FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[CardinalAlum]

Stortz is an outstanding coach and would be a great hire for Augie.

[wally_wabash]

I feel like Steve Bell's name gets linked  to openings almost every year...and not in the "hey, you know who would be good here" kind of way but in the "Steve Bell is a finalist" kind of way.  Maybe I'm just making that up. 

Honest question: Is Augustana a better gig than Monmouth right now?  It's been a minute since Augustana has been good. 

[Augie6]

Stortz is an outstanding coach and would be a great hire for Augie.

Absolutely agree, and he is the candidate I'm hoping will get the job.  Connections to high school coaches in the Chicago area based on his tenure at Lake Zurich, attended and played football at Augie, and grew up in Central Illinois and has been coaching at Rock Island the past few years, so he has connections in areas that Augie has gotten some very good recruits over the years.  These things, plus the fact that he is an excellent coach, are the biggest reasons I would like to see him get the job. 

[Veinteuno]

I feel like Steve Bell's name gets linked  to openings almost every year...and not in the "hey, you know who would be good here" kind of way but in the "Steve Bell is a finalist" kind of way.  Maybe I'm just making that up. 

Honest question: Is Augustana a better gig than Monmouth right now?  It's been a minute since Augustana has been good. 

Obviously I am biased, and I don't have as much insight into the Monmouth program, but I will answer to the best of my ability. In terms of recent success, Monmouth is a better gig. However, I believe Augie trumps Monmouth in several areas: In my opinion Augie plays in a better league, has some of the best D3 football facilities, and can still use it's history as a selling point. Finally, and I may be totally off base with this, I believe Augie probably pays a decent amount more. Augie is one of the better paying athletic programs in the CCIW.

Again, my opinion is obviously biased, but I thought I would bring up some of the reasons I believe Augie is still a very good D3 job.

[wally_wabash]

Looks like Steve Bell is your guy. 

[scottie]

Congrats, Augie.  You've got a good one!   Not much else to say to Coach Bell, other than Thank You, for a 14 year tenure and leaving with most coaching wins in the history of the program.  It will be interesting to see how Monmouth reloads from the top.  I'd say it would rate as a very attractive position for the prospective coaches out there.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Congrats, Augie.  You've got a good one!   Not much else to say to Coach Bell, other than Thank You, for a 14 year tenure and leaving with most coaching wins in the history of the program.  It will be interesting to see how Monmouth reloads from the top.  I'd say it would rate as a very attractive position for the prospective coaches out there.

Coach Bell must be a good one.  After Alex Tanney (a once-in-a-lifetime player) graduated, I expected Monmouth to fall off the face of the earth.  Naturally, they did regress quite a bit, but once again came on pretty strong this past season.

[augiefan]

I like the hire. Bell turned a conference doormat into a year in year out MWC contender at Monmouth. Hopefully he can do the same at Augie, which is a step up for Coach Bell. Glad to have the search completed, as there is a considerabl rebuilding job ahead of him.

As for the amenities of the Quad Cities, I had two daughters graduate from Augie from our home in the Chicago suburbs. They both recognized the limitations of the area, but that had little effect on campus life. They both loved the school and received a good education at their alma mater. Go Augie.

[Gregory Sager]

Rock Island's kind of a dump, and the Quad Cities aren't exactly a highly-sought-out destination for anything other than tractor pulls. But I doubt that campus location is the drawback for Augie recruiting that some make it out to be. It's certainly not the impediment with which Millikin (Decatur: Armpit of the Universe) or North Park (Horrors! The big city!) have to deal on the recruiting trail. As several posters have already mentioned, Augie's bread and butter is kids from the western Chicagoland suburbs, and mom and dad back home in Bartlett or Oak Brook or Clarendon Hills wouldn't shell out the beaucoup bucks for Sonny Boy's education at Augie if the campus environs looked like Level Three in Urban Combat.

Augustana's got a fantastic football stadium with a lot of new bells and whistles that most other D3 stadia lack (although why the folks at Augie put a crown on a football field with a Field Turf surface is beyond me), and I'll go Augie6 one better by saying that Augustana definitely has the most aesthetically pleasing campus in the CCIW. The winning tradition is a mixed bag; I'm sure that a lot of the alumni have unreasonable expectations based upon the Reade and Schmulbach years, which must be hard on a coach. But a canny recruiter can use it as a selling point.

I think that Augustana's, on balance, a pretty good gig for a head football coach. It's not the prize cow at the county fair that the UWW job is, but, then again, which school's job at this level is?

[Dr. Acula]

I don't know the ins and outs of Augie, but IMO if you have three things present you can always win with a good coach:

1)  Proximity to HS talent
2)  Quality facilities
3)  A pro-athletics administration that supports sports as an institutional priority

From the sounds of the discussion it seems like Augie is a program located near the western suburbs with very nice facilities who competes in a very good conference.  If their administration supports sports (which nice facilities usually signals) then that sounds like a really good job.  Good luck to Coach Bell.

[Augie6]

I don't know the ins and outs of Augie, but IMO if you have three things present you can always win with a good coach:

1)  Proximity to HS talent
2)  Quality facilities
3)  A pro-athletics administration that supports sports as an institutional priority

From the sounds of the discussion it seems like Augie is a program located near the western suburbs with very nice facilities who competes in a very good conference.  If their administration supports sports (which nice facilities usually signals) then that sounds like a really good job.  Good luck to Coach Bell.

Number 3 is the big question.  The feeling is the current president isn't very supportive of sports and that's why we have seen Augie fall to the depths that they have.   As far as the  recent investments in the football stadium, I think that can be attributed more to the efforts of former Augie and Cincinnati Bengal QB, Ken Anderson, than it can be to President Bahls.  I'm still not sure this administration really "gets it" when it comes to the impact the sports can play on the educational process. 

[Hardwood]

I don't know the ins and outs of Augie, but IMO if you have three things present you can always win with a good coach:

1)  Proximity to HS talent
2)  Quality facilities
3)  A pro-athletics administration that supports sports as an institutional priority

From the sounds of the discussion it seems like Augie is a program located near the western suburbs with very nice facilities who competes in a very good conference.  If their administration supports sports (which nice facilities usually signals) then that sounds like a really good job.  Good luck to Coach Bell.

Number 3 is the big question.  The feeling is the current president isn't very supportive of sports and that's why we have seen Augie fall to the depths that they have.   As far as the  recent investments in the football stadium, I think that can be attributed more to the efforts of former Augie and Cincinnati Bengal QB, Ken Anderson, than it can be to President Bahls.  I'm still not sure this administration really "gets it" when it comes to the impact the sports can play on the educational process.

I don't agree with Augie6 on this one.  Whose "feeling" is it that the current president isn't very supportive of sports?  Is the football program the only measuring stick for deciding whether the president is supportive of athletics?  The men's basketball and track programs have had sustained success on the national level for many years running.  The baseball and wrestling programs were CCIW champs in 2014, Women's CC were CCIW champs in 2013 just to name a few successes.
The president's tenure has included the remodel of the Carver PE center, Swanson/Bruner Field for baseball, and the addition of men's and women's Lacrosse, along with the aforementioned football remodel.
I, like you, am frustrated with the recent struggles within the football program but choose to look at the bigger picture of Augustana sports - not just football.

[Gregory Sager]

I don't know the ins and outs of Augie, but IMO if you have three things present you can always win with a good coach:

1)  Proximity to HS talent
2)  Quality facilities
3)  A pro-athletics administration that supports sports as an institutional priority

From the sounds of the discussion it seems like Augie is a program located near the western suburbs

It isn't, though. Augie is three hours west of Chicago.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I don't know the ins and outs of Augie, but IMO if you have three things present you can always win with a good coach:

1)  Proximity to HS talent
2)  Quality facilities
3)  A pro-athletics administration that supports sports as an institutional priority

From the sounds of the discussion it seems like Augie is a program located near the western suburbs

It isn't, though. Augie is three hours west of Chicago.

Or two, if you drive like me!   (But they DO seem to have cultivated quite a pipeline to the western suburbs - good coaching contacts, I'd assume.  Anyone know if their Lutheran affiliation has much impact on recruiting?)

My sister (and now my mom) and numerous nieces, nephews, etc., live in Aledo, which is pretty much dead center between Augie and Monmouth.  They consider the Quad Cities to be as much 'the big city' as they have any interest in ever visiting!

I have a soft spot for Monmouth College.  My mentally and physically impaired niece lives a fairly independent life there; nearly all of the people who assist her are in some way affiliated with the college.

[Augie6]

I don't know the ins and outs of Augie, but IMO if you have three things present you can always win with a good coach:

1)  Proximity to HS talent
2)  Quality facilities
3)  A pro-athletics administration that supports sports as an institutional priority

From the sounds of the discussion it seems like Augie is a program located near the western suburbs with very nice facilities who competes in a very good conference.  If their administration supports sports (which nice facilities usually signals) then that sounds like a really good job.  Good luck to Coach Bell.

Number 3 is the big question.  The feeling is the current president isn't very supportive of sports and that's why we have seen Augie fall to the depths that they have.   As far as the  recent investments in the football stadium, I think that can be attributed more to the efforts of former Augie and Cincinnati Bengal QB, Ken Anderson, than it can be to President Bahls.  I'm still not sure this administration really "gets it" when it comes to the impact the sports can play on the educational process.

I don't agree with Augie6 on this one.  Whose "feeling" is it that the current president isn't very supportive of sports?  Is the football program the only measuring stick for deciding whether the president is supportive of athletics?  The men's basketball and track programs have had sustained success on the national level for many years running.  The baseball and wrestling programs were CCIW champs in 2014, Women's CC were CCIW champs in 2013 just to name a few successes.
The president's tenure has included the remodel of the Carver PE center, Swanson/Bruner Field for baseball, and the addition of men's and women's Lacrosse, along with the aforementioned football remodel.
I, like you, am frustrated with the recent struggles within the football program but choose to look at the bigger picture of Augustana sports - not just football.

HW,

Before you give too much credit to President Bahls, I give most of the credit for basketball, track and baseball to Coaches Giovanne, Olsen and Wallace who were all in place well before Bahls became president.  Swanson/Bruner field opened in March of 2004 and Bahls became President in October, 2003 so I think it's pretty safe to say that facility was already planned for before Bahls became President.  You say the wrestling team won a CCIW championship in 2014.  Do you realize that from 1982-2004, Augie won every CCIW championship during that time with the exception of 1997.  Seems like wrestling took a pretty big nose dive shortly after he took over. 

You do also realize that football has the biggest impact of any of the sports (by far) when it comes to the number of potential student athletes who could choose to attend Augustana.  But yet, the current administration made the decision a few years ago to get rid of Coach Barnes,who had a .727 CCIW win percentage and a .699 overall, and is 2nd all time to Coach Reade in victories at Augie. The very next day, that same administration appoints a coach who had a career .500 winning percentage with no connections to Augie's typical recruiting area to be the Head Coach of the football team.  That appointment has set the program back to levels that haven't been seen at Augie since the 1950's.  Did they finally spend some money on a football stadium?  Yes.  But this occurred well after many other Division III schools in the Midwest had upgraded their facilities and Augie was at a distinct disadvantage for many years as a result. The feeling that this President isn't a big supporter of athletics is shared by quite a few alumni that I know.  The fact that you disagree is fine, but I certainly don't think the things you point out show a strong commitment from this President.