Wilkinson not retained at TAMUK

[javs26]

Wake the heck up administration! The off season is not the time to fall asleep even during a coaching search. When you have one the better high school beat reporters tweeting this and the responses echo it, then you have to get proactive. SMH!

https://twitter.com/Matt_Stepp817/st...92659599847427



Disappointed to hear about the condition Javelina Stadium down in Kingsville is in...was wondering why they weren't hosting any playoff games....very sad that they've let that place deteriorate #txhsfb

Those comments are embarrassing to read, especially when former AD candidates are commenting about how far behind they were back in 2007.

[GoBuffsGo]

Josh Lynn came into Portales NM of all places with our old stadium, non existant everything and WON, after he started winning they remodeled the locker room, built a new stadium, increased funding etc.

I'm not saying a new charismatic coach is the absolute cure, but if you dont find the right coach...you wont have a program, no matter how cool your stuff is to look at. I promise EASTERN could have a locker room like Oregon or LSU and if we are fighting with Commerce or WT for a recruit ENMU is the fall back plan AFTER juco.....Kingsville has a way better starting point.

Kingsville has ALOT going for it, near the coast, its WARM! Great history and fan support, yalls tailgate is supreme! One of these years I will take my sons to see Eastern play there, NFL HOFERS for goodness sake, find someone who can help recruits see the glass half full, then the pressure on the admins can really crank up.

Texas tech has great stuff and the suck cause they keep going after the wrong coaches, they need a non traditional coach, just like kingsville does, find your coach first.

The answer to all Kingsville's problems: Just hire Josh Lynn. He's done it before; he can do it again! ;-)

[LSC Fan]

Those comments are embarrassing to read, especially when former AD candidates are commenting about how far behind they were back in 2007.

[LSC Fan]

Bailiff isnt having to rebuild a d2 program from the ground up with sub par facilities and a losing streak a mile long.. he is starting with a talent loaded team that is just two years out from winning a natty. He is in maintenance mode, it's a world of difference from a complete ground up rebuild.

He simply has to reload and coach his scheme on the field, something established older coaches are pretty good at, rebuilding from scratch with limited resources and institutional short comings is a young man's game.

I agree that it's about getting the right people, that's why most of the guys who build up from "nothing" these types programs are young, its cause it takes a tremendous amount of drive and energy, orders of magnitude greater than what is needed to maintain an already winning established program.

[Techster88]

Wake the heck up administration! The off season is not the time to fall asleep even during a coaching search. When you have one the better high school beat reporters tweeting this and the responses echo it, then you have to get proactive. SMH!

https://twitter.com/Matt_Stepp817/st...92659599847427



Disappointed to hear about the condition Javelina Stadium down in Kingsville is in...was wondering why they weren't hosting any playoff games....very sad that they've let that place deteriorate #txhsfb

[Boohaha]

The answer to all Kingsville's problems: Just hire Josh Lynn. He's done it before; he can do it again! ;-)

The guy just beat NWMS on the road.....

[LSC Fan]

I agree with Boohaha that a younger coach full of energy and ambition came make the program a 6-5 or 7-4 program if he is the right guy.

An older coach has experience and can side step a lot of mistakes a younger coach will make.

I agree with this. The younger coach option works real well if that individual is looking for future career advancement and he doesn't have other obstacles to overcome that are not so much related to on the field stuff such as lack of administrative support like TAMUK has. Brain Kelly fit this when he was at Grand Valley State. I recall back in our glory days when we played GVSU in the semis watching him conduct himself like a field general from warmups to the end of the game. How that guy had a voice after the game, I don't know? I told my football watching bud he won't be with GVSU after this season and sure enough he moved up the ladder and now look where he's at. The upside is he had some darn good assistant coaches who took over and they didn't skip a beat and I believe a few of them did well at the next level

The person who takes over is going to have a big time task and require some good sales skills for sure. The more daunting task is going to be left to the current administration to back him and his staff 100% and show real evidence they are serious this time. And this is why my hope level isn't too high. They will need to show us their cards real soon or the program should just go ahead and die as far as I'm concerned.

[LSC Fan]

How many of us have first hand knowledge of the type of player Coach Wilk went after? How many of us know how "hungry" he is? I dont want to come off as blindly defending him or blindly defending the situation we have in Kingsville, but for anybody to think that a new, young, hungry, great recruiting HC is the sole answer is a mistake. Again, Wilk may have been everyone of those things. I remember the type of players he was going after his first two years but was unable to land. Was it because he wasn't charismatic enough or couldn't seal the deal or was it because they'd look at our facilities (or lack of) and say "no thanks"? I agree our new HC needs to be all those things, but if we dont address the other issues, we'll be facing the same situation we're in now.

The only thing I can suggest to see what type of player Wik and his staff went after is to look at the rosters the last few years and the two deeps and you will see more players on them from schools south of San Antonio vs what it used to be a decade or so ago. And that being said. some of these players didn't play at high schools with strong winning programs currently or even in the past. We had a few from Corpus Christi Carroll who used to be the Corpus Christi ISD high school power (not to be confused with the high school power not in the CCISD in Calallen) , but haven't had a winning season for several years and just finished 0-10 this year and 1-9 the year before. So it kind of makes sense if scholarship dollars had never been restored to what they used to be, he had to recruit if you will on the cheap. And as much as I hate to say it, south of San Antonio has never been a recruiting hotbed. A place to find diamonds in the rough? Yes. A place you want to build your core for a competitive D2 or higher team? No. But if his draw on money was limited on top of the other discussed issues, he had to make lemonade out of the bag of lemons he was given or at least try to.

[lantana]

I have to agree with the ENMU guys.....with the right coach, the facilities may still be an issue, but not insurmountable...

IMO, we had and have some good (maybe not great, but good) football players over the past four, five years...BUT, the coaching decisions were just terrible. I could post forever about some of the mis-calcs, but that gets boring... It was, simply, poor coaching, not poor players.

During the time football has been having issues, the lack of decent facilities has not hampered Women's Tennis, where Ms. Williams has put together very competitive teams (we do have new courts tho...). She has no trouble attracting talent. Then we have won national championships in Beach Volleyball, and got a second position too (again, our BVB facilities are new and great). And Ms. Allen is a great recruiter for both Indoor VB and Beach VB and has no difficulty attracting talent. Indoor, we are playing in a circa 1969/1970 basketball gym, BTW.

Then, Nicholson has put together the No 2 Womens Softball team nationally, last season, while playing on grass and dirt, without dressing facilities and questionable restrooms. He has no trouble recruiting. Then, Men's Baseball is always competitive, again, grass and dirt and no decent dressing/restroom facilities, but no recruiting trouble there. Men' Track = national champs and a follow-on sixth place nationally, again, marginal facilities. Women's Track = good, competitive, with same questionable facilities. Men's BB is always competitive with Coach Estelle in place and doing a great job.

And, our coaching office space is just a mess... But, all of our programs seem to attract good students, and good (and some great...) athletes, all due to recruiting and "selling and marketing the school".

I hear lots of comments about "being next to nowhere, except Corpus Christi". Well, I have traveled to most of the LSC towns/sites at one time or another, including Blackwater Draw. Want to go to Stephenville? Commerce? Portales? What are they next to? IMO, again, Kingsville is just fine, location-wise, and our coaches in the above sports have no difficulty attracting talent.

No question we do need new facilities, and someone dropped the bucket (the transition of Dr. T and Gines going away, and giving new replacements Dr. H and Roach time to adjust and put together a plan) has not helped, but I believe Dr. H and Steve Roach are going to put athletic facilities to the forefront...we shall see.

I am distressed over football, but it was coaching, not facilities that kicked us in the rear...

lantana

[lantana]

Rude of me....I forgot about the Javelina Women's Golf where we play/practice on the off-campus course in The Ville, and the coach has been putting together improving golf teams each year for the past three, four years. She also is apparently a great recruiter, and believe me, if you can recruit players to play on the only marginal quality course in town, and fight the always blowing wind off the Gulf, you are doing something. Again, facilities? No, just effort and commitment.

And then, we have struggled with Women BB over the past three, four years, but after watching the Hogettes play their first games under Coach Madrid, I think he will do with fine over the next couple of years. Again, playing in our dated BB facility? A problem, but his first recruiting classes indicate that effort and not excuses is going to get the job done.

Out of breath....

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

lantana

[Booger Red Hog]

Sad to say its more than a coaching change that is gonna turn this program around. Facilities is a big problem, just look around at high schools in the state that have better overall facilities. That is what students are looking for. The bling of the campus so to speak.

[LSC Fan]

I have to agree with the ENMU guys.....with the right coach, the facilities may still be an issue, but not insurmountable...

IMO, we had and have some good (maybe not great, but good) football players over the past four, five years...BUT, the coaching decisions were just terrible. I could post forever about some of the mis-calcs, but that gets boring... It was, simply, poor coaching, not poor players.

During the time football has been having issues, the lack of decent facilities has not hampered Women's Tennis, where Ms. Williams has put together very competitive teams (we do have new courts tho...). She has no trouble attracting talent. Then we have won national championships in Beach Volleyball, and got a second position too (again, our BVB facilities are new and great). And Ms. Allen is a great recruiter for both Indoor VB and Beach VB and has no difficulty attracting talent. Indoor, we are playing in a circa 1969/1970 basketball gym, BTW.

Then, Nicholson has put together the No 2 Womens Softball team nationally, last season, while playing on grass and dirt, without dressing facilities and questionable restrooms. He has no trouble recruiting. Then, Men's Baseball is always competitive, again, grass and dirt and no decent dressing/restroom facilities, but no recruiting trouble there. Men' Track = national champs and a follow-on sixth place nationally, again, marginal facilities. Women's Track = good, competitive, with same questionable facilities. Men's BB is always competitive with Coach Estelle in place and doing a great job.

And, our coaching office space is just a mess... But, all of our programs seem to attract good students, and good (and some great...) athletes, all due to recruiting and "selling and marketing the school".

I hear lots of comments about "being next to nowhere, except Corpus Christi". Well, I have traveled to most of the LSC towns/sites at one time or another, including Blackwater Draw. Want to go to Stephenville? Commerce? Portales? What are they next to? IMO, again, Kingsville is just fine, location-wise, and our coaches in the above sports have no difficulty attracting talent.

No question we do need new facilities, and someone dropped the bucket (the transition of Dr. T and Gines going away, and giving new replacements Dr. H and Roach time to adjust and put together a plan) has not helped, but I believe Dr. H and Steve Roach are going to put athletic facilities to the forefront...we shall see.

I am distressed over football, but it was coaching, not facilities that kicked us in the rear...

lantana

We did spend some money via student fee to build a brand new tennis and beach volleyball venue which I'm sure has helped those programs.

I will say when it comes to baseball and softball, we do need to up the quality of those facilities too. But when it comes to comparing them as a magnet for recruiting, it's a different animal than football. One of my boys briefly played on the select/travel ball circuit, so I got to see baseball facilities in many parts of the state and even at high schools that have these football stadiums which would make even some of the smaller FBS schools envy, their baseball facilities were an after thought. Nothing jaw dropping to make a prospective college recruit from one of those high school baseball programs to Kingsville or a number of other D2 schools to sway their minds like football facilities might. Now to be fair, in some of those same locations they had nice privately or city owned facilities which were very top notch.

I hope whatever plan comes out address the whole enchilada if you will and every sport benefits. I would like to give the previous administration the benefit of the doubt, but the evidence appears they put the master plan they had constructed in 2010 in the back of the file cabinet ( at least for the athletic part) and just whistled past the football program grave yard. They didn't actively engage the A&M BOR for path for funding or anything much like their counterparts at Tarleton, PVAM, Commerce and WTAM did. And the current AD possibly waited too long now for many of us to believe anything will get done and what is proposed is now going to be out a sense of desperation. It it sounds cynical, a decade and some change of watching this can't help but to solidify the cynicism.

[GoBuffsGo]

We did spend some money via student fee to build a brand new tennis and beach volleyball venue which I'm sure has helped those programs.

I will say when it comes to baseball and softball, we do need to up the quality of those facilities too. But when it comes to comparing them as a magnet for recruiting, it's a different animal than football. One of my boys briefly played on the select/travel ball circuit, so I got to see baseball facilities in many parts of the state and even at high schools that have these football stadiums which would make even some of the smaller FBS schools envy, their baseball facilities were an after thought. Nothing jaw dropping to make a prospective college recruit from one of those high school baseball programs to Kingsville or a number of other D2 schools to sway their minds like football facilities might. Now to be fair, in some of those same locations they had nice privately or city owned facilities which were very top notch.

I hope whatever plan comes out address the whole enchilada if you will and every sport benefits. I would like to give the previous administration the benefit of the doubt, but the evidence appears they put the master plan they had constructed in 2010 in the back of the file cabinet ( at least for the athletic part) and just whistled past the football program grave yard. They didn't actively engage the A&M BOR for path for funding or anything much like their counterparts at Tarleton, PVAM, Commerce and WTAM did. And the current AD possibly waited too long now for many of us to believe anything will get done and what is proposed is now going to be out a sense of desperation. It it sounds cynical, a decade and some change of watching this can't help but to solidify the cynicism.

I may be completely wrong, and if I am, I apologize, but it is my understanding that there are no "A&M" dollars for athletic facilities. It is done with either private donations or increased student fees.

[LSC Fan]

I may be completely wrong, and if I am, I apologize, but it is my understanding that there are no "A&M" dollars for athletic facilities. It is done with either private donations or increased student fees.

You are technically correct. But colleges around the state have been able to find loopholes to get their systems to help fund facility improvements such as designating classroom or dual use purposes within those facilities. Buildings like a Health and Rec center also might be utilized for the training and games as long as they have a general student population use. The stadium and other football facilities will probably fit the bill where student fees and donations will have to be the driver. Other facilities like our aging gym or the SPEC where PE and Health Education classes are held could be funded via the loopholes noted above or at least get a substantial amount of the funding accomplished through the system.

[Brandon]

The guy just beat NWMS on the road.....

It was at home.