FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[pk14]

Gross. 

I can only hope that whatever it is, the leaders at Wabash will do whatever they can to prevent this.  I cannot believe it has even gotten this far.  I get the fact that winning coaches will be sought after but going from Wabash to Valpo??  It makes no sense to me.

Brutal for recruiting too...and many other reasons...........

As someone who lives in Valpo and has attended a game each year for the last 5-6 years, I'm comfortable stating that the VU football program is a joke.  Zero fan support, zero tradition.....overall, it's just gross.  There are local HS programs who draw more interest/fan support than the Crusaders.  If in fact ER has dropped his name into the proverbial hat, I'd lose a lot of respect for him.  If you looked up "lateral coaching moves" in the dictionary, the VU head coaching position would be at the top of the list.  I'm all for having career goals, but give me a break.......

ER has an opportunity to do some really remarkable things at Wabash over the next few years, and at that point, should a more attractive position open up somewhere, I wouldn't really have a beef.  But to make a move for VU?  I just threw up in my mouth......

[SaintsFAN]

ER has an opportunity to do some really remarkable things at Wabash over the next few years, and at that point, should a more attractive position open up somewhere, I wouldn't really have a beef.  But to make a move for VU?  I just threw up in my mouth......

Wabash will be fine either way in my opionion.  Its one of the top jobs in D3..


Mike Sirrianni as a replacement?

[wally_wabash]

I did raise an eyebrow when I got a couple calls about it this morning, though.  "Wabash College - the new D-1 non-scholarship pipeline!" Really rolls off the tongue...

Preferable, I would suppose, to being a pipeline to complete anonymity. 

Hey folks...'tis the season for coaching rumors.  If you're in D3 and you've hired a younger, successful, driven head coach, that coach's name is going to get tossed around for openings.  Thats the nature of the beast.  Let's also keep in mind that any or all of the names that get tossed around in these discussions are hearsay and rumor....between roughly Christmas 2007 and the end of January 2008, I probably heard no fewer than a dozen different names of coaches that somebody heard was on Wabash's short list to replace CC.  And in the 6 weeks or so leading up to the announcement that Coach Raeburn was the guy, I think I had heard his name about once (somebody posted a top 10 list of potential candidates about a day or two after CC resigned...this mention of ER was simply speculation on who was out there and couldn't have been based on any solid info...it was just too soon).  So as absolutely rabid as we Wabash guys tend to be about our football, the number of people that knew about Erik Raeburn before he was announced was acutally pretty small. 

I'm not saying that Valparaiso is or isn't interested in Erik Raeburn (they'd be stupid to not be interested, IMO), but let's keep some perspective here...no need to overreact to one line in the Post Trib. 

[Bash-Dad #84]

Wally,

I don't want to overreact, however his name was the only one mentioned. Why would they pick his name out of the clear blue, if he hadn't shown an interest?

[wally_wabash]

Why would anybody tell us that Urban Meyer is interested in coaching at Notre Dame?  It's absurd.  Yet it happens every single year.  Absurd things get said and printed when there are coaching vacancies.  I'm not saying that Valpo isn't interested or that ER hasn't inquired about the opening...but there's a huge chasm that needs to be bridged between somebody sniffing around at a job (or having a job sniff aroudn at somebody) and somebody actually taking that job.  I doubt that there is a professional reading this board that hasn't done some info gathering on a potential job opportunity only to find that it either wasn't what they thought or that they weren't that interested in it once the surface had been scratched. 

I guess what I'm saying is that this article doesn't make me believe any more or less that our coach is going to leave than I do when the season ends.  Seasons end and jobs open up...it's naive to think that our coach isn't going to generate interest from people looking to fill some of those open jobs.  It's a byproduct of success. 

[Bash-Dad #84]

I will agree that successful coaches are going to be courted all the time for new jobs. I will also agree that ER has been successful and would look quite appealing to a struggling program. I hope this all becomes moot as I was hoping we would have him for more than two years. All that being said, I always believe in never worrying about something you have no control over, so I will sit back and hope for the best. 8)

[short]

# 10 Erik Raeburn (Coe, 36 years old) Has a good record and is from Ohio. I also think he will be trying to get the Capital Job but would think that Wabash is a better job than Capital.

It was me Wally, no inside information just a hunch.

[DPU3619]

I don't want to overreact, however his name was the only one mentioned. Why would they pick his name out of the clear blue, if he hadn't shown an interest?

Kinda felt like the old "he's the only finalist that's from around here, so he's the only one my readers care about" journalism trick to me.

[fbgab]

1st time poster

It sounds as though ER was asked to interview, and he didn't turn it down.  Keep in mind how quickly Butler has gone from bottom to top, it's worth a look.

[D3_DPUFan]

I doubt that there is a professional reading this board that hasn't done some info gathering on a potential job opportunity only to find that it either wasn't what they thought or that they weren't that interested in it once the surface had been scratched. 

True...but I don't know too many people who after just two years on the job test the waters at place that is a lateral move, or IMHO a step down. Obviously we are reacting to a newspaper report and don't know if there is any validity to it, but I can't see Coach Raeburn leaving Wabash for Valpo.   

[wally_wabash]

How "lateral" is a move from Division III to  Division I? 

[D3_DPUFan]

How "lateral" is a move from Division III to  Division I? 

Please don't equate D IAA non-scholarship (or whatever they call it now) with Division I football. They are worlds apart. Valpo could not beat Wabash or DePauw or any good DIII team on most weekends. And as someone mentioned earlier, Valpo is so far down, this would not be perceived as a lateral move but more of a demotion, at least in the eyes of some.

[short]

Valpo job pay's over 100k

[wally_wabash]

It's not about who could beat who.  It's about dollars and spotlight.  As terrible as Valparaiso football might be, their score shows up on the crawl every Saturday.  I can dial up the FCS scoreboard on my ESPN iPhone app and see their score every single Saturday.  I can't do that for D-III.  Valparaiso is a Division I athletics program...likely with more dollars to use for things like coaches than most D-IIIs do.  There's more involved in these things than just which team could beat which when thinking about whether or not the move is "lateral".  I most definitely don't want to see Coach Raeburn leave...not at all.  But I'm not going to stand up and soapbox against anybody for taking a job for more money and a bigger stage.  How many people wouldn't do that?  How long did it take Bill Lynch to jump out of D3?  Mike DuBose went right back to it recently...to be a coordinator for a nobody.  None of these guys are wrong.  I'm not equating the Pioneer League's quality of play with that that you see from teams in the CAA...but I'm also not going to equate D3 athletic departments with D1 athletic departments. 

[D3_DPUFan]

How many people wouldn't do that?  How long did it take Bill Lynch to jump out of D3?  Mike DuBose went right back to it recently...to be a coordinator for a nobody.  None of these guys are wrong.  I'm not equating the Pioneer League's quality of play with that that you see from teams in the CAA...but I'm also not going to equate D3 athletic departments with D1 athletic departments. 

Not going to spend time debating someone who is so all knowing...but both Lynch and DuBose went to DI programs not to a program at the level or caliber of a Valpo. And as far as differences  in athletic departments and commitment to FOOTBALL, you obviously haven't spent much time around Valpo or for that matter Butler.  Give me a freaking break. If a coach thinks a move to a Valpo is the best way to get to the big time and the big bucks....more power to him.