RE: Year 1 in the Belt now in the books
I think App had an "okay" first season, was really surprised by how well we turned around the football season in the second half, to finish 1st in total defense, and 3rd in offense, plus, beating ULL and Ark St away was a pleasant surprise. Basketball both men and women were a train wreck, but we expected that, two new coaches spending the whole year cleaning up the mess left by the last 2 coaches, good news is both coaches and their staffs are really good, and should have us competing for the SBC in a few years. Baseball, total disappointment, expected a lot more from this team, head coach has 2 years left on contract, better turn it around quickly. Couple of things that struck me about the SBC is, 1. they take their football much more seriously than the SC, no surprise, but the overall talent is much better than the SC, 2. One of reasons I wanted out of the SC was the lack of commitment by most of the SC schools towards improving their athletic facilities. I love it that the majority of the SBC schools have, or will be taking on major improvement projects for their facilities, in fact, I'm afraid that App is falling behind, we need to start some improvement projects within the next 3 years, or we are going to be in alot of trouble. I guess the only major negative I have is we still do not have a traveling partner, I know its not entirely the SBC fault (thanks JMU), but still App isn't going to just sit tight for the next 5 years with this current SBC lineup, just too costly, and difficult for us to deal with, they got to find us a partner within the next year, or I got a feeling we might start putting out feelers to see what else is out there.
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