Time for Andy to go

[buckParticipant]

Gettysburg…the cradle of coaches.

[LUHawkerParticipant]

Well, I started this thread a couple months ago and since that original posting, lo and behold, things looked better for a while. And, in fact, the team DID improve.

But now that Christmas has passed, the new year is upon us and I’ve been reading about coaching changes, I’m revisiting my post.

Andy has been HC for 10 year now and what do we have to show for it?

A quick review:
62-41 coaching record – pretty decent, but dominated by 3 years.

2 playoff appearances – while those two were thrilling, 2 out of 10 isn’t good. In those same 10 years, Lafayette (yes LC!) has been to the playoffs twice; Colgate has been to the post-season 3 times; Fordham has been 4 times (true they had a scholly advantage, but still 4x!); HC once.

2005-2009 were mediocre years at best. Let’s not be misled by the 2009 OT victory over LC to not include it here.

2013-2015 were bad to mediocre years (has anyone seen a defense yet?)

PL-leading attendance has fallen to #2 or #3.

Regular season wins against CAA teams: 2 Villanova and UHN (going from memory here, but not recalling any others)

So what do we really have left.

I forgot that 2006 PL title, where we got smoked by LC and didn’t get to the playoffs.

Seriously, we had 2 really good years and a solid year in 2012 (so solid that the playoff committee left us at home with a 10-1 record, to put it in perspective).

IMO, AC has struggled to make the difficult QB choice. He ultimately went with Lum after it was painfully obvious that Chris was superior. (I still wonder if Cecchini forced that on Andy). I was at that first spring game with Lum and immediately called that Lum should be the starter. His elevation was a season too late. He went with Colvin instead of Bialkowski. Mayes comes in and after one quarter of adjustment plays a great 2.5 games, only to not even see the field against Colgate or LC. I suspect we’ll have to endure Nick as QB next year. Nothing against Nick, BTW, I just think his strength is as a runner.

There is a strong correlation between the 2-3 years of success and Dave Cecchini’s time as OC.

So, fellow Lehigh fans and observers, I ask once again: Is it time for Andy to go?

[RichHParticipant]

Not yet. Another bad year,perhaps.

[LUHawkerParticipant]

[quote=24516]Not yet. Another bad year,perhaps.

[/quote]

What if it is another mediocre year? We’ve got lots of evidence supporting mediocrity; when do we say we have enough? One more, two more mediocre seasons?

[Bison137Participant]

[quote=24515]

PL-leading attendance has fallen to #2 or #3.

[/quote]

Actually still 1st by a wide margin this year. Take out the LC game and still 1st – but by a narrow margin.

[RichHParticipant]

Progress. We improved He needs to show it again next year. The only way we do is to field a D,which we haven’t done the last two years. Even just a middling D this past season and we ars 8-3. D will have to be substantially better to achieve that next year.

[MillerParticipant]

Any head coach is MADE by his coordinators, and the great years were ala K and Chich. Andy is not the problem, but if the coaching situation dose not jell, it will fall back on him. An older experienced coach now trying to deal with a young family has its bumps in the road. I still think the future is bright,but Andy needs to get Totally involved again. If fans are still down on the D, then realistically we need changes at the top= new DC, otherwise, it may cost the head coach his job.

[RichHParticipant]

Pretty much agree M. The inability of our D to consistently perform as a unit this past seadon highlights the D issue. New system to players and coaches? Likely a big factor. A repeat next year mandates new D staff. May cost Andy his job.
Andy has been very loyal to his staff over the years. Admirable but it must be rewarded with performance. Three bad Ds is unacceptable.

[Doc QbParticipant]

I am in awe that the D staff is still in place. The past few years are terrible and to hope the next will be better is wishful thinking. I think it is a huge mistake to hold on another year, there are some athletes, but getting pressure was inconsistent, DB technical play poor. No adjustment to a goal line D on the goal line. Giving up 40+ points way to often. That’s all coaching.

[LUHawkerParticipant]

Improvement is nice, but I’m trying to address a bigger, longer term theme, which is the relative mediocrity over the last 10 years. Strip out the three years from ’10-’12 and AC’s record is a sub .500 31-36.

It has hardly been a bounty of success.

[Doc QbParticipant]

Hawker, I agree with you and was fully on the ‘whole-scale’ change band wagon a few short months ago. Being an offense guy, I saw real growth on O, from scheme, play calling, execution, etc. I think Folmar grew a ton, got his confidence going. Evidence is having both QBs play well from mid-season on. We put up numbers and yards and used weapons better. I flipped my perspective totally based on that emergence.

But, the D has so many issues that I still think big changes are needed there. Would hate to waste what could shape up to a fun year waiting for 3-3-5 to gel or go to another system totally–with the same staff. I would tolerate growing pains with a new D staff, though, that’s expected.

[LUHawkerParticipant]

I don’t like the idea of calling for someone’s head, especially a class guy like Andy. But, I do think there are some repeatable patterns that we’ve now seen that suggest we may need some refreshing. I would like nothing more than to see Andy be more successful, more consistently. Part of what I see, that I haven’t yet articulated, is that we’ve seen more amplitude in the build-success-fall off cycle, which is another way of saying we have more re-building than re-loading. I will readily acknowledge that the shift to schollies likely took Andy a year (or two) to adjust to. I don’t expect LU to be world-beaters year-in and year-out, but I do think we should be PL champs more than 2 in 10 (and by that I mean playoff auto-bids).

Doc – the O really did improve, so perhaps Folmar settled in and the team coalesced. I am however, very dismayed (excuse the unintentional pun) that we did not see Mayes after Nick came back – if nothing more than to keep the kid engaged. The D, of course, is plagued. Apparently we didn’t recruit any/enough big bodies, so we have no run stopping capability. Oddly enough, we did fine against pass-oriented teams (see HC, Penn), but got rolled by any team with a decent RB. My crystal ball says we’re going to have a porous defense again in ’16, but possibly a little improved.

[RichHParticipant]

Agree on D. Been fanting about D for 3 yrs without any improvement. Perhaps part of his past season was players and coaches unfamiliarity withe scheme. I hope so but dont really believe that is the total answer. Thete were injuries that hurt our backend a good bit forcing players on the field not yet ready. True enough but again not he whole answer. Staff also played a very large role. Understand it is not easy to coach a scheme you also are learning. But,as we all saw the D showed little improvement thru the season. Thete were flashes and a few quarters of good D. Nota single whole game. Big plays killed us two yrs ago and again last yr. DC showed little aptitude in calling this scheme. Is the answer canning them all and starting all over or give them another year. I dont know but without change dont expect this D to become a good one. If we are very lucky maybe we’ll get a somewhat consistent mediochre D,which could give us a winning season but not much else.

[sundayamqbParticipant]

Bottom line should be:

Replace D coaching staff and see what happens. If D still stinks and LU suffers, AC has at least bought himself a couple of years to prove his new hires can work.

or

Don’t replace D coaching staff and bank on them to do well. If D improve and LU beats LC and is in the PL hunt at least as well as this year, AC stays. If not, he probably should go for sticking too long with the D coaching staff.

[ngineerParticipant]

There is a lot of parity in the PL now, so even with improvement the final result may not be to one’s liking. The transition to scholarship recruiting has had an impact and hopefully everyone will be more comfortable going forward. Andy has been a class guy, the players like him, and maybe to a fault has been overly loyal to some staff. Actually, we had run of four years with 39 wins…not bad in anyone’s book, and while a good measure was due to Chick’s O, the real loss was losing Coach K. Folmar appears to have settled in and being a former AA QB, his coaching of Shafnisky, Mayes, etal appears to be working. The defense is always what’s won championships and that has to improve this year or changes be made in that area.

[Author]

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