FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[scottiedoug]

New President, temporary AD, no football coach. What could go wrong?

[Scots13]

New President, temporary AD, no football coach. What could go wrong?

After a 3-7 season, what difference does it make?

Tom Bogart couldn't raise a dollar unless it was from someone's estate; from what I heard Hayes has been AWOL; Schram has been too worried about taking soccer teams to Italy and volleyball teams to Costa Rica to help give Cooper a facelift. The football locker room only has space for 60 guys...

[Highlander98]

Finally after many years, have joined the D3 board.....   Totally agree with everything Scots13 said.  Schram has been a terrible AD and don't know why she's still around as just the volleyball coach.  Need to let her go completely.  Hard to find any alum that wants her to stay at MC....   Any word on any candidates yet???

[Scots13]

Welcome 98.

No word on candidates yet, but they've seem to finalize the search committee.

[Scots13]

4 divisional games and a conference championship game this spring.

[Hawks88]

I hope it happens. I'm ready to see the Hawks play.

Meanwhile, Alabama high schools managed to make it all the way through their season with the championship games this week.

[Highlander98]

Lots of interest in the Maryville Head Coach position

https://footballscoop.com/news/a-d-iii-gem-is-drawing-interest-from-sec-coaches-former-nfl-players/

[scottiedoug]

So why do football men think Schram should not be women's volleyball coach and based on what? No football coaches have a record anywhere as good as hers. Scots need to put their money where their mouths are if Cooper is going to get what it very much needs.

[Scots13]

Personally, I couldn't care less who the VB coach was. Schram's record is thanks to a terrible conference in the GSAC minus a handful of decent teams in the last 5-10 years.
The College needs to invest in athletics, first. Set the example.

The FB makes up roughly 10% of the student body. Budgets within the athletics department have not been reflective of that and should be. I'm not saying cut others, I'm saying show football the love it deserves...start with a new scoreboard that we don't have to worry if it'll work on game days.

[scottiedoug]

It seems that Bryan Coker agrees with a lot of what you say here, at least about leading with athletics. As you know, MC grads are not usually rich. A fulltime AD makes sense, as does upgrading lots of facilities. All we need is money.

[Wild Horse Rider]

If my math is correct (50/50 shot) then training camps will open up in the USAC in 2 weeks.  The opening weekend of games are February 20th.  Everyone has there 4 game divisional schedule posted and all but Greensboro has updated their roster.  Here's what I have taken away:

I think Maryville got the shortest stick as far as the schedule goes.  They have Brevard twice and have to travel to Huntingdon.
I think Methodist got the best end of the schedule with Greensboro twice and Averett at home.
I also feel for the entire west division.  If the conference is still not allowing overnight trips for games then there are a few 5+ hour bus rides the day of these games.  The east has a 2 1/2 hour trip at worst.

It is hard to tell which players were just not retained or who opted out but after looking at the rosters I think the 2 divisions will shake out like this:

EAST
1. Methodist- Bring back SO QB who started all but one game last year.  Bring back the top 3 WRs, top TE, top HB, and top 4 OL.  The top 2 LBers and top 2 safeties are back.  There is some experience returning at DE.  Also returning are the kicker and punter.  They need to find out who is going to carry the rock on offense and who the interior DL are as well as the CBs.  Head coach and both coordinators are back

2. Averett- Bring back top 4 WRs but not much else on offense.  The defense brings back some solid players namely LB Showalter.  There are returning players at all levels of the D but the DE Ledbetter transferred.  The biggest question in my opinion is who is going to get the ball to their studs on O?  They did have transition on the coaching staff as Adams left for the Ferrum job but Henry was promoted from within.  The DC is the same and the OC is the Cougars former QB Brown who just came on staff sometime after last season.

3. NCWC- Bring back top RB and 2nd best WR.  All of the top production on defense is gone as well as their QB.  There does not appear to be any coaching staff turnover.  There are a lot of questions to answer.

4. Greensboro- I can say what they are bring back but this is the team in the East I feel the sorriest for.  Their new head coach was hired at the end of January last year.  I'm sure he was able to be around the kids some but there could not have been a lot accomplished in the spring.

WEST:
1. Brevard- Bring back JR QB who has started since he was a freshman.  They are bring back 4 of their top 5 RBs and 2 of their top 3 WRs.  They are bringing back 7 of their top 9 defensive players from last season including an all conference LB and DB.  There does not appear to be any staff turnover.  I can't see many holes here.

2. Huntingdon- Bring some talent at WR but graduated their best at that position.  They bring back a few players that made solid contributions on D.  The two things that stuck out on their roster were the absence of their best RB Thomas and LB Caldwell (I thought both were JRs).  The coaching staff appears intact.  If there is a staff that can figure this out I will give them a nod. 

3. Maryville- Brought back both QBs who started last year and one is now listed as a LBer.  There is some talent at WR returning.  They are bring back 3 top performers on defense 2 of which were all-conference last year.  They just had some coaching turnover to deal with but did promote an interim head coach from within.  I'm sure the schemes will stay similar.  Gone from the roster was their RB Bunch who I thought was a SO last year.

4. LaGrange- They bring back one of the 3 QBs who played last year.  There is talent returning at the WR position.  They bring back an all-conference DL.  The coaching staff seems to be intact.  The big absences are the reining OROTY and DROTY which are not on the roster.

I hope for the kids sake they can play the spring season and that the schools allow some family to attend.  I was happy that there was football this fall but my son and I certainly missed going to Fayetteville on a Saturday and sweating our tails off cheering on the Monarchs.

[Hawks88]

RE: Thomas and Caldwell at HC. Thomas would have been a fifth year SR this fall(missed first year injured) and finished up in the fall semester. I know Caldwell spent a couple of years at Miles(one a redshirt) before coming to HC so he would have been a fifth year also and may have finished up in the fall. I don't know for sure but assume he did since they went ahead and assigned his number to someone else.

Edit to add: Very nicely done post, WHR. I hope the guys get to play in the spring too. And about your last line mentioning missing sweating your tails off, I'm not sure what your weather was like this past fall but I remember every Saturday from about the middle of September on thinking how awesome the weather was and how nice it would have been to be sitting at a Hawks game. Unlike most years where we swelter in the heat until late October. We really did have cool weather here for most of the fall which made not getting to play that much worse.

[BSCpanthers]

It's a shame we couldn't get a non conference game in for BSC and HC.  Looking forward to the next edition this fall!!! 

[Hawks88]

It's a shame we couldn't get a non conference game in for BSC and HC.  Looking forward to the next edition this fall!!!

I hear you. I have wondered a couple of things about next fall's schedule. I wonder whether the HC-BSC game will be in Montgomery this fall since it was our turn to host or if it will be skipped and keep the rotation back to Birmingham. The past fall would have also been the fourth year of the 4 year contract with Guilford and the second half of the home-and-home with UW-Oshkosh. Southern Virginia is supposed to be joining the USAC next year giving us 8 conference games so I'm sure at least one of those others won't happen this fall, if either.

[Scots13]

SVU is leaving the ODAC? They just got there...