New AD

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Their baseball team made the College World Series today

[Lord_Byron]

As someone who has dealings with NCSU I am not a fan of this. They have a horrible problem with winning and keeping people. I hope he has not learned too much from Debbie Yow. I'm hoping for the best but I am very weary of this move.

This.

Let's hope is he is escaping Debbie Yow and is the antithesis of her management and fiscal style.

[mscarn]

Kingston...ya brotha-man!!

Here's why BGSU fans should be excited:

1) From everything I've read he has a vision for excellence and will not tolerate mediocrity or excuses. The new MAC AD's at Buffalo, Kent and Miami are acting swiftly to raise expectations within their departments and generate excitment within their communities. We need to embrace a similar vision or get left behind in the dust and this guy sounds like he won't let that happen.

1b) This has manifested itself in excellent coaching hires. West Point was banging their heads against the wall for years trying to run a pro-style offense while Navy and Air Force were winning with option-based attacks. He goes and hires Rich Ellerson, the top option coach in the country who is ever-so-gradually turning things around. For the perenially unsuccessful basketball program he plucks the top assistant from a Cornell team that would miraculously reach the Sweet 16. He knew what West Point needed: a national recruiter who knew how to identify academically-orientated athletes and that was Cornell's formula. Phenomenal hire.

Even at NC State, the stagnant regimes of Tom O'Brien and Sidney Lowe were given a chance to work and ushered out when they weren't able to take the next step. Mark Gottfried has set the ACC afire with his recruiting and is doing a tremendous job while they jumped on hiring NIU's Doeren early before anyone else (like Wisconsin) could get a shot at him. Very, very impressive.

2) He was wisely selected over two other finalists that included a Division III AD and a person that hasn't dealt with football of any kind in almost 20 years. While I'm sure both were fine people, they simply lacked the experience to handle the issues faced by our athletic department. I was genuinly concerned that Mazey was in over her head when it came to athletics and didn't grasp how Division I sports need to operate, particularly with the disasterous retention of Orr. Fortunately, decisions like this indicate that might not be the case.

He's walking into a better situation from almost every standpoint, most especially facility-wise, than either Krebs or Christopher. Every indication seems to confirm his readiness to meet the challenges of the present and future and strengthen the department and the university. Go Falcons!

[Globetrotter]

Kingston...ya brotha-man!!

Here's why BGSU fans should be excited:

1) From everything I've read he has a vision for excellence and will not tolerate mediocrity or excuses. The new MAC AD's at Buffalo, Kent and Miami are acting swiftly to raise expectations within their departments and generate excitment within their communities. We need to embrace a similar vision or get left behind in the dust and this guy sounds like he won't let that happen.

1b) This has manifested itself in excellent coaching hires. West Point was banging their heads against the wall for years trying to run a pro-style offense while Navy and Air Force were winning with option-based attacks. He goes and hires Rich Ellerson, the top option coach in the country who is ever-so-gradually turning things around. For the perenially unsuccessful basketball program he plucks the top assistant from a Cornell team that would miraculously reach the Sweet 16. He knew what West Point needed: a national recruiter who knew how to identify academically-orientated athletes and that was Cornell's formula. Phenomenal hire.

Even at NC State, the stagnant regimes of Tom O'Brien and Sidney Lowe were given a chance to work and ushered out when they weren't able to take the next step. Mark Gottfried has set the ACC afire with his recruiting and is doing a tremendous job while they jumped on hiring NIU's Doeren early before anyone else (like Wisconsin) could get a shot at him. Very, very impressive.

2) He was wisely selected over two other finalists that included a Division III AD and a person that hasn't dealt with football of any kind in almost 20 years. While I'm sure both were fine people, they simply lacked the experience to handle the issues faced by our athletic department. I was genuinly concerned that Mazey was in over her head when it came to athletics and didn't grasp how Division I sports need to operate, particularly with the disasterous retention of Orr. Fortunately, decisions like this indicate that might not be the case.

He's walking into a better situation from almost every standpoint, most especially facility-wise, than either Krebs or Christopher. Every indication seems to confirm his readiness to meet the challenges of the present and future and strengthen the department and the university. Go Falcons!

Sounds like a guy who could get things done in basketball asap!

[mscarn]

Sounds like a guy who could get things done in basketball asap!

Yes! I don't think he would have ever hired Orr in the first place nor have been idiotic enough to saddle the university to him for another five years after a 19-14 season with another coach's players. He wouldn't passively let the program decline, make excuses for underachievement and let a year's salary stand in the way of bettering the second most high profile program at the school. Can you imagine what a young, aggesssive coach would do with the Stroh Center as a recruiting draw? We should find out in a matter of months.

[Globetrotter]

Sounds like a guy who could get things done in basketball asap!

Yes! I don't think he would have ever hired Orr in the first place nor have been idiotic enough to saddle the university to him for another five years after a 19-14 season with another coach's players. He wouldn't passively let the program decline, make excuses for underachievement and let a year's salary stand in the way of bettering the second most high profile program at the school. Can you imagine what a young, aggesssive coach would do with the Stroh Center as a recruiting draw? We should find out in a matter of months.

Or the winningest coach in the history of the Univeristy of Charlotte?

[MarkL]

1b) This has manifested itself in excellent coaching hires. West Point was banging their heads against the wall for years trying to run a pro-style offense while Navy and Air Force were winning with option-based attacks. He goes and hires Rich Ellerson, the top option coach in the country who is ever-so-gradually turning things around. For the perenially unsuccessful basketball program he plucks the top assistant from a Cornell team that would miraculously reach the Sweet 16. He knew what West Point needed: a national recruiter who knew how to identify academically-orientated athletes and that was Cornell's formula. Phenomenal hire.

I completely forgot about Ellerson. That guy has embraced West Point culture and has at least made Army better than they were when he showed up. He still hasn't beaten Navy but some recent games have been so ... so painful to watch for the Army folks. They've been right there. Great hire.

And random question that's always bugged me, no need for an answer ... why is the option so effective at the military academies when just about every other offense is so inneffective? I would have thought with the athleticism and discipline required at those academies that a five wide spread with precise timing and a very smart QB would excel there. IIRC West Point tried that once with a west coast offense and it failed miserably.

[mscarn]

And random question that's always bugged me, no need for an answer ... why is the option so effective at the military academies when just about every other offense is so inneffective? I would have thought with the athleticism and discipline required at those academies that a five wide spread with precise timing and a very smart QB would excel there. IIRC West Point tried that once with a west coast offense and it failed miserably.

I think the idea is that they know they're not going to recruit superior athletes so they compensate by running a system that requires opposing defenses to be extremely disciplined and assingment-sound in a system they don't see week to week and must spend extra time preparing for. As insufferable as John Feinstein is, his book on the Army-Navy rivalry is very good. He notes that at every other school in the country, football practice is the hardest part of the day while at the service academies it's the easiest.

When Jim Grobe went to Ohio U he saw painfully poor history of their program/lack of athletes, decided to try it out and did fairly well.

[hammb]

And random question that's always bugged me, no need for an answer ... why is the option so effective at the military academies when just about every other offense is so inneffective? I would have thought with the athleticism and discipline required at those academies that a five wide spread with precise timing and a very smart QB would excel there. IIRC West Point tried that once with a west coast offense and it failed miserably.

I think the idea is that they know they're not going to recruit superior athletes so they compensate by running a system that requires opposing defenses to be extremely disciplined and assingment-sound in a system they don't see week to week and must spend extra time preparing for.

This is reason A. And as nearly every team in the country sees the spread/read option all the time now you're not catching them off guard with it.

Reason B, and probably the bigger one, is that service academies cannot recruite Division 1 sized offensive linemen. The guys that are of the proper size to play in the trenches don't meet the military's weight requirements. As a result it's almost unheard of for them to have guys > 275, let alone the 300+ pounders that they play against every week.

The option is the one offense that relies on athletic linemen that can get outside on nearly every play. Even the zone/read requires pass blocking and more straight ahead run blocking with only some pulling. The triple option is the one offense that can take the greatest deficiency of the service academies (lack of size) and actually turn it into an asset.

[Globetrotter]

And random question that's always bugged me, no need for an answer ... why is the option so effective at the military academies when just about every other offense is so inneffective? I would have thought with the athleticism and discipline required at those academies that a five wide spread with precise timing and a very smart QB would excel there. IIRC West Point tried that once with a west coast offense and it failed miserably.

I think the idea is that they know they're not going to recruit superior athletes so they compensate by running a system that requires opposing defenses to be extremely disciplined and assingment-sound in a system they don't see week to week and must spend extra time preparing for. As insufferable as John Feinstein is, his book on the Army-Navy rivalry is very good. He notes that at every other school in the country, football practice is the hardest part of the day while at the service academies it's the easiest.

When Jim Grobe went to Ohio U he saw painfully poor history of their program/lack of athletes, decided to try it out and did fairly well.

Yep, they don't have the athletes.

[mscarn]

NC State AD Debbie Yow sounds pretty good to me:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/06/ ... letic.html

“I think being mediocre is boring,” Yow said in a recent telephone interview. “It’s a disservice to the university as well. It’s a disservice to anybody who contributes to athletics. I don’t think people say, ‘Gee, let me make a gift to Wolfpack athletics, because I think they’re going to be mediocre.’ So I don’t make any apologies for expecting worth and movement toward excellence in each of our sports.”

[mscarn]

Here's an interview with Kingston from an NC State podcast.

The show hosts (as is norm for the medium) sound like morons but Chris comes on after about minute and a half of their babbling:

http://www.riddickandreynolds.com/2012/ ... -kingston/

[BGWriter]

It will be interesting to see if he was saddled with keeping Orr as part of this hire, or whether the administration has given him full control to do whatever he feels is necessary to make all the programs better, whenever he feels it's needed.

Yes, it's terribly late in the game to be looking for a new head coach, but I'm still not convinced BG wouldn't be better off going forward with a change now, rather than waiting for next season to end. This coming season is likely a wash, anyway.

It was the right thing to do in not allowing Christopher to hire a new coach as he was walking out the door...but now the new guy is here (or soon will be). It's time to change the culture of that program and there's no reason to wait any longer.

[Globetrotter]

It will be interesting to see if he was saddled with keeping Orr as part of this hire, or whether the administration has given him full control to do whatever he feels is necessary to make all the programs better, whenever he feels it's needed.

Yes, it's terribly late in the game to be looking for a new head coach, but I'm still not convinced BG wouldn't be better off going forward with a change now, rather than waiting for next season to end. This coming season is likely a wash, anyway.

It was the right thing to do in not allowing Christopher to hire a new coach as he was walking out the door...but now the new guy is here (or soon will be). It's time to change the culture of that program and there's no reason to wait any longer.

100% agree. Would you take the AD job knowing the place you would be would be so cash strapped and mismanaged that you couldn't even attend to a flailing basketball program with otherwise all of the necessary things in place to be solid? Would you agree to the job if they said you have to let it fall apart a bit more over the next year. When you are coming from running a basketball and football program at an ACC school. An ACC school who happens to have an assistant who has great head coaching experience and interviewed for the Va Tech Job and Troy so he is interested.

I imagine telling candidates that they wont be allowed to do anything with the basketball team for a year would lower the candidate pool tremendously.

[RobbyFalcon]

Welcome to the nest Mr. Kingston. Good luck!