earn back the goodwill he has burned through.

What or who says we have “a lot of horses coming here next fall”? I hope you’re right but I don’t know how anybody knows who will be on this team next year.

[AppState89]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

We didn't have to hire a first time head coach. I'm all about giving second chances. But, usually you give a second chance to someone who showed promise and screwed up. What's one thing that DLo has been great at, since he took over the program? What are we excelling at? What's one way the program has improved?
From my understanding, he was hired because he gave a great analysis of the state of our program and laid out a plan. Are we on schedule for that plan?
GaSo and Coastal had a shootout tonight with flea flickers, half-back passes off jet sweeps, designed QB runs....In Week 1 we showed some wrinkles. Now, the offense is plain vanilla (and tonight and against Boise it was out of date, rancid vanilla)

You, and others, are correct we didn't have to give the job to someone without any head coaching experience. But we did. So given that we did, we should give him the bare minimum opportunity to sink or swim. That's not one season. That absolutely could be two seasons.

As for the play calling, what's the point in calling advanced plays when they can't even execute the simple ones? Be it talent level or injury, no coach was going to do much better given the circumstances of this roster.

Supposedly there are a lot of horses coming here next fall. And we can definitely say by that point all the horses in the barn will be his. I'm fine with 2026 being his make or break season. Whatever else is true, it will take many years to earn back the goodwill he has burned through.

What or who says we have “a lot of horses coming here next fall”? I hope you’re right but I don’t know how anybody knows who will be on this team next year.

The way we are playing, those horses will run past Boone to another city.

[bcoach]

It’s gonna be a new team every year. Same coaches will have same results. Failed NFL guys won’t get it done.

Like that failed NFL coach Nick Saban never got it done in college? Or that failed NFL coach Steve Spurrier?

Tongue in cheek examples, obviously. But if all you are going to give people is one chance at a new job position they have never held before to prove themselves, you're in for a lot of disappointment.

I hope in your career you never made mistakes the first time given a new position, stones and glass houses and such.

Of course it has been about as bad a first year of head coaching as it can be, I'm not arguing that. I don't agree that we know for certain he can't get it done. What you can say is he has backed himself into a corner where all goodwill is gone and he has one make or break year left to prove himself. If that's beyond your capabilities to give someone, then we see the world very differently.

We didn't have to hire a first time head coach. I'm all about giving second chances. But, usually you give a second chance to someone who showed promise and screwed up. What's one thing that DLo has been great at, since he took over the program? What are we excelling at? What's one way the program has improved?
From my understanding, he was hired because he gave a great analysis of the state of our program and laid out a plan. Are we on schedule for that plan?
GaSo and Coastal had a shootout tonight with flea flickers, half-back passes off jet sweeps, designed QB runs....In Week 1 we showed some wrinkles. Now, the offense is plain vanilla (and tonight and against Boise it was out of date, rancid vanilla)

You, and others, are correct we didn't have to give the job to someone without any head coaching experience. But we did. So given that we did, we should give him the bare minimum opportunity to sink or swim. That's not one season. That absolutely could be two seasons.

As for the play calling, what's the point in calling advanced plays when they can't even execute the simple ones? Be it talent level or injury, no coach was going to do much better given the circumstances of this roster.

Supposedly there are a lot of horses coming here next fall. And we can definitely say by that point all the horses in the barn will be his. I'm fine with 2026 being his make or break season. Whatever else is true, it will take many years to earn back the goodwill he has burned through.

I'm willing to hear out an explanation but I still think the most egregious thing he did tonight is let Swann stay in that game. It was beyond over and he let the guy limp out onto the field to throw wounded ducks down 35+.

I know I'm being repetitive I just do not understand how it continued given it was visible to everyone with eyes and a functioning brain.

We had a trainer years ago who would not have let him back on the field no matter what anyone said. If you don't believe that you never knew Andy Massey.

[MrCraig]

Would love to know everyone’s thoughts on this one.

https://x.com/appfanatic04/status/19898 ... 22297?s=46

I wonder if he did that in Columbia last year? I’m gonna go on a limb and say no

Kirby Smart’s son is a regular fixture on the UGA sideline and it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

[MrCraig]

People need to calm down with firing the coaching staff after one season. It's reactionary and emotional.

This season has been one to forget for sure, but how many times did we have to listen to tirades and defenses of this hiring (or about getting rid of Coach Clark) because of how bad the roster was? They turned over 2/3 of the roster and it's clear that there have been few bright spots from that turnover. But if all this season was supposed to be was cleaning out all the old to make room for the new, as so many of you claimed was the main goal, then that was done.

Next year can fairly be assessed as a make or break year for the coaches. We will have a full influx of their players and a year of experience under their belts. If we still see these same issues, then cutting this experiment short would be warranted.

Counterpoint- our roster is likely to be turned over at that rate every year. This is the new CFB landscape

Oh my God. I’m so tired of this. NO. IT. IS. NOT. No teams, P4 or G5 have 2/3rds of their roster turnover every year unless they have a coaching change. In fact, if you look at the numbers, the amount of players transferring isn’t that much higher than it was before the new rules. However, before kids would just drop out, not the “transfer” to nowhere.

[Seattleapp]

Would love to know everyone’s thoughts on this one.

https://x.com/appfanatic04/status/19898 ... 22297?s=46

I wonder if he did that in Columbia last year? I’m gonna go on a limb and say no

Kirby Smart’s son is a regular fixture on the UGA sideline and it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Kirby Smart wins a lot of football games in the SEC

[Seattleapp]

People need to calm down with firing the coaching staff after one season. It's reactionary and emotional.

This season has been one to forget for sure, but how many times did we have to listen to tirades and defenses of this hiring (or about getting rid of Coach Clark) because of how bad the roster was? They turned over 2/3 of the roster and it's clear that there have been few bright spots from that turnover. But if all this season was supposed to be was cleaning out all the old to make room for the new, as so many of you claimed was the main goal, then that was done.

Next year can fairly be assessed as a make or break year for the coaches. We will have a full influx of their players and a year of experience under their belts. If we still see these same issues, then cutting this experiment short would be warranted.

Counterpoint- our roster is likely to be turned over at that rate every year. This is the new CFB landscape

Oh my God. I’m so tired of this. NO. IT. IS. NOT. No teams, P4 or G5 have 2/3rds of their roster turnover every year unless they have a coaching change. In fact, if you look at the numbers, the amount of players transferring isn’t that much higher than it was before the new rules. However, before kids would just drop out, not the “transfer” to nowhere.

How many players are going to be back next year? And I thought DLO’s problem this year is he couldn’t win with this inferior roster. So won’t he be trying to turn the roster over?

[AppDawg]

I haven’t read all 30 pages of this thread and apologies if already been mentioned, but this ish really hit the fan when Cummings got hurt. Until then the O seemed to be serviceable, if not good despite VERY untimely turnovers.

Only bringing up as to me I have always thought of TE as a critical weapon. When I used to watch NFL it was a highly valued position. Might that be the root of D-lo’s O?

Not an excuse, I am as frustrated as everyone else. Sure he should adjust and adapt with injuries… but just a thought.

[Seattleapp]

Would love to know everyone’s thoughts on this one.

https://x.com/appfanatic04/status/19898 ... 22297?s=46

I wonder if he did that in Columbia last year? I’m gonna go on a limb and say no

Kirby Smart’s son is a regular fixture on the UGA sideline and it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Kirby Smart wins a lot of football games in the SEC. The day smart is losing by 50 to Florida is the day it’s an issue

[AppDawg]

People need to calm down with firing the coaching staff after one season. It's reactionary and emotional.

This season has been one to forget for sure, but how many times did we have to listen to tirades and defenses of this hiring (or about getting rid of Coach Clark) because of how bad the roster was? They turned over 2/3 of the roster and it's clear that there have been few bright spots from that turnover. But if all this season was supposed to be was cleaning out all the old to make room for the new, as so many of you claimed was the main goal, then that was done.

Next year can fairly be assessed as a make or break year for the coaches. We will have a full influx of their players and a year of experience under their belts. If we still see these same issues, then cutting this experiment short would be warranted.

Counterpoint- our roster is likely to be turned over at that rate every year. This is the new CFB landscape

Oh my God. I’m so tired of this. NO. IT. IS. NOT. No teams, P4 or G5 have 2/3rds of their roster turnover every year unless they have a coaching change. In fact, if you look at the numbers, the amount of players transferring isn’t that much higher than it was before the new rules. However, before kids would just drop out, not the “transfer” to nowhere.

I beg to differ. The team that just kicked our ass… 64 new players in 2024 and 50 new in 2025, with a new coach in 2024. Year 2 and still HIGH turnover. Yet achieved a 9-4 record in ‘24 and now on cusp of playoff.

“newly minted FBS coach Bob Chesney had a total of 64 new players for 2024, which is an insane total for a roster that is conventionally capped at 85 scholarship players.
But this year, JMU is quietly working through another hefty offseason of turnover, with roughly 50 new players on campus between freshmen and new transfer arrivals.”

https://jmusportsblog.com/?p=12053

[AtlAppMan]

DLo started in Dec.
He inherited a losing team on a downward trajectory
We did not have good OLine and Dline for several years and they were getting worse every year
DLo had to accept whatever HS recruits that were coming in and recruited from the same staff that got fired or not have any players at all.
He had to cull out many bad players on the roster
He had very very limited opportunity with the portal due to hiring date and portal window and lack of having his own coaching staff in this place.

What would any other coach do better given those circumstances?
If you don’t have the horses how do you compete?
I don’t think some on this board realize how bad we were at the end of last year.

Just some food for thought.
I am disappointed with this year and we better improve next year but all of the above is true whether you like it or not.

[Seattleapp]

DLo started in Dec.
He inherited a losing team on a downward trajectory
We did not have good OLine and Dline for several years and they were getting worse every year
DLo had to accept whatever HS recruits that were coming in and recruited from the same staff that got fired or not have any players at all.
He had to cull out many bad players on the roster
He had very very limited opportunity with the portal due to hiring date and portal window and lack of having his own coaching staff in this place.

What would any other coach do better given those circumstances?
If you don’t have the horses how do you compete?
I don’t think some on this board realize how bad we were at the end of last year.

Just some food for thought.
I am disappointed with this year and we better improve next year but all of the above is true whether you like it or not.

I respect your opinion but there’s nothing that’s showing this staff is built to win. And maybe I’ll be proven wrong and I hope that I am but the it’s all the players fault and our program was in complete disarray I’m not buying. Trending down? Absolutely. But the fly in the ointment is DLO brought a ton of guys in and I’ve seen zero evidence he knows how to coach them. Why was a clearly injured Swamn still in the game down 50 as one example. If DLO had some proven track record of success I’m right there with you. But doesn’t and the very real regression in all phases of the Game is concerning

[t4pizza]

DLo started in Dec.
He inherited a losing team on a downward trajectory
We did not have good OLine and Dline for several years and they were getting worse every year
DLo had to accept whatever HS recruits that were coming in and recruited from the same staff that got fired or not have any players at all.
He had to cull out many bad players on the roster
He had very very limited opportunity with the portal due to hiring date and portal window and lack of having his own coaching staff in this place.

What would any other coach do better given those circumstances?
If you don’t have the horses how do you compete?
I don’t think some on this board realize how bad we were at the end of last year.

Just some food for thought.
I am disappointed with this year and we better improve next year but all of the above is true whether you like it or not.

Why couldn't he find the horses in the portal? He went through spring so he should have known our weaknesses, why didn't he get answers in the portal? Again, Chesney came into JMU with a roster deplete of the vast majority of talent that got Cig his job at Indiana. But he went out and brought in 64 kids and went 9-4. Why wasn't Dl able to do the same thing?