Does the exodus of our best players cost CCL his job?

[WaitingForACoach]

Poor play all this year + all these losses + firing CCL now would = burn it down, start from scratch and assume a miserable 2-3 years of 1 or 2 win seasons.

I am having a VERY hard time getting interested in much of anything about VU athletics and I was there when we beat Bear Bryant in 1969.

Not firing CCL now equals the same miserable 2-3 years of 1 or 2 wins seasons AND THEN burning it down to do that all over again. This experiment failed. Time to accept it and move on. There has to be a better alternative.

[OldDude]

Poor play all this year + all these losses + firing CCL now would = burn it down, start from scratch and assume a miserable 2-3 years of 1 or 2 win seasons.

It sure seems like we’re in store for that anyway. I don’t see why one wouldn’t fire the coach. Oh. Wait. For some reason he got an extension before the season. Last year showed great progress, sure. But in no way did it justify an extension, as it appears they caught lightning in a bottle. Nobody is coming to hire away Lea. We should be so lucky…

I beg to differ. If MBA is wanting a coach, they may give him a look.

[jpmando]

Extending the contracts of underperforming coaches after a very modest appearance of progress seems to be a VU m.o.

If the idea is to strive for excellence in all aspects of the University, then I would want to see proof of sustained success- be it consistently high ratings
by students of a professor's teaching style, awards for medical discoveries and published scientific research, selection of professors to present their work at international conferences. I am sure lots more metrics exist for the rest of the University. Whether SAT results of incoming freshman is a worthwhile metric may be debatable.

I find it bizarre that Mason, Lea, and Stackhouse have all received extensions-No NCAA tournaments for Stackhouse, a couple of SEC wins for Lea, a bowl loss for Mason. Sure it was fun beating UT, but not near enough for me.

Seems like a pretty low bar as far as overall expectations.

[Fayettedore]

That happens at far more places than VU. UT extended Butch Jones' and Jeremy Pruitt's contracts WAY prematurely. Texas A&M extended Jimbo's contract and is now paying through the nose. They do it, of course, to try to lock them down. By VU's standards, the FB team overperformed LAST year.

But your overall point is right: in many cases, extending the contracts has been much too premature.

[Johnmn555]

The thing is it doesn't lock them down! If they have any real success, the big boys will pay the price to take them (witness Franklin, who got extensions). When they extended CCL, I did a post questioning what would happen if a 2-10 season follows. Well, here we are.

[AuricGoldfinger]

The exodus of players won't cost Lea his job. More 2-10 or worse seasons will.

[bhoyal]

The exodus of players won't cost Lea his job. More 2-10 or worse seasons will.

The exodus of players will cause more 2-10 season or worse which will cost him the gig. Imho.

Bad timing for CCL... the NCAA get court-ordered to abandon the pretense of rules and turns into the wild-west for (former) amateur sports.

Look at what transfer QBs are going to get $$-wise... (and the top couple of WRs too)...

https://www.on3.com/transfer-portal/ind ... ball/2024/

McCord from tOSU about to get $750,000 to transfer.

[Fayettedore]

The exodus of players won't cost Lea his job. More 2-10 or worse seasons will.

Bad timing for CCL... the NCAA get court-ordered to abandon the pretense of rules and turns into the wild-west for (former) amateur sports.

Look at what transfer QBs are going to get $$-wise... (and the top couple of WRs too)...

https://www.on3.com/transfer-portal/ind ... ball/2024/

McCord from tOSU about to get $750,000 to transfer.

True, and mostly overlooked by fans. The wide-open portal and transfer rules and NIL came into being under CDM but they have come into full bloom under CCL. And VU's own internal rules and traditions about accepting transfers and the toughness in getting into grad school here -- not to mention the longstanding high academic standards --have made dealing with the portal and mega-million NIL arrangements even more difficult for the coach and his staff.

It's why I'm not jumping onto this bandwagon to cut ties with him. VandyManners asked in a different thread, "What's the plan?" Well, the plan needs start with a top-level summit between Kirkland Hall and McGugin Center about the future and what can be done. It's not all on CCL; some of this is beyond his control.

PS -- I know everyone's upset and everyone wants to vent. Nothing wrong with that. But I fear the effect it's having on recruits.

[GoVandy]

PS -- ... But I fear the effect it's having on recruits.
[/quote]

I agree. the SOLE criterion that recruits make decisions on is the mood of the fans. If we threw a bunch of parties, we'd be in the CFP in '25 if not '24.

Seriously, if i were a rqcuit, i'd think a fanbase is insane if they think the lowest point in 2 of the 4 major sports is something to celebrate.

[AuricGoldfinger]

The exodus of players won't cost Lea his job. More 2-10 or worse seasons will.

The exodus of players will cause more 2-10 season or worse which will cost him the gig. Imho.

Bad timing for CCL... the NCAA get court-ordered to abandon the pretense of rules and turns into the wild-west for (former) amateur sports.

Look at what transfer QBs are going to get $$-wise... (and the top couple of WRs too)...

https://www.on3.com/transfer-portal/ind ... ball/2024/

McCord from tOSU about to get $750,000 to transfer.

This is the future that any Vanderbilt football coach is likely to face, whether it's Clark Lea or someone else.