Huntington Sports Talk with Coach Clawson

[MUTeke]

Paul Swann from 800 WVHU in Huntington interviews Coach Clawson. Interview is from August 13th.

http://www.800wvhu.com/cc-common/podcas ... lswann.xml

[Falconfreak90]

MUTeke,

Thanks for that link! That was a really good interview. I just now listened to it and Paul Swann did his homework and asked a lot of good questions.

Thanks...good luck this year to the Herd except on 9/19.

[MUTeke]

MUTeke,

Thanks for that link! That was a really good interview. I just now listened to it and Paul Swann did his homework and asked a lot of good questions.

Thanks...good luck this year to the Herd except on 9/19.

If this is Coach Clawson's first year as a head coach it was hard to tell by that interview. He sounds the part anyway. I think you guys got a good one.

[Falconfreak90]

MUTeke,

Thanks for that link! That was a really good interview. I just now listened to it and Paul Swann did his homework and asked a lot of good questions.

Thanks...good luck this year to the Herd except on 9/19.

If this is Coach Clawson's first year as a head coach it was hard to tell by that interview. He sounds the part anyway. I think you guys got a good one.

Coach Clawson did great things as HC at Richmond and Fordham. 1-AA Coach of the Year twice and built both programs into championship teams. We, at least 98% of us, think we have a coach to take us to the next level.

What's the story on Snyder down in Huntington? He's got 16 wins in the last 4 years and I can't see the Herd faithful accepting that. I look for a tough game cuz MU's been virtually unbeatable at home.

[MUTeke]

MUTeke,

Thanks for that link! That was a really good interview. I just now listened to it and Paul Swann did his homework and asked a lot of good questions.

Thanks...good luck this year to the Herd except on 9/19.

If this is Coach Clawson's first year as a head coach it was hard to tell by that interview. He sounds the part anyway. I think you guys got a good one.

Coach Clawson did great things as HC at Richmond and Fordham. 1-AA Coach of the Year twice and built both programs into championship teams. We, at least 98% of us, think we have a coach to take us to the next level.

What's the story on Snyder down in Huntington? He's got 16 wins in the last 4 years and I can't see the Herd faithful accepting that. I look for a tough game cuz MU's been virtually unbeatable at home.

Several things led to a perfect storm. NCAA probation, for starters, did what it was intended to do. As it should. No excuses there. It was very effective though. Poor to marginal recruiting classes in 2003 and 2004. Very few of those guys lasted all 4 years. An inexperienced head coach that had to learn under fire despite probation and being forced to play young inexperienced players during the transition to CUSA. No continuity in coordinators. 2009 is the first time Snyder has had both his DC and OC back from last season. He has had 3 DCs and 2 OCs in four seasons, not to mention various position coach changes. An athletic department that seemed to move in slow motion if it moved at all. It also didn't anticipate the facilities arms race that is underway in CUSA. Almost everyone is either building new facilities or completely renovating old ones, and I don't think we were prepared for that.

All that being said, we've still lost some games we should have won. Consistency under Snyder has been a big problem. It seems like we lose a close game and the doors fall off. For example we started the season 3-1 last year with two wins over bowl teams and then lost 7 of our last 8. We take one step forward and two steps back. But this is the year... it's at least 7 wins and a bowl appearance or it's over. He said he would need 5 years to get back to our winning ways. The fans have hung in there and been patient. It's now or never.

This is the second season removed from probation and our numbers are finally back where they should be. All those freshmen and sophomores we had to rely on in the beginning have a couple season under their belts now. Rick Minter has installed a defense that will be very solid this year and the offense will be much improved with a full year in Coach Shannon's system. We hired AD Mike Hamrick away from UNLV in hopes he can come in and raise funds and build facilities that compete with our CUSA peers. I think the bleeding has finally been stopped, just don't know if the getting better part of it starts this year or not. I hope so.

[MarkL]

I like Rick Minter a lot. I really wish the best of luck to him with the defense at MU. Rick Minter was head coach at Cincy before Dantonio and did pretty well. The team was never a threat to win C-USA, but he was the coach when the move to the Big East was happening, they were generally competitive, and were never found in the blotter. NCAA investigators were never anywhere close to the program and players were as they should be both on and off the field. If anything bad happens this year at MU and Snyder is looking for a new job, I do believe Rick Minter would be a good candidate for HC at Marshall.