Voice: Lee Reed Discusses Football

[Problem of Dog]

Nov 17, 2014 22:19:16 GMT -5 RusskyHoya said:

I mean... it's not like they're not managing it. They're just not managing it in a way that will make most football fans happy.

It's like what I told puppydog earlier in the thread: There's a plan, you just don't like it, so you keep asking for the plan until you get a different version.

[puppydog100]

Problem of Dog, what is the plan?

[Problem of Dog]

Nov 18, 2014 7:43:41 GMT -5 puppydog100 said:

Problem of Dog, what is the plan?

I hope that was a joke.

[RusskyHoya]

Nov 18, 2014 15:21:16 GMT -5 Problem of Dog said:

Nov 18, 2014 7:43:41 GMT -5 puppydog100 said:

Problem of Dog, what is the plan?

I hope that was a joke.

I do feel like we've already gone down this road several times, but ok, once more for posterity:

The plan is to make incremental improvements to the continued non-scholarship football program, consistent and aligned with other athletics and University strategic objections, and subject to fundraising realities.

Specific items include:

1. Construction of the Thompson Athletic Center, which eliminates the embarrassing status quo of getting dressed for games in McShain Lounge and enables the football program to upgrade its facilities inside McDonough Arena. The TAC also includes other facilities, like sports medicine, from which the football team will benefit.

2. Completion of the MSF, in whatever form is ultimately deemed feasible.

3. Continued growth in the University's overall undergraduate financial aid budget, which increases the amount of need-based aid available to football players.

4. Continued - ideally, expanded - fundraising for the football program to support team operations and scholarship equivalencies.

5. Various other programmatic efforts (alumni network connection stuff, etc.) designed to make the program a more attractive draw.

It's not really a recipe for on-the-field success right away (or, potentially, ever!). But that's not the primary metric by which the program's success is being judged.

[alumni47]

RECRUITING, RECRUITING, RECRUITING--- Asst. Coaches need to do their job on the off season. If they are not committed 365 days a year find new coaches. (DO YOUR JOB !!!)

[DFW HOYA]

Nov 19, 2014 7:01:10 GMT -5 alumni47 said:

RECRUITING, RECRUITING, RECRUITING--- Asst. Coaches need to do their job on the off season. If they are not committed 365 days a year find new coaches. (DO YOUR JOB !!!)

This doesn't help. Football is the only GU sport where the conference dictates who it can admit.

"I'm sorry, but we can't accept your son's 1400 SAT because we already have too many with that score."

www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/sports/before-athletic-recruiting-in-the-ivy-league-some-math.html

(Note: The Patriot League uses this as well.)

[Problem of Dog]

Nov 19, 2014 8:54:40 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

Nov 19, 2014 7:01:10 GMT -5 alumni47 said:

RECRUITING, RECRUITING, RECRUITING--- Asst. Coaches need to do their job on the off season. If they are not committed 365 days a year find new coaches. (DO YOUR JOB !!!)

This doesn't help. Football is the only GU sport where the conference dictates who it can admit.

"I'm sorry, but we can't accept your son's 1400 SAT because we already have too many with that score."

www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/sports/before-athletic-recruiting-in-the-ivy-league-some-math.html

(Note: The Patriot League uses this as well.)

Look at our athletic bios. How many kids are National Merit or National Achievement Scholars? Barely any. I don't buy this "can't get in unless you have a 1400 (2100)" stuff. The GPA/class rank portion of the index is what gives our kids their bump, not the SAT.

[DFW HOYA]

Nov 19, 2014 13:51:25 GMT -5 Problem of Dog said:

Look at our athletic bios. How many kids are National Merit or National Achievement Scholars? Barely any. I don't buy this "can't get in unless you have a 1400 (2100)" stuff. The GPA/class rank portion of the index is what gives our kids their bump, not the SAT.

A 2009 article indicated only 46 National Merit and nine National Achievement Scholars in the entire Georgetown freshmen class, in large part because Georgetown does not recognize the "merit" part of the award.

[RusskyHoya]

The problem with the Academic Index isn't that it sets too high of a bar for football recruits, broadly speaking. Charlie Deacon (and above)-imposed requirements probably wouldn't look all that different, at least if we're talking about minimums and general distributions. The problem is that it's arbitrary, forcing you to have X number of recruits in specific bands. If you cloned a full compliment of football players with perfect grades and SATs, you couldn't recruit more than a handful of them, because you wouldn't be filling out the other bands.

Within a Patriot League specific context, it does put Georgetown at a disadvantage because the specific band numbers are indexed to the overall student body's numbers. Georgetown's incoming classes are, quantitatively-speaking, well above that of the other schools. Even without the index, there would still be some disadvantage due to higher standards, but there would be greater flexibility in managing it.

[thebin]

So how many of you got that Lee Reed email? Was there anything else in it of note? Am I crazy to be expecting a detailed plan on stadium construction (with renderings) and dates any day now? Probably, but "very exciting news" and "very near future" were tossed around.

[RusskyHoya]

Nov 19, 2014 15:01:43 GMT -5 thebin said:

So how many of you got that Lee Reed email? Was there anything else in it of note? Am I crazy to be expecting a detailed plan on stadium construction (with renderings) and dates any day now? Probably, but "very exciting news" and "very near future" were tossed around.

Yes, you are crazy.

Dear Hoya Faithful,

As the fall semester winds down and we enter the holiday season, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share with you all of the positive momentum that continues to grow in historic McDonough Arena. The past seven months have been filled with celebrations of our rich history, the achievement of significant milestones and major breakthroughs that will have positive impacts on intercollegiate athletics at Georgetown University for generations to come.

Here are just a few of the major highlights in athletics since May 2014:

• Early May brought scores of alums and spouses to the banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia for a 50th anniversary weekend celebration of the 1964 Dad Vail rowing championship.
• At the end of July, Frank McCourt C’75, former Hoya rower and member of the University Board of Directors, hosted a welcome celebration dinner for new men’s rowing coach, Luke Agnini.
• In early September, the Thompson Center groundbreaking and gala celebration dinner honoring John Thompson Jr. attracted hundreds of former players, alumni, fans, parents and friends.
• In mid-September, hundreds of former football players returned to campus for the 50th anniversary celebration of modern-era football, highlighted by keynote speaker and alumni awardee, General George Casey F’70, former Chief of Staff, U.S. Army and current member of the University Board of Directors.
• In late September, more than 150 former rowers, coaches, and friends gathered to celebrate the 47-year coaching career of retiring rowing coach, Tony Johnson -- 27 years of which were spent on the Hilltop. On November 20, 2014, Coach Johnson will be awarded the USRowing Medal, which is the highest award given by USRowing.
• In early October, members of the 1994 men's soccer team came together with the current coaches and team for the 20th anniversary celebration of Georgetown's first NCAA tournament team. Click this link to view the video, which captures the spirit of the 1994 team!
• Our fall sports teams are enjoying great seasons and enter the postseason primed for tremendous success. The women’s cross country team captured the BIG EAST Championship and enter the NCAA’s as the second-ranked program in the country. All-American Katrina Coogan captured the individual title and our 19-point team total was the lowest in over 20 years! Our men’s cross country team finished second at the BIG EAST Championship and enter the NCAA’s ranked 16th nationally!
• Sailing continues to compete at a high level, having just captured the ICSA Match Race National Championship for the program's 11th national title under Head Coach Mike Callahan! Both the Coed and Women’s teams are ranked third nationally as they wrap-up the fall season and head into the spring.
• The women’s soccer team finished in second place in the BIG EAST Conference and advanced to the league’s championship game. Senior Daphne Corboz was named the BIG EAST’s Offensive Player of the Year and the Midfielder of the Year, the first time one player has ever won both awards. The team was selected to play in the NCAA Tournament and advanced past #3 seed West Virginia on penalty kicks to face Virginia Tech in the 2nd round. This is the third-straight NCAA appearance for women’s soccer, the fourth in the last five years and the fifth in the last seven!
• The men’s soccer team continues to be among the best in the country as well. The Hoyas finished in third place in a competitive BIG EAST and were just selected to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year as a #8 seed. Sophomore defender Joshua Yaro was named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and freshman midfielder Arun Basuljevic was named the BIG EAST Rookie of the Year.
• Men and women’s basketball made the trip to NYC on October 22 for the annual BIG EAST media day, held in historic Madison Square Garden. The women, who are guided by first year head coach, Natasha Adair, were selected eighth in the preseason poll and Dorothy Adomako was named BIG EAST Preseason Freshman of the Year. The men were picked second in the conference and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera was named the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year.
• And, finally, please follow this link to a recent article in The Hoya about the great job our new coaches are doing and the positive impact that they are having on their respective programs. In addition, head women’s golf coach, Katie Brophy, picked up her first career tournament win at the University of Delaware Invitational in October.
  

Looking Ahead

We have much to celebrate and to be thankful for. We also have much to look forward to. The much-anticipated Thompson Center, to be completed in the fall of 2016, is a good place to start on the facilities front. A late change in the storm water management regulations necessitated a modification to our original design. While we have lost time because of this, I remain confident that we will meet our goal of having the building completed and occupied in time for the 2016-17 academic year.

As we strive to continue to improve our facilities, we are already starting to consider how to realign and maximize the use of McDonough Arena when multiple functions move to the Thompson Center.

• Shaw Field will undergo another phase of improvements, thanks to the generosity of Ed C'66 and Irene Shaw and the Shaw family. Further improvements will include a new press box, locker rooms for home and visiting teams, upgraded concessions areas, upgraded entryways and landscaping, and enclosed seating with brick facades.
  
• We are updating our building plans for the Multi-Sport Field and hope to have some very exciting news to share in the very near future relative to the completion of that project.
• We are also planning upgrades to Guy Mason Field where our softball program plays.
• We continue to examine various off-campus sites for potential partnerships on establishing an athletics campus concept - a place that several of our sports could call home, with appropriate branding and community engagement.

The Washington, D.C. bid for the 2024 Olympics presents us with the potential for some very exciting opportunities. D.C. is one of four U.S. finalists along with San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. A decision on the U.S. nomination should come within the next 60-90 days. Hoya alums Ted Leonsis C’77 and Paul Tagliabue C’62 have leadership roles on the planning committee and the opportunities for Georgetown and Georgetown Athletics are limitless.

Along with plans to continue to improve our infrastructure, we also understand and appreciate the importance and value of our most vital resource: people – supported by endowments for scholarships and coaching salaries. These form the foundation of successful and stable athletic programs and will become one of our highest priorities in the next campaign.

Our Hoyas Lead program, entering its third year under the direction of Dr. Michael Lorenzen, is already one of the best student leadership development programs in the country. As the programs and services to our students continue to grow and expand, we are already seeing significant positive results. In addition, we have increased our internal professional development opportunities for our coaches. With the environment of college athletics today becoming more complex than ever, we are committed to supporting our coaches with the tools and skill refinement necessary for them to manage through tough issues, while continuing to excel as educators, leaders and coaches.

All of these goals assume that we can count on your continued support as we head into the last two years of the current major fund-raising campaign and transition to the next. Because of your loyal support, For Generations to Come will be the most successful campaign in the history of Georgetown Athletics, with more money raised, more projects completed and more endowed scholarships than ever before. Together, we are meeting the challenges of our day and fulfilling our potential and promise. For that, we are most grateful.

Hoya Saxa!



Lee Reed
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics

[thebin]

"Shaw Field will undergo another phase of improvements, thanks to the generosity of Ed C'66 and Irene Shaw and the Shaw family. Further improvements will include a new press box, locker rooms for home and visiting teams, upgraded concessions areas, upgraded entryways and landscaping, and enclosed seating with brick facades."

Can't we just beat up the soccer kids and take their facility? Well done soccer program.

[Problem of Dog]

Nov 19, 2014 13:59:55 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

Nov 19, 2014 13:51:25 GMT -5 Problem of Dog said:

Look at our athletic bios. How many kids are National Merit or National Achievement Scholars? Barely any. I don't buy this "can't get in unless you have a 1400 (2100)" stuff. The GPA/class rank portion of the index is what gives our kids their bump, not the SAT.

A 2009 article indicated only 46 National Merit and nine National Achievement Scholars in the entire Georgetown freshmen class, in large part because Georgetown does not recognize the "merit" part of the award.

But athletic bios have nothing to do with what Georgetown recognizes or does not recognize. If our kids were really mostly scoring 2100s and above, there would be a ton of National Merit Finalists and National Achievement Finalists on the roster. There aren't. There never are. Hell, I don't know if I can remember hearing about even one National Merit Scholar on our football roster.

[CAHoya07]

Yeah, I got the e-mail from Lee Reed as well (which I thought was really well done), saw the part about MSF, and immediately came here hoping for some discussion on the topic. The quote from interim-AD Dr. Porterfield was interesting, but I'd be more inclined to think something will eventually happen under Reed since he does not have that interim status. Here's hoping. "Very exciting news to share in the very near future" sounds great and enticing, but who knows exactly what that means.

[CAHoya07]

Going back to the original Voice article, I think the questions were very good and not softballs, and I thought Reed, for the most part, answered them candidly and with a decent amount of detail. As many on this board, I was underwhelmed with Reed's hire as AD based on his unspectacular resume. However, I think he has done a pretty good job so far, and I think he is a solid leader for Georgetown Athletics at this time.

This is a very interesting transition time for Georgetown Athletics, for basketball and all other sports with the continued transition to the "new Big East," and for football with its uncertain future in the Patriot League. It'll be interesting to see what happens, with the new conference, and with facilities upgrades such as the Thompson Center, MSF, Shaw Field, even Yates.

Finally, going back to football and direction, since the Patriot League seems to be passing us up and that there seems to be no other good conference options, and based on the apparent goals of the program that Russky stated, I would support Georgetown football going FCS independent. Playing a mix of Ivy League and PL schools that we think that we can at least be competitive with (read: mostly the lower half of those conferences), and perhaps throw in a couple other schools at our level that fasn have generally heard of (Davidson, Dayton, Butler come to mind). We're not realistically competing for PL titles right now, so it's not like we're losing anything there, and if the program progresses and we have a great season, perhaps we could garner some at-large attention for FCS playoffs? A pipe dream, I know, but Georgetown still is a name recognized nationally, and it would be a great story. Another aspect of this pipe dream: we have light years to go, but my blue and gray-tinted sunglasses could see us as the potential "Notre Dame" or "BYU" of FCS if we could sustain some level of success over a long period of time (a big "if" there, since the only thing we've been able to sustain since moving to PL has been mediocrity).

The thing is, the team needs to improve and be more competitive, we need more 6-5 seasons than 2-9. And "competitiveness" remains the biggest obstacle to our success. I hope someone smarter and more plugged in than me can finally figure out how we can be competitive with our schedule on a year-in, year-out basis. Build that, and perhaps the rest will fall into place.

[Problem of Dog]

Nov 19, 2014 20:52:20 GMT -5 CAHoya07 said:

Finally, going back to football and direction, since the Patriot League seems to be passing us up and that there seems to be no other good conference options, and based on the apparent goals of the program that Russky stated, I would support Georgetown football going FCS independent. Playing a mix of Ivy League and PL schools that we think that we can at least be competitive with (read: mostly the lower half of those conferences), and perhaps throw in a couple other schools at our level that fasn have generally heard of (Davidson, Dayton, Butler come to mind). We're not realistically competing for PL titles right now, so it's not like we're losing anything there, and if the program progresses and we have a great season, perhaps we could garner some at-large attention for FCS playoffs? A pipe dream, I know, but Georgetown still is a name recognized nationally, and it would be a great story. Another aspect of this pipe dream: we have light years to go, but my blue and gray-tinted sunglasses could see us as the potential "Notre Dame" or "BYU" of FCS if we could sustain some level of success over a long period of time (a big "if" there, since the only thing we've been able to sustain since moving to PL has been mediocrity).

This is the only option besides staying in the PL and getting our doors blown off. Nothing else will work. If we can't do this, and don't want to provide scholarships, I think you will ultimately be deciding between getting killed every year in the PL and dropping the program.

[boxout05]

I'm completely unfamiliar with the realities of FCS football. Why is the Pioneer League not an option? Too tough for us? Too easy for us? We don't consider the schools out peers? Would student and alum interest sink even lower? Too geographcially diverse? Thanks.

[DFW HOYA]

Nov 20, 2014 0:13:40 GMT -5 boxout05 said:

I'm completely unfamiliar with the realities of FCS football. Why is the Pioneer League not an option? Too tough for us? Too easy for us? We don't consider the schools out peers? Would student and alum interest sink even lower? Too geographcially diverse? Thanks.

The Pioneer League is a non-starter:

1. No peer institutions (Campbell, Morehead State, Jacksonville, etc.)
2. Significant travel costs (up to four flights per year)
3. Disadvantage on aid (no ability to buy out loan packages)
4. Merit aid imbalance (the other schools can offer merit scholarships outside athletics, GU does not)
5. No fan interest in games with teams with no regional affiliation (Georgetown vs. Stetson, anyone?)
6. A full league schedule would limit non-conference Ivy games to one per year.
7. Likely pushback from donors.
8. Reduced quality of recruits, especially on east coast.
9. Reduced interest by coaches.
10. A decided step downward in competition.


But instead of this downsizing talk, what can we do to build up the program?

[puppydog100]

DFW HOYA, "But instead of this downsizing talk, what can we do to build up the program?"

Exactly. Taking Fordham out of the conversation, let's take a look at the "playbook" of the other PL programs. How is it that they can find the way to support and enhance their programs, have superior facilities, and Georgetown cannot?

Someone needs to take the lead, have a vision, come up with a viable plan, and make their case.

[thebin]

"This is the only option besides staying in the PL and getting our doors blown off. Nothing else will work."



Right now we lose most of our games playing 6 PL games, 3 Ivies and a 1-2 Pioneer games per season.

Solution?

Preemptively surrender by withdrawing from the PL immediately! So we can.....play 4-5 PL games, 3-4 Ivies, and a 1-2 Pioneer games per season. In the process of loudly declaring the PL is too tough for us ( a sweet sell to recruits/donors) before rushing to fill our schedule with? PL non-conference games and maybe adding an additional Ivy non-conference game or two...what exactly will have changed to make winning easier? Trading in a PL game or two a year for another Ivy game or two? Right now the Ivy league is still the better football league on average...that actually makes winning less likely. And by the way even though PL is about to get better, we will always have one small (not always exploitable) advantage in the PL in that we are clearly the academic class of the league. We don't have that advantage at all- to the contrary- in the Ivy league which we want to pretend to be members of while not actually being in.

To what end then is FCS independence if we intend to keep almost identical schedules? Just to make those likely PL losses marginally less painful by taking the league importance out of them? Where is the upside? Of course when/if we improve those PL wins will also mean marginally less too. Half a dozen in one....

Why not then just stay in the PL in that case, continue to play PLs and Ivies and try to get better through incremental improvements like facilities and increased equivalencies? Don't get me wrong, I know that's not a bold plan nor will it satiate the demand for radical change after another losing campaign. But conversely someone is going to have to share with me the wisdom of doing the same thing but adding the dramatic preemptive self-inflicted gunshot wound of withdrawing from a league we worked hard to earn membership in? If you want to quit the PL to play much easier schedule- then Pioneer league here we come. If you don't want to be in the Pioneer league (a total non-starter in my opinion) than it is either stay the course and bear down or drop the program. There is no way to get out of the PL, still play northeastern schools we care about, and still play a much easier schedule. That's the reality of FCS football in 2014. You are playing PLs and Ivies or pretend IAA Pioneer/old MAAC. You can't try to play Pioneer/MAAC level opponents who also have Ivy league stature.

Wait...doesn't University of Chicago play DIII fb? Come to think of it so does MIT. Now that's the ticket. In my opinion withdrawing from the PL but still playing the same schedule more or less reeks of change for change's sake. It seems quite clear that all it would do is make official our surrender but then the next step (replicating our current schedule) would indicate we hadn't thought it through much since I think we can all agree nobody wants to join the Pioneer league. Its a non-solution.