This hire is soooo reminiscent of the WVU hiring of Bill Stewart.

Emotional hire, Check... GA Southern won the last 2 games, WVU beats Oklahoma

Good Guy, He's One of us, Check

Players love him, Attached Coach, Check

Pleases most, Check

The difference was WVU was in good shape, GA Southern is questionable.

(11-27-2017 10:33 PM)Saint3333 Wrote:  He's a recruiting beast in GA, hope that isn't the case.

Lunsford and Sloan were coaches at Georgia Military I believe. Lunsford spent time at App State while Sloan at Southern. Sloan is a heck of a recruiter in GA as well

(11-28-2017 12:18 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  This hire is soooo reminiscent of the WVU hiring of Bill Stewart.

Emotional hire, Check... GA Southern won the last 2 games, WVU beats Oklahoma

Good Guy, He's One of us, Check

Players love him, Attached Coach, Check

Pleases most, Check

The difference was WVU was in good shape, GA Southern is questionable.

Southern was in great shape until Summers came along 23 months ago. On a positive, Southern had youngest team in all of FBS this season with Frosh QB

(11-28-2017 01:05 AM)NewJersey GATA Wrote:  Southern was in great shape until Summers came along 23 months ago.

Two years is a lifetime for a football program, that's 24 games at the least and 2 recruiting classes.

(11-28-2017 01:10 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 01:05 AM)NewJersey GATA Wrote:  Southern was in great shape until Summers came along 23 months ago.

Two years is a lifetime for a football program, that's 24 games at the least and 2 recruiting classes.

Summers 2016 class was ranked #1 in SBC and 2017 class ranked #5. This yrs class is around 6th with unknown HC prior to today and recruits wanting Lunsford to become HC.

Lunsford inexperience will be tested and I’m sure will be a flaw his first few yrs.

(11-28-2017 01:22 AM)NewJersey GATA Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 01:10 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 01:05 AM)NewJersey GATA Wrote:  Southern was in great shape until Summers came along 23 months ago.

Two years is a lifetime for a football program, that's 24 games at the least and 2 recruiting classes.

Summers 2016 class was ranked #1 in SBC and 2017 class ranked #5. This yrs class is around 6th with unknown HC prior to today and recruits wanting Lunsford to become HC.

Lunsford inexperience will be tested and I’m sure will be a flaw his first few yrs.

If he could get the right staff under him, I think his inexperience will be a nonissue. Looking forward to watching what we accomplish next year. The man has turned a team that couldn't win a game into a plague that kills teams' bowl hopes in a few weeks without a bye week. I can't wait to see what he can do with practically a whole returning team and an entire off season.

(11-28-2017 12:18 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  This hire is soooo reminiscent of the WVU hiring of Bill Stewart.

Emotional hire, Check... GA Southern won the last 2 games, WVU beats Oklahoma

Good Guy, He's One of us, Check

Players love him, Attached Coach, Check

Pleases most, Check

The difference was WVU was in good shape, GA Southern is questionable.

Stewart only coached only a bowl game and had only an 8-25 head coaching record at VMI to go on. Lunsford has coached 5 games and has turned maybe the worst team in FBS into a team that could go up against any of the top SBC/CUSA/MAC teams.

And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

I've said it all along, my only reservation about him was who he could get here as a staff. Summers brought in a **** staff year one, and he also didn't have the balls to either let his staff change things up, or to tell them to change things up. After Summers took over and our offense still looked stagnant after 3 losses, he gave the play calling duties to Bodine, and shrunk the playbook, and our defense was running different formations, and running different play styles, such as dropping DL back into coverage while blitzing LB's. So either Summers kept the coordinators from doing what they wanted, or he didn't have the balls to tell them what they were doing wasn't working, and to do something different.

So to me, CL has already shown he can adjust when he needs to, he has the leadership ability to do so and make it happen, and he can motivate kids and he has their respect. Add a good staff with that, and you should have a winning formula.

Good luck with Lunsford, Eagle fans. [Insert barb about wanting y'all to be capable of beating us at football again here.]

Don't have time at the moment, but I actually look forward to looking through this post to see your reactions. It's an interesting decision that I could see invoking some strong feelings in both directions...

(11-28-2017 08:38 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 12:18 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  This hire is soooo reminiscent of the WVU hiring of Bill Stewart.

Emotional hire, Check... GA Southern won the last 2 games, WVU beats Oklahoma

Good Guy, He's One of us, Check

Players love him, Attached Coach, Check

Pleases most, Check

The difference was WVU was in good shape, GA Southern is questionable.

Stewart only coached only a bowl game and had only an 8-25 head coaching record at VMI to go on. Lunsford has coached 5 games and has turned maybe the worst team in FBS into a team that could go up against any of the top SBC/CUSA/MAC teams.

And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

Based on what? The beatdown of USA was impressive, but other than that, you have a ten point win against a below .500 ULL team, a home loss to GSU, a 21 point loss to App, and a 22 point loss to Troy.

(11-28-2017 09:36 AM)BurlingtonApp Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 08:38 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 12:18 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  This hire is soooo reminiscent of the WVU hiring of Bill Stewart.

Emotional hire, Check... GA Southern won the last 2 games, WVU beats Oklahoma

Good Guy, He's One of us, Check

Players love him, Attached Coach, Check

Pleases most, Check

The difference was WVU was in good shape, GA Southern is questionable.

Stewart only coached only a bowl game and had only an 8-25 head coaching record at VMI to go on. Lunsford has coached 5 games and has turned maybe the worst team in FBS into a team that could go up against any of the top SBC/CUSA/MAC teams.

And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

Based on what? The beatdown of USA was impressive, but other than that, you have a ten point win against a below .500 ULL team, a home loss to GSU, a 21 point loss to App, and a 22 point loss to Troy.

Yeah but how much of the USA beatdown was GS being good? A team that gets beat down every week doesn't just out of the blue beat someone down 52-0. USA's IDGAF attitude about that game had a lot to do with it.

Do I think GS could be a lot better next year? I'm not sure. But we've seen this show where a bad team gets hot doing some different things for a few weeks, and then what they're doing gets figured out and it's back to business as usual. It's a roller coaster ride for the fans because as soon as something bad happens, the fans start backtracking.

We'll see, but I truly do hope for the best. A good GS is good for all of us.

(11-28-2017 09:36 AM)BurlingtonApp Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 08:38 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 12:18 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  This hire is soooo reminiscent of the WVU hiring of Bill Stewart.

Emotional hire, Check... GA Southern won the last 2 games, WVU beats Oklahoma

Good Guy, He's One of us, Check

Players love him, Attached Coach, Check

Pleases most, Check

The difference was WVU was in good shape, GA Southern is questionable.

Stewart only coached only a bowl game and had only an 8-25 head coaching record at VMI to go on. Lunsford has coached 5 games and has turned maybe the worst team in FBS into a team that could go up against any of the top SBC/CUSA/MAC teams.

And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

Based on what? The beatdown of USA was impressive, but other than that, you have a ten point win against a below .500 ULL team, a home loss to GSU, a 21 point loss to App, and a 22 point loss to Troy.

Same thing could have been said about App at the end of 2014.

The home loss to Gast was really due to 2 fumbles in the 4th quarter. That's something we've cleaned up since then.

The Troy game was a wash due to the turmoil and turnover that week with the transition. The App game was kind of the same thing with a short week to a big rival with a big emotional letdown from a devestating loss to another rival 5 days before (thanks for that scheduling Sun Belt).

USA and ULL were both playing for bowl games. They had plenty to play for. ULL is still in the hunt actually.

There's a big difference in the way the team is playing right now. It's possible we lose Saturday, but in the grand scheme of things that's ok. Lunsford has improved a lot of things after taking over midseason, with someone else's staff and no real time (no bye weeks either) to rework things. Next year should be very interesting.

We've got the players, we just haven't had competent coaching at the top since Fritz left.

(11-28-2017 09:36 AM)BurlingtonApp Wrote:  Based on what? The beatdown of USA was impressive, but other than that, you have a ten point win against a below .500 ULL team, a home loss to GSU, a 21 point loss to App, and a 22 point loss to Troy.

If the USA and UL games were several games apart I wouldn't think much of them, but you're talking about two consecutive games, and before the USA game our OC explicitly said we were going to be making some changes to the offense.

If those were the first two games we played all season probably not a single person would question we're a competitor in this conference even knowing how flaky South and UL both are.

Plus, those of us who have watched the team all season can see a stark difference in so many of the fundamentals on this team.

(11-28-2017 08:38 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

Lets see here the last 2 years you are 7-16 and will end up 8-16 or 7-17, with only one of those wins over a team with a winning record, your last game with Troy last year.

Your 2 wins this year is over a 4-7 South Alabama team and a 5-6 ULL team.

The GA Southern program isn't in good shape, if you think it is then you are delusional. It might not be a total rebuild but the bad habits those players have learned isn't going to correct itself in just an off season.

Lunsford was the cheap and easy way out without a proper search. And cheap doesn't always mean monetary.

(11-28-2017 01:22 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 08:38 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

Lets see here the last 2 years you are 7-16 and will end up 8-16 or 7-17, with only one of those wins over a team with a winning record, your last game with Troy last year.

Your 2 wins this year is over a 4-7 South Alabama team and a 5-6 ULL team.

The GA Southern program isn't in good shape, if you think it is then you are delusional. It might not be a total rebuild but the bad habits those players have learned isn't going to correct itself in just an off season.

Lunsford was the cheap and easy way out without a proper search. And cheap doesn't always mean monetary.

we went from averaging 8 penalties a game for 75 yards to 4 for 40 and from averaging over 2 turnovers per game to less than 1 turnover per game.

you're right, it didn't take an offseason, it took about 3 games.

The program itself isn't in bad shape. The last two seasons haven't been good, but doesn't mean the program is. Just like the last time we had a couple bad seasons, we rebounded just fine.

We will now move into the offseason with some consistency at least from Lunsford, the team will know what to expect from him, and if he lands the right staff, we will get plenty of work in the off season with a team that was youngest in the FBS. We will win 7 games at least next year.

(11-28-2017 01:22 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 08:38 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

Lets see here the last 2 years you are 7-16 and will end up 8-16 or 7-17, with only one of those wins over a team with a winning record, your last game with Troy last year.

Your 2 wins this year is over a 4-7 South Alabama team and a 5-6 ULL team.

The GA Southern program isn't in good shape, if you think it is then you are delusional. It might not be a total rebuild but the bad habits those players have learned isn't going to correct itself in just an off season.

Lunsford was the cheap and easy way out without a proper search. And cheap doesn't always mean monetary.

I'm going to take a wild guess that you haven't watched a second of the team this year and can't see the difference in tackling, blocking, pursuit angles, etc that have changed just over this season.

If it's hard to correct those things as you suggest then that's all the more reason to be confident that we have the right head coach.

And like I told that App fan, if the last two games had occurred at the beginning of the season most everyone wouldn't be questioning us as being a contender for the conference title. It's not just two wins, it's the largest margin of victory in a Sun Belt game ever and a convincing win at ULL on the road by 10. By comparison App State (strong possibility of being conference champs now) is a 14-point favorite over them in Boone. When you have two games like that in a row it's just not likely it's some kind of fluke.

Rumor was that the week before the South Alabama game, Lunsford went to our AD and wanted to can the OC. AD said no, you cant fire anyone, but you can reassign duties. That was the week they cut down the playbook and focused on having 5-6 plays that worked well.

IF that's true, it shows that he's willing to do what it takes to win, and isn't going to sit back and let bad coaches be bad coaches.

I'm kind of pissed off we didn't even interview Brent Davis.

(11-29-2017 08:46 AM)GaSouthern Wrote:  I'm kind of pissed off we didn't even interview Brent Davis.

Houston wanted the job as well we just would not pay him.

Not interviewing Davis is not excusable by any stretch of the imagination. Anything about Lunsford you want to say Davis did more for GS. He should have been interviewed out of respect, for him, PJ and Monken even if TK had no intention of hiring him. That bridges is beyond burnt now I would imagine that goes for PJ and Monken as well, especially once they likely let Cook go.

I so hope PJ has a statement.

(11-28-2017 01:22 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 08:38 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  And I don't know where you come off saying we're not in "good shape". In what way?

Lets see here the last 2 years you are 7-16 and will end up 8-16 or 7-17, with only one of those wins over a team with a winning record, your last game with Troy last year.

Your 2 wins this year is over a 4-7 South Alabama team and a 5-6 ULL team.

The GA Southern program isn't in good shape, if you think it is then you are delusional. It might not be a total rebuild but the bad habits those players have learned isn't going to correct itself in just an off season.

Lunsford was the cheap and easy way out without a proper search. And cheap doesn't always mean monetary.

Semantics program wise we are fine on the field we are not. We have a rock solid foundation compared to most G5's especially the younger ones. We are in a talent rich state, will never have to fake attendance numbers like half the G5 does our budget is inline with peer schools now and continues to grow, no APR issues or current scandals. We are about to add 7000-8000 more students and immediate 3-4M to the budget. So yeah one bad coach does not affect the foundation. Two or three in a row we might see some cracks forming.

I have no idea and nobody else does if this guy is the next PJ Fleck but what I do know is he is not the next Tyson Summers and we will be better, not a high bar I know.