FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[CNU85]

***ALL OPINIONS STATED IN THE POST ARE THE SOLE PROPERTY OF SCOTS13. SINCE THIS IS STILL THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, HE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO POST HIS OWN, SELF-CONCEIVED OPINIONS ON MATTERS HE SO CHOOSES.

Skoal, Brother!! (you're probably too young for that comment.....google Earl Campbell and Skoal)

Gonna date myself here..
you're right. Skoal Brother has me by a decade. Found the youtube commercial clip. Got a good chuckle out of it.

More of a Copenhagen man myself. 

I was a silver creek guy, back in the day!

[Scots13]

Never heard of Silver Creek. Might have to give it a try.

Now you got me watching old tobacco commercials on youtube. I think my new hero is Walt Garrison. All I need now is a leather vest and a cowboy hat and I'll be set!

[narch]

So basically you have an uninformed opinion because if you actually read the press release the only thing either side is saying then you would know that Coach Mooney resigned  to seek other opportunities.  Why?  No one knows because nothing has been in the press so maybe that is the whole truth.  Anything else is pure speculation.

i thought "pursuing other opportunities" was almost always a euphemism for "fired", but you could be right...he could truly be "pursuing other opportunities" - if so, there is nothing more to the story than what we've read

or he could have been fired and he's "pursuing other opportunities" because the opportunity he really wants to pursue and was pursuing about 10 days ago (coaching lagrange football) is no longer an option...

i don't know coach mooney personally, but i do personally know a lot of current and former college coaches - i don't know a single one who would willingly walk away with 3 games left in the season

[CNU85]

Never heard of Silver Creek. Might have to give it a try.

Now you got me watching old tobacco commercials on youtube. I think my new hero is Walt Garrison. All I need now is a leather vest and a cowboy hat and I'll be set!

Walt was awesome!!!

[DGPugh]

aint no wuz
Garrison is still kickin and still going to rodeo's (or was a few yrs back, and still has a small ranch in Denton county Tejas... i think near Argyle.

he once had cutting horses, as i recall, and we crossed paths

keep the faith

[PantherGuy]

Appreciate your comments Scots on the LaGrange situation.  Obviously I have a vested interest in the Panthers since my son plays on the offensive side of the ball for the past 3 years.  And yes, I know the Maryville situation well since my step-son played for Coach Ierulli and has always had a great amount of respect for the man.

I do know for a fact, that for over a year, athletic director Jennifer Claybrook and President McAlexander have both been waiting to find a time to axe Coach Mooney.  They were waiting for something to happen in practice, or with an assistant coach, or with a player to give them justification to make a change. 

What they fear was having success at the end of the season which would make it a PR disaster (like Maryville) by removing a popular coach.  Remember LaGrange was 3-2 going into the CNU game.  They beat Huntingdon (only conference loss) 2 weeks earlier and just lost by 2 points to Methodist.  LaGrange beat CNU last year by 20 points and with Ferrum & Averett following the Panther could easily finish up with 3 straight wins and a 6-2 overall conference record.  So that is why the change was made last week to give credit to any last season success to the new head coach.

Another point is that we are the only USA-South Team that is playing all USA-South opponents.  Everyone plays only 7 conference games, we play 8 conference games.  How did that happen Athletic Director Claybrook?

What is disappointing was this team was really growing this season and with the loss of only 7 seniors, so we are going to be loaded for a strong 2014 season.  I guess AD Claybrook forgot about loyalty when she asked Coach Mooney to help her become the AD 2 years ago.....

[Scots13]

Appreciate your comments Scots on the LaGrange situation.  Obviously I have a vested interest in the Panthers since my son plays on the offensive side of the ball for the past 3 years.  And yes, I know the Maryville situation well since my step-son played for Coach Ierulli and has always had a great amount of respect for the man.

I do know for a fact, that for over a year, athletic director Jennifer Claybrook and President McAlexander have both been waiting to find a time to axe Coach Mooney.  They were waiting for something to happen in practice, or with an assistant coach, or with a player to give them justification to make a change. 

What they fear was having success at the end of the season which would make it a PR disaster (like Maryville) by removing a popular coach.  Remember LaGrange was 3-2 going into the CNU game.  They beat Huntingdon (only conference loss) 2 weeks earlier and just lost by 2 points to Methodist.  LaGrange beat CNU last year by 20 points and with Ferrum & Averett following the Panther could easily finish up with 3 straight wins and a 6-2 overall conference record.  So that is why the change was made last week to give credit to any last season success to the new head coach.

Another point is that we are the only USA-South Team that is playing all USA-South opponents.  Everyone plays only 7 conference games, we play 8 conference games.  How did that happen Athletic Director Claybrook?

What is disappointing was this team was really growing this season and with the loss of only 7 seniors, so we are going to be loaded for a strong 2014 season.  I guess AD Claybrook forgot about loyalty when she asked Coach Mooney to help her become the AD 2 years ago.....

Thank you for agreeing with me on the subject, as well as narch. Glad to see some common sense floating around here.

Quick thoughts:

1. I'm not 100% on this, but I think I heard that every team will be playing 8 conference games next year and only 2 OOC. MC played Sewanee the last 2 seasons, but on their website they have future schedules for the next several years without Maryville on them. Leads me to believe the 8 conference game schedule a little bit more. LaGrange may have been in a position in scheduling that it would have been easier just to play all 8 this year, and other teams decided to stick with the scheduling contracts. Looks like they play the same teams this year that they did last year, just the Huntingdon game is a conference game this year.

2. Only 7 seniors on this year's team? Lord have mercy on the rest of us next year. Talk about coming back loaded. Jeez.

3. Does Claybrook coach or just strictly an AD?

[Scots13]

PantherGuy,
Just looked it up. She does coach.

Wanna know something funny (even though you probably already know)?

MC's AD Schram also coaches.


Not trying to make this a gender thing, of course, just a striking coincidence.  I love women. 
I wished finances and institutional budgets would allow more small colleges to have an Athletics Director whose solely responsibility was to director the athletics department, as a whole and not split time.

I'll send in my resume to both schools.

[Ralph Turner]

Just a question for LaGrange.

You filled your schedule with 8 conference games.  Which D-3 would you have played in the 3rd OOC game and when?  (There are not that many choices of teams that would have chosen you instead of their current conference obligations.)

If you have one more win on the season than the other teams with equal conference losses, do you have an advantage by having the extra win for winning percentage sake?

[Scots13]

That's another good point. Not many d3s in the area. If I'm not mistaken they've had to play NAIA like shorter and point before, although shorter is now d2

[Pat Coleman]

Just a question for LaGrange.

You filled your schedule with 8 conference games.  Which D-3 would you have played in the 3rd OOC game and when?  (There are not that many choices of teams that would have chosen you instead of their current conference obligations.)

If you have one more win on the season than the other teams with equal conference losses, do you have an advantage by having the extra win for winning percentage sake?

Someone had to play eight games. The math doesn't work otherwise!

[Scots13]

Just a question for LaGrange.

You filled your schedule with 8 conference games.  Which D-3 would you have played in the 3rd OOC game and when?  (There are not that many choices of teams that would have chosen you instead of their current conference obligations.)

If you have one more win on the season than the other teams with equal conference losses, do you have an advantage by having the extra win for winning percentage sake?

Someone had to play eight games. The math doesn't work otherwise!

I'll be the first to admit math isn't my thing. I can balance a checkbook and make change from a dollar pretty good, but other than that I try to stay far, far away. Thanks for clearing that up, Pat.

What time can we expect the regional rankings tomorrow/today?

[Ralph Turner]

Just a question for LaGrange.

You filled your schedule with 8 conference games.  Which D-3 would you have played in the 3rd OOC game and when?  (There are not that many choices of teams that would have chosen you instead of their current conference obligations.)

If you have one more win on the season than the other teams with equal conference losses, do you have an advantage by having the extra win for winning percentage sake?

Someone had to play eight games. The math doesn't work otherwise!

Thanks, Pat.

[PantherGuy]

In response to Narch, Mooney's "pursuing other opportunities" statement was done in order to receive severance pay from LaGrange according to several athletic department personnel which I spoke to on Saturday.  As imagined, the athletic department is not very happy with their athletic director who was "one of them" just a couple of years ago.  I was told several instances when Mooney stood up for Jennifer Claybrook in player and staff complaints about her.....

I was also told she is planning to go after a couple other head coaches at LaGrange, but I won't divulge who they are. 

[PantherGuy]

After finding out a few more things yesterday from someone in the athletic department, I'm nominating Scots13 to be the next AD at LaGrange....

Start updating your resume....