welcome 2 the big league

[#1fbfan]

3 thing you need to compete at this level

1. coaching: that say's it all

2. speed: speed kills, you need speed at all skill positions

3. conditioning: strong at all positions, even the kicker and qbs(word floating around your starting qb doesnt like to work out, well you see what happend)

[Rabbit_FB_Alum]

Re: welcome 2 the big league

I played with Brad and can assure you that he is NOT lazy. We works out hard.

Speed has always been a problm for SDSU because the majority of our recruiting pool is white kids from the midwest (yes I am one of them )

As far as coaching, coach Stig. knows the X's and O's of football as well as anyone out there, but he doesn't relate to players well.

[JackJD]

Re: welcome 2 the big league

As long as I'm on line reading the posts, I'll again state a point I've made before: If you want speed, you're going to have to allow some of the players to also participate in track (just like the major programs do). There are athletes that want to do both but everyone know that with just one or two exceptions during Stig's tenure, football players cannot run on the track team.

Recruiting candidates know that about SDSU's program and that takes SDSU out of the running for some.

[Jack]

Re: welcome 2 the big league

Let me weigh in:

Speed is the biggest thing we don't have. We should be called The Lumberjacks because we are big but we just lumber. If Jackjd is right then there will have to be a change in thinking in the athletic department. If a kid can handle multiple sports, do well in school, heck let them play! That's only part of it. We have to recruit kids who have speed and that rests on the football staff.

We also need to be honest about another thing. Brookings is a tough place to recruit to. It is. Not everyone thinks a big school in a small town is a good thing. Kids coming from big towns aren't sitting around saying, "Boy, I sure would like to go to college in a small town." Young people are drawn to the big cities. It's natural. We just need to find the kind of kids who would prefer to live in a place like Brookings. They are out there, not a lot of them, but we need to find them.

Here's another thing. I see people complaiining about bringing up the level of scholarships quicker. SURE, THAT"S EASY --- I'll bet the athletic department never thought about that! Come on. Where is all this money coming from? SEriously, where is the money? This thing is going to require time, increased fundraising efforts and careful management. The last thing we need to do is build up a big debt and have every Frank Klouchek type legislator and every naysayer out there saying "See I told you so."

This is the problem in America. Everybody wants it now. This is going to take some time. We are going to lose a lot before we start winning. WE haven't even seen the bottom yet. That's coming and it's going to hurt. The easiest thing is to cut bait and run. We have to think about 20 years from now. It's hard to do that when you have your rear handed to you 52-0. I watched the smack on this board and laughed when Jacks fans started giving the business to the likes of the Georgia Southern fans. Georgia Southern is going put the hurt on us big and the only question is how much they are going to win by.

As far as I'm concerned is that getting knocked down to the canvass isn't the problem. It's how we get back on our feet. We're going to get knocked down a lot. We've got to keep getting back up because one day we won't get knocked down as much. Then one day we will be the only one standing. That won't happen for awhile. This is the time all of us get tested not just the athletes.

There's a great line in the movie A League of Their Own. It came out in the early 1990s. It's about the womens professional baseball league in the 1940s. Gina Davis plays a woman by the name of Dot Hansen. She's the best player in the league. One day Dot decides to leave. She's had enough of the grind and troubles. She packs up all her stuff and starts to go. Tom Hanks, her drunken manager, sees her and says, WHat are you doing?" She says "I'm quitting." He says "Why are you quitting? She says, "It's just too hard."

Then Hanks says something profound. He said "It's supposed to be hard. If it was easy everyone would be able to do it. That's what makes it so special."

There's a lesson in that.

[Rabbit_FB_Alum]

Re: welcome 2 the big league

I agree with you jack. This is going to be a process. It is time for us all to back the Jacks win or loose. You also bring up a great point about the small town. When I was there I saw several players from big cities like LA, Houstin, and Denver play for 1 year and leave because they hated Brookings. I think the best way to solve that problem is make the facilities like the locker room and weight room 1st class. We can't change Brookings but we can change the facilities.

[JackJD]

Re: welcome 2 the big league

Jack makes sense.

I think recruiting to Brookings can be a challenge but that's what the school is dealing with and they have to make it work. I had occasion to visit Oxford, Mississippi. Oxford, without Ole Miss, is about the same size as Brookings. That's just one example. There are plenty of other college towns the size of Brookings and even smaller. (I know, I know, the population density in Mississippi is much higher etc.)

It's gonna take time. I remain convinced going up to 1-AA is an okay move.