Latest Cornell football candidates

[upperdeck]

the goal of the cornell administration is to get a fball team that produces a decent enough product that the stands dont look 90% empty any time they dont give away tickets..  they are pretty upset with the current status of a team that cant compete on the field or in put people in the seats.

[TimV]

Lauren's on the right track here. We should just drop football. It's got to be costing much more money than it's bringing in, even if we don't give athletic scholarships. Most of the students could care less (with the exception of the players, of course). Based on decades of mediocrity, it's hard to see the program being turned around in a short time span. Yes, I know the basketball team did that, but you don't need to find as many good players as you do to turn a football program around. There would certainly be a huge outcry from some alumni, but I'd rather see the resources we waste on football being used somewhere else, such as being used to improve sports that we can be competitive in. And yes, we have other sports teams which have also done poorly for a long time (i.e. men's soccer). But they don't cost as much money as the football program. We can always schedule Homecoming Weekend for a big field hockey game instead of a football game!

Oh Yeah... Great idea.  So good, in fact, that ALL schools should drop sports in which they are not successful.  We wouldn't have to be bothered by Dartmouth lacrosse any more.  Or Clarkson Hockey.  Sorry Dpprk.  You lose.  All of Columbia's teams could vanish, except fencing. Great!::screwy::

Haha, Funny.

Could you atleast spell my name right? I can live without the 29, but who misses the e? and you choose clarkson hockey? (I won't remind you that Clarkson has a more recent ECAC title than Cornell.) Why not Brown? or Union? or AIC? there losing is much more prolific than Clarkson's has ever been.

Sorry my man- I was in a hurry.  Maybe you could be added to the spell check.  But that was exactly my point.  THIS YEAR Clarkson sucks, and if they have too many of those, do you lose all that history as well as the chance to bounce back?  It was the crazyness that ensues when the usuccessful teams all get thrown away until ultimately there are no more teams.  By the way, when Cornell isn't on the ice, I love Clarkson - the aggressive/dirty style, Bonesaw, the band.  The uniforms with that silly knight not so much.  Looks kinda like the handle of a piece of fancy silverware.::uptosomething::

[BigRedAllDay]

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2010/1/24/1267557/former-chiefs-qb-coach-working

Looks like Shea will be busy working with one of the best quarterbacks available in the NFL Draft.

[billhoward]

Try this link; the one above didn't work for me: http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2010/1/24/1267557/former-chiefs-qb-coach-working

>>> Starting on Monday, [Terry] Shea will work with Sam Bradford to prepare him for April's draft, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports.

[Josh '99]

I don't see people so aggressive about changing the fortunes of the baseball team, or the soccer team, or any other non-football sport that's not raking in league championships... many of which receive no support from the university at all.  What's so great about football that it deserves more attention?  

Because it's football!

Now I say this as someone who really doesn't give a rats ass about Cornell football and pretty much never has. (I am an NFL fan.) Whether you like it or , football has a certain status among American sports. A lot of people like the sport and like to watch the sport. It's ingrained in American culture. More so than soccer or lacrosse or swimming or (gulp) baseball, especially at the college level.

Lauren, why do you hate America?  :-D

[Trotsky]

Follow the donor arc.  Ivy football alumni support is, literally, dying, and its cost-benefit to the university decreases in kind.  It will never be demoted from varsity sport because of its history and cultural importance, but it's easily imaginable that in 20 years Ivy football will be effectively D-III in cost and commitment.

[Lauren '06]

Lauren, why do you hate America?  :-D

It's a condition of my study permit.

I don't see people so aggressive about changing the fortunes of the baseball team, or the soccer team, or any other non-football sport that's not raking in league championships... many of which receive no support from the university at all.  What's so great about football that it deserves more attention?  

Because it's football!

Now I say this as someone who really doesn't give a rats ass about Cornell football and pretty much never has. (I am an NFL fan.) Whether you like it or , football has a certain status among American sports. A lot of people like the sport and like to watch the sport. It's ingrained in American culture. More so than soccer or lacrosse or swimming or (gulp) baseball, especially at the college level.

I know, I know.  It's just, for me personally, it seems more sensible that the personal (and maybe the financial) investment should align with the strengths of the institution, not with cultural ideals or whatever.  In my high school example, we excelled year in and year out at lacrosse and water polo and cross country, and we also had one of the very few crew teams in the area, but the administration was completely focused on football just because it was football.  Even though it was something we had never been good at.  That attitude strikes me as frankly ridiculous, which I guess is why I stamp my feet and rant about it when the opportunity arises.  (Even here, where nobody is advancing football at the expense of other sports--we are on elynah.)  

Of course, someone can point out that if we only paid attention to what we're good at and neglected everything else, we wouldn't be having the success in basketball we're having now... and, well, they'd be right.  But football is--for whatever reason--treated differently in the Ivy League than every other sport, the ceiling on any team's potential is placed much lower, and so it seems more logical not to bother with the effort to improve it.  But mine is just one opinion that has the power to change nothing, so.

[Jim Hyla]

Lauren, why do you hate America?  :-D

It's a condition of my study permit.

I don't see people so aggressive about changing the fortunes of the baseball team, or the soccer team, or any other non-football sport that's not raking in league championships... many of which receive no support from the university at all.  What's so great about football that it deserves more attention?  

Because it's football!

Now I say this as someone who really doesn't give a rats ass about Cornell football and pretty much never has. (I am an NFL fan.) Whether you like it or , football has a certain status among American sports. A lot of people like the sport and like to watch the sport. It's ingrained in American culture. More so than soccer or lacrosse or swimming or (gulp) baseball, especially at the college level.

I know, I know.  It's just, for me personally, it seems more sensible that the personal (and maybe the financial) investment should align with the strengths of the institution, not with cultural ideals or whatever.  In my high school example, we excelled year in and year out at lacrosse and water polo and cross country, and we also had one of the very few crew teams in the area, but the administration was completely focused on football just because it was football.  Even though it was something we had never been good at.  That attitude strikes me as frankly ridiculous, and I see a little bit of that football-fetishism happening here (although not, of course, at the expense of other sports--we are on elynah).  Of course, someone can point out that if we only paid attention to what we're good at and neglected everything else, we wouldn't be having the success in basketball we're having now... and, well, they'd be right.  But football is--for whatever reason--treated differently in the Ivy League than every other sport, the ceiling on any team's potential is placed much lower, and so it seems more logical not to bother with the effort to improve it.  But mine is just one opinion that has the power to change nothing, so.

Yeah but, you know how much worse it is in every other league. For heaven's sake, SU dropped wrestling and swimming, sports that they were good at, but didn't want to put the work, and money, into. They haven't had baseball since forever.

If you look at the sports that Ivy schools have compared to the few of other schools, you'll see that football doesn't carry anywhere near the influence. So at least you can try to be happy with that.::cheer:: or ::drunk::

[billhoward]

Follow the donor arc.  Ivy football alumni support is, literally, dying, and its cost-benefit to the university decreases in kind.  It will never be demoted from varsity sport because of its history and cultural importance, but it's easily imaginable that in 20 years Ivy football will be effectively D-III in cost and commitment.

If D-III is the endgame, maybe we're ahead of the curve. I can't wait to see us get taken apart by the Lord Jeffs of Amherst but hold on in that spirited Cornell-Hamilton rivalvy. (For once when someone says "literally dying" instread of "figuratively," they're right.)

[phillysportsfan]

I wouldnt mind seeing us drop football and devote more of those resources to basketball especially, hockey and lacrosse. Look at the A-10 schools, I dont think any of them have football and therefore they have average overall athletic budgets less than the Ivy league but have 3 times greater basketball budgets. And the A-10 schools have had great success in basketball, this year they could legitimately be a 4-5 bid league. Basketball is a sport since the rosters are so small that small schools can compete with the power six conferences. Look at what George Mason did, what Gonzaga has done consistently over the years and Old Dominion, Western Kentucky, Butler, etc

[mnagowski]

They have scholarships. We do not. Our success this year is solely the function of Wittman being injured his senior year, Jeff Foote coming out of nowhere (thanks to Khaliq's injury), and Dale somehow flying under the radar.

[phillycornell]

In regards to the A-10, aside from all of those schools having scholarships to offer, I have no idea what list of schools you're looking at but I would venture to say about half of them have football.  Off the top of my head Temple, Rhode Island, Dayton, Richmond and UMass all have football and scholarship football on top of that.  Now they don't compete in the A-10 for football but your arguement for dropping football makes no sense there

[ugarte]

I wouldnt mind seeing us drop football and devote more of those resources to basketball especially, hockey and lacrosse. Look at the A-10 schools, I dont think any of them have football ...

You are incorrect; half of them have football, though they don't compete as the A-10. Most of the teams that do have football compete in I-AA, same as the Ivy League (Temple is in the D-I MAC). The A-10 football teams are spread out across conferences: Patriot (Fordham), Colonial (UMass, URI, Richmond) , Pioneer (Dayton), NEC (Duquesne). Charlotte, GW, LaSalle, St. Joe's, St. Bonaventure, Saint Louis and Xavier don't have football.

Yes, the Atlantic 10 conference has 14 teams. TAKE THAT, Big "10".

[Ken711]

Footballscoop is saying Kent Austin is the selection, which should be welcome news to the Cornell football players.

[Josh '99]

Footballscoop is saying Kent Austin is the selection, which should be welcome news to the Cornell football players.

I don't think I'd seen his name mentioned before.  Austin has spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Mississippi (where he also played QB back in the '80s), and before that had a long career as a player and coach in the CFL.  He's only spent one year as a head coach, and that in the CFL, but in that year he led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a Grey Cup championship and won the CFL's coach of the year award.