Cornell football 2018

[Ken711]

Brown U. is firing their HC Phil Estes, their winningest coach in history after only 2 losing seasons.  And we are stuck with Archer for 6 losing seasons, amazing.

[CAS]

Would love to see Estes in Ithaca (like bringing Bagnoli to Columbia).

[Ken711]

Would love to see Estes in Ithaca (like bringing Bagnoli to Columbia).

He would be a huge upgrade over Archer.  Brown will probably hire James Perry the head coach at Bryant U.  Perry is the former standout QB at Brown, and a former OC coach at Princeton. It's the perfect fit there, although Perry is also the kind of experienced coach I wouldn't mind seeing at Cornell.

[CAS]

No news re football.  Guess those overseeing the program are satisfied with losing 75% of games, with no improvement over the 6 years.

[Ken711]

No news re football.  Guess those overseeing the program are satisfied with losing 75% of games, with no improvement over the 6 years.

Hopefully it's just because of the Thanksgiving holiday break.  I sent my email expressing the same concerns you have to Ryan Lombardi, Cornell VP for Student Affairs and the AD's boss, and received this email back:

With Phil Estes available for example a coach with multiple Ivy Championships, Cornell needs to end the Archer era and move on.

[jeff '84]

No news re football.  Guess those overseeing the program are satisfied with losing 75% of games, with no improvement over the 6 years.

Hopefully it's just because of the Thanksgiving holiday break.  I sent my email expressing the same concerns you have to Ryan Lombardi, Cornell VP for Student Affairs and the AD's boss, and received this email back:

With Phil Estes available for example a coach with multiple Ivy Championships, Cornell needs to end the Archer era and move on.

A message from Andy Noel
to the Big Red Football family
Dear former players and friends of Big Red Football.

Happy holiday season to you and your loved ones. I hope that your travels are safe, and that your time together is relaxing and enjoyable.

I contact you to provide my decision re: our football staff with additional comment that I hope will provide a bit more understanding of my position.
This message will be mailed to a list of 2800 former players, parents and friends and forwarded to a selection of interested and supportive Cornell administrators and staff members.

Head coach David Archer has earned my full support and will continue to lead Big Red Football. Some question has arisen so I write to clarify.

I do not have the luxury of retaining members of our coaching staff, both head coach and assistants, based on my personal affection for them or their effort. Massive effort is a baseline expectation. And, I do not make personnel decisions based on the demands of others, who while invested in our success, do not have the opportunity to gain full internal program detail. My decisions are based on intimate knowledge gleaned from frequent, serious discussions with David Archer, and an understanding of his areas of focus and the improvements that have occurred and the ones that I recognize are in process.

My responsibility, first and foremost, is to the experience of individual players who consistently and mightily invest in their football team, their teammates, our coaching staff and university. Our players care deeply about their individual and team performance. They care about their record and their standing within the Ivy League. And, they compete for you and work to make you proud of Cornell Football.

Coach Archer will evaluate each element of our program with an eye toward improvement in every possible area. This analysis will include the assistant coaching staff, key support staff, returning player talent and player development, our training/sports medicine program especially as it relates to injury prevention/rehabilitation of injury and our strength and conditioning program. The internal recruiting process involving admissions and financial aid policy is essential to success on the gridiron while elements like student academic support, protective equipment, nutrition to name a few are of utmost importance as well.

I am particularly grateful to incredibly generous alumni who have challenged me and the CFA to provide all the support we are able to muster to address areas of Cornell Football that would most benefit from added attention. Working together, we seek to provide Coach Archer and his staff all that they need and much of what they want to advance our program.

Of course, some elements critical to success in football are influenced, and in some cases controlled by university policy or by administrators who oversee various areas critical to competitive success. The support within the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid has been the best ever under the leadership of Jason Locke. The advocacy within President Pollack's cabinet from Vice-President Ryan Lombardi has been invaluable as our president navigates a huge list of university priorities that must be triaged. Critical help has been received from Provost Michael Kotlikoff as he approved a program of ongoing financial aid support that allows all Cornell applicants, athletes and non-athletes alike, to receive the same financial aid as offered by any Ivy school offering a more generous need-based package.

I hope that you and the many who care deeply about Cornell Football will continue to support Coach Archer, his staff and our players.

Respectfully,

Andy Noel

[Ken711]

This makes no sense.  Nothing said at all about his record of "wins" or "losses".  So what are these serious discussions about?  The AD gave him a contract extension last year, and now we are stuck with him another year.  Can't wait to look forward to another 2-5 Ivy League record.  What an exciting time to follow Big Red football.  ::rolleyes::

[CAS]

The 7 other Ivy football coaches applaud Andy's decision.  You are what your record is.
6 years & 60 games is more than an adequate
sample size.  David Archer is 15-45, with zero improvement in record from year 1 to year 6.

[Ken711]

The 7 other Ivy football coaches applaud Andy's decision.  You are what your record is.
6 years & 60 games is more than an adequate
sample size.  David Archer is 15-45, with zero improvement in record from year 1 to year 6.

We are tanking for the No. 1 draft pick, oh wait....

[Scersk '97]

Fire Andy.

[Trotsky]

I do not have the luxury of retaining members of our coaching staff, both head coach and assistants, based on my personal affection for them or their effort. Massive effort is a baseline expectation. And, I do not make personnel decisions based on the demands of others, who while invested in our success, do not have the opportunity to gain full internal program detail.

I'm pretty sure that's what is called "sniveling."  Presumably some of the well-heeled donors are unhappy.  I wonder how they'll take being lectured in such a defensive tone?

[Ken711]

I do not have the luxury of retaining members of our coaching staff, both head coach and assistants, based on my personal affection for them or their effort. Massive effort is a baseline expectation. And, I do not make personnel decisions based on the demands of others, who while invested in our success, do not have the opportunity to gain full internal program detail.

I'm pretty sure that's what is called "sniveling."  Presumably some of the well-heeled donors are unhappy.  I wonder how they'll take being lectured in such a defensive tone?

Agreed. And all hear is the word "effort", but not a single mention of "results". And in the end, isn't that what coaches are hired to produce.

Then there's this telling sentence.

"The advocacy within President Pollack's cabinet from Vice-President Ryan Lombardi has been invaluable as our president navigates a huge list of university priorities that must be triaged."

"Triaged"? - I guess the football is at the bottom of that triage. The President could care less of spending any money such as on a new head coach or an indoor practice facility for varsity sports.

[marty]

while elements like student academic support, protective equipment, nutrition to name a few are of utmost importance as well.

We've got the secret weapon.  The School of Human Ecology is all over this nutrition thing.

[CU77]

Ohio State put 62 points on Michigan today, breaking a record (for regulation time) set by (wait for it) Cornell in 1891, when the Big Red beat the Wolverines 58-12 in Detroit, before a crowd of 2300.

[Tom Lento]

I do not have the luxury of retaining members of our coaching staff, both head coach and assistants, based on my personal affection for them or their effort. Massive effort is a baseline expectation. And, I do not make personnel decisions based on the demands of others, who while invested in our success, do not have the opportunity to gain full internal program detail.

I'm pretty sure that's what is called "sniveling."  Presumably some of the well-heeled donors are unhappy.  I wonder how they'll take being lectured in such a defensive tone?

Agreed. And all hear is the word "effort", but not a single mention of "results". And in the end, isn't that what coaches are hired to produce.

Then there's this telling sentence.

"The advocacy within President Pollack's cabinet from Vice-President Ryan Lombardi has been invaluable as our president navigates a huge list of university priorities that must be triaged."

"Triaged"? - I guess the football is at the bottom of that triage. The President could care less of spending any money such as on a new head coach or an indoor practice facility for varsity sports.

Placing "winning Ivy League football games" at the bottom of the university priority list seems entirely appropriate to me. There's no national competition, no "next level" as in hockey and no sense of reaching a pinnacle of the sport. It's a continuation game, where high school players can continue to compete at a reasonably high level while getting an Ivy education. If they're competing and they're happy it really doesn't matter much.

Worth noting - I can't recall an instance where Andy Noel fired a coach over won-loss record. The only mid-contract departures I can remember were either initiated by the coach or were vaguely tied to some failure to uphold the university code of conduct. I'm probably in the minority here but I don't think that's a bad policy for our AD to adopt. We're not Michigan or Stanford.

If Archer is still under contract he'll likely get to see it through regardless of on-field results. If the players were happy when the extension was granted that'd be reason enough to retain him. Honestly, I'm not sure another coach would succeed without major investment in other areas and it's quite likely that investment isn't going to happen.

To put this another way, winning at football is going to be expensive. You want hockey and lax to foot that bill?