TAF Donations Down

[gbgreenie]

From a source in the Athletic dept. since the announcement keeping Toledo as coach and extending his contract a year, contributions have taken a big dip south. Until the Administration comes up with something big the fan base has been turned off further.

Looks like Rich Rodriquez will be fired at Michigan. Just and idea. I believe Miami brought in a coach in waiting to begin a transition in changing coaches. This is the proper way versus firing or retiring etc. Just think if we hired Rich as Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator with a 1-2 year transition to Head Coach. This would be the move recruiting wise and for the team also. The fanbase would be reenergized and money would begin flowing in for a on campus stadium. I believe a move like this is a must if we don't want to see a further slide in fanbase and recruiting. Look at the few 3 star players we are getting committments from versus the rest of the conference. It is time to quit sugar coating Toledo's recruiting. No one with knowledge is ranking any of Tulane's recruiting classes above the bottom of Conference USA.

[jonathanjoseph]

From a source in the Athletic dept. since the announcement keeping Toledo as coach and extending his contract a year, contributions have taken a big dip south. Until the Administration comes up with something big the fan base has been turned off further.

Looks like Rich Rodriquez will be fired at Michigan. Just and idea. I believe Miami brought in a coach in waiting to begin a transition in changing coaches. This is the proper way versus firing or retiring etc. Just think if we hired Rich as Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator with a 1-2 year transition to Head Coach. This would be the move recruiting wise and for the team also. The fanbase would be reenergized and money would begin flowing in for a on campus stadium. I believe a move like this is a must if we don't want to see a further slide in fanbase and recruiting. Look at the few 3 star players we are getting committments from versus the rest of the conference. It is time to quit sugar coating Toledo's recruiting. No one with knowledge is ranking any of Tulane's recruiting classes above the bottom of Conference USA.

No surprise.

[torbida]

2 weeks ago I got a call asking about my annual donation.I asked if anything was being done to improve football like a indoor practice field and after hemming and hawing,the caller/solicitor thanked me for my time.I want to make my donation but I'm sick of Dickson and Cowen doing nothing.AI wish there was a fundraiser to get rid of these two goofs.

[sader24]

Why would Rich Rodriguez accept an Asst. Coaching job here when we already screwed him once when he was OC? Why would a guy who is the head coach at Michigan take an asst. coaching job at a CUSA bottom feeder that totally humiliated him in public?

[TURVS71]

I will agree with Sader. No way he would swallow his pride and I wouldn't blame him one bit!

[gbgreenie]

How in the hell do you guys know that Rich Rodriquiz would not come here. Some on any forum just like to be negative. If he is fired with the record he has at Michigan he wouldn't be that hot a prospect. He had success here and may want to give it a try again. He and his family loves New Orleans. Just learn to respect others comments and when you don't know something for a fact just leave those comments to yourself.

[NOLABigSteve]

We don't know he wouldn't come here. But unless you know something we don't I would also be willing to bet he wouldn't come back here given what transpired at that press conference. Not being negative. Would love to have him here.

[RWR]

So you can start a thread w/speculation and that's ok but when people respond w/speculation that's not ok. Brilliant. Also, the attempt to label the realist as negative is for another site.

While I agree w/those that don't think he'd come b/c of the way his situation was handled I of course wish it would happen. The first thing he'd tell them is to stick that mickey mouse stadium idea where the sun don't shine. He'd say convert that $20 million in pledges you claim to have into the money for a first class IPF. Then he'd go out and put together a winning football program. Especially now that so many recruits play the spread in HS.

[JTLiuzza]

Go from head coach at Michigan to an assistant for Bob Toledo at a school whose administration is ashamed to have a D1A football program? Never in a million years.

Even if it were the head coaching job it would never happen. Hiring him as HC would be a de facto admission by Cowen that he screwed up 12 years ago when he gave Rodriguez his walking papers. Some guys are capable of publicly admitting a major mistake. Cowen ain't one of them. He's two dimensional. No depth.

If Michigan dumps him, Rodriguez will land on his feet somewhere. Like others have said, I would welcome him back at Tulane, but it ain't gonna happen.

[jonathanjoseph]

Go from head coach at Michigan to an assistant for Bob Toledo at a school whose administration is ashamed to have a D1A football program? Never in a million years.

Even if it were the head coaching job it would never happen. Hiring him as HC would be a de facto admission by Cowen that he screwed up 12 years ago when he gave Rodriguez his walking papers. Some guys are capable of publicly admitting a major mistake. Cowen ain't one of them. He's two dimensional. No depth.

If Michigan dumps him, Rodriguez will land on his feet somewhere. Like others have said, I would welcome him back at Tulane, but it ain't gonna happen.

+1

[RWR]

You beat me to it bag. I was coming back to add that Cowen isn't man enough to apologize for the way he totally screwed RR 12 years ago. Much less have the balls to say please come back and save my ass.

[sader24]

I don't see how saying that Rich Rodriguez wouldn't come back is being negative. I mean the man wore a green suit to a press conference where he fully expected to be named head coach only to have Chris Scelfo pulled from a hallway onto the podium to accept "HIS" job while he sat their like a deer in headlights. Our administration and athletic director completely humiliated him without giving him fair warning and did so in front of TV cameras. After that they bad mouthed him to booster clubs questioning his personal morality, his coaching intensity, and his ethics. Not to mention, you not only expect him to come back here, but you expect him to answer to Bob Toledo and wait for 2 years while Bob screws up the program even more. What you are proposing is completely insane. The only chance Tulane has to get Rich Rodriguez back is for Cowen to quit, a new President come on board and vow to give a football coach here everything he needs to win including a vastly increased salary structure to the whole staff. Then Rick Dickson has to quit because he wouldn't hire Rodriguez because he's never made a good hire in his life. Then Rodriguez would have to get fired from Michigan. Then our new AD would have to fire Bob Toledo. Then our AD would have to pray to Jesus that Rodriguez would actually accept a call from Tulane. Then the AD would have to offer him more than June Jones, then he would have to promise that nobody from the athletic department, faculty, or administration would make "problems" for the football program like they did when they declared several of Tommy Bowden's players inelgible days before Fall practice. You don't really think Rodriguez would come here under the current circumstances do you? I don't mean to be an a&&hole, but I got called negative alot on YOGWF before I got banned simply for saying that Scelfo's teams weren't ready to play and that Cowen should be run out of town after the review. That being said, if they announced Rich Rodriguez head coach tomorrow i'd run outside and do a backflip.

[gbgreenie]

I really don't believe Toledo is looking beyond next year as coach, The extra year was just to help recruiting. If Toledo starts out badly next year he will have to be fired in the middle of the season. The university can not possibly go the full year losing like this year. This is where having a coach in waiting is the smart move. Who would take over if Toledo is fired in mid-season. I believe Rodriguiz would come under an agreement that he will be Head Coach in a year or sooner if Toledo is yanked. Rich would have total control of the offense. I believe Toledo would go along with that because he expects to go if the team starts off poorly. I believe he will announce his retirement one way or another before the end of next season so Tulane could hire a new coach. He will push for one of his staff. I think the school needs to stand tall and demand something like this take place. Have a coach ready to take over should Team lose early next year. That way the players know him, the recruits get use to him, it would be an announcement that would put fundraising back on track. Even if they have to suck it up and pay him on par has a head coach until he takes over , this is the right move.

[RWR]

No chance of BT giving total control to anyone. He is the most overgrown, selfish child ever born. It's like people blaming Dodd for our offensive woes. Toledo is in control and there are no if's, and's or but's about it. If such a plan was going to happen it would have happened when they made the decision to retain him. As for a successor Toledo wants it to be Dodd and since RD has no balls you can bet that's who it will be.

[HoustonWave]

No head coach, worth a hoot, would want to come to Tulane as long as Cowen is here. The word is quickly spreading on just how incompetent and bad this guy is. This is doubly true for Rodriguez, given the prime time bend over that he got from Cowen back in 1998. Tulane is not going to advance on any front, athletically or academically, as long as Cowen is still around-period, done, end of story. In football he's taken us from #7 to #200 (or lower), and academically, he's taken us from #35 to #51 (and still falling). He killed the Engineering School, he killed Newcomb, he killed our athletic competitiveness, and he's started the demise of our academic profile--not completely unrelated to many of the idiotic actions he's already taken. Now he is pressing Tulane Empower, his misdirected social entrepreneurship initiative--his latest nail in the Tulane coffin.

[jonathanjoseph]

No head coach, worth a hoot, would want to come to Tulane as long as Cowen is here. The word is quickly spreading on just how incompetent and bad this guy is. This is doubly true for Rodriguez, given the prime time bend over that he got from Cowen back in 1998. Tulane is not going to advance on any front, athletically or academically, as long as Cowen is still around-period, done, end of story. In football he's taken us from #7 to #200 (or lower), and academically, he's taken us from #35 to #51 (and still falling). He killed the Engineering School, he killed Newcomb, he killed our athletic competitiveness, and he's started the demise of our academic profile--not completely unrelated to many of the idiotic actions he's already taken. Now he is pressing Tulane Empower, his misdirected social entrepreneurship initiative--his latest nail in the Tulane coffin.

+1

That's why it's so important that as alumni we start voicing our displeasure before this snake oil salesman completely ruins Tulane.

A $50K/year liberal arts college with no sports or engineering that doesn't rank in the top 50 isn't going to fly in the Internet age. A liberal arts education is available online for free, something that wasn't true 5 or 10 years ago.

[IM42lane]

I do not see Rich Rod wanting to even consider coming back down here as long as Cowen is in charge. Cowen was the one who went against Sandy Barbour's decision to elevate RR to head coach after Bowden left. That's how we ended up with "SKELFO". Rich Rod would have stayed about two (maybe 3) seasons, and then taken the W. Va. job when the coach at the time (Don Nieland -- spelling ?) retired. But, TU would have won more games during that time, and we would have possibly gone to another bowl.

By the way, SKELFO has been the tight ends coach for the Atlanta Falcons since he left Tulane. With a hall of fame tight end like Tony Gonzalez, why would you really need a tight end coach? Gonzalez should be telling SKELFO what to do. Does it sound like I have it in for SKELFO? He balked at me once at a booster club meeting when I (by mistake) pronounced his name as SKELFO. He was a real @$$h@le to me, and I will never forgive him for it.

When the Saints won over the Falcons on Monday night, the pure delight that I felt was with SKELFO in mind. I hope that he never comes back to Louisiana again.

[IM42lane]

I could not have said it any better that that. Thanks.

No head coach, worth a hoot, would want to come to Tulane as long as Cowen is here. The word is quickly spreading on just how incompetent and bad this guy is. This is doubly true for Rodriguez, given the prime time bend over that he got from Cowen back in 1998. Tulane is not going to advance on any front, athletically or academically, as long as Cowen is still around-period, done, end of story. In football he's taken us from #7 to #200 (or lower), and academically, he's taken us from #35 to #51 (and still falling). He killed the Engineering School, he killed Newcomb, he killed our athletic competitiveness, and he's started the demise of our academic profile--not completely unrelated to many of the idiotic actions he's already taken. Now he is pressing Tulane Empower, his misdirected social entrepreneurship initiative--his latest nail in the Tulane coffin.