Dale Jones out - Footballscoop

[AppSt94]

Going into the Texas State game going forward I thought we'd do better than 6-6. I must have been in complete denial, what was I thinking?

Well, when you are given reasons for the results and continuously call them excuses; what else would you call it?

[WataugaMan]

It is what it is, no way to sugar coat it.

[JTApps1]

"Cue the "do you have a documented source that says there have been issues for that long?" in 3, 2, 1...."

3 Sun Belt Conference Championships and 4 Bowl victories

Which is part of the problem... Constant coach turn over due to the success and then less money in the assistant coach pool due to covid cuts... If you can't see how that can cause an issue, that's on you.

If the head coach can't hire his first 3 choices at several positions coaches because he can't get enough money in the pool, it's pretty hard to compete with.

And this is just one example of the problems that have been manifesting....

We were fortunate to have continuity with Satt's staff that moved up from FCS. We could give them a small bump, but still not on par with our new FBS peers. Once they proved they were FBS quality, others came calling.

One of the main reasons Satt left is because he wanted our staff to get paid what the other top SBC staffs were getting. We couldn't come up with more at the time so Satt started looking knowing his staff was about to get picked apart.

[Saint3333]

Is Ivey really dynamic enough to be a DC at this level.

Seems like a great motivator though.

This may sound weird but he makes a good position coach and could be a good head coach, but his skill set may be least suited as a coordinator.

[AppStateNews]

Is Ivey really dynamic enough to be a DC at this level.

Seems like a great motivator though.

This may sound weird but he makes a good position coach and could be a good head coach, but his skill set may be least suited as a coordinator.

Did you watch their bowl game today?

I'm just curious what makes you think that? What skill set does he have that makes him less of a DC?

[Saint3333]

Did I watch an overmatched Cincy team get beat at every position group, yes I did.

It’s the same skill set that makes Clark a potentially good head coach while never being a coordinator. Some people aren’t wired to play chess.

[AppSt94]

Did I watch an overmatched Cincy team get beat at every position group, yes I did.

It’s the same skill set that makes Clark a potentially good head coach while never being a coordinator. Some people aren’t wired to play chess.

Not disagreeing with you as I agree in that some guys aren’t fits for certain positions. I don’t think that you can discount the play calling results because of personnel that wasn’t on the field. Regardless of the effort and execution, he made calls that put his guys in position to make plays. That is the trademark of a good play caller. Like you said. Some guys aren’t wired to understand chess.

[WVAPPeer]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

[AtlAppMan]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

I am less concerned about a coach making that assessment and comment (to limited audiences of course) but rather why we are in that situation in the first place. If all you folks in the know tell me we were so bad when he took over that we had to totally rebuild and go backward to go forward I am a more than skeptical but if the real situation was true then I would say it is the right thing to do. We coach started I didn’t hear these experts say we are going to be in a 3-4 year rebuild phase so buckle up and get ready for some hard times for App State football. Nobody said that. But rather now that we are 6-6 all these football guys say, we had no talent due to Drink, had to deal with COVID, this, that, etc. excuse me but the explanations seem a little convenient.

For me I do continue to remind myself that we played the long game, hired a rookie and with that will be some growing pains. That was the commitment we were making so we have to give reasonable time, more so than if we were hiring the hot gun or veteran at that time. So right now we are in that “give it some time mode and hope we make all the right adjustments period”.

[appstate24]

I’ve made it very known that I would love to have Gasparato and/or Ivey back. The things I’ve heard about Gasparato’s abilities and the endorsements I’ve heard from former staff and players are impressive. Ivey’s passion is unmatched and his results can’t be argued.

A quick glance at message boards show both Louisville and Cincy’s fans would die to keep or have Ivey on staff.

GO APPS!!

[AppStateNews]

There are several behind the scenes issues, but I think the most crucial one is the perfect storm of constant turnover of position coaches (going back to Satt days) and then losing salary pool money because of covid. This hurt recruiting in key areas and made it nearly impossible to build a staff with the experience needed. Again, Clark had to hire his 3rd and 4th choices in some areas because of budget constraints.

Sure, covid impacted everyone. But what people don't realize is we were already near the bottom of assistants salary pools and we were one of less than 10 programs that actually cut salary pools. I'm not talking about furloughs, I'm talking about actual cuts.

Imagine losing a coach making $100k a year and having to replace him with a coach making $75k. Then replacing that $75k coach with a $50k coach (not actual numbers, just using them for simple math). It's going to cause issues that won't be seen for a year or two because of the granted covid senior years.

[appstatealum]

I need someone to tell me what a message board is for. It’s clear I’ve been wrong for over 30 years. Should we post cat videos, recipes, farm reports, what?

Well what I have learned from "The experts on the board" is that unless you have prior coaching experience then you should not provide any opinions about how the team is coached or the operations of the program. Because you can't possibly know anything about running a football team, regardless of any of our other worldly experience. You can see this one rubs me the wrong way. I use one comparison in business world. In 1993 IBM hired Lou Gerstner as CEO even though he had no experience with Computer or Technology companies. He did have experience with RJR and American Express. IBM historically promoted from within (they wanted IBM guys) but this time they stepped out to find the best guy. When he took over, the company was in downward spiral and many thought it was done. He turned the company around and analyst have said that was the best move IBM ever made. So my point is, you don't have to have been a coach to know the difference in good and bad. The best CEO's will tell you to surround yourself with good performers.

Another great point is we should remember the Grandfather of App State Football, Jerry Moore, was not an App State guy either. Point here is we definitely like that attribute on the resume but it should not be a pre-requisite or a priority over other important check boxes.

This is true. Sports is very much like other things in life and certain skill sets apply. It's not "one size fits all". In fact, this pretty much applies to many things in life

[bcoach]

There are several behind the scenes issues, but I think the most crucial one is the perfect storm of constant turnover of position coaches (going back to Satt days) and then losing salary pool money because of covid. This hurt recruiting in key areas and made it nearly impossible to build a staff with the experience needed. Again, Clark had to hire his 3rd and 4th choices in some areas because of budget constraints.

Sure, covid impacted everyone. But what people don't realize is we were already near the bottom of assistants salary pools and we were one of less than 10 programs that actually cut salary pools. I'm not talking about furloughs, I'm talking about actual cuts.

Imagine losing a coach making $100k a year and having to replace him with a coach making $75k. Then replacing that $75k coach with a $50k coach (not actual numbers, just using them for simple math). It's going to cause issues that won't be seen for a year or two because of the granted covid senior years.

This is the thing we don't like to talk about on here. We do not support the program financially the way we need to. We talk about all the things we need, want and "deserve". Better coaches, more seats, more this, more that. What we don't talk about is the fact we don't give what it takes to have all these things. We think " corporate sponsors" are supposed to drop out of the sky and shower money on us. Sorry but it just gets under my skin how we want, we want, we want. We don't have the money for what we want. Can anybody guess what the solution is?

[WataugaMan]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

Heading into the JMU game we were 2-1 with the only loss coming in a close game with UNC (and, a win against Texas A&M). While leading at halftime against JMU, I saw a team that was better than .500 especially with 2 FCS teams thrown into the mix. Then for some unknown reason everything turned upside down. Maybe if someone believes they'll only be .500 at best that's precisely what's going to happen. (just speculation, seems that way at least) We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, I personally believer we were better than a .500 team. We proved it on the field early on.

[AppStateNews]

There are several behind the scenes issues, but I think the most crucial one is the perfect storm of constant turnover of position coaches (going back to Satt days) and then losing salary pool money because of covid. This hurt recruiting in key areas and made it nearly impossible to build a staff with the experience needed. Again, Clark had to hire his 3rd and 4th choices in some areas because of budget constraints.

Sure, covid impacted everyone. But what people don't realize is we were already near the bottom of assistants salary pools and we were one of less than 10 programs that actually cut salary pools. I'm not talking about furloughs, I'm talking about actual cuts.

Imagine losing a coach making $100k a year and having to replace him with a coach making $75k. Then replacing that $75k coach with a $50k coach (not actual numbers, just using them for simple math). It's going to cause issues that won't be seen for a year or two because of the granted covid senior years.

This is the thing we don't like to talk about on here. We do not support the program financially the way we need to. We talk about all the things we need, want and "deserve". Better coaches, more seats, more this, more that. What we don't talk about is the fact we don't give what it takes to have all these things. We think " corporate sponsors" are supposed to drop out of the sky and shower money on us. Sorry but it just gets under my skin how we want, we want, we want. We don't have the money for what we want. Can anybody guess what the solution is?

We're in better shape than we were, but yes, we need to help out more. Just over 3,000 Yosef Club members with over 125,000 living alumni is pathetic.

[AppSt94]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

Heading into the JMU game we were 2-1 with the only loss coming in a close game with UNC (and, a win against Texas A&M). While leading at halftime against JMU, I saw a team that was better than .500 especially with 2 FCS teams thrown into the mix. Then for some unknown reason everything turned upside down. Maybe if someone believes they'll only be .500 at best that's precisely what's going to happen. (just speculation, seems that way at least) We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, I personally believer we were better than a .500 team. We proved it early on.

We make the odd angle FG and beat Southern, we are 7-5 and bowling. We don’t have the punt blocked for a TD against Marshall or fumble a snap going in for a score against Coastal, those games look different and we could be 8-4 or even 9-3 and no one is complaining as loud as they are now. Of course these are two plays and you can come back with the Hail Mary miss and we are 1-4. The point is that the margin of error between winning and losing is razor thin. I understand why one would glean that we were better than a .500 team. I just don’t know how what you see on Saturday can be the determining factor of expectations when no one sees what happens Sunday to Friday.

[AppSt94]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

I am less concerned about a coach making that assessment and comment (to limited audiences of course) but rather why we are in that situation in the first place. If all you folks in the know tell me we were so bad when he took over that we had to totally rebuild and go backward to go forward I am a more than skeptical but if the real situation was true then I would say it is the right thing to do. We coach started I didn’t hear these experts say we are going to be in a 3-4 year rebuild phase so buckle up and get ready for some hard times for App State football. Nobody said that. But rather now that we are 6-6 all these football guys say, we had no talent due to Drink, had to deal with COVID, this, that, etc. excuse me but the explanations seem a little convenient.

For me I do continue to remind myself that we played the long game, hired a rookie and with that will be some growing pains. That was the commitment we were making so we have to give reasonable time, more so than if we were hiring the hot gun or veteran at that time. So right now we are in that “give it some time mode and hope we make all the right adjustments period”.

Serious question(s): What conclusions did you make as to the reason for the record this season? What caused those issues?

[WataugaMan]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

Heading into the JMU game we were 2-1 with the only loss coming in a close game with UNC (and, a win against Texas A&M). While leading at halftime against JMU, I saw a team that was better than .500 especially with 2 FCS teams thrown into the mix. Then for some unknown reason everything turned upside down. Maybe if someone believes they'll only be .500 at best that's precisely what's going to happen. (just speculation, seems that way at least) We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, I personally believer we were better than a .500 team. We proved it early on.

We make the odd angle FG and beat Southern, we are 7-5 and bowling. We don’t have the punt blocked for a TD against Marshall or fumble a snap going in for a score against Coastal, those games look different and we could be 8-4 or even 9-3 and no one is complaining as loud as they are now. Of course these are two plays and you can come back with the Hail Mary miss and we are 1-4. The point is that the margin of error between winning and losing is razor thin. I understand why one would glean that we were better than a .500 team. I just don’t know how what you see on Saturday can be the determining factor of expectations when no one sees what happens Sunday to Friday.

Why did we go conservative at halftime during the JMU game going forward? We became predictable as "Brownie" said. Some of that rizor thin margin of victory could have been avoided with a little more creativity. There were a lot of self inflicted wounds this season.

[pop5app]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

I am less concerned about a coach making that assessment and comment (to limited audiences of course) but rather why we are in that situation in the first place. If all you folks in the know tell me we were so bad when he took over that we had to totally rebuild and go backward to go forward I am a more than skeptical but if the real situation was true then I would say it is the right thing to do. We coach started I didn’t hear these experts say we are going to be in a 3-4 year rebuild phase so buckle up and get ready for some hard times for App State football. Nobody said that. But rather now that we are 6-6 all these football guys say, we had no talent due to Drink, had to deal with COVID, this, that, etc. excuse me but the explanations seem a little convenient.

For me I do continue to remind myself that we played the long game, hired a rookie and with that will be some growing pains. That was the commitment we were making so we have to give reasonable time, more so than if we were hiring the hot gun or veteran at that time. So right now we are in that “give it some time mode and hope we make all the right adjustments period”.

Serious question(s): What conclusions did you make as to the reason for the record this season? What caused those issues?

Great question! I’ve wondered since the middle of the season. (what happened?) I’ve hesitated to ask for fear of being called some name like “stupid or delusional”. So I’m thrilled that you asked. Wonder what everyone on here thinks are the reasons for the record. (not excuses).

[AppStateNews]

"What if I said Clark told me after spring ball he would be surprised to be over .500 this year? I was told we were likely playing 8 guys on the starting 22 that weren't ready to start but we didn't have any other options."
==========================================
If the head coach doesn't have any faith in his team/program, as you stated, no wonder things ended the way it did. On another note, from what I'm hearing I have confidence things will be better next season.

Believe it or not, coaches are usually honest with friends, other coaches, and people they trust - I don't know the relationship between Coach Clark and AppState News but comments like this one are Not uncommon between certain parties - I can tell you that more than once I made a similar statement to people close to me - "Man we will be lucky to win 5 games this year" -Does that show you have no faith in your team or your coaching ability??? - Hell No, It's called being honest

Heading into the JMU game we were 2-1 with the only loss coming in a close game with UNC (and, a win against Texas A&M). While leading at halftime against JMU, I saw a team that was better than .500 especially with 2 FCS teams thrown into the mix. Then for some unknown reason everything turned upside down. Maybe if someone believes they'll only be .500 at best that's precisely what's going to happen. (just speculation, seems that way at least) We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, I personally believer we were better than a .500 team. We proved it early on.

We make the odd angle FG and beat Southern, we are 7-5 and bowling. We don’t have the punt blocked for a TD against Marshall or fumble a snap going in for a score against Coastal, those games look different and we could be 8-4 or even 9-3 and no one is complaining as loud as they are now. Of course these are two plays and you can come back with the Hail Mary miss and we are 1-4. The point is that the margin of error between winning and losing is razor thin. I understand why one would glean that we were better than a .500 team. I just don’t know how what you see on Saturday can be the determining factor of expectations when no one sees what happens Sunday to Friday.

Why did we go conservative at halftime during the JMU game going forward? We became predictable as "Brownie" said. Some of that rizor thin margin of victory could have been avoided, with a little more creativity. There were a lot of self inflicted wounds this season.

If you go back and watch Troy and JMU, you'll see JMU did the same things in the second half that Troy did all game. Troy wrote the blueprint on how to stop us.

The offensive creativity stopped because teams schemed it out. It's on coaches to out scheme the out-scheme and they didn't. That is the only failure of the offensive coaching staff I saw this year. Which, I agree, is a big failure but, a lot of that was also personnel availability (i.e. certain players saying they are good to go, getting cleared, practicing all week with no issues, and come kickoff they suddenly can't go).

On defense, same thing. Troy and second half JMU both either motioned Hampton/McLeod into coverage, double teamed them, or chipped them with a RB/HB/TE before running the route. This made our pass rush non-existent. This made our already limited secondary look even worse. Again, this is on the coaching staff to fix, and they made adjustments. Defense performed much better (with the eye test) in the last 4ish weeks -- even with injuries to very key players.