Cat in SoDak
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Posts posted by Cat in SoDak
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TSic, follow your own advice. Follow the money. The financial stability of the Athletic Department will be tough to maintain without a conference. That is more important to the powers that be than a nickname that is probably on borrowed time anyway.
Following the money at UND leads to the men's hockey and football programs, neither of which would be members of the Summit League.
Seems to me the "powers that be", who happen to be nickname opponents, are using a self made Summit League "crisis" to ram through a decision that the majority of fans and alumni do not want. Kinda sounds like the "once we pass a health care bill, people will learn to like it" argument in the news these days.
If letting the process play out over the course of 2010 and possibly delaying a conference schedule by one year would be devasting to the UND athletic department, then the Summit League isn't going to save it.
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You obviously don't know Coach Lennon nor the Alumni or Boosters. Here are a couple of facts. Dale didn't persue this job they contacted him. He was offered the job and turned it down. He didn't need anything from the Alumni or boosters he has full support. He wasn't looking for anything. If you know the guy you would know he wouldn't use this as a ploy for what he might want. He stayed at UND out of loyalty to the kids and to UND football. HE has had chances to move to other D1AA jobs in the past and will have more chances in the future.
Yes, but he could have said "no thanks" after the initial contact or after he became a finalist or immediately after his interview. I think the perception about using the MSU job as leverage comes from the fact that he waited until he had the leverage (job offer) to bow out.
I sincerely wish Coach Lennon and the UND program continued success in the future. I'm disappointed that we lost out on a great coach, but obviously his heart is in Grand Forks, so that's where he should be. Hopefully, Coach Ash can help sort out some of the issues we have and MSU will move forward successfully as well.
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A person at bobcatnation posted:
It was posted today but whether it's true or not who knows. Good news for us though if it is true
.Link:
http://www.bobcatnation.com/bobcatboard/vi...pic.php?t=10476
Guess we'll find out on Monday. I wonder where those pesky internet rumors came from?
MSU football: 'Cats schedule Monday press conference to announce coach
By JEFF WELSCH Chronicle Sports Editor
Montana State will announce its new football coach at 11 a.m. Monday at the Stadium Club, athletic director Peter Fields said Saturday.
Still unclear is who the Bobcats' 31st coach will be.
Early Saturday, rumors circulated on Internet message boards at MSU and North Dakota that UND head coach Dale Lennon, one of the three remaining finalists, had followed Carroll coach Mike Van Diest's lead and pulled out of the running.
Fields declined to comment on the rumor "one way or the other right now" before revealing the scheduling of the press conference.
"We're still looking at the candidates we brought in - minus Van Diest," he added.
Attempts to reach Lennon were unsuccessful as of 4 p.m. Saturday.
Also Saturday, an unidentified source said former MSU coach Mike Kramer has accepted a position as an assistant at Eastern Washington under his friend Paul Wulff. Attempts to reach Kramer and officials at EWU were unsuccessful.
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I think it will be MVD. The Montanans will stay with a guy they know from Carroll College. And......I think they will be missing the boat by not hiring Lennon.
I get the feeling that support for Lennon is gathering some steam. Is it enough to unseat the sentimental choice? Tough to call right now.
If the annoucement comes sooner, I bet it's MVD. If it's delayed at all, I'm going with Lennon.
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Just got back from the Mike Van Diest open forum
attendance- I am guessing there were a 100+ at the DL forum- today there were probably 150-200 people. Yesterday's crowd was more heavily composed of what appeared to be blue-haired boosters, MSU employees, and some members of the community while today had a much heterogeneous crowd.
In his intro MVD talked alot about football in general- also went into detail about his ties with former MSU greats, and Montana in general. mentioned his previous ties with NCAA football as there was a question about his ability to move from NAIA to DI. Said he would bring about 4-5 coaches from CC if he were to come.
There weren't as many questions about academics and character issues today (probably becuase of the crowd composition), obviously MVD said he was for discipline and academics but didn't go into as much detail about how he addresses the subjects as did DL.
As y'all probably know DL is solid and appears genuine while he speaks but MVD was a bit more engaging and dynamic in his presentation (think motivational speaker[not Matt Foley]). He cracked a few jokes early which went over well with what was obviously a pro-MVD audience.
I think the discerning viewer would probably view the open forum as a virtual push between DL and MVD, while "Joe Bobcat Fan" would be more excited about MVD.
MSU would be lucky to have either IMHO
I agree. In my gut, I hope it's Lennon. You guys are very lucky to have him at UND.
An earlier post in this thread mentioned the A&M game. Basically I-A opponent = $$$$$$$$. We've played one "money" game a year for quite a while and I don't see that changing.
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Good stuff. I am able to watch every Montana St. and U of Montana football game on the satellite dish that I use to pick up the FSSN. After 3-4 years of watching Kramer coach, I admit that I have never been impressed with his coaching ability, nor with the way he carries himself. However, I chuckled watcing that press conference when he mentioned he was recently a candidate for the Head job at Idaho. It is his alma mater, and I remember earlier this year when he took himself out of the running for the vacant position that he had a good chance of getting. Then I remember hearing he was fired a couple weeks ago and thinking to myself, wow, what a way to reward Kramer's show of loyalty to Montana St.
Oh yeah, and if MSU chooses Coach Lennon, I hope that Kramer wins his lawsuit.
I think his good chance went out the window when one of our starting cornerbacks was arrested for cocaine trafficking during the Idaho interview process.
Mike Kramer did a lot of positive things for our program. He greatly improved our talent level on the field and worked very hard to get folks in Montana excited about Bobcat football again.
Unfortunately, the actions of some of the players he recruited, plus the APR situation in recent years, cast a black cloud over his tenure that he was never going to escape. The end game could have been handled much better by the AD and university leaders, but I truly believe we had to go in another direction.
A lawsuit isn't going to be pretty, for MSU or Mike Kramer. The timing of his press conference, on the day the public forums begin, plus the fact his lawyer has close ties to the University of Montana (his son was the QB on their national championship team) just adds to the bitter taste in my mouth.
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I think the chances of Lennon leaving for Montana State are extremely slim. My reasons why I feel that way:
- It's not that big of a deal to be asked to apply for a job, send in a resume, and then spend 45 minutes doing a phone interview. That's the point we are at right now. With DL's credentials, he's going to a be in the running for any job he applies for. Just because he's been named a finalist for a job he was asked to apply for doesn't mean he's a lock to take the job if offered.
- Everyone knows that Dale's long-term goal is to transform UND into a D-I football program and that he has worked his tail off behind the scenes the last couple of years to help make it happen. It would be very surprising to see him leave when he's just about to get the chance to do what he's been wanting to do.
- I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that Dale's oldest son is going to be a senior at GFC this fall and another son is going to be a junior. Obviously, that's a very tough time to be moving a family. Plus, with it being June already, if he did move there are only two months to find a house, get the kids in new schools, etc. before the start of school and fall practice.
- From the sounds of it, MSU's roster is littered with players that wouldn't last one practice playing for DL. With it being this close to the start of the season, there is no time to start cleaning house and recruiting players that can be a fit in Lennon's system. The job would be much more attractive if they were hiring in December.
- I think Dale Lennon is the best man for the job and MSU would be crazy not to offer it to him. But it sounds like Mike Van Diest is the favorite among the majority of the MSU supporters and the MSU administration is probably under tremendous pressure to go with the flow and hire him after all of the problems in the Kramer regime. It's most likely that Dale won't be offered the position anyway.
- With UND now transitioning to D-I and how sound the football program is right now, MSU is a lateral move at best.
All of that said, if Dale does decide to leave UND at this point, it should become apparent that the rumored internal problems in the athletic department are more than just rumors.
Ultimately, I think Dale Lennon's flirtation with this job is a shrewd political move on his part designed to scare the pants off of the administration and most specifically Buning. I imagine there will be several of those football alumni with deep pockets putting a tremendous amount of pressure on Kupchella and Buning this week in regard to retaining Lennon. No doubt there will be a few "you had better straighten this out with him or we withhold $" conversations going on in the next several days.
I would like to think Lennon isn't using the MSU job as political ammo and that he would have dropped out if he wasn't truly interested, but who knows.
The point about Van Diest is spot on. The path of least resistance for Fields would be to name him and move on.
As I've said in previous posts, I think Lennon is the best candidate, but given the situation in Bozeman, Van Diest is probably the right man in the right place at the right time.
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SoDak Cat:
How many more FB players have left the MSU roster, which harms the APR even more? Is MSU likely to lose even more scholarships? A number of coments have been made on other boards that MSU player introductions were more akin to Snoop Doggy Dog MTV videos than representative of Montana State. Lennon wouldn't put up with that crap, which could result in even more players released. MSU could actually be in danger of losing the ability to play IA schools if their scholarship levels continue to drop. Losing future Colorado or Texas A&M games would not only harm the budget, but recruiting.
Eastern Washington supposedly fired their basketball coach this week because the players grades were atrocious, putting the whole program in jeopardy. Jumping into programs like these are high risk: like having to wade into a cesspool and hoping the depth doesn't get over your head.
I don't think anybody has left since Kramer was fired. We did have a couple of OL that were academically ineligible for spring ball. I don't know all the details regarding future scholarship losses, but I've heard we could lose up to 3 if we don't show improvement.
The player introductions you mention were embarrasing. I remember seeing them before the Montana - Montana St. game and just shaking my head.
I think the reliance on 1-A dropdowns has had an extremely negative effect on our program off the field. Kids coming to play for a year or two but making little progress towards a degree is crippling under the new measurement system. I'm not implying this was always the case, but it doesn't take too many occurrences to put your APR in the sewer. MSU recently completed a thorough review of their recruiting practices, which will hopefully lead to some positive changes.
For the most part, I believe we have good kids and MSU is a wonderful place to go to school. Unfortunately, the actions of a few have put a black cloud over the program. I don't think the new staff will be wading into a cesspool, but there will be challenges.
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Even though they should, I don't think MSU will offer it to Lennon. I think they'll be pressured into offering to Van Diest who would no doubt accept.
For some reason if they did offer it to Lennon, though, I do think he would accept.
Yep. Unless Van Diest drops f-bombs and confuses Montana St. with the University of Montana in the public forum, he's probably the guy.
If I were the MSU AD, it would take me about as long to offer Lennon the job as it takes to type "Dale Lennon" on the contract.
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I would take that with a grain of salt. They also were very PO at Fields for firing Kramer too. I think the better and more serious question for Sioux fans is why Lennon would be interested in the job in the first place.
The fact is there's going to be a lot of pressure on Fields to hire Van Diest. Whether that influences his decision remains to be seen.
I truly believe Lennon is the best candidate. But Van Diest might be the right candidate.
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What Montana State needs more than anything is a coach proven to run a clean and academically disciplined program. Throw in the 3-4 defensive alignment factor, not liking our chances of retaining Lennon.
The press release mentions "five" finalists. Did Kill at Southern Illinois withdraw at the last minute? He might have been the favorite if he stayed in contention.
Must've been something like that, as Kill was the only other name I heard mentioned.
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Van Diest has to be the fan favorite because he's a known commodity in Montana. The question is will the higher-ups at MSU feel that it would be too big of a jump to go from NAIA to what is often expected to be a Top 20 FCS program?
Van Diest is the sentimental choice among Bobcats fans, due to his Montana roots.
I'd prefer Lennon, as he's proven himself at the upper echelon of D-II, which is basically the same as I-AA, in my opinion. Plus, based on the few things I've read and heard, he seems like a great guy.
The off the field situation is a little messy in Bozeman, to say the least. The APR issue will probably be most urgent for the new coach coming in, as we've lost scholarships in the past. The ongoing criminal investigation is bad PR, but hopefully won't end up affecting the current roster too much.
On the field, there is a lot of talent back from a team that went to the I-AA quarterfinals. The defense should be especially good.
Facilities wise, MSU has a stadium that seats around 14,000, which I believe is similar to the Alerus Center. At Montana State, football is king, which may or may not be a factor for Coach Lennon. Lastly, Bozeman is a beautiful place to live. It's a classic college town, similar to Grand Forks in that regard, I imagine.
I certainly wish no ill will towards UND, but I'll be pulling for Dale Lennon as the process plays out next week.
Game over.
in UND Nickname
Posted
I found these quotes from the 2007 "settlement" announcement ironic today: