BUILDING THE FOOTBALL TEAM FOUNDATION FROM THE GROUND UP

[birdman]

week in and week out we heard Coach Clawsons reason for the worst team in BG history was the o-line,D back, kickers. We want to build a program from the ground up with freshman and underclassman. Juco isn't the way we want to go, We want to build a good solid foundation. TWO OUT OF THREE WERE JUCO TO ARRIVE ON CAMPUS. if THERE were problems out of high school there is a reason why they were at Junior Colleges. CLAWSON HAS BEEN AVERAGE AT BEST IN LOW LEVEL 1AA PROGRAMS. As Tenn OC IT WAS ONE OF THE WORST TEAMS IN 35 YEARS. This guy is not the answer. I UNDERSTAND HE IS ONE OF THE LOWEST PAYED COACHS IN THE COUNTRY AND A BUYOUT WOULD BE CHEAP FOR BG. Putting the blame on player every week is not a coach who has the trust of his team. He is not a players coach, THE PROGRAM IS ONE OF THE WORST IN THE COUNTRY. LETS BLAME THE SISTERS OF THE POOR FOR NOT PLAYING THE FALCONS THIS YEAR. How low have BG gone to let this program SINK SO FAR. The AD DID NOT GIVE THE TOLEDO COACH A INTERVIEW AND LOOK WERE THE ROCKETS ARE HEADED. SORRY FALCONS FANS WOULD 3-9 NEXT YEAR BE OK.

[footballguy51]

I'm not really sure what to say, except that I am shocked. I COMPLETELY disagree with your statement, and feel we do have a good head coach that will have us heading in the right direction in another season or two. We were 2-10 this past season. Without looking at the schedule, I can see us improving to at least 4-8 or 5-7.

[Pete Segaard]

I would like to apologize to Hammb (even to MACMAN), how many seasons back did you predict what kind of shape our program would be in if GB held the reins for long, and I did not listen even though I also started to see the signs at the end. It will take time to change the culture and develop the younger players, two seasons is not much.

Coach is on record saying he doesn't want to build a program using JUCO players. I see that as an immediate need for any success this year.

Can't wait to get back out and tailgate.

[hammb]

CLAWSON HAS BEEN AVERAGE AT BEST IN LOW LEVEL 1AA PROGRAMS.

If your poor grammar and spelling mistakes didn't do enough to discount your credibility, this statement most certainly did. Clawson took programs at Fordham and Richmond that were both in shambles. He built those programs correctly, starting off slowly, but turned them both into winners. At Fordham he took a program that had never won, took them to the playoffs, and WON a playoff game. And oh yeah, he did it it with a team that DID NOT offer scholarships, unlike the competition he was playing against! At Richmond he took over a struggling program, again it took him a few years, but he built that program into a D1AA powerhouse that won the national title the year after he left. The man won D1AA coach of the year honors at BOTH stops.


Look, I obviously disagree with you. I think Dave Clawson has proven himself as a high quality head coach. I think if we give him until year 4 to build a program here we'll start to see that here as well. He doesn't come in and offer a quick fixe, we knew that when we hired him. Some of his systems take a few years to take hold, we knew THAT when we hired him as well. But if we give him enough years to build things his way, I fully believe he will make BG into a winner.

Either way, your statement is absolutely false. It's clear that you've already formulated an opinion of him based on his performance with the tattered ruins that Gregg Brandon left this program in. I suppose that's your prerogative, but to say that he wasn't great at the 1AA level couldn't be the further from the truth.

[hammb]

I would like to apologize to Hammb (even to MACMAN), how many seasons back did you predict what kind of shape our program would be in if GB held the reins for long,

Meh, no apologies needed. I'm not glad I was right. I wasn't a fan of GB from the beginning. I always hate handing the reigns over to an existing assistant without at least looking around first. Then I didn't think he was a good game day coach from the getgo. After a few years it became more and more clear that he also didn't have any idea how to run a program.

Urban had this thing going in so much the right direction, it just took a few years before it was really obvious where Brandon was truly taking the program. Especially when we started having too many kids flame out, transfer away, get in legal troubles, and do so poorly in class we lost scholarships. Unfortunately by the time we let him go he had the program in far worse shape than even Blackney left it in.

[Falconfreak90]

Wow...I also completely disagree with birdman. Last year was difficult, no question. You need to do some research about Coach Clawson's career. We only had SEVEN starters back in '10 and compound that with the injuries suffered and 7 difficult road games...

Look, I hated going 2-10. I've been following BG football since the early to mid 80's and last year was as bad as 1988 when we went 2-8-1. BUT, as much of a supporter as I was of Brandon, he didn't leave the program in good shape. We didn't find out about all the schollies lost until after his outser. Simply put, GB won a lot of games but it's evident now he cut corners the last few years and our program paid the price.

The good news is Coach Clawson, I firmly believe, will build BG back into a powerhouse. It's gonna take some time and in this day and age of instant gratification, some folks don't want to be patient. I will. IF Clawson doesn't get the job done in a few years, we'll be looking for a new coach. But give the man a chance. The 2011 season cannot get here fast enough.

GO FALCONS!

[Drago]

I just think between the Clawson and GC, all you hear is how the team was so shorthanded all season. Which of course is a knock on Brandon, to make it seem like it is all his fault. At some point the head coach and AD's job is to produce winners, and not pass the buck. I personally don't think the program was in as bad of shape as everyone makes it out to be. I thought the team basically no showed for several games this season, and that is on the coaches if it happens more than once. Too many people think coaching is all about press confrences. Clawson is good at being in front of the microphone making excuses and talking about his plan...take a look at some of the Tennessee message boards to see what Clawson said he was going to do and what really happened. It is very familar. We'll see what happens, but I don't think this staff will do much down the road.

[Falcon Commander]

good God, not again please

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ ... -horse.gif

perhaps we need another Index titled "Dead Horse Issues"

[MarkL]

week in and week out we heard Coach Clawsons reason for the worst team in BG history was the o-line,D back, kickers.

The guy came in with a depleted roster and has been given one and a half recruiting classes to work with. And he's made it clear that he wanted to build the program up aiming at sustainability, not aiming toward a great 2010 with a shaky future. Hence, he's redshirted as many freshmen as possible to allow for players to develop instead of playing talented freshmen immediately while compromising these guys' potential highest level of play.

CLAWSON HAS BEEN AVERAGE AT BEST IN LOW LEVEL 1AA PROGRAMS.

No, he wasn't. He was 1-AA national coach of the year twice. Get your facts straight.

As Tenn OC IT WAS ONE OF THE WORST TEAMS IN 35 YEARS.

Ok, yeah things didn't work at Tennessee. He was the offensive coordinator. We didn't hire Clawson to be our OC, we hired him to be our head coach. And multiple Tennessee insiders pointed out that there were too many hands on the steering wheel with regard to the Volunteer offense in 2008. Clawson wasn't given complete control of the offense, so you didn't even get to see his body of work there.

Putting the blame on player every week is not a coach who has the trust of his team.

That's not what he has been doing. He hasn't been putting the blame on the players. In fact, he praised the players time and time again for the amount of effort and heart they showed, even in losing efforts. He has said that the foundation is there for a good future, but he needs some players to step up as leaders on the field.

THE PROGRAM IS ONE OF THE WORST IN THE COUNTRY.

The team last year was one of the worst in the country, yes. 2-10 is not good. But Bowling Green is not one of the worst programs in the country by a long shot.

The AD DID NOT GIVE THE TOLEDO COACH A INTERVIEW AND LOOK WERE THE ROCKETS ARE HEADED.

Tom Amstutz "stepped down" in about October 2008. Gregg Brandon was fired in very late November 2008. That's over a month that UT had to located a coach. So if we did interview Beckman, chances are that UT had been talking to him for quite a while. And besides, if you had listened to Greg Christoper's press conferences, then you'd know that he was looking for a guy with head coaching experience.

Dude, the crap you've posted here isn't the way we do things around here. First, we use at least decent spelling and grammar. Proper English gives you credibility. I'm not even sure how to read some of what you posted.

Second, we are respectful to each other, respectful to our coaches, respectful to our players, and we don't carry the negative attitudes that I saw all over your posts.

And third, we get our facts straight. Your facts are way, way off.

Please ... either go away or rethink the way you post.

[Rightupinthere]

I would like to take this opportunity to agree with birdman: we simply don't use all caps enough to make our point clear.

GREAT JOB!

[Globetrotter]

I am on board with Drago. I am not sure that I really am all in for Clawson and I think that they did a little too much of the short handed claims. However, I also think he could do good things. I have seen more to believe that he will not be a great coach then he will be a good one but that is usually the case early in a coaches career. He is certainly closer to getting fired then he is to getting a long term extension. As fans we tend to give the shiny new toy the benefit of the doubt and see all the potential. That's the reason that the draft, recruiting and coaching carousel are so popular. The grass is always greener. I have not foreclosed my opinion either way but I think there are some here who tend to fall a little too heavily into the idealistic view of the team such as the players as "great men" and "BG type players" or thats "Not what we do at BG" etc and that extends to the coach too while he is here.

[IronFalcon77]

Get off Clawson's back Bird. He is a good man. The Kind of Guy I like leading our program. For alot of reasons (mostly the Apr Reductions from GB) there were only 65 scholarship players on the team, that is minus 20 from the allowed number. You take 20 scholarships away from any program and see how good they are.

[IMAFALCONFAN]

Yes, we need to give Clawson a chance to rebuild, but at the same time, assuming all of the guys brought in during GB's time aren't going to contribute is not appropriate. There have been alot of posts suggesting that's the case.
The guys who came in during 2008, etc. were top athletes in high school or they would not have been recruited. Let's not label them so that they are given every chance to perform...not focusing on which coach chose them! Let's not forget that there are players brought in under EVERY coach that do not deliver what was expected!

[Globetrotter]

If we cant blame Clawson for the failure of 2010 because of the players what do we do about applauding him for the successes of 2009 because those players were not his either.

[Flipper]

Re JUCO players...no you don't want to depend on them to rebuild the program. Clawson isn't doing that by any stretch of the imagination. The OL was terrible last year. The injuries and constant position switched robbed the group of any hope of becoming a cohesive unit. A veteran starter, Blaec Walker will never play again. The unit needs some depth. The 2-3 JUCO kids Clawson has signed to play OL are going to give the unit some veteran depth. If they earn starting positions, that's fine. If they push the incumbents a bit harder and wind up backing up a returning player...that's even better.

I don't know how you can argue that the program wasn't in rough...really rough..shape when Clawson got here. We were penalized scholarships because of APR issues. We had guys getting arrested for some pretty heavy criminal offenses and we had a number of academic casualties. In 2009 Clawson was dressing something like 55 scholarship players each week. He did one HELL of a job getting that team to a bowl game. The 2010 team had ...IIRC... the fewest returing starters in the conference and the least expereinced roster overall. It showed....in all facets of the game. I'm a bit concerned that we haven't had a running game in eihter of Clawson's seasons here and I would have liked to have seen more week to week improvement last year, but on balance, I like what Clawson has done here and I think he's done the heavy lifting need to get our house back in order and the program pointed in the right direction.