Wow, I've never seen so much Cornell talk on this board.  I know I haven't posted much this season but turns out a full time job and taking classes for an MBA takes up quite a bit of time.  I did make it to a couple Ram games this year (When the Hawkeyes were away) so don't think I'm posting in the blind.  First, I don't think all Cornell posters except for Hays or the "sky is falling" or predicting a 10-0 season.  I thought the Rams had some talent this year and could've legitimately pushed for a middle of the pack season.  As it stands they did not.  

Secondly- I think Cornell's two biggest problems right now are recruiting and how they handle their coaching staff.  I'm not sure what schools in the conference have GA positions (I know Coe does b/c I applied for it) but why can't the Rams get a deal going with Like Mt. Mercy in CR where Ram coaches can take classes there.  Where I coached for a year had a deal like that with another school about 30 minutes away.  I have no idea if this is possible or not but it's a thought.  It just seems that the Rams are more content to have many low paid assistant positions that lets them have more coaches.  While I think it's great to get young coaches a chance to coach, ultimately coaching experience is very valuable to a team.  And as someone noted before, many of the Rams coaches are first year coaches.  Which directly translates into recruiting connections as well.  There were IIAC schools that recruited me in high school that my high school coach MADE me go talk to b/c of their relationship.

Sorry for the long post, it's been awhile.  Oh, so noone thinks I'm hiding, my name is my email in my profile, I graduated from CC in '06 I started 3 years at corner and yes my number in my name was my jersey number.

Still beats when I coached at DePauw walston.  Trinity's visitor press box was two tables with an umbrella at the top of the visitor bleachers.  Do you know how hard it is to cuss out your players with the parents sitting right there?  At Rhodes we could only fit two, count them two, coaches that could fit in the visitors box.  And at Wabash it was about 25 degrees with freezing rain, and of course their box was outside, I didn't even get be out of the crappy weather.  Even at their worst I would probably take most press boxes in IIAC.

Quote from: Walston Hoover on July 18, 2008, 11:44:19 AM
I will comment on the press boxes of the IIAC, but keep in mind 2005 was the last time I was in them.
UD-Sucked. Dreaded going there. Was worse last year during construction when they had to be outside on a semi trailer if I remember correctly. Site lines were off and got splinters from all the exposed wood. Chairs in there were horrible and felt like they were going to collapse. Hopefully I get a chance to get in the new one. semiprivate booth.

Loras-Once you are in the radio booth, its fine, but we were very disconnected from everything else going on in the box and stats were always late getting to us. Each booth has its own door to the outside. I think I remember some trouble with seeing some of the action in the left endzone. private booth.

Luther-Dividers seperate you in the cafeteria from everyone else in the box and they are anything but soundproof. You walk through students eating to get where you are seated and we were right beside the home radio guy (who I incidentally worked with briefly in a previous life), and you could hear everything they said. Felt very bad for the coaches. Nothing is kept secret up there. Had people I didn't know literally watching the game over my shoulder. very public booth

Wartburg-Ideal setup as far as access to booth. Siteline is great, but can get VERY hot in there on a sunny day and the acoustics make the sound echo all over. Best pressbox food in the conference. private booth.

Coe- I was a little put off by being in a public booth, but everyone was quite friendly. When I was there I think it was the SID's first year and he was a very young guy so he was going above and beyond on everything he needed to do which was very much appreciated. Not a very good setup as far as where everyone is, but in terms of hospitality, (food, stats, scores) they probably were the best. public booth

Cornell- It seemed like everyone was clueless there, and I spent most of the game pounding on the wall next to me because the clock operator couldn't get anything right. Largest private booth in the conference but very tough to see. If I remember right I had to hang out the window a little to see the scoreboard as well.

Central- No complaints. Enter into common area and then each booth has "Sunday School curtains" to make them private. Not a ton of space, but winning there made everything better.

Simpson- Very high school like setup. Semi private with windows that need to be taken out to see much of anything not taking place between the 30s. Not very high up and too close to the action to get a good take on everything. Walking into their pressbox reminds me of walking into the 1900 house at Living History Farm. It could be very easy to get lost in there with several nooks and crannies. public booth IIRC.

BV-Sucked. You see the pressbox and think there's going to be lots of space.  The president and his dudes take up all that space. The closet in my daughter's room seriously has more space. Room for 2 undersized 5th graders to stand side-by-side. We had to stand one in front of the other to see the action. Coaches had to go outside since there is absolutely no room for them to be in their booth. private booth

This is from '05, so things may have changed. Simpson has not since I was just there last year for our game at Indianola. Most places do a very good job of keeping you updated on stats and scores from around the league. I think Loras had plans to get a live stats screens in the booth but I don't know if that is the case now or not.

Quote from: doolittledog on July 18, 2008, 10:43:29 AM
Here are a few thoughts of the IIAC football stadiums.  And some of these thoughts are coming from 20+ year old memories and some from pictures.  I will work somewhat east to west.

Dubuque - With new home seating attached to the new recreation and wellness center, new press box and presidential suite, new playing surface, new track, new scoreboard, new visitor seating, new concessions area.  The Spartans will have as nice of a facility as there is in the IIAC...not better...just as nice. 

Loras - New home seating, new press box, new playing surface, new track, visitor seating on top of a bluff...a bit far away from the action but an unique experiance none the less, a view overlooking the city of Dubuque, the Rock Bowl gets two thumbs up from me.

Luther - Probably the largest home seating in the conference, beautiful view...especially in October, grass field normally kept in good condition, Decorah is a nice town, could use some more visitor side seating in my opinion...but a great place to watch a game. 

Wartburg - New home side seating, new playing surface, new track, the W is part of the whole experiance, large and passionate home fans, Waverly is another great college town, overall a great advertisement for D3 football.

Coe - New playing surface which was needed as the grass there had taken a beating in recent years.  My only complaint is Coe needs more seating on both the home and visitor sides.  I know Cedar Rapids is Hawkeye country, but with the population base there I think if Coe put up an impressive football stadium with their on field track record you could really get some good crowds at Coe. 

Cornell - A good old-time football facility with a great name...Ash Park.  I think all Cornell really needs is a bit of a make over.  Add a new press box and presidential suite on top, maybe extend the home seating 10 yards on each end, possibly replace the chain link fence around the perimeter with some sort of brick and black iron deal...a fresh coat of paint and maybe try to schedule even more trains to go by during games, just to mess with the visitors and you would have yourself a winner. 

Central - It has been said Central has enough seating for the crowds they get.  I just think a team that has won 29 conference titles and has made the playoffs a whole mess of times deserves a little nicer looking set up than what they currently have.  And from what has been written here...if they move the home side across the field and build party decks and what not.  That will be a great place.  The Dutch have already put in a new playing surface and track.

Simpson - Another place that I think just needs a little updating.  From pictures it looks like 3 seperate home stands.  I think you built one big home stand you would get a more festive crowd than you get with 3 seperate stands.  Also from listening to both the Simpson and Dubuque radio announcers...the Storm might also want to build a new press box.  Now might be a good time with a new coach in town and from what seems like a turn around back to their old winning ways.  Might help get some more Des Moines area kids on campus. 

Buena Vista - I think their seating capacity is just fine, over looks the lake, not much to say really, the wind might blow in November but that's your home field advantage. 

Still here as a Ram supporter.  My office got flooded in downtown CR so I've pretty busy with working when I can where I can.  I've got a little catching up to do I see

Quote from: Walston Hoover on May 06, 2008, 09:37:39 AM
I'll be in Chi-town on a rooftop on May 31 for a bachelor party. They will probably lose money on us with $150 all-u-can-eat-and-drink.

I'll be there that day for the Cubs-Rockies game

It's hard to believe that they do something so obvious on purpose if it's illegal.  Seems a little easy to prove if you were going to try and sway kids at another school to come to yours via email.

We did something similar TheOne before games.  We all knelt and held hands and said the Lord's Prayer, if you didn't want to join you didn't have too and just took a moment of silence.  Our coach was a religous man and for those of us that wanted we also had a "chapel service" for about 20 minutes on Saturday mornings.  He usually had an athletic related story that tied in faith.  Those were voluntary too and probably drew about 1/4-1/3 of the team usually.

As far as finacial aid help goes, I can say that when I was coming out of high school I applied for aid at three schools, Cornell, Simpson, and Central.  When the preliminary packages came out they were all very similar, I think Central was the highest and Cornell was the lowest but they were separated by no more than a few hundred dollars if I remember right.  Cornell also told me it I took the ACT's again and could get 1 point higher they would bump my scholarship up another $2,500 a year.  So I did and actually got two points higher, I was really most interested in Cornell so I didn't ask or mention anything about a highter ACT score to the other two schools. 

8- Number of my roommate and three year start at safety Blue Aldridge, who is currently trying to make the roster for the Barnstormers.  Didn't know many 6'2" 220 pound guys that could run a legit 4.4.  Now if only play action had never been invented.......

Quote from: Klopenhiemer on March 31, 2008, 02:41:02 PM
4 - Jess Schmidt:  BV's all time receiving yardage leader.

Sorry I posted this on Saturday, but figured I would throw it back into since we were on the 4's. 

Behind Ditch he was probably the second hardest receiver to cover I ever faced.  Size, speed and good hands.  Him and I had some on field issues but I think that was because we were both a little on the competitve side.  One of those guys you have nothing but respect for but would love to light up.

Anyone see that Brannen played the whole second half for the Barnstormers this weekend??  I think he had 1 passing TD and 1 rushing TD.  You can watch those games online and I caught a little of the first half and the whole second half.  He looked a little jittery in the pocket but was throwing some pretty good balls.  If you guys can't tell I do not feel like doing any work today.

There were some games that might have been all of the student body that was at the game.  Speaking of which, did anyone else go from a ridiculously successful high school team where football was king (Grinnell for me) to a college where not only were your records worse, but I can't recall a single home game in college that would've touched our home crowds in high school.  Or anybody else go the opposite way, bad high school, good college? 

Quote from: Thunderbolt on March 31, 2008, 11:41:53 AM
4 - The average number of freight trains that pass through the visiters sidelines, during a Cornell game.

It's got to be more than that doesn't it?  I think we had it at about 6 or 7 trains and practice was about over.  Man I don't miss those things.

4- The number of times Cornell beat Dubuque from '02-'05 (The only team that we beat all four years)
4- The most wins in a season we had when I played
4 (point 0)- See WH's post

Quote from: Klopenhiemer on March 28, 2008, 05:34:43 PM

Quote from: ramfan27 on March 28, 2008, 12:19:48 PM
Everyone else had to defend him once a year....I had to do it every day in practice.  Definitely helped come game time though.

Wasnt he a stud in other sports as well.  Basketball or baseball?

He was all conference in basketball and track as well.

Everyone else had to defend him once a year....I had to do it every day in practice.  Definitely helped come game time though.