FB at No. 24 JMU, 3:30 p.m., ESPN+

[Saint3333]

We can debate how much others are paying or not paying, but one thing is clear no SBC school has a disparity in NIL that should equate to a 1-5 conference record and being blown out like Saturday.

[yosef69]

We can debate how much others are paying or not paying, but one thing is clear no SBC school has a disparity in NIL that should equate to a 1-5 conference record and being blown out like Saturday.

And there is not a single reason that we should be at the bottom of the list. Though I don’t think I believe that we are.

[t4pizza]

The worst part is, this is all happening with one of the easiest schedules in the county. We currently have the 122nd strength of schedule, out of 136 FBS schools. The last time we had an easier schedule was our first year in FBS, in 2014 we had the 123rd strength of schedule and finished 7-5. The following years, when the Belt was still down, it was 97 in '15, 84 in '16, 95 in '17 and then the Belt improves and it goes 79 in'18, 76 in '19, 88 in '20, 71 in '21, 78 in '22, 81 in '23 and 81 in '24. This years team has played the second easiest schedule of our FBS era, and yet we sit at 6 losses already, tied for the most ever in our FBS ear, with 2 games to play.

[AppStFan1]

What I find funny is that we had people on here defending Clark after 5 years saying we should not fire him yet but we got people wanting Loggains out after 10 games. I am disappointed at the results because I was thinking we had a shot at 6-7 wins but injuries and other things have happened but we were left in very bad shape.

There are a lot of people complaining who would not be saying what they are if we had a Mountaineer as head coach. That is the simple truth. We have people who want to give a Mountaineer a decade but don't even want to give an outsider a full year. People need to calm down and give our coaches some time.

[Seattleapp]

What I find funny is that we had people on here defending Clark after 5 years saying we should not fire him yet but we got people wanting Loggains out after 10 games. I am disappointed at the results because I was thinking we had a shot at 6-7 wins but injuries and other things have happened but we were left in very bad shape.

There are a lot of people complaining who would not be saying what they are if we had a Mountaineer as head coach. That is the simple truth. We have people who want to give a Mountaineer a decade but don't even want to give an outsider a full year. People need to calm down and give our coaches some time.

Clark also won bowl games, beat A&M and was able to get gameday here as a result. He also bled black and gold. His tenure ended on a downward trajectory but he wasn’t an absolute failure. Plus I thought the whole reason we brought DLO and his vaunted nfl staff was to show us how to run a program and finally get the players some real coaches. This season is worse than anything Clark coached and folks are having a hard time seeing any improvement at all and DLO’s seeming indifference to the product he’s out on the field is rightfully troubling folks.

[Seattleapp]

What I find funny is that we had people on here defending Clark after 5 years saying we should not fire him yet but we got people wanting Loggains out after 10 games. I am disappointed at the results because I was thinking we had a shot at 6-7 wins but injuries and other things have happened but we were left in very bad shape.

There are a lot of people complaining who would not be saying what they are if we had a Mountaineer as head coach. That is the simple truth. We have people who want to give a Mountaineer a decade but don't even want to give an outsider a full year. People need to calm down and give our coaches some time.

Clark also won bowl games, beat A&M and was able to get gameday here as a result. He also bled black and gold. His tenure ended on a downward trajectory but he wasn’t an absolute failure. Plus I thought the whole reason we brought DLO and his vaunted nfl staff was to show us how to run a program and finally get the players some real coaches. This season is worse than anything Clark coached and folks are having a hard time seeing any improvement at all and DLO’s seeming indifference to the product he’s out on the field is rightfully troubling folks. And If we brought in an outsider and he’s been pretty bad. Maybe he’ll turn it around or maybe he’s completely over his head and we’ll look back and long for the terrible days when we were at least respectable

[yosef69]

What I find funny is that we had people on here defending Clark after 5 years saying we should not fire him yet but we got people wanting Loggains out after 10 games. I am disappointed at the results because I was thinking we had a shot at 6-7 wins but injuries and other things have happened but we were left in very bad shape.

There are a lot of people complaining who would not be saying what they are if we had a Mountaineer as head coach. That is the simple truth. We have people who want to give a Mountaineer a decade but don't even want to give an outsider a full year. People need to calm down and give our coaches some time.

Clark also won bowl games, beat A&M and was able to get gameday here as a result. He also bled black and gold. His tenure ended on a downward trajectory but he wasn’t an absolute failure. Plus I thought the whole reason we brought DLO and his vaunted nfl staff was to show us how to run a program and finally get the players some real coaches. This season is worse than anything Clark coached and folks are having a hard time seeing any improvement at all and DLO’s seeming indifference to the product he’s out on the field is rightfully troubling folks.

I agree with you but you can’t totally separate the issues we are seeing this season from prior seasons. They are related, strongly

[Seattleapp]

What I find funny is that we had people on here defending Clark after 5 years saying we should not fire him yet but we got people wanting Loggains out after 10 games. I am disappointed at the results because I was thinking we had a shot at 6-7 wins but injuries and other things have happened but we were left in very bad shape.

There are a lot of people complaining who would not be saying what they are if we had a Mountaineer as head coach. That is the simple truth. We have people who want to give a Mountaineer a decade but don't even want to give an outsider a full year. People need to calm down and give our coaches some time.

Clark also won bowl games, beat A&M and was able to get gameday here as a result. He also bled black and gold. His tenure ended on a downward trajectory but he wasn’t an absolute failure. Plus I thought the whole reason we brought DLO and his vaunted nfl staff was to show us how to run a program and finally get the players some real coaches. This season is worse than anything Clark coached and folks are having a hard time seeing any improvement at all and DLO’s seeming indifference to the product he’s out on the field is rightfully troubling folks.

I agree with you but you can’t totally separate the issues we are seeing this season from prior seasons. They are related, strongly

100%. And I recognize that. The rub for most folks is trying to determine what is a left over from last year, which as you rightly state and how much is this current staff may not be as good as we were all hoping. Only
Time will tell

[AppSt94]

What I find funny is that we had people on here defending Clark after 5 years saying we should not fire him yet but we got people wanting Loggains out after 10 games. I am disappointed at the results because I was thinking we had a shot at 6-7 wins but injuries and other things have happened but we were left in very bad shape.

There are a lot of people complaining who would not be saying what they are if we had a Mountaineer as head coach. That is the simple truth. We have people who want to give a Mountaineer a decade but don't even want to give an outsider a full year. People need to calm down and give our coaches some time.

I don’t feel like Loggains should be fired for on field results. However, at this point and time, all we have proven this year from last is that the change, whether you felt like it should have occurred, has not yielded results that prove that it was the right move. In fact some of the same issues exist off the field as last year. I’ll leave you this, we hired a guy with NFL experience. At the very least, he should be able to figure out how to exploit the weaknesses in a defense. My biggest issue is the lack of counter-punch preparedness to what the opponent is doing. My final thought on his offense.

[Bigdaddyg1]

Unless we have sunk to dumpster fire we should be able to assemble enough talent to at least go 6-6. I see a boatload of G5 schools who will most certainly finish at .500. As for the unbelievable lack of rushing last Saturday it’s not like our backup offensive linemen are 5’10” and 200 lbs. I realize teams have depth charts for a reason but damn these guys are playing on a full ride scholarship and I assume many are getting paid something! My god you can dive, fall forward or trip 20 times for 30 yards rushing with all almost zero blocking. JMU is good but their defense isn’t Georgia or Ohio State. I’m willing to bet our guys are at least as big as theirs. I didn’t at all expect a win but I certainly didn’t anticipate a complete bitch slapping.

What was said on the coach press conference? I would guess, hats off to JMU, they are very talented and blah blah blah.

[rbarthle17]

DLo started in Dec.
He inherited a losing team on a downward trajectory
We did not have good OLine and Dline for several years and they were getting worse every year
DLo had to accept whatever HS recruits that were coming in and recruited from the same staff that got fired or not have any players at all.
He had to cull out many bad players on the roster
He had very very limited opportunity with the portal due to hiring date and portal window and lack of having his own coaching staff in this place.

What would any other coach do better given those circumstances?
If you don’t have the horses how do you compete?
I don’t think some on this board realize how bad we were at the end of last year.

Just some food for thought.
I am disappointed with this year and we better improve next year but all of the above is true whether you like it or not.

Why couldn't he find the horses in the portal? He went through spring so he should have known our weaknesses, why didn't he get answers in the portal? Again, Chesney came into JMU with a roster deplete of the vast majority of talent that got Cig his job at Indiana. But he went out and brought in 64 kids and went 9-4. Why wasn't Dl able to do the same thing?

I have not researched this, so if I am wrong I am wrong. My understanding is JMU went more the route of bringing up players who balled out at FCS, while we went with "get as many SEC benchwarmers as we can".

[Saint3333]

This season has no baring on whether moving on from Clark was the right move.

We can debate if DL was the right move subsequently.

[Bigdaddyg1]

DLo started in Dec.
He inherited a losing team on a downward trajectory
We did not have good OLine and Dline for several years and they were getting worse every year
DLo had to accept whatever HS recruits that were coming in and recruited from the same staff that got fired or not have any players at all.
He had to cull out many bad players on the roster
He had very very limited opportunity with the portal due to hiring date and portal window and lack of having his own coaching staff in this place.

What would any other coach do better given those circumstances?
If you don’t have the horses how do you compete?
I don’t think some on this board realize how bad we were at the end of last year.

Just some food for thought.
I am disappointed with this year and we better improve next year but all of the above is true whether you like it or not.

Why couldn't he find the horses in the portal? He went through spring so he should have known our weaknesses, why didn't he get answers in the portal? Again, Chesney came into JMU with a roster deplete of the vast majority of talent that got Cig his job at Indiana. But he went out and brought in 64 kids and went 9-4. Why wasn't Dl able to do the same thing?

I have not researched this, so if I am wrong I am wrong. My understanding is JMU went more the route of bringing up players who balled out at FCS, while we went with "get as many SEC benchwarmers as we can".

I brought this up in the winning thread. I asked if we should go back to recruiting those guys who were deemed to be low 3 star, not good enough for P4 or even high G5. Pull in FCS studs and then maybe a few P4 bench warmers. I still think that our FCS championship teams were good enough to compete at most G5 levels. We just needed 20 more roster players for depth. There cannot be that big of a gap between the top FCS talent and the average G5 as there can’t be much separation between the top G5 and P4 bench warmers. I’ve asked before as well how do we even assess portal players who for the most part barely played in college. Are we taking what we can get? I can’t imagine that after the dust settles there is an abundance of talented players we turn away. It really doesn’t appear to me that this method is working.

[boonetown1]

DLo started in Dec.
He inherited a losing team on a downward trajectory
We did not have good OLine and Dline for several years and they were getting worse every year
DLo had to accept whatever HS recruits that were coming in and recruited from the same staff that got fired or not have any players at all.
He had to cull out many bad players on the roster
He had very very limited opportunity with the portal due to hiring date and portal window and lack of having his own coaching staff in this place.

What would any other coach do better given those circumstances?
If you don’t have the horses how do you compete?
I don’t think some on this board realize how bad we were at the end of last year.

Just some food for thought.
I am disappointed with this year and we better improve next year but all of the above is true whether you like it or not.

Why couldn't he find the horses in the portal? He went through spring so he should have known our weaknesses, why didn't he get answers in the portal? Again, Chesney came into JMU with a roster deplete of the vast majority of talent that got Cig his job at Indiana. But he went out and brought in 64 kids and went 9-4. Why wasn't Dl able to do the same thing?

I have not researched this, so if I am wrong I am wrong. My understanding is JMU went more the route of bringing up players who balled out at FCS, while we went with "get as many SEC benchwarmers as we can".

I brought this up in the winning thread. I asked if we should go back to recruiting those guys who were deemed to be low 3 star, not good enough for P4 or even high G5. Pull in FCS studs and then maybe a few P4 bench warmers. I still think that our FCS championship teams were good enough to compete at most G5 levels. We just needed 20 more roster players for depth. There cannot be that big of a gap between the top FCS talent and the average G5 as there can’t be much separation between the top G5 and P4 bench warmers. I’ve asked before as well how do we even assess portal players who for the most part barely played in college. Are we taking what we can get? I can’t imagine that after the dust settles there is an abundance of talented players we turn away. It really doesn’t appear to me that this method is working.

IMO this is the correct strategy at our level; for coaches and players. Gillin has seemed enamored with SEC and it translates down to the coaching

[Pikapp79]

This season has no baring on whether moving on from Clark was the right move.

We can debate if DL was the right move subsequently.

Two years too late for moving on from Clark. The damage was done.

[gsoappfan]

I'm curious to see a list of the players that were brought in under DLo's regime, and then another one for the players that have been the most productive this year including players that have gotten hurt through the year. I dont keep up enough with recruiting to know who was brought in under who. I'm not happy with the results this year but would like to look for some of the positives we can build on for next year since it's very likely DLo will be our coach next year

[WASU 93]

What I find funny is that we had people on here defending Clark after 5 years saying we should not fire him yet but we got people wanting Loggains out after 10 games. I am disappointed at the results because I was thinking we had a shot at 6-7 wins but injuries and other things have happened but we were left in very bad shape.

There are a lot of people complaining who would not be saying what they are if we had a Mountaineer as head coach. That is the simple truth. We have people who want to give a Mountaineer a decade but don't even want to give an outsider a full year. People need to calm down and give our coaches some time.

Clark also won bowl games, beat A&M and was able to get gameday here as a result. He also bled black and gold. His tenure ended on a downward trajectory but he wasn’t an absolute failure. Plus I thought the whole reason we brought DLO and his vaunted nfl staff was to show us how to run a program and finally get the players some real coaches. This season is worse than anything Clark coached and folks are having a hard time seeing any improvement at all and DLO’s seeming indifference to the product he’s out on the field is rightfully troubling folks.

And Clark's team won 3 of it's final 5 games including a two-td victory over JMU and a win over ODU. If the cupboard was bare, we were still winning with SPAM and Rama Noodles.

[ncman071]

its simple...we have a horrific offensive line. got to give dlo and crew another season to start passing real judgement....if we dont see huge improvments next season especially if he can put together a solid off line, then maybe look at changes...idk....we gots to give him more than a season

[Stonewall]

The lack of in season improvement is bothersome. We peaked week one. I was sold that the staff had the ability to work with what we had and maximize that talent over time. Didn’t happen. Lack of in game adjustments is an issue. “ We made adjustments at halftime “ is a strategy to lose.

[mountaineerman]

Coaching is part of it. Getting talent is another component. We are behind our peers in nil funding (good group schools we used to compare ourselves to).
Unless that changes, DLo may not have the Jimmy and Joe's to be successful.

This is not just a statement for DLo... Any HC that comes to App. St

I know we say that we are behind in NIL, and we might be, but has anyone actually seen any numbers from any peer schools that support that statement? I sure haven't. I know we have larger donations and ticket sales then everyone in the Sun Belt, so why should I blindly believe that somehow all these schools have more NIL? They might, but it seems odd to me and until I see facts and figures to support that proposition, it is little more than a bogyman that bad programs like to blame. Does anyone really believe that we have the only "old school" boosters who don't like the idea of paying young mercenary players to play a year and then leave? I bet most schools have that mentality. You really think Marshall has that much greater NIL then we do? They lost their coach last year and the vast majority of talent from their team, who now mostly play for USM, and yet they are a competitive football team that I expect will embarrass us next week. Most were not expecting a big year this year, but wanted to see improvement and that has not happened at all. We can blame NIL all we want, but I don't think anyone actually knows the truth behind what peer schools are spending on NIL in comparison to App.

Play on the field for the past five years will tell you I’m sure.