FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

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HSCTiger fan

Quote from: jknezek on February 01, 2018, 12:47:07 PM
Quote from: HSCTiger fan on February 01, 2018, 12:32:31 PM
Quote from: jknezek on February 01, 2018, 09:16:24 AM
Well... as the calendar rolls to Feb I think W&L is now officially in crunch time for a new coach. I hope the announcement comes soon. We are a month past Coach Abell resigning and things need to start moving for all kinds of reasons.

Not sure how this is handled with athletics but according to the WL website the deadline for regular application is January 1st and financial aid paper work has to done by February 15th. Even if WL makes exceptions to their stated deadline most kids with the academic fire power it takes to go to WL are already knee deep in the admissions process with other schools.

Sure. But they would have applied to W&L before Coach Abell left. So they are in the pipeline. The trick will be for the new coach, when he is named, to get them to enroll. I don't know very many kids that only apply to one school, so it comes down to a choice in March/April when acceptances go out and are due. The coach needs to have a running start at that period. So clutch time is definitely starting.

It's tough enough recruiting qualifying candidates to WL with a coach in place. Going to be that much tougher without one. Your right clutch time is starting. I can say good luck with no tongue in cheek since I don't think HSC and WL recruit many of the same guys. So best of luck! 
Hampden Sydney College
ODAC Champions 77, 82, 83, 87, 07, 09, 11, 13, 14
NCAA Playoffs - 77, 07, 09, 10, 11, 13, 14
The "Game" 60 wins and counting...
11/18/2018 Wally referred to me as Chief and admitted "I don't know about that!"

Birddawg79

W&L announces LeRose as new Football HC. Good luck to Coach LeRose and look forward to great fall!

http://generalssports.com/sports/fball/2017-18/releases/LeRoseHFC

jknezek

#21527
W&L hires internally, elevating Garrett LeRose '07, to Head Coach. He was the Assistant Head Coach and TE/WR coach. He's been with the program since he matriculated, played on the team that won the ODAC in '06, and a coach in one shape or another for every championship since.

I'm not particularly surprised by this decision. Miriello was a Fallon assistant. Abell was a Miriello assistant. LeRose was an Abell assistant. Fallon, who arrived in 1978, was the last outside hire. W&L has also hired internally quite frequently in other sports, though that trend doesn't seem to have been as pronounced lately as at least the men's basketball and men's soccer coaches both came from outside the current coaching staff.

LeRose, however, has plenty of experience at W&L and with the W&L system. But it's the only place he's been so he is taking on a first time head coaching position. Abell and Miriello had both been h.s. head coaches and assistants at other colleges prior to becoming W&L's head coach.

This completes a national search that I heard rumors to have had at least several other current and successful DIII coaches on campus. No comment on the accuracy of the rumors, though I would expect the position would have drawn some outside interest. Coach LeRose certainly has enough experience at W&L to be considered young and fresh while at the same time experienced and with an in-depth knowledge of the school's needs and goals. Who would know better? But the optics of hiring your new head football coach, who has never coached anywhere but at his alma mater, while his wife is the Assistant Athletic Director, is a bit... odd.

AD Hathorn, however, has had great success with her hires across all sports. It is possible not a single sport at W&L will finish in the bottom half of the ODAC during this academic calendar, and W&L's athletic teams have dominated the ODAC in the all-sports trophies for several years (arguably the woman have dominated for decades).

So while it may look a bit odd, AD Hathorn deserves much better than a simple benefit of the doubt for any hiring decisions. 

I can't wait to watch Coach LeRose and the Generals going forward. My kids athletic schedule willing, I hope to get up to Sewanee once again this fall to cheer on the Generals as they prepare to defend their ODAC title.

Congratulations Coach LeRose and Go Generals!

jknezek

D3football.com updated the Generals schedule to include Maryville 9/15. An OOC slate of at Dickinson, at Sewanee and hosting Maryville is a big change from last year. The only holdover is Sewanee.

tigerFanAlso2

JK

Congrats on the new hire. It will be fun to watch what happens. My guess is W&L will not miss a beat.

jknezek

Quote from: tigerFanAlso2 on February 15, 2018, 12:28:51 PM
JK

Congrats on the new hire. It will be fun to watch what happens. My guess is W&L will not miss a beat.

Nice to have it settled. From the article in the Roanoke Times yesterday I think that is the hope.

"Athletic director Jan Hathorn said hiring a coach who would keep the option scheme was her preference but that it was not a requirement for the job."

Way back when this started I pondered whether you go with a guy that will most closely give you what has brought the recent success, or you go with the best available coach regardless of what he might do to the current system. I think this hire answered that question from W&L's POV. Coach LeRose is probably the best option to sustain the current option offense system. With no head coaching experience, and no experience outside W&L, he probably wasn't the best looking coach on paper so his precise experience had to outweigh the vast general experience of the other candidates.

Now don't take that as a criticism about Coach LeRose or the process. I've sat in enough hiring situations to know that the decision is always predicated on what the hiring party values the most and how it lines up with the personal performance of the candidate. And certainly Coach LeRose could have crushed the interview from AD Hathorn's POV. In fact she said something similar in the same article.

"He wore it as if he was the head football coach throughout the interviews," Hathorn said. "In every way he was putting himself in the head coach's hat."

But... from a pure coaching experience POV, out of the 96 candidates AD Hathorn mentions and the rumors I heard, there were certainly more than a few with head coaching experience, DIII head coaching experience, and even DIII playoff head coaching experience.

AD Hathorn clearly valued Coach LeRose's system experience at an extremely high level versus more general coaching experience. I'm excited, and interested, to see how it all plays out.

Roanoke Times article: http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/washington-and-lee-promotes-garrett-lerose-to-head-coach/article_be9ef6a3-3e2a-5f9b-af5c-21ac2c899684.html

hasanova

Congratulations to Coach LeRose at W&L.  It will be interesting to see if the style of play will change in Lexington ... I suspect it will not for now.  As others have said, I predict the Generals will not miss a beat.

HSCTiger fan

I do not wish the Generals any ill will but I think losing Abell is going to hurt.  We've all seen what losing a key player or two does to a team.  I think Abell was more important to WL's success than any individual player.  Abell's play calling, game planning, in game adjustments and ability to get the most from his players really has been 2nd to none in the ODAC over the last several years. It's hard for me to see a position coach stepping in and not skipping a beat. Certainly that does not mean they cannot or will not be successful. I think they can.  But it's my opinion that WL is going to miss Abell in the near future.
Hampden Sydney College
ODAC Champions 77, 82, 83, 87, 07, 09, 11, 13, 14
NCAA Playoffs - 77, 07, 09, 10, 11, 13, 14
The "Game" 60 wins and counting...
11/18/2018 Wally referred to me as Chief and admitted "I don't know about that!"

tigerFanAlso2

unless the odac can figure out how to slow down the option offense, I don't think it really matters who the coach is and from what I remember, RMC is the only defense to effectively slow W&L down. As a result, I see RMC & W&L fighting it out for the odac crown for some time to come. Breaks my heart but that is how I see it right now.


Ralph Turner

Quote from: tigerFanAlso2 on February 20, 2018, 02:08:14 PM
unless the odac can figure out how to slow down the option offense, I don't think it really matters who the coach is and from what I remember, RMC is the only defense to effectively slow W&L down. As a result, I see RMC & W&L fighting it out for the odac crown for some time to come. Breaks my heart but that is how I see it right now.
Having played High School Football in Texas in a Wishbone Offense back in the day at the "6A" level (it was called "4A" back then), IMHO, the Wishbone is the perfect offense for the W&L recruit.

I imagine that the coach won't try to fix something that isn't broken.

HSCTiger fan

They have run the pistol flex option in the past not specifically the wishbone.  But I'd be shocked to see LeRose run any offense but the option.  Abell seemed to have a great knack for play calling. Maybe LeRose will too but that's yet to be seen.

It's tough to replace your HC, OC, and DC over a season. WL has done some amazing things the last several years. They've had huge success carrying only 75-85 players. I doubt there's a team in any level of college football that's won more games over the last 10 years averaging fewer players than WL. Can LeRose recruit as well as Abell - not just players but talented coaches?  Can they effectively install a high powered offense with a new coach? Can they do the same with a new DC? Can they overcome a delay in recruiting?  None of these are insurmountable issues but certainly a lot for a coach whose sole responsibility has been to a single position.

Their success will have a lot more to do with these type things than which offense they run.
Hampden Sydney College
ODAC Champions 77, 82, 83, 87, 07, 09, 11, 13, 14
NCAA Playoffs - 77, 07, 09, 10, 11, 13, 14
The "Game" 60 wins and counting...
11/18/2018 Wally referred to me as Chief and admitted "I don't know about that!"

Birddawg79

W&L 2018 schedule has been released.

http://www.generalssports.com/sports/fball/2018-19/schedule

SEPTEMBER
Sep. 01   at Dickinson         1:00 PM   
Sep. 08   at Sewanee         2:00 PM   
Sep. 15   Maryville (Tenn.)   Young Alumni Weekend      1:00 PM   
Sep. 29   Randolph-Macon *   Parents Weekend      1:00 PM   


OCTOBER
Oct. 06   at Bridgewater *         1:00 PM   
Oct. 13   Emory & Henry *   Hall of Fame game      1:00 PM   
Oct. 20   at Ferrum *         2:00 PM   
Oct. 27   at Guilford *         1:00 PM   

NOVEMBER
Nov. 03   Hampden-Sydney *         1:00 PM   
Nov. 10   Shenandoah *         1:00 PM   


HSCTiger fan

I know WL has a very diverse roster with kids coming from all over the country to play with the Generals. But certainly they have more from Virginia than any other state.  Abell does not have a single recruit from the state of VA headed to Davidson. http://www.davidsonwildcats.com/news/2018/2/6/football-adds-xx-new-cats.aspx
Maybe he left VA alone this year and left those recruits to LeRose.
Hampden Sydney College
ODAC Champions 77, 82, 83, 87, 07, 09, 11, 13, 14
NCAA Playoffs - 77, 07, 09, 10, 11, 13, 14
The "Game" 60 wins and counting...
11/18/2018 Wally referred to me as Chief and admitted "I don't know about that!"

Warrior71

I do know that all the kids that were headed to W&L when Coach Abell left are still headed to W&L as far as I can tell. A class move by a class coach!

jknezek

Quote from: Warrior71 on March 14, 2018, 10:19:59 PM
I do know that all the kids that were headed to W&L when Coach Abell left are still headed to W&L as far as I can tell. A class move by a class coach!

I'm certainly not going to dispute this, but I think that students are coming to W&L to be students. They may play football, and it may have some small bearing who the coach is, but for the most part, if you are coming to W&L, you are coming for the school. There aren't many comparables to W&L in the area, and there are even fewer that can offer the kind of real cost that W&L can offer. Coaches play a role in attracting athletes, but I think at W&L it's a smaller role than at most schools. The issue is getting enough student athletes through admissions for a sport like football.

Once they are in, that is where the coach really matters. Coach Abell was, at the very least, an incredible offensive mind. He had a knack for making his system work at a high level with the players available. He had a talent for making adjustments both pre and in game. Coach LeRose is stepping into very big shoes.