ULL Football Jim Rome show interview

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tpstulane
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ULL head football coach Mark H was just on the Jim Rome radio show for a nice interview. He said that in 3 years their stadium will seat 50k. He said they are playing at Boise St and at Ole Miss this season. The school is raising $115 million to upgrade athletic facilities. He also said he feels if ULL goes unbeaten they will have a shot of making the new playoff system. Said ULL is a wealthy oil town with lots of resources. He also talked about leading by example he benches 380 and his goal is 400. Jim Rome loved him and is still talking about their program. He said LA high school football is loaded with talent.


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tpstulane wrote:ULL head football coach Mark H was just on the Jim Rome radio show for a nice interview. He said that in 3 years their stadium will seat 50k. He said they are playing at Boise St and at Ole Miss this season. The school is raising $115 million to upgrade athletic facilities. He also said he feels if ULL goes unbeaten they will have a shot of making the new playoff system. Said ULL is a wealthy oil town with lots of resources. He also talked about leading by example he benches 380 and his goal is 400. Jim Rome loved him and is still talking about their program. He said LA high school football is loaded with talent.
I was impressed with Hudspeth, but not the UL-L program. They weren't the better team in our bowl game, and won because of Tulane self-inflicted errors. They're not going undefeated with Ole Miss and Boise State on their schedule. And even if they did, they're not close to one of the top 4 programs. But the could have an argument for "best of the G5 and undefeated" which is a consideration for a playoff spot.

Coach H outcoached CJ. But I'll strike it up to a learning experience, which CJ & Co. have had a lot of, and hope the next time we're bowling CJ has them ready to play from the opening kickoff.

The money they're raising and facilities they're building are impressive and should be noted by Fitts. 50,000 might be a great looking stadium, but their biggest crowd in 2014 was 30k, most were around 22-25k. 20,000 empty seats in a 50k stadium looks hideous as Rice will attest.
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DfromCT wrote:
tpstulane wrote:ULL head football coach Mark H was just on the Jim Rome radio show for a nice interview. He said that in 3 years their stadium will seat 50k. He said they are playing at Boise St and at Ole Miss this season. The school is raising $115 million to upgrade athletic facilities. He also said he feels if ULL goes unbeaten they will have a shot of making the new playoff system. Said ULL is a wealthy oil town with lots of resources. He also talked about leading by example he benches 380 and his goal is 400. Jim Rome loved him and is still talking about their program. He said LA high school football is loaded with talent.
I was impressed with Hudspeth, but not the UL-L program. They weren't the better team in our bowl game, and won because of Tulane self-inflicted errors. They're not going undefeated with Ole Miss and Boise State on their schedule. And even if they did, they're not close to one of the top 4 programs. But the could have an argument for "best of the G5 and undefeated" which is a consideration for a playoff spot.

Coach H outcoached CJ. But I'll strike it up to a learning experience, which CJ & Co. have had a lot of, and hope the next time we're bowling CJ has them ready to play from the opening kickoff.

The money they're raising and facilities they're building are impressive and should be noted by Fitts. 50,000 might be a great looking stadium, but their biggest crowd in 2014 was 30k, most were around 22-25k. 20,000 empty seats in a 50k stadium looks hideous as Rice will attest.
The longer he stays the better for ULL. I didn't think he'd still be there at this point. He thinks he can take the program up another level. The fan base has the potential to gain another 10K because Lafayette is busting at the seams. What hurts their upside the most is the Sun Belt conference.
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They will fill the stadium if he stays and they keep winning. Lord knows they have a bigger fan base than Tulane does. At the rate Tulane is going, another 5 years with RD at the helm, most of Tulane's fan base will die off. Seriously, have you been to a Tulane game lately? Nothing but old timers who still enjoy going to the games(must be nothing better to do) and a few middle aged guys like me(40-50 age group) who remember the late 70s early80s success. Sprinkled in with a youngsters, that's it. We should't make fun of other fan bases when pus suckw from losing so much.
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wavemania wrote:They will fill the stadium if he stays and they keep winning. Lord knows they have a bigger fan base than Tulane does. At the rate Tulane is going, another 5 years with RD at the helm, most of Tulane's fan base will die off. Seriously, have you been to a Tulane game lately? Nothing but old timers who still enjoy going to the games(must be nothing better to do) and a few middle aged guys like me(40-50 age group) who remember the late 70s early80s success. Sprinkled in with a youngsters, that's it. We should't make fun of other fan bases when pus suckw from losing so much.
Excellent points. Many may not care to hear it but it's the fact of the matter that what the Cajuns' people unequivocally want to do is look to win games on the field/court in the major sports and build up their following, and especially the 18-35 demographic who are the most ardent sports fans, spend the most on hats, t-shirts, etc. and watch games on tv, through doing so. And that's what you have to do.

What, by comparison, does TU, deep in its heart, really want to do? I wish that TU's aims were as clear and as all about trying to win as the Cajuns' aims but it's hard to avoid the impression that the no. 1 aim that TU has is putting the squeeze on the same loyal group of (mostly older) die-hards to get the $$ so that the athletics department deficit will be minimized while they continue in perpetuity with essentially the same mindset and scope of overall athletics program.
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Did he mention that the UL-L athletic budget is a lowly approximate $17 million per year and they are stuck in a bottom feeder conference the Sunbelt with almost zero media exposure or tv contract income ,$40,000 a year.. UL-L is a tier two academic university in a very small media market not attractive to larger conferences. Also they have only raised a few million dollars to add a very few limited seats to their outdated stadium. The rest over a $100 million has not been raised and a pipe dream. Lastly their name is the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with their sister school the University of Louisiana at Monroe. UL-L is trying to brand themselves the flagship university in Louisiana and be called the University of Louisiana ( what a joke) to the detriment of all the other schools in the University of Louisiana system. There is only one University of Louisiana created by Louisiana legislative act in the late 19th century,Tulane. And only one public flagship university in Louisiana LSU Agricultural and Mechanical College.
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Jonathan wrote:Did he mention that the UL-L athletic budget is a lowly approximate $17 million per year and they are stuck in a bottom feeder conference the Sunbelt with almost zero media exposure or tv contract income ,$40,000 a year.. UL-L is a tier two academic university in a very small media market not attractive to larger conferences. Also they have only raised a few million dollars to add a very few limited seats to their outdated stadium. The rest over a $100 million has not been raised and a pipe dream. Lastly their name is the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with their sister school the University of Louisiana at Monroe. UL-L is trying to brand themselves the flagship university in Louisiana and be called the University of Louisiana ( what a joke) to the detriment of all the other schools in the University of Louisiana system. There is only one University of Louisiana created by Louisiana legislative act in the late 19th century,Tulane. And only one public flagship university in Louisiana LSU Agricultural and Mechanical College.
No, he left all of that stuff out.... :lol: :lol: :lol:
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tpstulane wrote:
DfromCT wrote:
tpstulane wrote:ULL head football coach Mark H was just on the Jim Rome radio show for a nice interview. He said that in 3 years their stadium will seat 50k. He said they are playing at Boise St and at Ole Miss this season. The school is raising $115 million to upgrade athletic facilities. He also said he feels if ULL goes unbeaten they will have a shot of making the new playoff system. Said ULL is a wealthy oil town with lots of resources. He also talked about leading by example he benches 380 and his goal is 400. Jim Rome loved him and is still talking about their program. He said LA high school football is loaded with talent.
I was impressed with Hudspeth, but not the UL-L program. They weren't the better team in our bowl game, and won because of Tulane self-inflicted errors. They're not going undefeated with Ole Miss and Boise State on their schedule. And even if they did, they're not close to one of the top 4 programs. But the could have an argument for "best of the G5 and undefeated" which is a consideration for a playoff spot.

Coach H outcoached CJ. But I'll strike it up to a learning experience, which CJ & Co. have had a lot of, and hope the next time we're bowling CJ has them ready to play from the opening kickoff.

The money they're raising and facilities they're building are impressive and should be noted by Fitts. 50,000 might be a great looking stadium, but their biggest crowd in 2014 was 30k, most were around 22-25k. 20,000 empty seats in a 50k stadium looks hideous as Rice will attest.
The longer he stays the better for ULL. I didn't think he'd still be there at this point. He thinks he can take the program up another level. The fan base has the potential to gain another 10K because Lafayette is busting at the seams. What hurts their upside the most is the Sun Belt conference.
Thanks for the kind words Tpstulane and for the original post. I think I can speak for all Cajun fans and say we're all glad he's still there. He's recently signed a new contract for 6 years worth over $1MM per year so I'm hoping that's an indication that he plans to stick around a while. I'm no insider but some who are close to the program believe that he's on a mission to build a much stronger program at the university and as long as the administration backs him, we're hoping he'll hang with it.

On the subject of attendance, the athletic department is projecting a crowd of 45,000 for the Southern University home opener at Cajun Field (we had over 40K last time they visited) and another 40K+ the week following when LaTech comes to town. Last year's attendance was just 26K on average with only 5 home games, one being on Thursday night for national TV. We've got a long way to go, but we're working on it.

Most Cajun fans are down on the SunBelt, but it's actually a pretty decent football conference as many of our OOC foes have learned. The Belt was actually ranked No. 1 by the NCAA last year among the non-AQ conferences in football. While all Cajun fans want to see the Cajuns play in a 'better' conference, I'm one of those who believes it's not as big an issue as it's made out to be. Every college football fan saw what Boise State did over the years but I imagine few could ever name the conference they were in. Honestly, to this day I don't know if they were in the MW or some other conference during that great run. My point being, of course, it's up to the individual program to establish its reputation on the field.

And finally, for those hoping the Cajun athletic program will soon drop back to the obscurity it has suffered for all these years, I wouldn't be too optimistic for that outcome. Expect to see the Cajun program stick around and compete year in and year out for the number 2 spot in Louisiana athletics. There was a change in administrations 4 or 5 years ago and what you're seeing on the field today is in great part due to that change. We were saddled, literally for decades, by an administration that did not see the benefits in supporting the university's athletic program. Those days are now over.

Thanks!
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cajunfanatico wrote:
Thanks for the kind words Tpstulane and for the original post. I think I can speak for all Cajun fans and say we're all glad he's still there. He's recently signed a new contract for 6 years worth over $1MM per year so I'm hoping that's an indication that he plans to stick around a while. I'm no insider but some who are close to the program believe that he's on a mission to build a much stronger program at the university and as long as the administration backs him, we're hoping he'll hang with it.

On the subject of attendance, the athletic department is projecting a crowd of 45,000 for the Southern University home opener at Cajun Field (we had over 40K last time they visited) and another 40K+ the week following when LaTech comes to town. Last year's attendance was just 26K on average with only 5 home games, one being on Thursday night for national TV. We've got a long way to go, but we're working on it.

Most Cajun fans are down on the SunBelt, but it's actually a pretty decent football conference as many of our OOC foes have learned. The Belt was actually ranked No. 1 by the NCAA last year among the non-AQ conferences in football. While all Cajun fans want to see the Cajuns play in a 'better' conference, I'm one of those who believes it's not as big an issue as it's made out to be. Every college football fan saw what Boise State did over the years but I imagine few could ever name the conference they were in. Honestly, to this day I don't know if they were in the MW or some other conference during that great run. My point being, of course, it's up to the individual program to establish its reputation on the field.

And finally, for those hoping the Cajun athletic program will soon drop back to the obscurity it has suffered for all these years, I wouldn't be too optimistic for that outcome. Expect to see the Cajun program stick around and compete year in and year out for the number 2 spot in Louisiana athletics. There was a change in administrations 4 or 5 years ago and what you're seeing on the field today is in great part due to that change. We were saddled, literally for decades, by an administration that did not see the benefits in supporting the university's athletic program. Those days are now over.

Thanks!
Some good points, and some WILDLY off the cuff points in this post.

The Sunbelt was far from the highest ranked non-P5 conference last year. It was 10th out of 11, ahead of only the MAC in D1 (FBS).

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1914 ... son/page/2

Keep in mind the Sunbelt's conference champion (UL-L) beat the 4th or 5th best team from C-USA by the skin of their teeth, only because of Tulane shooting itself in the foot, and a rusty QB throwing what was the ugliest Pick-6 I've seen at the D1 level EVER. Tulane lost the game more than UL-L won it.

Stepping up and paying Hudspeth is very respectable, and I hope for your sake keeps him loyal. I looked at your attendance, as reported by UL-L on your website, and last year your biggest crowd was 30k. I never saw where you could draw 40k, especially since that's 35% above previous capacity. Good luck with that (it's similar to RD telling us we can fit 30k into Yulman!)

Now, I don't expect the UL-L universe to go away any time soon, and I know that with the commitment by the Administration to continue to move up, the Cajuns will be a threat. But if Tulane makes AND VOCALIZES the same commitment, we'll maintain our status as #2 for quite some time. We're ahead of you, even though you may have more fans (which is a function of size and geographic distribution of the Alumni) attending your games. But you won't be into a P5 sooner than Tulane will, and may not make the cut (which Tulane likewise faces) when the "haves" split from the "have nots." Unfortunately, New Orleans is a better market and Tulane is more respected (rightfully or wrongfully so) than UL-L and the city of Lafayette.

Congrats on the giant steps your program has taken and good luck in the future. But don't kid yourself; the Sunbelt is nowhere near the 6th power conference, and for the time being, anyway, you're best bowl opportunity is continues to be the NO Bowl.

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---If you go to Massey's composite rankings you will see that indeed the Belt was ranked #6 by a few agencies---However for the composite they were #9 ahead of CUSA!!!
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DfromCT wrote: Some good points, and some WILDLY off the cuff points in this post.

The Sunbelt was far from the highest ranked non-P5 conference last year. It was 10th out of 11, ahead of only the MAC in D1 (FBS).

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1914 ... son/page/2
Well, I try not to talk out my ass because I know there are too many folks out there way smarter than I. I commented that the Belt was ranked by the NCAA as the highest ranked non-AQ football conference last year. I realize that there are all sorts of rankings out there, but the one I quoted actually backed up their ranking with $$$$.

Louisiana-Lafayette and the Sun Belt had success on and off the field in 2013. (USATSI)

How much did it cost the Mid-American Conference missing out on a BCS bowl? Only $6 million.

That’s among the conclusions from the final revenue distribution among the four non-BCS conferences in 2013. CBSSports.com obtained documents (seen here and here) detailing the revenue split among those four leagues -- Sun Belt, Conference USA, MAC and Mountain West.

The Sun Belt led those leagues, taking in almost $4 million in BCS revenue. However, the MAC went from potentially first among the non-automatic qualifying conferences to last among the four when it lost an undefeated Northern Illinois in the MAC championship game, then went 0-5 in bowl games.

Performance-based revenue totaling approximately $6 million was dividing by shares. By finishing first, the Sun Belt got four shares, the Mountain West got three, etc.


http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaaf/writer/ ... ear-of-bcs
DfromCT wrote:Keep in mind the Sunbelt's conference champion (UL-L) beat the 4th or 5th best team from C-USA by the skin of their teeth, only because of Tulane shooting itself in the foot, and a rusty QB throwing what was the ugliest Pick-6 I've seen at the D1 level EVER. Tulane lost the game more than UL-L won it.
Some less savy football fans, like me, might have considered the fact that the starting quarterback for the Cajuns had broken his throwing arm and had surgery on the arm less than 30 days before the game might have been a factor in our play as well. But that's just me.
DfromCT wrote:Stepping up and paying Hudspeth is very respectable, and I hope for your sake keeps him loyal. I looked at your attendance, as reported by UL-L on your website, and last year your biggest crowd was 30k. I never saw where you could draw 40k, especially since that's 35% above previous capacity. Good luck with that (it's similar to RD telling us we can fit 30k into Yulman!)
Our biggest crowd last year was 30,451 but we didn't play Southern University last year. And I'm sure when you look at "capacity", you're looking at actual seats. Cajun Field, up to last year, was configured with the two end zones open and grassed. When attending fans exceed seating capacity, those end zones are opened and folks are allowed to sit there. Many (with kids) actually prefer it. Anyway, I'm not going to look it up, but I believe our crowd for that last Southern game was something on the order of 42,000 according to the Fire Marshall.
DfromCT wrote:Now, I don't expect the UL-L universe to go away any time soon, and I know that with the commitment by the Administration to continue to move up, the Cajuns will be a threat. But if Tulane makes AND VOCALIZES the same commitment, we'll maintain our status as #2 for quite some time. We're ahead of you, even though you may have more fans (which is a function of size and geographic distribution of the Alumni) attending your games. But you won't be into a P5 sooner than Tulane will, and may not make the cut (which Tulane likewise faces) when the "haves" split from the "have nots." Unfortunately, New Orleans is a better market and Tulane is more respected (rightfully or wrongfully so) than UL-L and the city of Lafayette.

Congrats on the giant steps your program has taken and good luck in the future. But don't kid yourself; the Sunbelt is nowhere near the 6th power conference, and for the time being, anyway, you're best bowl opportunity is continues to be the NO Bowl.
I'm betting we won't be in the New Orleans Bowl this year and we'll just have to disagree at this point on who occupies the No. 2 spot in the State at the moment and I wish you guys luck going forward. Like us, you've got a lot of work to do. As for the comment about the "haves" and the "have nots", the split has already occurred IMHO.
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Okay, I lied, I looked it up.

The largest crowd at The Swamp as of 2013 was 41,357 fans on September 5, 2009, when the Cajuns beat Southern University 42-19 at the 9th annual Herbert Heymann Football Classic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_Field
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cajunfanatico wrote:Okay, I lied, I looked it up.

The largest crowd at The Swamp as of 2013 was 41,357 fans on September 5, 2009, when the Cajuns beat Southern University 42-19 at the 9th annual Herbert Heymann Football Classic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_Field
And I'll bet the place was rockin, too. Did Southern bring their band?

BTW: The Sun Belt had 6 or 7 teams bowl eligible last year. How many went to a bowl game? I think it was just UL-L and Arkansas State. I thought Broadway played pretty well and gave you a chance to win. Perhaps if he hadn't played, or if Nick Montana, who was also playing injured, hadn't given away 7 points the game would have gone the other way? I don't know about the rest of the Tulane fans, but I sure as heck didn't see anything to tell me either team was clearly superior.

What bowl do you think you might get to? You're not going undefeated, and the powers that be clearly didn't vote for a big representation in the post season for the Sun Belt.
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DfromCT wrote:
cajunfanatico wrote:Okay, I lied, I looked it up.

The largest crowd at The Swamp as of 2013 was 41,357 fans on September 5, 2009, when the Cajuns beat Southern University 42-19 at the 9th annual Herbert Heymann Football Classic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_Field
And I'll bet the place was rockin, too. Did Southern bring their band?

BTW: The Sun Belt had 6 or 7 teams bowl eligible last year. How many went to a bowl game? I think it was just UL-L and Arkansas State. I thought Broadway played pretty well and gave you a chance to win. Perhaps if he hadn't played, or if Nick Montana, who was also playing injured, hadn't given away 7 points the game would have gone the other way? I don't know about the rest of the Tulane fans, but I sure as heck didn't see anything to tell me either team was clearly superior.

What bowl do you think you might get to? You're not going undefeated, and the powers that be clearly didn't vote for a big representation in the post season for the Sun Belt.
Southern might forget their football team for a football game, but they'd never forget their band. I think that's why most of their fans show up mainly to watch the band.

Last year the Belt had two teams in bowl games. I think this year we have 4 tie-ins. In my opinion the only Belt team who got shafted by missing out on a bowl last year was WKU. I certainly don't consider any 6-6 team bowl-worthy, not even in the P5's.

As for what bowl the Cajuns might attend, we need to first be bowl-eligible and it's going to be a very long season. If we have a season similar to the last three, we'll likely end up in either the New Orleans Bowl or the GoDaddy Bowl with the later probably being the preferred choice of the athletic department, team, and fans. Three years in a row in New Orleans has been good to us, but a change of scene is probably due. If we are lucky enough to have a better than average season, perhaps something like an Independence Bowl slot would be in the mix. I know nothing about the contractural tie-ins for such a bowl but based on some of the wheeling and dealing that has occurred in the past to get XYZ team to a certain bowl, I think anything is possible. Shreveport would be an easy drive for Cajun fans and the program has shown the ability to generate a crowd with 3 straight New Orleans Bowl attendance records.

If the Cajuns have a way better than average season, then who knows where the team could end up?. I tend to temper my enthusiam more than the average Cajun fan because I don't like the let-down if we perform less than expectations. I was very disappointed, for instance, when the Cajun baseballers didn't make the College World Series.
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cajunfanatico wrote: Thanks for the kind words Tpstulane and for the original post. I think I can speak for all Cajun fans and say we're all glad he's still there. He's recently signed a new contract for 6 years worth over $1MM per year so I'm hoping that's an indication that he plans to stick around a while. I'm no insider but some who are close to the program believe that he's on a mission to build a much stronger program at the university and as long as the administration backs him, we're hoping he'll hang with it.

On the subject of attendance, the athletic department is projecting a crowd of 45,000 for the Southern University home opener at Cajun Field (we had over 40K last time they visited) and another 40K+ the week following when LaTech comes to town. Last year's attendance was just 26K on average with only 5 home games, one being on Thursday night for national TV. We've got a long way to go, but we're working on it.

Most Cajun fans are down on the SunBelt, but it's actually a pretty decent football conference as many of our OOC foes have learned. The Belt was actually ranked No. 1 by the NCAA last year among the non-AQ conferences in football. While all Cajun fans want to see the Cajuns play in a 'better' conference, I'm one of those who believes it's not as big an issue as it's made out to be. Every college football fan saw what Boise State did over the years but I imagine few could ever name the conference they were in. Honestly, to this day I don't know if they were in the MW or some other conference during that great run. My point being, of course, it's up to the individual program to establish its reputation on the field.

And finally, for those hoping the Cajun athletic program will soon drop back to the obscurity it has suffered for all these years, I wouldn't be too optimistic for that outcome. Expect to see the Cajun program stick around and compete year in and year out for the number 2 spot in Louisiana athletics. There was a change in administrations 4 or 5 years ago and what you're seeing on the field today is in great part due to that change. We were saddled, literally for decades, by an administration that did not see the benefits in supporting the university's athletic program. Those days are now over.

Thanks!
Congrats on your success over the past 5 years. I only wish more Tulane fans could imagine the difference that good leadership makes. I don't expect the Cajun program to disappear and am very nervous about your progress and trajectory. We can only hope that our new President has the cajones and vision to make some dramatic changes. Make no mistake, our outgoing administration and their idiotic goal for a "boutique" program has given ULL this opportunity on a silver platter and ULL is definitely taking advantage. Tulane has many natural advantages that, given equal leadership, ULL would not be able to match, but Hudspeth and the ULL administration are definitely succeeding with the hand they have to play. I only wish Tulane had equally good leadership.
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jonathanjoseph wrote:Congrats on your success over the past 5 years. I only wish more Tulane fans could imagine the difference that good leadership makes. I don't expect the Cajun program to disappear and am very nervous about your progress and trajectory. We can only hope that our new President has the cajones and vision to make some dramatic changes. Make no mistake, our outgoing administration and their idiotic goal for a "boutique" program has given ULL this opportunity on a silver platter and ULL is definitely taking advantage. Tulane has many natural advantages that, given equal leadership, ULL would not be able to match, but Hudspeth and the ULL administration are definitely succeeding with the hand they have to play. I only wish Tulane had equally good leadership.
JJ, you nailed it. It's all about leadership, and not just the leadership of the athletic department. If support doesn't come from the very top in any organizaton, it's really hard for those below to accomplish their goals.

I attended USL in the early 1970's and Ray Authement was president at the time. Overall he was a fine president, overseeing the growth of USL into the second largest university in Louisiana. But from what I understand, the NCAA death penalty given to our basketball program (c. 1975) and all the surrounding negative publicity nationally, really soured him on athletics. From there forward, he gave support to the program, but only grudgingly. Authement served as president until 2008!!

With our new president, things have turned around completely and Cajun fans are as excited about the future as I've ever seen. Coach Hud was obviously a great hire, but there are many other things happening on the athletic front that bode well for the program overall. After decades of rather dismal showings in athletics, I believe we've turned the corner and hopefully will never slide back to where we were.

Last night I took the opportunity to read some of the older threads here, in particular the threads re last year's New Orleans Bowl. Of course there was all the usual chest thumping about who had the better team and why the final results were what they were. But one thing that really jumped out at me were the comments by several Tulane faithful saying they'd not seen such excitement and enthusiasm for a GreenWave football game in many years......one saying it was the most electric they'd seen a Tulane crowd since the late 1990's. Some of you may not realize it, but that game finished as the 11th best out of 35 bowl games in attendance.

Where I'm going with this is that I hope our administrations see the benefit in continuing an on-the-field, basketball court, and baseball diamond relationship. While conference affiliation can be an important element to one's success, that alone can't make a program successful. I personally believe it all starts with fan involvement and Tulane/Cajun games seem to get both fan bases very excited. There are many Cajun alumni living and working in New Orleans and the surrounding areas (as evidenced by 30,000+ Cajun fans in the Super Dome last Dec.) and I believe games between our two teams will always be a good draw and a fun matchup to watch.

Good luck in your new Yulman digs!
ajcalhoun: Nobody here gives a flying fuck about UL-L and the Sunbelt Conference.
DfromCT
Wild Pelican
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I only wish more significant donors would put the administration to the screws to improve the commitment to building a superior athletics department. Jill and Avi Glazer know about winning (they own the Tampa Bay Bucs, and more impressively Manchester United). How they let CowDick talk them into the Tulane Model is beyond me.
" If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day.." Jimmy V
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