BREAKING: Wilson Fired, Search Team Named
The Norries Wilson era at Columbia has officially come to a close.
Don Jackson, Ted Gregory, and Kevin Ward will be the alumni advisory group in the search process that athletic director Dianne Murphy and Ray Tellier will lead.
Time is short as December 15th is the target date for the naming of a new replacement.
But speed cannot become an excuse for making the wrong choice.
Many of us have favored candidates and we should do our best to present them to Gregory, Ward and Jackson as best we can.
posted by Jake @ 12:20:00 AM
60 comments
60 Comments:
Newcomer to CU football. What's your opinion on search committee? Can you repost AD's email? Should they have included Campbell on the committee?
some background on the search committee would be appreciatede
TOAL MUST BE NAMED NEW HEAD COACH
RECRUITING, COACHING WILL SKY ROCKET
Jake,
Could we pull Andy Coen out of Lehigh?
To 9:42
Hiring a HS coach is way too risky. Very unlikely to be successful at Division 1 level!
While there is the commencement of some house cleaning with the football team.........
and may I add that, despite a disappointing season, coach Wilson and his staff have much to be proud of accomplishing, please have them consider the orthopedic medical staff.
As a parent, I attended the Senior Day picnic with other football families. We had the chance to share many stories about our sons. I heard MANY very disturbing stories about the orthopedic care. Let me be clear, IF TRUE, these were extremely disturbing and certainly would warrant an immediate investigation of the quality of medical care our boys are receiving. There were too many sad and disturbing tales to just brush off as nonsense. I implore the athletic department to please take a closer look at this situation and some of the circumstances.
So wrong
You will have the inside track on the best recruits in the country. All the prior great collegiate coaches have done nothing overall for 50 years with minor exceptions
Time to make a bold move
Want to see the best high school football in the country. Go watch Bosco VS Bergen Catholic for the state championship at Giants stadium in 2 weeks. 10 D1 recruits including Gersts brother will be on the field
To the Sun Nov 20, 09:50:00 AM PST poster If you’re talking about the training staff I have to experience to comment on. If you are talking about when someone actually gets hurt you are being given bad information. The Doc is probably one the best if not the best in the world in his field. The team is lucky he gives his time and he should be applauded for that.
Another name to possibly consider.....coach Tom O'Brien, coach at NC State. He has coached many years with tremendous success at Boston College and has a history of nine consecutive Division 1 Bowl victories. He had the highest graduation rate of football players in all of Division 1. He has worked at a highly selective academic school in Boston College. He runs a spotless program in regard to recruiting, behavior, and academics. It is widely anticipated he will be shortly dismissed at NC State.
Additionally, he has coached at Navy and Univ of Virginia, both excellent academic schools. He was the person that turned around a decimated BC football program. He's a great get!
Classy farewell email from Norries to the list. I wish him well.
I have used Dr. Levine and am stunned to hear that under his watch there have been complaints. Somebody needs to speak with him ASAP.
I am sure everybody has a coach they would like to see hired, I would like to see my cousin Andy who has won 150 straight Pop Warner games and had 50 D-1 players in his program. 10 are playing in the NFL. Does that make him a candidate? Folks, we all want Columbia Football to succeed, but let the Football committee do their due diligence and hire the right coach this time around! Let's be objective and not settle for anything less than a experience head coach who has rebuilt a "winning" program in his resume! Show him the money!
Please stop with the requests for a high school coach. Any high school coach with 5 or more D1 players on his team should win every place in the country. In college, every player on the team is D1. What does he do when there is equal or comparable talent is the question. I don't want be the program to answer that question.
I believe (from experience) inadequate medical attention is due to the training staff. Players rarely see the doc.
Also, being told to get out of the ice baths because the girls soccer team needs them is just one of many ridiculous shortcomings of the program.
Try to get Urban Meyer. Quickly before Ohio State gets him.
Agree with the post
Getting TOAL is a homerun
The talent level will increase dramatically. Don Bosco is the #1 national HS program that every high school in the country is aware of.
The cynicism about TOAL being a high school coach is crazy.
Get him under contract ASAP
"I believe (from experience) inadequate medical attention is due to the training staff. Players rarely see the doc.
Also, being told to get out of the ice baths because the girls soccer team needs them is just one of many ridiculous shortcomings of the program."
This is completely false and sensationalism at it's finest.
That has NEVER happened and for anyone to allege that the football team was kicked out of the ice baths for the women's soccer team is utterly ridiculous.
This is a dark day for the Football program. These guys were headed in the right direction. As long as they let people with money, without football knowledge, control the football decision they will never win.
Jakes continuous approval of anonymous character assassination posts is despicable. The inmates have won. Now let's see how many have the courage of their convictions to put their names behind the accusations.
17-43 is the right direction? Please.
With Marino they were never headed in the right direction.
This staff was headed in the right direction??? laughable!
What if Toal said that he could bring TWO of his HS All-Anericans with him to the Heights? Then what? Remember when we had Wiley and the other kid (sorry, name escapes me). We almost won the Ivies. By the way, Penn and PU want Toal's QB!
Wilfork. He and Wiley gave us a stout defense.
17-43 right?? what was the record before that? school hasnt won since 19 SIXTY ONE!!!!! thats laughable
To the 10:48 post... What difference does it make if we don't sign our names? If it is a parents post as to what went on the last 2 seasons, and it came straight from the horses mouth (the player).Then believe it, do you believe your kid? Get real,it doesn't matter who we are, it is none of your business. We would not be posting lies so please don't worry about who we are. Courageous or not!
Ted Gregory on the search Committee??? Thank you Bill Campbell puppet. We need them to scrutinize their decision making!
The advisory group who are involved in picking the new coach are made of of the same ra ra (Campbell robots) guys who have no football insights and were responsible for the last few ridicules coaching decisions. We don't need ra ra. We need football people with common sense. Someone with guts and his phone number should contact Mr. Robert Kraft. We need new blood. Not the same old CU lovers who for some reason think this program was headed in the right direction. It wasn't and has never been. When those in power understand that, then and only then will this program hire the right coach to turn this thing around.
11:56 (& all posters for that matter)
Any background on these guys? Im curious who they are and why they were selected to be on the search committee.
The way things have changed since my college days, I'm surprised the guys and the gals don't just share the ice baths instead of fighting over them.
Ray Tellier is on the committee. He knows what he is doing. Remember that Norries was our third choice last time out (I do not know who was first or second). If money is the issue we should be prepared to make the position attractive.
I was a member of the athletic training staff for 19 years. The medical treatment of the Columbia athletes in ALL sports was second to none. Yes, they had to share a facility...even with female athletes. But this did not jeopardize or short change anyone's care. The team physicians and athletic training staff ALWAYS had the best interest of the student-athlete. Their health and well being came first. Not an option.
I will proudly sign my name to this post (as I usually do)
IMHO it would be a huge gamble to hire a hs coach regardless of his record. Without doubt Don Bosco HS has created and nurtured some sort of very powerful feeder network that provides the school with a stream of potential D-1 players, and once that feeder network is working the actual team could be successfully coached by you, me, or Bob Naso (btw Naso means nose in Italian.)
As a previous poster has suggested, Coach Toal is no doubt very competent but we have not yet seen how he'd do against teams with comparable talent on the roster. Of course, there's always a chance he'd be great! ("Do you feel lucky, punk?" -- Dirty Harry)
I wish I had the answer to the next hire. I also of course feel badly for Coach Wilson. My impression is that he was actually the best coach CU has ever had. That he was not "good enough" is testimony to the difficulty of the job rather than any failure on his part, since no one else has succeeded either. Let's hope that the right person is out there, and also that CU has the right people to find him and sign him.
Mitch Sisskind '68
Does anyone know an address or email address for Robt. Kraft, would really appreciate it.
So many thoughts about this swift move. Good luck to Coach Wilson. Of course he wanted to do well, but didn't succeed. It's sad but at least his finale was an upper.
As for the big decision upcoming, Lion football is at a point where it must have an assured coach, not one going through a learning process. We need a coach to lead this program, not practice to lead another one.
I hope the selection process is authoritative, not a grab bag. Someone (I don't know if it was Jake) described past hirings
where the alumni advisory committee selects three finalists and the AD selects one (or does Campbell get the selection now?)
The alums are fine Columbians and ex-players but are they up to speed on the universe of coaches? This is not some board game to play by rules printed on the backof the box. The AD should supervise and evaluate every level of the search. And there shouldn't be a particular number of finalists. It could be three or 33, just select the best coaches and go after them. Don't settle on one we "think" will take the job if better people are available.
We've gone through this too often.
Congrats to the Lions. What a great game.Way to go Seniors, that is the only way to end the season, with a nail biter and a WIN. Also, loved the kids on the sidelines, they cheered, kept up the momentum and could not have showed any more excitement! I loved the fact that the team also coudn't sing the fight song enough! How fun that was for all of us.
Most think it could never happen, but my vote is for J. Tressel.
It is just as silly to discount someone such as Toal as it is to presume he would succeed at the college level. Toal has many very impressive assets and if he's interested should get serious consideration.
-Dr.V
To 12:06, hate to say you're right but money talks so we're going to have to live with the choice by the powers in place who have failed us in the past. Sadly, CU admin could care less anyway. Maybe by some miracle we'll find a winner to erase CU's rep as the "graveyard" of coaches.
Watching the Dallas Redskins game (now in Ot) brings to mind the Garrett disaster in which we hired a coach so that we could get his sons to play for us. A complete fiasco. Let us find a proven commodity at the college level. Gilmore or Coen, or somebody like that.
I can't think of three people I'd rather have on the search committee than Ted Gregory, Don Jackson and Kevin Ward. They were dedicated players on Columbia teams in the early 70s, have gone onto distinguished professional careers, are regulars at Baker Field, and have generously donated their time and money to the football program. They get it.
Kevin Ward is outstanding (he got me my first job).
Great game for the players yesterday. One for the books indeed.
For the poster who said it doesn't matter what your name is. You CANNOT be taken seriously because you don't have the courage to affix your name to it. You gave some silly line about how we should believe you at your anonymous word anyway. I learned that lesson in grade school.
Goodbye Coach Wilson. I thought it was going to work out much differently.
My only problem with the search committee is that they are the same old guard. I guess I am now part of the same group, but with all due respect to our brilliance, perhaps a different way is in order, given Einstein's theory of stupidity.
Is any of the staff staying or are they completely cleaning house?
Hey, Kevin, I knew you slightly way back when and I know you're as devoted to CU sports as always. I'm sure Ward, Jackson and Gregory are too. I mentioned them only in the sense that they probably don't have the information sources that the AD has, and that thia selection process needs needs firm direction, which comes from the accountable CU official--the AD. Just a heads-up to all involved. I could be wrong but my personal feeling is that the next hire will be the most important one for the program since Lou Little left.
Training staff and the docs are outstanding. This from a former player that chose to play through a couple injuries. That being said, Coach Wilson was a good guy. We need to bring the practice, if not game, facilities closer to campus. Also, need to figure out why 40-50% of our players quite before they are seniors.
Our band mocks us. Student body is apathetic at best. Bus rides take up at least an hour a day.
It seems to me that the first thing the search committee needs to do is determine its strengths and weaknesses. I haven't read anything causing me to believe that the members have expertise in managing a college football program. Without that expertise, there is little reason to believe they are qualified to determine the best person to become head coach.
I would like to see the committee retain an expert or advisor supplied by Mr. Kraft. That person could participate in interviews and act as the committee's subject matter expert on the topic of program management.
Every candidate for coach will get the big things correct. There will continue to be an off season training program, preseason, and games. The difference will be in how those things are managed.
The average fan doesn't think about things such as whether the strength program differs for skilled players as opposed to lineman. The fan just shows up and complains that our players "look slow and can't get separation." Well, there's a reason for that and improving it is not as simple as recruit faster players when other teams focus on increasing the speed of their recruited players.
In my opinion, the CU committee needs someone involved in the process who understands the small things that differentiate successful programs. I can't think of a better place to find that person than the Patriots. That expertise, combined with the members' knowledge of life at CU and, more specifically, the life of a CU player, should provide the best opportunity to make a sound decision.
an hour to/from Baker Field can be used in different ways to re-connect with teamates, focus on fb or the rest of the day; it's a bridge; it seems better than traipsing through inclement weather, mud, or whatever others have do on their walks to practice.
Has anyone evidence of recruits declining Col because of that sitation, however much opposing coaches harp on it?
3:10pm is spot on. The program continues to rely on the old guard as John Alex says. Someone with football expertise needs to be at the table.
The leader of the football program is now gone. I can sense the confusion and discord already in this blog. Personally, I have to take a breath and make sense of where we are.
I do know this:
(1) 99% of us on this blog want Columbia to win.
(2)We have 60 years of almost continual disappointment
(3)This blog gives us an unprecedented tool to access information about the program that has never been available in the past. Beat the hell out of Jake, if you will, but he has given us the tool to instantaneously accumulate live time information about the program.
(4) Not withstanding grumpy old alums, upset coaching staff and their families, embarassed medical and training staff, ineffective athletic department, inadequate training and support facilities, and a detached administration this information is the fast track to correcting a failed football program. Thank you Jake!
(5) We can take some of this information placed on this blog that can be uncomfortable for all the above groups and go one of two ways. We can continue to deny, deny, deny and continue to lose, lose, lose. Or we can take this valuable, if difficult, information to heart and effect change. Obviously, it's a pretty hard cold path to victory.
I've read where posters say the players were soft. I was at that game yesterday. After going 0-9, humiliated by their own band, down from 14 points, behind in overtime, I saw players come off that field after the goal line stand. I saw a senior player fall to his hands and knees and puke before he even reached the side line! He gave everything he had to have that victory! These kids pay the price every day to win. Our responsibility is to remove the institutional barriers that prevent them from winning.
People say the players are inadequately equipped to compete. We can say, we can't afford the equipment, the players are soft, the athletic department forgot to buy them. Or we can equip them properly.
People say there are concerns among the players and families about the quality and quantity of the medical/ training staff. Three players had unanticipated surgeries immediately after the semester last year. Coaching staff had no clue because of HIPAA regulations. The coaches were stunned. How could that have happened?If the medical staff says they can play then the coaches send them out there. If the players can't perform because they require surgery than everyone (coaches and players) on the field looks bad. This leads to losing. I know, I know, some will say things were great when you were there. Well maybe it's time to investigate why the community is so concerned with medical/ training care.
Many recruited players were told there would be meals after practice each day at Kraft Field. They weren't provided, except on Friday nights. Most players lost weight during the season. Twenty percent of the roster was injured by the last game. I know that one important skill player lost twenty pounds during the season. I was told that Columbia petitioned the Ivy League to allow meals at the Stadium to compensate for the lost travel time going to the field. From my understanding, the Ivy League permitted it. Did the football team lose funding for the meal program? Under weight, tired, and injured players leads to losing.
I can go on, but my point is, that as a supportive football community we can embrace the uncomfortable information the blog tells us about our program's deficiencies (and thank Jake)or we deny the info (the cross country team had the parkas and never returned them), or we can clamor that the posts are anonymously posted ( it's easy to post your name when you're not in the vortex of the battle each day) but nonetheless valid and true, or we can say the players are soft until you've seen a senior player fighting with all he has and puke his guts out on the last play of double over time to prevent from going 0-10!
We get to choose.......
We need to hire a professional advisor to assist the Columbia football committee in finding the right coach with a proven track record and more importantly the right skill sets to create a winning culture.
The administration must share in this exercise to insure they are committed to getting the best possible candidate and ensure that he is given the necessary tool to succeed !
What ever the criteria used in hiring the last few coaches was a planned failure, let's keep politics and the good old boy's club out of the hiring process!
That was one hell of a game to watch, especially after the tough early going. Well done, Lions.
After yesterday, Princeton ended up 1-9 also, equaling last year's record (the worst in Princeton history). Firing Bob Surace is a possibility that would add serious competition to the CU head coach search.
5:23 best post I've read on the subject yet. As a parent of a player on this team, today I am beaming with pride over what those young men did yesterday. Refusing to give up, working for each other and perhaps giving one last effort for the guy that brought them all together, they showed us what they have inside.
What needs to be done immediately is greater financing of the program for THE PLAYERS. A big factor in recruiting was meals served DAILY after practice. To find out this doesn't happen is a huge disappointment. Lack of Columbia athletic gear was also a huge let down. Parkas, trainers and lack of creature comforts are easily rectified. Show the players they are valued for their efforts on behalf of the university. Fund the program.
Revising strength and conditioning and heavy practice contact is also vital. Again the PLAYERS need to be the focus here. If you want players to come here show them they are valued don't just tell them.
I am sad to see Coach Wilson terminated. I like this man, so much I trusted him with my greatest treasure. I wish him the best and say thanks for giving my son an opportunity to change his stars.
Coach Wilson was a honorable man and his termination was not about him as a person but about his performance as a head coach. Wish him the best in his future endeavors.
I am sad that Norries is leaving but I really do believe he left this program in much better shape than his predecessors. The right coach could come in here and win quickly.
I would be concerned about a HS coach coming in here, unless he had some prior experience coaching at the collegiate level. He would also need to have experience coaching at an academically challenging school.
I really hope we will be surprised this time and we swiftly and aggressively hire a coach but my hunch is we will methodically narrow down from a pool of candidates and hire someone in about two months. Same old script. And my guess is we end up hiring the former CU assistant now at Williams. Yawn.... Don't get me wrong, he might be the right guy but if we wind up taking the safe and cheap route again we are just rolling dice and crossing our fingers... again...
No one answered my question about Bollinger's level of enthusiasm for the win on Saturday and I can only assume that means he wasn't there.
Does this Administration realize that we will need to do and pay more in order to convince the best candidates to simply apply here than just about any other program in the country? If we are going to hire from a list of "qualified applicants" again, we are not committed as a school.
We've been a coaches graveyard for 60 years. What blue chip coach with long term career goals would think CU is a great addition to their coaching resume? We need to be aggressive, find the best candidate out there, and convince him to come here. We are going to need to pay more, promise more, give more, than any other comparable job. We need to finally face the truth, we have not had a winning program in a century. The problem does not lie with hiring the coach, it is several levels above that. Until that changes we are screwed.
If we flip another coin and hire from within the applicant pool I am afraid we'll be doing it all over again in about 5 years.
To Bill Flick, In my opinion you raise some very good points. Most of what you have to add is right on. Have you written to the administration on behalf of the football program? I definitely think you should. We need people like you to speak up. Most of the parents don't go back as far as 89 and only know what we read and hear. Speak up! It will only help our players and the FB program.
We have a great opportunity no one has discussed. The MTA is rebuiling the No. 1 line at the same time we're building the Campbell Center which tops out at about track height. It would ridiculously easy to build a Baker Field spur off the main line. Then we could outfit special trains to carry athletes back and forth for practice and for gameday fans. An express trip on a cleared track would take 8 minutes.
Then we select an experienced successful D1 HC and give him the resources he wants. That's a simple matter of just $2.5 million a year for the his salary, a private jet on call a Teeterboro for recruiting trips, adding a few millions to the marketing budget and several tens of thousands of seats at Wein. There's more, but it shouldn't cost more than another 5 or 6 million.
Should be a piece of cake if only the idiots at Dodge could figure it out. Just add three zeroes behind every donation check that comes in. Easy!
In regards to the Ortho staff, I can only speak from the experienc we had with Alex's devastating knee injury in 2010 but Dr. Levine and Jim Gossett and his staff were outstanding. Being in the medical profession I had the opportunity to get the opinion of several specialists and they were very supportive of what was done with Alex. His performance on the field 8 months after the surgery attests to the results.
someone wrote "Ray Tellier is on the committee. He knows what he is doing."
Apologies, but I challenge you on that point. I would highly recommend looking OUTSIDE the Columbia Athletic Dept for a search committee. That old guard has been in place >20 years: only a fool does the same thing over & over expecting different results.
My sense is we should think outside the box. Just got back from Indianapolis Ind, there is a team out there that is undefeated called the Marion knights. Head coach Ted Karras, by the way “football bloodlines run very deep”, is vying for the NAIA national championship. From what I have seen he would be the best fit for Columbia Football. I asked coach Karras if he could submit his credentials to Columbia witch I hope he will. Please everyone look him up he is the real deal!
I'd give Murphy very little say, but some say. She definitely wants to win and she is athletic director, but I think a 3rd party search may be in order as the coaches under her watch, in many, but not all, sports, have not been that competitive. I don't think Tellier should have input. He was a good coach with a great play book, but horrible recruiter- seemed like 90% of his team was from upstate NY, which is not a hotbed of talent, and worse after Syracuse gets top players. I think CU needs a completely new face with zero ties to anyone at CU, past or present. CU needs a proven winner who has won as a player, asst. coach, and head coach.
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