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One big question. How many freshman players do you think will leave the program with the departure of Clawson. How many future recruits will now de-commit. Everything was verbal for next season but are there recruits that may now change their minds.

gmartin wrote:One big question. How many freshman players do you think will leave the program with the departure of Clawson. How many future recruits will now de-commit. Everything was verbal for next season but are there recruits that may now change their minds.

This is life in the MAC, its cyclical. Look at Miami and Central Michigan, success came at the cost of coaches and those programs have fallen back into mediocrity or worse.

He's not allowed to talk to current players, correct? I understand that recruits are free game.

I'm more concerned about guys like coppett and Moore following him.

gmartin wrote:One big question. How many freshman players do you think will leave the program with the departure of Clawson. How many future recruits will now de-commit. Everything was verbal for next season but are there recruits that may now change their minds.

Depends on how many scholarships they have. William Houston and Ronnie Moore are both obvious candidates.

I lived through the Denny Stoltz debacle as a student. He announces he’s leaving BG for San Diego State and we get dusted in the Raisin Bowl by Fresno State. I can’t see why Clawson can’t say, “Look, if you want me so bad, I have one request. I owe it to my current team to see them through the bowl game. I’ve been with them since spring practice. What’s another 16 days to wait to get started at Wake Forest?”

I guess that makes too much sense?

Rollo83 wrote:I lived through the Denny Stoltz debacle as a student. He announces he’s leaving BG for San Diego State and we get dusted in the Raisin Bowl by Fresno State. I can’t see why Clawson can’t say, “Look, if you want me so bad, I have one request. I owe it to my current team to see them through the bowl game. I’ve been with them since spring practice. What’s another 16 days to wait to get started at Wake Forest?”

I guess that makes too much sense?

Recruiting, simple as that. Don't be shocked to see a handful of BG recuits de-commit and go elsewhere.

Remember current BG players if they transfer have to sit out a year. For some this is a big risk as they can fall down a depth chart while they can't play. I don't think many will leave, but I don't know of their relationship with the coach.

Rollo83 wrote:I lived through the Denny Stoltz debacle as a student. He announces he’s leaving BG for San Diego State and we get dusted in the Raisin Bowl by Fresno State. I can’t see why Clawson can’t say, “Look, if you want me so bad, I have one request. I owe it to my current team to see them through the bowl game. I’ve been with them since spring practice. What’s another 16 days to wait to get started at Wake Forest?”

I guess that makes too much sense?

Rollo,
Your point re: Stoltz is well taken, BUT the big difference was that he was busy interviewing WHILE we were practicing for the game....asst. coaches ran practices, while good ol Denny was busy impressing the folks in San Diego.

That isn't how the process works...when your done, you're done....

And I have family that were Sparty's...their hatred of good ol Denny was just a notch or so below mine.

If a coach accepts a new job, he's not the coach of his old team anymore. As much as I dislike seeing a coach leave, it bothers me even more when they stick around to coach a bowl. You've made a change, go where you want to be. It also reinforces the importance of recruits to understand yes, you may like a coach and he may be the reason you want to go to a school to play for him, but you're signing the NLI for the institution, not the coach. I'm guessing we could see some defections, I can only hope it's minimal. We have a good thing going right now and it would be a shame to see it come tumbling down.

If clawson takes recruits, okay. If he takes some our players like coppett or Moore, then f*ck all that "thanks so much wish you well" bs. Him robbing our team automitcally makes me not like him. Are we supposed to be okay with that as bg fans?
Bottom line, we gave him a chance. It's not like we benefitted so much from him and he got nothing. We gave him a chance to lead a d1 program after he ran the offense at Tennessee that didn't get Arian Foster drafted. And he used us at a springboard to wake.
I'm not mad about that I know that's how life goes in the MAC. But taking our players? Don't be a dick to your former home, Dave. Just don't.

Conspiracy seems to be Fact. I doubt too many current players go anywhere.

The best of the situation is that good candidates to take a MAC coaching job have got to look at BG as the perfect stepping stone. The cupboard is stocked and ready to go. No rebuilding needed.

To me the best situation is to find a Joe Novak. A great coach with BG ties who would rather be here than anywhere else. If only that would happen ...

It bears repeating: It is highly unlikely that current players would leave Bowling Green for Wake Forest. As Flipper said, our players would lose a year of eligibility transferring to another FBS school.

Verbals, obviously, are a different story. Our new coach will have to make it a priority to firm up our recruiting and identify other players that maybe the current regime hasn't found. This is a challenge every new head coach faces. Good ones handle it well. It will help that Bowling Green is the defending MAC champion, and a program people recognize is poised for more success.

A couple of other thoughts:

1. It is interesting that we are accepting this more calmly than the Stoltz or Meyer departures. This situation seems pretty comparable to the Stoltz departure, which made people insanely angry. But I guess coaches might be more prone to leave these days, and I think we all recognize we can't afford $2 million-plus per year right now.

As far as Meyer leaving: He didn't handle it very well, all but saying he would be back for another year, and then leaving for Utah days later. With Clawson, his no comments made it pretty clear that something was probably up. There is a lesson there for future head coaches.

2. Dan Hawkins won some WAC titles at Boise State before leaving for Colorado. The new guy? Chris Petersen, who promptly led Boise State to a Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma.

My point: We don't have to regress here. Hopefully, we can find the next Chris Petersen. He may be on staff, or he may be a name we don't know. Most of us hadn't heard of Dave Clawson before we hired him.

This is a big decision for our AD. I hope he's up to the challenge.