Another stunning 180 yds of offense in a loss.
What does Fox, or our football program in general, need to be competitive in the PFL? How do we get better talent on the offensive side of ball, both coaches and players? Or is having a winning record in PFL play a pipe dream.
I wonder if Fox wants to stay at Valpo for long with the lack of support. It has to be frustrating.
I really don’t understand why we can’t get apex level offensive players to come to Northwest Indiana without an aThor tix scholarship and live in the dorms for 3 years while almost certainly redshirting their first year on campus.
But it’s starting to frustrate me
I really don’t understand why we can’t get apex level offensive players to come to Northwest Indiana without an athletic scholarship and live in the dorms for 3 years while almost certainly redshirting their first year on campus.
But it’s starting to frustrate me
[NOTE: This is not meant as an excuse or a gaslighting statement - just a weakly stated fact.]
Remembering his predecessor and “the coach who shall not be named,” the change to Cecchini brought some sense of mediocre respectability with, in comparison, some significant wins. Fox upped the level of play from that by introducing something I think is called defense to the equation. Throughout Landon’s tenure the D has been our backbone and it has kept us in so many games that in the past would have been blowouts. And he has kinda continued the mediocre level of wins. And, consistently, the margins have closed even further over time.
Now reality. Those reduced margins have not been enough to vault Valpo into the consistent winning season mode, ala for instance, Davidson. Remember: There was a time when even Valpo laughed at Davidson’s football ineptness. No more. But who can we look to for responsibility for this predicament?
FOX? NO and YES No, because I think we all agree he is a good coach and a very good defensive mind. Our D is among the best in the PFL year to year. But they score very few points. Yes, because he hasn’t been able to do two key things on the other side of the ball:
1) Identify a system that optimizes the kind/level of talent Valpo can attract. I keep coming back to the service academies as a prime example. Always overmatched, but over time, they have found a unique system to compete well above their talent level. First it was Air Force, then Navy had their run, and now it’s Army who go nose to nose with the big guys and still win. Ya know, that’s exactly what Davidson did to turn around their program and now they consistently win and have a beautiful new FB complex to complement a winning program to boot.
2) find and retain a competent OC to implement such a system (or actually any decent system for that matter). The OC revolving door has been accelerating its spinning the past couple of years.
ATHLETIC ADMIN? YES. Its job is to support and facilitate its programs. FB, merely by it size (over 100 players and large staff is a monolith within the department) requires so much in the way of support (just uniforms and player equipment alone is monstrous). It appears that the administration covers the nut - but minimally. Yet where it counts that remains to be seen. To be honest, I’d be fine with seeing the same old uniforms for two to three years in favor of a greater investment in assistant coaching salaries. The key to sustained success, IMO, is sustaining over time a solid, talented core staff of three - HC, OC and DC. The position coaches can process through as long as the key three guys remain to oversee the progress. But that is not happening anymore.
