2026 Team Previews

[Bigdaddyg1]

How much salary does App State football actually pay out? Is this public information and if not, why isn’t it? When I read that guys come here to “collect a paycheck” I wonder what that even entails.

[AppSt94]

How much salary does App State football actually pay out? Is this public information and if not, why isn’t it? When I read that guys come here to “collect a paycheck” I wonder what that even entails.

And there in lies the problem. Individual compensation is not public knowledge. That’s why much of these conversations are speculative.

[Stonewall]

Media revenue distribution has been an issue for us in the Sunbelt. The votes are heavily against us.

[AppStFan1]

A lot of folks have second thoughts about the hire . A lot.

We don't need to be paying buyouts. If it is so bad that he has to go this year then Gillin should be gone as well. I really hope they don't rush and fire Loggains in 2026 unless they have cause.

I would say a losing record against peer schools is sufficient cause to fire him. If he can't get this team over .500 in year two, he needs to go in my opinion. A losing record would make three consecutive years of losing records, how often do you think that has happened in App State football history? NEVER, it has never ever happened in the entire history of our program. It is bad enough that we have had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but if we go 3 in a row and 4 in 5 years then he needs to go.

I agree with that but is that in the contract? If losing was enough for cause then no buyouts would have to be paid. The one thing I will say in his defense is that you can't say 3 in a row or 4 out of 5 with him. Clark did the others. Can only judge him based on what he has done.

[BambooRdApp]

A lot of folks have second thoughts about the hire . A lot.

We don't need to be paying buyouts. If it is so bad that he has to go this year then Gillin should be gone as well. I really hope they don't rush and fire Loggains in 2026 unless they have cause.

I would say a losing record against peer schools is sufficient cause to fire him. If he can't get this team over .500 in year two, he needs to go in my opinion. A losing record would make three consecutive years of losing records, how often do you think that has happened in App State football history? NEVER, it has never ever happened in the entire history of our program. It is bad enough that we have had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but if we go 3 in a row and 4 in 5 years then he needs to go.

DLo only responsibile for 1. What he was left with on the D side of the ball is not completely correctable in a year, maybe two.

[t4pizza]

A lot of folks have second thoughts about the hire . A lot.

We don't need to be paying buyouts. If it is so bad that he has to go this year then Gillin should be gone as well. I really hope they don't rush and fire Loggains in 2026 unless they have cause.

I would say a losing record against peer schools is sufficient cause to fire him. If he can't get this team over .500 in year two, he needs to go in my opinion. A losing record would make three consecutive years of losing records, how often do you think that has happened in App State football history? NEVER, it has never ever happened in the entire history of our program. It is bad enough that we have had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but if we go 3 in a row and 4 in 5 years then he needs to go.

I agree with that but is that in the contract? If losing was enough for cause then no buyouts would have to be paid. The one thing I will say in his defense is that you can't say 3 in a row or 4 out of 5 with him. Clark did the others. Can only judge him based on what he has done.

I didn't mean "cause" as in we could legally get out of the contract, I simply meant that if he can't win this year than he needs to be fired (as in it would be the causation of his termination).

[AppStFan1]

A lot of folks have second thoughts about the hire . A lot.

We don't need to be paying buyouts. If it is so bad that he has to go this year then Gillin should be gone as well. I really hope they don't rush and fire Loggains in 2026 unless they have cause.

I would say a losing record against peer schools is sufficient cause to fire him. If he can't get this team over .500 in year two, he needs to go in my opinion. A losing record would make three consecutive years of losing records, how often do you think that has happened in App State football history? NEVER, it has never ever happened in the entire history of our program. It is bad enough that we have had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but if we go 3 in a row and 4 in 5 years then he needs to go.

DLo only responsibile for 1. What he was left with on the D side of the ball is not completely correctable in a year, maybe two.

Agreed here. Do you get the feeling that we have media and fans who want DLo to struggle this year and be fired? The way some folks talk it feels like they don't want him to win so they can say they were right or that he deserved it for not being social enough.

[AppStFan1]

A lot of folks have second thoughts about the hire . A lot.

We don't need to be paying buyouts. If it is so bad that he has to go this year then Gillin should be gone as well. I really hope they don't rush and fire Loggains in 2026 unless they have cause.

I would say a losing record against peer schools is sufficient cause to fire him. If he can't get this team over .500 in year two, he needs to go in my opinion. A losing record would make three consecutive years of losing records, how often do you think that has happened in App State football history? NEVER, it has never ever happened in the entire history of our program. It is bad enough that we have had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but if we go 3 in a row and 4 in 5 years then he needs to go.

I agree with that but is that in the contract? If losing was enough for cause then no buyouts would have to be paid. The one thing I will say in his defense is that you can't say 3 in a row or 4 out of 5 with him. Clark did the others. Can only judge him based on what he has done.

I didn't mean "cause" as in we could legally get out of the contract, I simply meant that if he can't win this year than he needs to be fired (as in it would be the causation of his termination).

I hear you. Serious question though. After the debacle with Clark and Loggains, assuming we lose this year, should Gillin not be the first one fired? If Loggains does not pan out then don't you think an argument can be made that we would not want Gillin making the decisions on that?

[t4pizza]

We don't need to be paying buyouts. If it is so bad that he has to go this year then Gillin should be gone as well. I really hope they don't rush and fire Loggains in 2026 unless they have cause.

I would say a losing record against peer schools is sufficient cause to fire him. If he can't get this team over .500 in year two, he needs to go in my opinion. A losing record would make three consecutive years of losing records, how often do you think that has happened in App State football history? NEVER, it has never ever happened in the entire history of our program. It is bad enough that we have had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but if we go 3 in a row and 4 in 5 years then he needs to go.

I agree with that but is that in the contract? If losing was enough for cause then no buyouts would have to be paid. The one thing I will say in his defense is that you can't say 3 in a row or 4 out of 5 with him. Clark did the others. Can only judge him based on what he has done.

I didn't mean "cause" as in we could legally get out of the contract, I simply meant that if he can't win this year than he needs to be fired (as in it would be the causation of his termination).

I hear you. Serious question though. After the debacle with Clark and Loggains, assuming we lose this year, should Gillin not be the first one fired? If Loggains does not pan out then don't you think an argument can be made that we would not want Gillin making the decisions on that?

Yes, I think as DLo goes so should our AD. Gillen has done a good job in many ways but he has not advanced our football program and has taken far too long to get our school to be serious about NIL. To be clear, I want nothing more than to win a Sun Belt title this year and both of those guys to have jobs at App.

[Stonewall]

Two different bodies of work.One very narrow, the other very broad.

[Bootsy]

It’s heartbreaking to witness to the slow death of college athletics when many student athletes still do it for the a chance to get an education and the love of the game, not for a paycheck. I hate it for them.

[diehardapp18]

If we go 5-7 again the HC and AD have to go imo.

The AD has done so much good work in his time here. But if you get two football hires wrong I just think it’s far too risky to give a third.

Finding and hiring a coach who can succeed at the G5 level in this environment is going to be a pretty tough thing to do. Like others have said, I think the G5 level will full of mediocre teams.

Completely false on the first part.

Also I’m not saying I expect 10 wins this season. But if we don’t get to 7-8 it’s time for radical change. From the top bottom.

[diehardapp18]

My main goals are as follows.

Beat ECU and UNCC

Keep up with JMU and try to catch what is needed to land in a conference with ECU and UNCC and JMU and Marshall. I love to hate Georgia Southern, but I would be ok if we left them out. (Especially if it meant staying with JMU and ECU) There is going to be one more shift of conferences and I hope we end in a pretty tight "Good" conference. I hate to see what has happened to ECU....I think it unbelievably unfair. (They are the team that is going to get left out that had it at one time...BigEast) I cannot imagine what it feels like for those fans to get left out, but they are going to get left out.

ECU will absolutely obliterate us. We beat them less than 24 months ago but holy hell have these two programs gone in opposite directions since. One program found a good coach, the other hasn’t yet. Simple.

My question is if we can beat the likes of Coastal and Southern this year.

[AppSt94]

Doug’s job is safe whether this hire works out or not. Everyone can have an opinion on his tenure, but to suggest that he be replaced based on the outcome of one sport is narrow minded and speaks to one’s singular focus on App. Yes football drives the bus but he is responsible for so much more than that. And while he isn’t perfect, he has gotten more right than he has wrong. And he has done it with some fairly large obstacles in his path.

[AppStFan1]

Doug’s job is safe whether this hire works out or not. Everyone can have an opinion on his tenure, but to suggest that he be replaced based on the outcome of one sport is narrow minded and speaks to one’s singular focus on App. Yes football drives the bus but he is responsible for so much more than that. And while he isn’t perfect, he has gotten more right than he has wrong. And he has done it with some fairly large obstacles in his path.

It is absolutely singular because football drives everything. Football matters 10x more than any 1 other sport. Just how it is. When you look at the dominoes that fell just because of the Michigan win it showed the importance.

I agree that Gillin is not awful and certainly believe he has done more right than wrong but where we end up in realignment and the state of football matters most. I believe that Loggains should for sure get 2026 and 2027 and judge from there. Obviously, none of our opinions really matter but I have heard many others feel the same way.

I just hope Loggains wins big this year and either so big that he gets a P4 job or enough that he has us in contention for the SBC and people get off his back. I am pulling for him and I do think it is important he gets a fair length of time. If Loggains does bad then it means App football does bad and none of us want App football to do poorly.

[ASUFan4863]

Doug’s job is safe whether this hire works out or not. Everyone can have an opinion on his tenure, but to suggest that he be replaced based on the outcome of one sport is narrow minded and speaks to one’s singular focus on App. Yes football drives the bus but he is responsible for so much more than that. And while he isn’t perfect, he has gotten more right than he has wrong. And he has done it with some fairly large obstacles in his path.

It is absolutely singular because football drives everything. Football matters 10x more than any 1 other sport. Just how it is. When you look at the dominoes that fell just because of the Michigan win it showed the importance.

I agree that Gillin is not awful and certainly believe he has done more right than wrong but where we end up in realignment and the state of football matters most. I believe that Loggains should for sure get 2026 and 2027 and judge from there. Obviously, none of our opinions really matter but I have heard many others feel the same way.

I just hope Loggains wins big this year and either so big that he gets a P4 job or enough that he has us in contention for the SBC and people get off his back. I am pulling for him and I do think it is important he gets a fair length of time. If Loggains does bad then it means App football does bad and none of us want App football to do poorly.

Agree with everything in this post. Although Loggains is not without blame for this, a large swath of fans have not given him a fair chance.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

I hope Loggains succeeds and think he still can, however, if he does not and gets canned, does Doug get a pass if he's able to convert Wilks into the next HC?

[Saint3333]

What percentage of being the Head Coach is football between the lines and August-December vs. the offseason work? Wilks would no doubt get 100% of each player from August - December and spring training.

Still pulling for Loggins to kill it this year and get hired away so we can use that buyout $.

[AppStFan1]

Doug’s job is safe whether this hire works out or not. Everyone can have an opinion on his tenure, but to suggest that he be replaced based on the outcome of one sport is narrow minded and speaks to one’s singular focus on App. Yes football drives the bus but he is responsible for so much more than that. And while he isn’t perfect, he has gotten more right than he has wrong. And he has done it with some fairly large obstacles in his path.

It is absolutely singular because football drives everything. Football matters 10x more than any 1 other sport. Just how it is. When you look at the dominoes that fell just because of the Michigan win it showed the importance.

I agree that Gillin is not awful and certainly believe he has done more right than wrong but where we end up in realignment and the state of football matters most. I believe that Loggains should for sure get 2026 and 2027 and judge from there. Obviously, none of our opinions really matter but I have heard many others feel the same way.

I just hope Loggains wins big this year and either so big that he gets a P4 job or enough that he has us in contention for the SBC and people get off his back. I am pulling for him and I do think it is important he gets a fair length of time. If Loggains does bad then it means App football does bad and none of us want App football to do poorly.

Agree with everything in this post. Although Loggains is not without blame for this, a large swath of fans have not given him a fair chance.

It is all true. Whether fair or not, football drives it all. I am not a fan or apologist for Bubba Cunningham because he has made a lot of mistakes but he said it best. The 1.5M WR is more valuable to a school than an entire tennis program. The football program is way more valuable than the rest of athletics combined. If it was not for Title IX and conferences having minimum requirements for how many sports a school needs to have I bet most schools would drop down to just football and basketball and many would just have football.

[EastHallApp]

We don't need to be paying buyouts. If it is so bad that he has to go this year then Gillin should be gone as well. I really hope they don't rush and fire Loggains in 2026 unless they have cause.

I would say a losing record against peer schools is sufficient cause to fire him. If he can't get this team over .500 in year two, he needs to go in my opinion. A losing record would make three consecutive years of losing records, how often do you think that has happened in App State football history? NEVER, it has never ever happened in the entire history of our program. It is bad enough that we have had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but if we go 3 in a row and 4 in 5 years then he needs to go.

I agree with that but is that in the contract? If losing was enough for cause then no buyouts would have to be paid. The one thing I will say in his defense is that you can't say 3 in a row or 4 out of 5 with him. Clark did the others. Can only judge him based on what he has done.

I didn't mean "cause" as in we could legally get out of the contract, I simply meant that if he can't win this year than he needs to be fired (as in it would be the causation of his termination).

I hear you. Serious question though. After the debacle with Clark and Loggains, assuming we lose this year, should Gillin not be the first one fired? If Loggains does not pan out then don't you think an argument can be made that we would not want Gillin making the decisions on that?

This used to be my view - that the Loggains hire was so out of left field, that it better work or the AD needs to go before the next hire.

I've changed my view somewhat on this based on hearing from people that the decision was partially or fully taken out of Gillin's hands. Don't know that for a fact firsthand, just what I've heard.