FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[raiderpa]

Larry Kehres never left Mount because his sense of loyalty is second to none.  The man is loyal to his family, his friends, and Mount Union. This trait elevates him to a special class of men, and must be respected. Mount Union and its fans benefitted from this.

[WRMUalum13]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymdgoMhkGBA

KB on the Left Hash Call pod....expect big things from Maloney and the Raiders offense this year

"head coach of the offense"

"aggressive, violent...simple offense"

"Coach Dartt is going to have to reign me in"

Love it. Couldn't ask for anything else. His philosophy sounds like the opposite of a Dartt offense

[D3fanboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymdgoMhkGBA

KB on the Left Hash Call pod....expect big things from Maloney and the Raiders offense this year

"head coach of the offense"

"aggressive, violent...simple offense"

"Coach Dartt is going to have to reign me in"

Love it. Couldn't ask for anything else. His philosophy sounds like the opposite of a Dartt offense

yep.  KB has an actual pulse.  let's go

[hsbsballcoach7]

I feel like since the Kappas and Burke hires, Mount has added some needed online presence with podcast interviews, a spring alumni day, Mount Union coaches clinic, and spring announcements (online clothing store and student intern graphic). Just feels like there's more energy around the program! Seems like some good recruiting momentum with incoming freshmen and guys returning. It'll be interesting to see if there are any bigger impact transfers.

[D3fanboy]

I feel like since the Kappas and Burke hires, Mount has added some needed online presence with podcast interviews, a spring alumni day, Mount Union coaches clinic, and spring announcements (online clothing store and student intern graphic). Just feels like there's more energy around the program! Seems like some good recruiting momentum with incoming freshmen and guys returning. It'll be interesting to see if there are any bigger impact transfers.

it may or may not work out, but the energy, the juice brought by KB and Kappas is night and day to the past few years.  Love and appreciate Ely and Junior, but there's a different vibe in Alliance this spring

[purple]

 I'm getting tired of these cheap shots at Coach Dartt. He's won the OAC every year he's been there. Gone undefeated,10-0. He is at the big table. He is highly respected. The Administration of any small college would love, love, love to have a program that brings in 100 freshmen every year. Ask Wittenberg and about twenty other small colleges in Ohio what they'd give for that kind of consistency in their freshmen classes over the past 10 years. Coach Dartt heads up the program. He has held up the standard and enhanced the brand name.

[hsbsballcoach7]

I'm getting tired of these cheap shots at Coach Dartt. He's won the OAC every year he's been there. Gone undefeated,10-0. He is at the big table. He is highly respected. The Administration of any small college would love, love, love to have a program that brings in 100 freshmen every year. Ask Wittenberg and about twenty other small colleges in Ohio what they'd give for that kind of consistency in their freshmen classes over the past 10 years. Coach Dartt heads up the program. He has held up the standard and enhanced the brand name.

Just because a couple of posters make the "kid table" comment doesn't mean it's a majority mindset here. I feel that Dartt has made several subtle changes each year, but you're also only as good as those around you (players, assistant coaches, training/support staff, administration, community) and the relationships you make. One of the hardest things that LK had to do was make the tough decisions with hiring new staff or even harder, saying NO or not retaining staff members for the benefit of the program. He constantly had assistant coaches who stayed, got developed and moved on to different coaching goals. Any time you lead any group, let alone a top performing organization, you will be sure to get criticized. Some will be fair and some is not.

Dartt went from a good offensive coordinator to being the head man without experience in the position (which I can't imagine is easy). He had to learn game management while being a coordinator at the same time because of timing of his hire (eventually trusted staff to give this up), program recruiting, salesman (figuring out fundraising and NIL), constant transferring, and managing staff at once.

He just lost some coaches this off season who have been around the program for a long time, and made great hires that aren't easy (big names). If you listen to the Burke interview, Dartt went out and recruited him back from California where he (and his wife) was happy. These type of hires force you to drop your ego and go get the best that you can, at that time...credit to GD

It's impossible to believe that the program was going to continue winning Stagg Bowls at the previous pace because of humans being human (rise and fall of Rome and all...), but he has kept the program at the top. NCC is a monster right now with all of the former mentioned things going in their favor and other programs (Cortland and UWRF) having magical seasons. The other two season ending games by Alma and JCU had many things go against the Purple Raiders and that's where I feel GD has tried to improve.

All that to say this....GD is doing well and has the current team positioned for another fun season with positives trending with a tougher OOC schedule, staff hires, recruiting and PR for the program....all to his credit.

Anyway, Go Purple Raiders... And go everybody! (RIP MUC57)

[D3fanboy]

having the top two assistant coaches with significant, high level college football experience, while being young and charismatic should tremendously help out Dartt.  Ely and Junior are hall of fame level Raiders, but bringing in a couple of guys with big time, outside of Alliance experience should help bring Mount out of the mud that they are stuck in currently.

2026 is different than 2020, much different than 2015, etc etc. 

I give credit to the Mount administration for noticing that something needed to change, and credit to Dartt for going with the plan (he might not have gotten any lunch money if he said no).  The LK years were something that will never be seen again, the VK years were phenomenal, but college football is incredibly different now and so are the high school (and college transfer) recruits. 

Mount was late to hire an actual strength coach and it bit them, they were likely a little late to hire top notch coordinators, and they were late to really embrace social media/alumni base/etc all the little stuff.  Dartt saying that he didn't even know how to log into the transfer portal is just not something that can happen in today's world.  Being "The Standard" is not sticking hard to the old school ways and banging our head into the wall over and over and over, it's adapting and evolving quicker than our competition and beating them over and over and then doing it again.  Mount's standard should not be BW, Marietta and Heidelberg. 

College football zigged to a certain spot in 2020, and then zagged quickly to a wild, wild place in '22 or so.  Mount's been playing catch-up, it's time for the standard to return....and I think they might finally have the staff in place to facilitate that return.  The top of D3FB has never been more attainable, the door is wide open for Mount to becoming "The Standard" once again.

[Dr. Acula]

Our expectations have always been nearly impossible to meet thanks to LK spoiling us for decades.  And that was before, let alone in the current environment with the portal.  But the fact that Dartt made the coordinator hires he did tells me that he expects to win titles and he's willing to change course to try to get there.  Winning the OAC now isn't even a bar to clear with JCU gone.  We hold his feet to the fire on stuff, but I think universally it's been lauded that he is evolving and made phenomenal hires this offseason.  Those moves strike me as someone who looks at Maloney and sees a chance for a ring with the right talent on his staff.  I think we're basically all in agreement that we see the same thing as Dartt on that.  I'm as excited for Mount football as I've been in years.

[D3fanboy]

Our expectations have always been nearly impossible to meet thanks to LK spoiling us for decades.  And that was before, let alone in the current environment with the portal.  But the fact that Dartt made the coordinator hires he did tells me that he expects to win titles and he's willing to change course to try to get there.  Winning the OAC now isn't even a bar to clear with JCU gone.  We hold his feet to the fire on stuff, but I think universally it's been lauded that he is evolving and made phenomenal hires this offseason.  Those moves strike me as someone who looks at Maloney and sees a chance for a ring with the right talent on his staff.  I think we're basically all in agreement that we see the same thing as Dartt on that.  I'm as excited for Mount football as I've been in years.

Mount spent a half decade or so living on "We're Mount Union, we'll win" as the translation to "The Standard is the Standard".  As stupid as that Steelers' saying is, you have to live it not just say it.  Mount's football program has not been living up to "the standard" or at least "the standard" should be changing.  OAC titles are great, but that's an increasingly lowing bar.  We all know what "the standard" is and so do the new coaches.  Oh yeah, and graduate the kids