FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sflzman]

To ad to formerd3db's post:

They have been conducting a lot of phone interviews over the past week or so (well before the holidays, week or so before the holidays). The whole process is being kept really quiet and I personally don't even know who's on the search comittee. It is expected to have candidates on campus within the next few weeks and hopefully there is a decision made.

Like I said, I'll try to update on what I can find. But the doors are being kept pretty tightly shut and I'm not finding out much

[adidas28]

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Any rumors on who the Offensive Coordinator will be?

[wisd3fan2]

Dear Coach Thunderhead, Heard rumors that many players transferred out of Trine. More leaving at end of year and they have lost coaches. Do you have anything on this? We are trying to follow Rauch but have heard nothing about him. Any news?? Thanks and Happy New Year!!

[ThunderHead]

Adidas28 - thanks for the well wishes on the Holiday season, I hope your family as well as all of the posters here and their families had a great Christmas and are headed to a happy new year full of parties and bowl games.

wisd3fan2 - I haven't heard much of anything regarding transfers or guys leaving the program, but I haven't followed the program much since the guys I knew graduated at the season's end. Hope you had a great Christmas as well. 

[Raider 68]

So after 2011, how would the MIAA posters evaluate each team vs. pre-season predictions?

[formerd3db]

Raider68:
Good question.  I admit that I have to go back and review what most of the pre-season predictions were here before I gave my answer to your question (while that might sound silly perhaps, in reality it is not because I don't quite remember what my own beliefs were on the various teams.

Yet, before I do (and it might not be today), I thought I might mention here a different topic for everyone.  So my apologies for "changing the subject".

I just found out early this AM via one of the sports talk shows while driving to work that the "new" AD at DII Ferris State University of the GLIAC (I say "new" because he has only been there about a year) fired long-time head football coach Jeff Pierce.   This apparently happened right after the end of the regular GLIAC season in November.    The AD (who was an assistant AD at Central Michigan back when current ESPN announcer Ray Bentley played there) said that it was "time for a new direction".  Despite Pierce's early success in the early part of his career there in the mid-1990's when Ferris State had that stretch of getting to the NCAA DII playoffs for about 3-4 years in a row (and before Grand Valley State won their DII titles; and the same era as Albion went on that barage/string of consecutive MIAA titles as well as the NCAA Stagg Bowl DIII National championship), the poor season's for the past 2 years and before convinced him that it wa time to "make a change." After a "national search", they ended up hiring Tony Annese, Head Football Coach at Grand Rapids Community College.  Prior to that, Annese' coaching resume includes (after his own playing career at Corunna High School and then at Alma College, where he graduated in 1983), being an assistant over at West Ottawa High School, then head coach at Montrose High School, head coach at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, head coach at Jenison High School and head coach at Muskegon High School before he took the GRCC job the past 3 years.

Ferris State announced this a couple of days before Christmas.  I obviously missed that - not sure how.  I guess they figured that it was time for Ferris State to get back to challenging Grand Valley State for the GLIAC title because if Wayne State can do it (as did Michigan Tech this decade), they can too.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  Also, I am interested in hearing what everyone thinks about this development/move as well.

[ThunderHead]

Annese is a great hire. Spend any amount of time with him on the white board and you figure out fairly quickly he knows his stuff, especially as it relates to his offensive style and approach to play calling.

I'm not sure how bare the "cub-board" is over at Ferris, but it's not hard for me to believe within a few seasons he will have them toward the top end of the GLIAC.  It won't take him long to attract some solid talent in the form of athletes from solid high school programs around the state as well as some dynamic transfers from bigger schools or JUCO programs.

IMO that was a big time hire.

[formerd3db]

ThunderHead:

I agree.  Annese's hiring was kind of kept "under the wire" so to speak.  I don't recall hearing much about Ferris State's search process and, admittedly/embarrassingly, as much as I follow college football, I somehow missed that Ferris State's AD had let Pierce go (Pierce, BTW, for those who are not aware, is a Ferris State alum himself).  But, such is the nature of the business and coaching changes occur even to those alumni coaches.

Indeed, with Annese's experience, record and connections, I do not doubt that Ferris State will be the place to go i.e. many high school players will want to be there.

One other question I have is why Annese took the GRCC job anyway.  I can't imagine he couldn't have landed some other college job if he had wanted to, whether it be DII or DIII and around our region.  No matter now, since Ferris State has pulled a "big time" move.

[ThunderHead]

I heard about Annese to Ferris probably sometime in early December, however there was another coach Ferris was interviewing that was also fairly well respected in the West Michigan area so they waited to pull the trigger, though in my opinion, the other coach wasn't near the quality of coach as Annese.

I believe Annese went to GRCC to get his feet wet in the college game and also to help develop some guys that other people had abandoned.  I have tremendous respect for Coach Annese, he's a guy that really goes out of his way for his athletes and the athletes that I know that want to be good really respect the guy.

Some people didn't think Annese could win at the college level and by doing what he did at GRCC he pretty much blew that theory off the hinges. Look for him to make an immediate impact next season, and once he installs his offense with his people, (it may take a few seasons) I think he is well on his way to a GLIAC championship and NC contention. 

[Uncle Rico]

So after 2011, how would the MIAA posters evaluate each team vs. pre-season predictions?

I admit to being a little disappointed.  A 7-3 record is not bad, and certainly better than what would have been expected a few years ago, but the bar had been raised and 3 in-conference losses is disappointing when you look at where they were a year ago, giving Whitewater a close game.  I probably did not appreciate how much they lost talent-wise coming in to this season.  I am not well connected into the system but based on an additional years experience for the QB, the coaches that remain, the nice facilities, and the quality education that Trine offers, I think they will recruit well and have a better season next year than this past one.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and may the coming New Year bring health, wealth, and happiness to all.

[DBQ1965]

I will be very interested to see how Annese does at Ferris.  It should make things very interesting for the GLIAC in a fairly short time.  Wayne State and Hillsdale have shown there is more to the GLIAC than GVSU and SVSU ... Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan have shown streaks of competitiveness ... and now we will be able to add Ferris back into the mix.

I must say however that I am disappointed Annese won't be at GRCC any longer because he provided football fans with a wide open, exciting brand of football ... lots of offense and a swarming defense.  It made for some great Saturdays in Grand Rapids.

So ... I guess I'll have to check out Bulldog footall next Fall.

[adidas28]

So after 2011, how would the MIAA posters evaluate each team vs. pre-season predictions?

In my opinion the only team that exceeded expectations was Albion, I think most posters had them predicted to finish 2nd or 3rd in the conference and then they went out and swept the conference.

Hope would be the other team that may have exceeded pre-season predictions. I always expect them to play well and give Trine a tough game whenever they play, and they do.

Like Rico said 7-3 for Trine 5 years ago would have been a great season but coming off three straight MIAA championships and a great showing against Whitewater the bar was set very high. I go back to the "beat down" they took against St. Francis in the pre-season scrimmage and looking back I think that really effected the confidence of a young team and took some of their swaggar away. It will be interesting to see who they hire for the OC position. Do they keep a similar system, or change it up?

Adrian surprised me - I thought they would be the team to beat the way they looked against Trine. In a way it wasn;t much different then previous years, always right there with the chance to win the conference but can't win the big game.

Alma, Olivet, Kzoo - not a whole lot to talk about. Do coaching changes help Alma and Olivet? Probably. It depends on how quick the attitude and atmosphere can be changed. It sounds like they are tow very tough place to recruit to. Kzoo - I expected more this year, seemed liek the same old Kzoo team though.

[Raider 68]

adidas28,

Great post, thanks +k!

[formerd3db]

One more comment regarding Annese.  He being a former player and graduate of Alma College, I wonder if he applied and/or was on their list of candidates for that head coaching position?  Just curious.

Also, in perusing the Ferris State University football website, it was very interesting to me to review the attendance stats from all their games, including their away games in the DII GLIAC.  Quite surprisingly, but also quite pleasingly, it was interesting to see that Hope College had better attendance than many of those DII games.  While most of Hope's games at home were well above the 3000+ mark in attendance, most of Ferris States's games were in the mid or low 2000 range or even less for some of the away games, such as at Fiindlay, Tiffin, Lake Erie.  The two exceptions were the away games at Grand Valley State and Saginaw Valley State which were +8000 and about 9,700+ respective, although those two figures are not surprising considering the two opponents.  Thus, overall, it is good to see that many of the DIII schools attendance is just as good, if not better than scholarship DII schools at times.  So that is not bad.

Ditto Raider68 for adidas.  Also for UR and DBQ. 

[ThunderHead]

formerd3db,

Interesting information on the stats regrading attendance - nice job.

Regarding Annese, I don't think he considered Alma, and I'm not sure he applied for the position. (if he did, and Alma didn't pull the trigger on him immediately then they need their heads checked.  ) From what I know I think Tony wanted a school with scholarship money to offer this time around. He won at GRCC and I believe was looking for a step-up in that regard. And by that I mean, as to what he could offer a potential student athlete in the form of compensation to play ball. (GRCC = no ability to offer money much like D3 football)

As a coach, that's a nice thing to be able to offer potential athletes IMO. I know some think that corrupts the game, but that's already been hashed out here on more then one occasion. 

Happy New Year's to you guys.