Stop Blaming CBT

[jonathanjoseph]

I support the idea of taking YOGWF threads and bringing them here where they can be discussed freely, and after reading that board found this comment that really bothered me.

By LSU Law Greenie

I wish I could have taken a picture of CBT's face when I got on the team plane for the ride home - I swear he looked like his mother had just died.

At this stage of the game something needs to change and we all know what that is...

I really feel bad for CBT. Sure he's been paid plenty, but he's getting the brunt of the blame for something that isn't his fault. Sure his offense is outdated and he has not done a good job of coaching or hiring, I don't think anyone would suggest otherwise. But the program is in better shape now than when he showed up. That is incredibly sad but also true.

This was supposed to be the swan song for a career. I feel bad for him because, to some degree the game has passed him by, but that's exactly why it's not his fault. What kind of moron hires a coach who wants to bring a power running game to Tulane? If we wanted a spread offense coach, Toledo was the wrong choice from the get-go. What kind of moron saw the end of last season and thought that we were thiiiiiiisclose to winning and that a contract extension would solve the problem?

Yes Toledo will not be the Tulane football coach next year, but the man has worked hard and will have left the program (not the W/L record, but the program) in better shape than he found it. If only Rick Dickson or Scott Cowen looked like their mother died today, we'd be in good shape. Anger needs to be focused on those who are really responsible for this disaster, and that's Rick Dickson and Scott Cowen. Toledo deserved a better way to go out than this mess.

[JTLiuzza]

Toledo's a grown man who has been around the block long enough in college football to know the ropes. He took a high paying job at Tulane and has had it for five years. If he didn't know what he was getting into, despite his vast experience as a college football coach, then that's on him. He tried. He failed. He'll leave with a fat wallet.

I haven't lurked that other forum in a long time because it's a waste of time. Cutting and pasting here their stupidity and contemptible embrace of status quo failure is of no use, imo.

Let that forum die. It's long overdue.

[msdos]

I agree that RD is bad and needs to go, but...I'm going to keep blaming CBT

[tnelly15]

I will continue to blame Bob as well. Sure he's not the only problem, but he isnt the solution and has done nothing at all to improve the program. You're foolish if you feel sorry for him. It would be one thing if Hundreds of thousands were calling for his head, but in reality at Tulane there are only hundreds who give enough of a fuck to even worry about who the head coach is or how the football team is doing. So, no I dont/wont feel sorry for him. He gets paid a pretty good sum of money to do something he loves and very few people care if he is not successful.

[sader24]

Bob Toledo is a stubborn idiot who refuses to adjust to today's game. I'll start feeling sorry for him as soon as he starts feeling sorry for the fans.

[DrBox]

Sorry, but losing by 40 to Army falls squarely on CBT.
Failure to compete in C-USA is on CBT (and on Dickson).

Failing to compete nationally is on Cowen.

But there is NO excuse for this.

[Mike V]

If he won, wouldn't he bet the credit? Isn't it a two-way street?

Bob is a great guy, but he has refused to yield play-calling and has resisted changes to our offense.

[DrBox]

The big problems with Toledo are the offense and his recruiting and talent evaluation. His talent evaluation of offensive linemen has been particularly poor (not surprising when you decide to recruit out of state and do so on film, not live scouting). He has ONE recruiter on staff; the others either can't recruit and/or can't evaluate (with all due respect to Davis Jr, he's brought enough 1AA talent into this program to field a southland conference team).

[Bigschtick]

Hey you guys are a bunch of "naysayers"! At least thats what our beloved coach calls us! Like he has given us something to be optimistic about. The man does not have a clue how to coach. Now he throws the fans, the "naysayers" under the bus! Unbelievable. Only our pathetic admin would let this man continue to coach this season.

[Fred Dowler]

This sentiment is right smack dab on the money,

People said that Tulane needed a football coach who knew what he was doing.

Well, in Bob Toledo they actually did hire such a person, one with years of experience, and not only that but someone who has coached winning football and at a major program.

Really, how many people were saying in 2007 that the program under this staff was going to have not even one above-.500 season in four years?

People said that the football coaches needed to try harder to recruit more football players from the within the state. Well, hasn't this staff been trying and working hard to do just that?

The main problem is that the the main effect of the same-old same-old Model is to make it very, very difficult for the coaching staff to be able to build up depth and breadth of talent on the roster.

Plus, Tulane is loath to offer a whole lot in salary (do not the latest data indicate an average salary of a head football coach in Div. 1 FBS approaching $2 mil. per year?) to coaches or, as someone pointed out before, have a coach around that they can't control.

Jim Harbaugh obviously looked over the situation and decided that he wasn't about to waste his time with such an employer if he didn't need to and I suspect that Rich Rodriguez would feel the same way.

The issue goes right to the top administration and their very limited vision, if you even care to call it that, for the program.

If your vision is limited/compromised then so also will the level of interest in the program and regular attendance, donations, etc. right on down to the financial bottom line.

The only way Tulane can manage to keep on going is through slashing costs and performing what can be called smoke-and-mirrors and that's what Tulane constantly does.

[HoustonWave]

This sentiment is right smack dab on the money,

People said that Tulane needed a football coach who knew what he was doing.

Well, in Bob Toledo they actually did hire such a person, one with years of experience, and not only that but someone who has coached winning football and at a major program.

Really, how many people were saying in 2007 that the program under this staff was going to have not even one above-.500 season in four years?

People said that the football coaches needed to try harder to recruit more football players from the within the state. Well, hasn't this staff been trying and working hard to do just that?

The main problem is that the the main effect of the same-old same-old Model is to make it very, very difficult for the coaching staff to be able to build up depth and breadth of talent on the roster.

Plus, Tulane is loath to offer a whole lot in salary (do not the latest data indicate an average salary of a head football coach in Div. 1 FBS approaching $2 mil. per year?) to coaches or, as someone pointed out before, have a coach around that they can't control.

Jim Harbaugh obviously looked over the situation and decided that he wasn't about to waste his time with such an employer if he didn't need to and I suspect that Rich Rodriguez would feel the same way.

The issue goes right to the top administration and their very limited vision, if you even care to call it that, for the program.

If your vision is limited/compromised then so also will the level of interest in the program and regular attendance, donations, etc. right on down to the financial bottom line.

The only way Tulane can manage to keep on going is through slashing costs and performing what can be called smoke-and-mirrors and that's what Tulane constantly does.

And that's exactly why we won't be getting a "name" coach. To get a "name" coach, we would have to open up the wallet ($2MM+), and trash the "Tulane Model". Until those two things happen, no respectable coach is going to risk his career by wading into this mess. I would have to guess that there are some pretty strong views among the coaching fraternity about the "Tulane Situation". Our head coaching position will continue to be a job of last resort until we rid ourselves of the "Tulane Model"--a now widely recognized model for failure, embarrassment and university wide deterioration.

[DrBox]

The model explains not being nationally competitive, or, perhaps, not wining C-USA. It does NOT explain 40 point losses to Army or inability to play .500 in C-USA.
That problem is coaching, recruiting, and lack of leadership and accountability in the athletic department.

Look, had Dickson "peeled back the onion" when HIRING Toledo, he'd have seen a coach who inherited a lot at UCLA, but had mediocre results once they graduated. He'd have seen a coach who had been out of football for the better part of 5 seasons.
Toledo brought in a horrendous offensive scheme and his recruiting, aside from the last 2-3 years of Rollins, has been well below par. And he has some Teevens/Scelfo in him - soft coach and the players don't show up far too often.

[Fred Dowler]

Bingo!

No one around the Tulane camp should be so naive as to think that in the college coaching world word has not gotten around as to what kind of situation the Tulane program is.

[OUG]

The model explains not being nationally competitive, or, perhaps, not wining C-USA. It does NOT explain 40 point losses to Army or inability to play .500 in C-USA.
That problem is coaching, recruiting, and lack of leadership and accountability in the athletic department.

Look, had Dickson "peeled back the onion" when HIRING Toledo, he'd have seen a coach who inherited a lot at UCLA, but had mediocre results once they graduated. He'd have seen a coach who had been out of football for the better part of 5 seasons.
Toledo brought in a horrendous offensive scheme and his recruiting, aside from the last 2-3 years of Rollins, has been well below par. And he has some Teevens/Scelfo in him - soft coach and the players don't show up far too often.

Dr Box speaks for me. Lets not let the forrest blind us from the trees.

The biggest thing we can do to improve our situation right now is replace Bob Toledo.

[ExileWave]

It goes so far back- in the 80's when Darrell Royal from Texas was hired as a consultant for the football program, his advice to Mac Brown was to leave as fast as possible to a university with "State" as part of its name. And he did. This is an inbred culture of over half a century. Houstonwave is right- no rising coach will come to Tulane under the current model. This IS Cowen's vision of the program. It will not change even if BT leaves.

[OUG]

It goes so far back- in the 80's when Darrell Royal from Texas was hired as a consultant for the football program, his advice to Mac Brown was to leave as fast as possible to a university with "State" as part of its name. And he did. This is an inbred culture of over half a century. Houstonwave is right- no rising coach will come to Tulane under the current model. This IS Cowen's vision of the program. It will not change even if BT leaves.

You're incorrect.

Tommy Bowden came here. Rich Rodriguez wanted to come here. We were close to landing Harbaugh, but reports are he wasn't interested in moving all the way to NOLA given his family situation and wanted to stay on the west coast (and has).

We need a new coach and I think a new AD. The situation is not as hopeless as you describe.

If it was impossible to succeed at Tulane, 1998 would never have happened. We have made a number of bad hires, but it is possible to succeed at Tulane. Not easy, but its possible. It may be easier today than it was in 1998. We've just made some bad decisions. We need to start making some right ones again.

[ExileWave]

Cowen and RD did not hire Bowden- yes he hit lightning in a bottle, but where is he now. Has RR been a booming success? He is a great coach but is now a TV commentator. It is very different now than in 1997-2000. Remember, these morons PASSED on RR when we had a chance. Cowen and RD have no vision of a successful program as WE define success. We can disagree but after following Tulane football for over 50 years, I have become more jaded in my thinking. SHOW ME. And this regime is not going anywhere because of bad football.

[OUG]

Cowen and RD did not hire Bowden- yes he hit lightning in a bottle, but where is he now. Has RR been a booming success? He is a great coach but is now a TV commentator. It is very different now than in 1997-2000. Remember, these morons PASSED on RR when we had a chance.

You said it went back to the 1980's.

[ExileWave]

English, Davis, Teevens....the 80's. My reference to the 80's was about Mac Brown and Darrell Royal.

[Fred Dowler]

The model explains not being nationally competitive, or, perhaps, not wining C-USA. It does NOT explain 40 point losses to Army or inability to play .500 in C-USA.
That problem is coaching, recruiting, and lack of leadership and accountability in the athletic department.

Look, had Dickson "peeled back the onion" when HIRING Toledo, he'd have seen a coach who inherited a lot at UCLA, but had mediocre results once they graduated. He'd have seen a coach who had been out of football for the better part of 5 seasons.
Toledo brought in a horrendous offensive scheme and his recruiting, aside from the last 2-3 years of Rollins, has been well below par. And he has some Teevens/Scelfo in him - soft coach and the players don't show up far too often.

Toledo was the offensive coordinator for only a couple of seasons at UCLA prior to becoming head coach and prior to that an assistant to R. C. Slocum at Texas A&M through some very good seasons for them (3 seasons of 5 there for him they had double digits in wins). One sub-.500 year and the next year a 7-win team that went to the Aloha Bowl and lost. The better years of the Terry Donahue regime at UCLA were circa 1980-1988, well before Toledo came around and it was actually Toledo's second and third seasons at UCLA that they hit their high point.

But, again, the main thing is when they first announced that they were hiring Bob Toledo how many people weren't all amazed and thrilled?

[ExileWave]

I'll admit I thought Toledo was a good hire- had success, experience, stable. But good coaches adapt to their team's strengths. He has proven unable and unwilling to do that.

[DrBox]

The biggest thing we can do to improve our situation right now is replace Bob Toledo.

I go a little further than that. We need to replace him by paying $1.8 mill for a RR to show CREDIBILITY. (plus the extra 800K over the mill we'll have to pay for coach Joe Blow will be immediately recouped in ticket sales before the first kickoff).

And if we DON'T do that, we need to replace Dickson (need to do that anyway, really) and hire a REAL coordinator from a major program; a young energetic coordinator who hasn't been passed over 10 times. (see Dave Dickerson). We can't just give Dickson 900K and tell him to go hire another coach -he's proven incapable over and over again.

Cowen isn't helping matters, but I really doubt he's telling Dickson to hire a shitty coach, to extend coaches who lose, etc. Dickson's doing that on his own.

[ExileWave]

You may be right but I doubt that Dickson does ANYTHING without Scottie's approval.

[Fred Dowler]

It goes so far back- in the 80's when Darrell Royal from Texas was hired as a consultant for the football program, his advice to Mac Brown was to leave as fast as possible to a university with "State" as part of its name. And he did. This is an inbred culture of over half a century. Houstonwave is right- no rising coach will come to Tulane under the current model. This IS Cowen's vision of the program. It will not change even if BT leaves.

You're incorrect.

Tommy Bowden came here. Rich Rodriguez wanted to come here. We were close to landing Harbaugh, but reports are he wasn't interested in moving all the way to NOLA given his family situation and wanted to stay on the west coast (and has).

We need a new coach and I think a new AD. The situation is not as hopeless as you describe.

If it was impossible to succeed at Tulane, 1998 would never have happened. We have made a number of bad hires, but it is possible to succeed at Tulane. Not easy, but its possible. It may be easier today than it was in 1998. We've just made some bad decisions. We need to start making some right ones again.

Be real.

Tulane got extremely lucky in 1996-97. Bowden happened to be around and be "ripe" as a longtime assistant and also someone with a lot of connections and then he also inherited that whole group of players who were just becoming older and more mature and just as the schedule became a lot less challenging (the only really decent team that Tulane beat in 1997 was Cincinnati and there were several games against teams who had really poor seasons that year and then in 1998 more of the same with the only really solid opposition being USM and Louisville, both of which were okay-good but not as solid as they were about to be).

That's going to happen sometimes. Great.

The question is what is Tulane's program designed to do? Where are they really aiming on going?

I believe that that's been well established and the answer is "nowhere."

I suspect that in the 21st century Tulane is going to be encountering more and more instances when they go searching for a coach of exactly what happened with Harbaugh with someone sizing up the whole situation and passing on it.

It's going to be harder and harder to bring in some kind of "ripe" hot coaching property like that -- unless, as the poster said, Tulane is going to be realistically willing to really open up the checkbook, give the coach the full ability to bring in the players that they want to and so on.

[Fred Dowler]

The biggest thing we can do to improve our situation right now is replace Bob Toledo.

I go a little further than that. We need to replace him by paying $1.8 mill for a RR to show CREDIBILITY. (plus the extra 800K over the mill we'll have to pay for coach Joe Blow will be immediately recouped in ticket sales before the first kickoff).

And if we DON'T do that, we need to replace Dickson (need to do that anyway, really) and hire a REAL coordinator from a major program; a young energetic coordinator who hasn't been passed over 10 times. (see Dave Dickerson). We can't just give Dickson 900K and tell him to go hire another coach -he's proven incapable over and over again.

Cowen isn't helping matters, but I really doubt he's telling Dickson to hire a shitty coach, to extend coaches who lose, etc. Dickson's doing that on his own.

It's not so much that but there is probably enormous pressure on Dickson to keep costs to an absolute minimum. That is what Cowen is all about.