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I know we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, but it's the summer and second shift gets kinda boring.

If we have a successful season (win the MAC), the odds of Brandon getting some interest from other schools is most likely inevitable. I think it would be great to keep him around for awhile longer. This could be a difficult proposition for a school like BG. What do you think it would take to keep him here for a few more years? I know that our coaches salary is on the low end of the scale, but would simply raising it help?

I think they should at least give the man a raise. I know they cannot compete with the other schools out there, but at least a pay increase would say 'hey Gregg, we like what you are doing, and want you around here along time.' Give him a gesture that he is at least appreciated. UNLV offered him a lot more money than we can give him and if a better school comes along with the same kind contract I would not blame him for a second for leaving.

I also assume some sort of money raise is in order. It would be nice to squeeze out some funds to make his pay a little more comparable to other sucessful programs. If I remember correctly, Marshall was paying their football coach 50% of his salary and the other half was privately funded.? Not really sure if that's accurate, but it would be great if we could do that here. I know, it's money, money, money.

I'm hoping the new coaching offices and team meeting rooms that the Sebo is going to offer will help as well.

Then again we could always offer a Gregg Brandon Bobblehead Doll to put the icing on the cake

It's just a shame that interest in the school/program's well being and the prospect of building a solid program out of nothing isn't enough reason for a coach to stay for a career.

I mean, the lowest of D1-A coaches has an annual salary much higher than I can realistically ever hope to achieve in my career. And while this salary may arguably be disproportionate to what he may be worth (to the school), you would think that someone, somewhere, would be happy enough with the kind of money he receives as a coach, that building a powerhouse of a school out of nothing would be of more interest to him.

But this kind of thing is very, very rare at the mid-major level. Why? Are coaches at this level only concerned with earning more than a couple hundred thousand clams a year? Do they only want to be associated with high-profile schools? Or is it just too damn hard to make anything worthwhile out of a school like Bowling Green?

Can we find someone who is genuinely loyal to Bowling Green? Someone who wants to dedicate his career to building something extraordinary out of this program?

Can Gregg Brandon be that man? It's anybody's guess. Chances appear to be slim, though he has shown more integrity than his predecessor.

I completely agree with you. It's kind of like when I play NCAA Football. Why start out with a big time program when you can try to build Florida International into a perennial power? I know that I'm comparing real life to my PS2 addiction, and that making money is something we'd all strive to do, but if a successful coach could stay and build something all his own it would out way some of the added salary other places could offer. At least to an extent I would hope.

I've also thought that if we could manage to sell out every game and show the coach and the football program that we have a growing and supportive fan base worthy of a big time program, maybe we could pull Brandon back for awhile. I know that he is going to make a decision that is best for him and his family, but if he needed me to wash his car every weekend as part of the deal for him staying. . . just tell me where to sign!

Well, let me give a couple opposing viewpoints.

First, on the financial front. People take jobs for more money every day, and almost always for more money than they need to get by. Many people on this board have done exactly that. It doesn't make anyone a bad person, including a football coach.

Second, on a non-financial front. these coaches are men with dreams. What if coaching in the Big 10, or the SEC, or the PAC 10, was a life-long dream of a certain coach. He's coaching at a smaller school to pay his dues--again, like many of us have done. He's working hard, giving it all he's got, doing his job the best he can each and every day. But if the chance comes to live his dreams, there is nothing wrong with following them. It is his life.

If there's a coach who would rather coach here than make big dollars and coach in the big time--and can still do it successfully, that's great. Those are his choices.

I think Coach Brandon has shown he won't take just any job. But if its his desire to coach elsewhere, he'll have nothing but my best wishes. Just be honest wtih us and respect us enough to understand your decision.

Not to be a downer, but if I were brandon, I would leave in a heartbeat after this year if attendance doesn't improve. This is an awfully pessimistic attitude but I'm a little skeptical about the attendance issue this year if we don't start 3-0. With construction, or more appropriately deconstruction going on at the Doyt, 20,000 folks may be hard to come by. If I'm Brandon, and I still see all those empty seats in a stadium that houses one of the most exciting teams in the country to watch, I'm thinking there's nothing more I can do here to get these people interested. Combine that with the stranglehold the BcS has on the CF landscape, and I'm gone for the first good BCS offer that comes along...and they will come along.

Having said all that, I think Brandon is a very good coach and I hope he chooses to make this his home for a long time to come. If he isn't the man talked about above, the man who genuinely wants to ride this ship wherever it goes, then I have a hunch Stud might be. We'll see what happens.

I think the man is focused on building this program. That doesn't mean I think he wants to stay here forever, but I don't think he spends as much time wondering about where he's going to be working next as we do.

Flipper wrote:I think the man is focused on building this program. That doesn't mean I think he wants to stay here forever, but I don't think he spends as much time wondering about where he's going to be working next as we do.

True, Flip. Brandon will leave BG; I mean, who was the last BG coach to (voluntarily) retire as a football coach from BG? But the guy is young enough that he doesn't have to jump at the first opportunity that comes his way. That being said, as a husband and father, I'm sure he's interested in setting up his family as nicely as possible.

1987alum wrote:True, Flip. Brandon will leave BG; I mean, who was the last BG coach to (voluntarily) retire as a football coach from BG?

Probably Doyt Perry.

That said, it's been eons since we've actually fired a coach.

The previous guy left for Utah.
Blackney resigned.
I believe Ankney's contract wasn't renewed.
Denny Stolz left for San Diego State
Don Nehlen's contract wasn't renewed.
Not sure about Bob Gibson, who replaced Perry.

Schadenfreude wrote:Not sure about Bob Gibson, who replaced Perry.

That would be a curious one. He was only coach for 3 years, with records of 7-2, 6-3, 6-4. Not spectacular, but far from "can-worthy".... Was Nehlen that big of a coaching "prospect" that they had to have him? Or was Gibson just a bit of a "stop-gap" after Doyt left?

I'll be my usual pessimistic self and say the two main differences between Urban Meyer and Gregg Brandon are these:

1. Brandon knows when to say the right things that people want to hear and Urban didn't.

2. I wouldn't/won't endorse a pay raise for Brandon or anyone else on staff until he 1) runs OUR (or his, depending on how you look at it) offense in a big game 2) wins a big road game. He has not done either one, yet.

I'm going to assume you meant big CONFERENCE road game. That Purdue win was pretty sweet.

I think the two neutral site wins that closed his first two years ought to count for something, right?

Flipper wrote:I think the two neutral site wins that closed his first two years ought to count for something, right?

Yeah, but then that would ruin the bullet point of that argument.

I'm with Option. We have continually gone in a shell in certain games. Don't know why, but it is apparent that the gameplan against certain teams is to not screw up, rather than attack. What's worse is that when urgency kicks in and we go to attack mode we can score against almost anyone. I just don't see why we're altering our system so much in certain games (against OSU, against NW, etc). I think we'd be better served to try and dictate the pace of play ourselves, rather than let our opponent have it their way.

And we've still yet to win a big conference road game in the Meyer or Brandon years. I stand behind my observations from last season (since we haven't seen any of the team this year). I think you can easily watch a team and know a well coached team from a poorly coached one. Up till this point I'd have to say Brandon's teams are somewhere in the middle.