FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Gipper69]

The Bates search is definitely taking much longer than expected - multiple candidates have been brought to campus only to turn down any offers made. Contrary to what they promised when the search started, they are nowhere near financially competitive for either the head coaches or the assistants and its having a brutal impact on their candidate pool. New AD Fein is not impressing anyone who sets foot on campus.

I would expect they start to put the full court press on some of the candidates they are meeting with this week...

First Post comes out with a bang there Gipper.  What is the salary offered for that position if I may ask?

The number is not what is important - just noting the lack of commitment to building and supporting a full coaching staff. The pitfall of the program the past 2 seasons has been a lack of support staff/assistant coaches and it does not look like anything is changing on that front.

With that being said, this could be a great opportunity to take a flyer on a younger, less experienced coach who could come in and bring some much needed energy to the program...

[lumbercat]

Thats not great news from the Gipper but thanks for posting.

I'm no insider these days but did hear there has been one offer made and rejected. Maybe I don't have the whole story but thats my input for whatever it's worth.

I know the Bowdoin search, though conducted in a more desirable time frame, took similar turns. Current HC was said not to be their first or second choice.

[lumbercat]

Gipper wrote:  The number is not what is important - just noting the lack of commitment to building and supporting a full coaching staff. The pitfall of the program the past 2 seasons has been a lack of support staff/assistant coaches and it does not look like anything is changing on that front.

With that being said, this could be a great opportunity to take a flyer on a younger, less experienced coach who could come in and bring some much needed energy to the program...
[/quote]




Gipper- I agree.
Believe they will go younger due to finances. That has been the pattern in the last 20 years at Bates.......thats a major reason why there are 2 very successful Nescac Head Basketball coaches and an excellent Head Baseball coach who were HEAD Coaches at Bates and went to other NESCAC schools in lateral moves in terms of job title......but not salary.

I thought the new administration was going to make the commitment here but based on your input maybe they are not. I guess we will have some answers soon. The Bobcat football golf outing is Monday so I would guess there will be an announcement or some kind
of update at that time.

[gridiron]

It is very difficult to compete against the top tier NASCAC teams without a more level playing field. Investments in assistant coaches is yet another example. Having fewer coaches does not help. Too bad Bates isn't ready yet to make the investment.

[lumbercat]

Grid-
Waiting to see the whole thing play out before I can agree with you.

[Jonny Utah]

Gipper wrote:  The number is not what is important - just noting the lack of commitment to building and supporting a full coaching staff. The pitfall of the program the past 2 seasons has been a lack of support staff/assistant coaches and it does not look like anything is changing on that front.

With that being said, this could be a great opportunity to take a flyer on a younger, less experienced coach who could come in and bring some much needed energy to the program...

Gipper- I agree.
Believe they will go younger due to finances. That has been the pattern in the last 20 years at Bates.......thats a major reason why there are 2 very successful Nescac Head Basketball coaches and an excellent Head Baseball coach who were HEAD Coaches at Bates and went to other NESCAC schools in lateral moves in terms of job title......but not salary.

I thought the new administration was going to make the commitment here but based on your input maybe they are not. I guess we will have some answers soon. The Bobcat football golf outing is Monday so I would guess there will be an announcement or some kind
of update at that time.
[/quote]

I think all these NESCAC jobs are what they are and that is true with most nescac and d3 jobs in general.  Most assistant d3 coaching jobs don't pay livable wages on their own, although some (like the ones I assume you are referring to) come with other jobs within the school that would at least give you an additional boost. 

That being said, the college football coaching profession is tough to break into and there is no shortage of people who would be willing to move to Lewiston for 5K-10k  a year to start their college coaching careers.  Besides the OC/DC and HC, assistants at this level can usually get by being teachers or other flexible jobs with afternoons off.

I'm guessing a new coach would need to be his own OC/DC to start, and fill the rest with hungry guys waiting to work their way up in the coaching profession.

[ColbyFootball]

My personal feelings aside, if Bates is having a tough time with securing a HC, why not offer the job to Michaeles? Maybe he can get done at Bates what he couldn't at Colby.

[polbear73]

Thats not great news from the Gipper but thanks for posting.

I'm no insider these days but did hear there has been one offer made and rejected. Maybe I don't have the whole story but thats my input for whatever it's worth.

I know the Bowdoin search, though conducted in a more desirable time frame, took similar turns. Current HC was said not to be their first or second choice.

Lumbercat, while I was not directly involved in the Bowdoin search, I had pretty good first hand information.  There were three finalists from over 100 applicants in total.  The first offer, to an Ivy League assistant, was rejected because of a couple of non compensation issues, and mostly related to concerns over an institutional commitment to football.  The current coach received the next offer and was able to work out an agreement with which he was comfortable, most notably concessions from Admissions and number of assistants.  I'm not aware of any other offers made but there is always the possibility of back channels, etc. 

[lumbercat]

Thanks polbear- HC was second choice, not third. I know who the first choice was and thought compensation was at least part of the issue but you are closer to Bowdoin than i.

[polbear73]

Thanks polbear- HC was second choice, not third. I know who the first choice was and thought compensation was at least part of the issue but you are closer to Bowdoin than i.

Compensation could have been a concern, Lumbercat, but I think that, in his case, there were other issues more insurmountable than his comp (I think Bowdoin was prepared to move, but the other issues were tougher).  As an aside, I really liked the third candidate who had a great track record at a good academic school in another region. 

[lumbercat]

Polcat-

Yes I think we're on the same page. Without detail I knew there was at least one other (a third) candidate who was firmly in the mix, must be the guy you are referring to.

Maybe that third guy is/was in the Bates process.

Either way, my general point about the Bates situation was that it isn't unusual not to land the first choice so I can't assign potential failure to the current Bates process based on that.

As you can see I am optimistic despite these recent posts that identify issues that have been very valid at Bates in the past.

[polbear73]

LC:  I wish Bates all the best in signing the right coach.  The CBB needs to radically up their collective game in order to escape the NESCAC basement.  It's in everyone's interest to have all three programs competitive with the rest of the league. 

[lumbercat]

if Bates can land the right guy he may find some early success..... QB Costa didn't win the beauty contest at any of the clinics- he was under everyones radar and Harriman signed him- a great move.  He can run and has a much better arm than anyone knows as they all worked him out as a DB. He will be a force in the NESCAC with some support. Just hope the new Bates AD doesn't screw this up.

QB play is the most important factor in  NESCAC football- ask the magician, the best coach in the league....Bob Ritter.

[PolarCat]

So it appears the slow-motion Garnet train wreck continues.  The most visible manifestation is the head coach vacancy, but there are others.  Much more meaningful to the players is the woeful condition of the equipment.  The boys were promised new Under Armour uniforms for the 2016 season (there are even Under Armour signs at Garcellon Field celebrating the partnership) but those never materialized because the Administration never came up with the funds.  The game jerseys have been ripped and patched so many times they look like they came from Goodwill.  Fans have nicknamed them the Garnet Ragamuffins. 

Uniforms aren't a big deal, but helmets are.  The ones that Bates has recycled for at least 8 years are terrible.  Way too little protection, resulting in career-ending concussions, and more than one un-reported concussion.  I think there were four helmets that just shattered / split open in the Hamilton game last year.  It's scandalous, particularly at a school that polishes its academically-elite status.  Give a boy a world class education, but do the bare minimum to protect him from CTE.  Makes no sense.

The uniform, pads and helmet my son wore in high school were all markedly better than the hand-me-down junk Bates gave him.  I was really hoping that the new AD would signal a renewed commitment from the Administration to the sport, but it appears my hopes were unfounded. 

I think in a year or two, folks will realize that Mark Harriman was the real "magician" of the NESCAC.  With zero support from the Administration (the budget for assistants was so low in 2016 that he had an AC who was a QB in high school, but never played the game in college!), he had the 'Cats punching far above their weight with their four straight CBB's.

[frank uible]

In this day and age one courts legal disaster by providing less than first rate football headgear.