bigred360

Good read about our probable starting QB. I remember seeing him at WO-S and you could tell he was pretty good back then.

FYI, "To take advantage of the early sale, tickets must be purchased in person at the Montagne Center Ticket Office, and season ticket holders and students will be required to show valid identification to verify their status as such." [Hidden Content]

[quote name="CardAmbassador" post="822297" timestamp="1280603019"] [quote author=kingkat99 link=topic=71281.msg822286#msg822286 date=1280596049] You do see the same at shsu...and yes our fan base is very fair weather as the majority of most fcs schools are, but at least ours has never gotten to the point of a program dying all together...look I hope LU does well since I'm contributing through my wifes fees for he masters degree... [/quote] [url=[Hidden Content]: Why LU wont get rid of Football this time around. [/url] Here is a post I authored on why I don't think LU will get rid of football, in fact I know they wont. SHSU is in more danger of program cuts than we are, have you seen our endowment growth and figures? You guys have had a significant amount of margin on us in terms of enrollment until recently yet we still have a higher Endowment. I know SHSU hates to admit it but our school is moving in the right direction, and football will just accelerate the process. I'm not saying  SHSU isn't moving in the right direction, only that our direction is undeniably good for the next couple of years. LU System was short sighted, there is no way the same decision will be made twice. [/quote] CardAmbassador, here is some more information about #3 on your list. Regents approve football fee In a unanimous decision, the Texas State University System Board of Regents approved the athletics fee Lamar students voted to assess themselves in a January campus wide vote. Regent Michael Truncale, a Beaumont native and Lamar University alumnus, introduced the motion to approve the fee of $8.75 per semester credit hour for long semesters and $4.50 per semester hour for summer sessions to be used toward the reinstatement of football at the university. “Lamar University has overwhelming support from the alumni association, the student body and there seems to be great excitement and anticipation in the community for the return of collegiate football to Lamar,” Truncale said in his motion. “Bringing football back to Lamar will enhance their recruitment efforts and provide an even greater incentive to attend the institution.” The athletics fee will realize revenue of almost $2 million dollars per year which will be earmarked for the athletics department to meet the costs of bringing football to Lamar. A portion of the fee revenue will be used to bond money for the majority of the athletic facilities renovation. www.lamar.edu/newsevents/articles/221_6151.htm

When Lamar University basketball coach Steve Roccaforte told me a couple of weeks ago that he’d be getting an insider’s view of Dallas Cowboys training in San Antonio as a guest of Wade Phillips, I immediately asked him to write a guest column for the Port Arthur News on his impressions.  Little did I expect Roc to get his proverbial 15 minutes of fame while hanging out with the Cowboys. Early Tuesday morning, while having breakfast in Chicago, I turned to the sports section of USA Today and spilled coffee when I saw a photo of Roc standing between Phillips and rookie receiver Dez Bryant. That evening, I flipped on ESPN and saw about 30 seconds of Roc, Wade and Bryant. Man, when I give a guy an assignment, he gets right in the middle of things. The LU coach, by the way, proved to be an excellent writer, as you will see by reading his piece elsewhere on this page .... With early August being the time invaluable college football media guides start arriving at sports departments, Lamar University’s publication has earned the distinction of being the first to land. Two thumbs up to former PA News sports writer Rush Wood, and assistants Erick Cox and Pat Murray in the LU sports information office,  for a slick looking, first class product which presented a unique challenge. While a staple of all media guides is what happened in the previous season, and documentation of the feats of returning players, Lamar’s previous season was 1989 and there are no returning players. Head coach Ray Woodard adorns the front cover while former West Orange-Stark QB Andre Bevil, LU’s expected starter against McNeese State on Sept. 4, is featured on the back cover. In between, there is lots of good reading .... [Hidden Content]

LU boss gets up-close in Cowboys pre-season Steve Roccaforte is Guest columnist [Hidden Content]

"The team will also hold two preseason scrimmages, Aug. 14 and Aug. 21. The site for each scrimmage has not been determined." Shouldn't the fieldturf be ready by Aug. 14 to play in the stadium?

[quote name="kingkat99" post="822286" timestamp="1280596049"] You do see the same at shsu...and yes our fan base is very fair weather as the majority of most fcs schools are, but at least ours has never gotten to the point of a program dying all together...look I hope LU does well since I'm contributing through my wifes fees for he masters degree... [/quote] Then what was the point of your first post? The then Lamar Board of Regents voted to kill the program and if you ask the vast majority of people around SE Texas since you live here or at Lamar in general they would tell you that was the worse decision they ever made. The Cardinal Club had already sold 5,000 season tickets for the next season and this caused there to be some very angry people because of broken promises. So, SHSU has never gotten to a point of their program dying but it should not have happened here at Lamar either. If Lamar was part of the TSUS back then I'm sure they would not have let the program die. That has to be hard for you. Having to pay for your wife's masters degree at LU.

I'm sure you see the same things at SHSU. You are very close to A&M and yeck the QB (Dustin Long) who lead you to one of your best seasons didn't graduate from SHSU but chose to go back to A&M for his degree.  ;D

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Kingkat99, nice first post. Yes, Walter Umphrey and others have made huge donations the past few years. But, they haven't just donated to football but also for the Shelia Umphrey Rec Center, the baseball program, the nursing program and the engineering program come to mind. You're really smart to figure out our attendance figures for the past twenty years since we haven't participated in the sport since 1989. "Golden Triangle being the fair-weather fan capital of Texas." No, this region is known for our communities being very supportive of HS football. I think Huntsville is better suited for that statement. I wouldn't attack any other schools attendance when your schools best sport (men's basketball) averages about 1,500 per contest. ::) Your last statement will not happen because our students voted on a football fee and it passed with 78% of the vote. This will lead to a 2.2 million dollar budget with the current student population (attendance figures for Lamar students will probably go up with football back on campus so the 2.2 million dollar budget will probably go up as well) surwithout "ol daddy Umphrey and his buddies," the success of selling suits or even attendance. All those things will just add to the athletic budget.

I'm interested in why SHSU doesn't sell more season tickets? If that is the case then you do need huge walk up crowds for good attendance figures. Funny though since you talk so highly of your program. Then blame poor attendance on the weather and your HC. How about "true fan's" who just want to see the Bearkats play? Guess you didn't have the figures for 2009? Still averaging 9K-10K isn't great for a established program! I bet McNeese, SFA and UCA have better attendance figures over the same period of time. As for as basketball attendance goes there are our season ticket holders who are generally older and our students. I have no doubt that adding football, marching band and all that come with football there will be more students at our basketball games starting in the fall. I guess you didn't read my last comment. It was comparing our Lady Cardinals program to your men since they both won conference and I compared the attendance which shows our ladies almost average as much as your men's team. I believe I answered the comment about our attendence and the "older crowd". I hope "Rooting for Hooten" works out for you guy's in Huntsville or ya'll might average 1K.  ;D

Blame it on the weather.  ??? ??? SHSU may have had some games with 8k-9k but that wasn't the average for the whole season. Since you are the expert please post your attendance figures for the past five seasons. FAU lost to Slippery Rock because 20 or so players had not made it through the clearinghouse. Let's be honest about Larry Coker. He won with another HC's players. Once they were gone the program suffered and he lost his job. I'm willing to bet with football here our home basketball student attendance will be up. I sorry if I ignored Lamar team success in the post. I'll throw in the Lady's basketball team and their success. Plus, they averaged about 1,400 per home contest. About what your men's team averaged with the best HC in the conference. Oh, that's right he is gone now.  :D

1. Yes, I am stating the 'community can't deal with a rough start'. We don't want to be like SHSU and average 4,000 for our home games. 2. Agree a successful program doesn't happen over night but there are schools that find some success early on in their program like Florida Atlantic.  3. I get the fact you don't like Coach Tubbs but you don't know the situation with Coach Roc. If Lamar fired him it would have cost about $280,000 to buy out his contract. Then to hire another HC, you are talking an additional $140,000 or so yearly. That is over $400,000 which with starting a football program at the same time Lamar didn't have just sitting around. I guess SHSU who for the past eight seasons averaged 20 wins but couldn't put butts in the stands nor keep their HC from leaving for ULL.  ::) I guess he'll get more fan support there as SHSU home average attendance is about 2,000. If Lamar averaged 20 wins for the past 8 seasons our home attendance would be about 6,000-8,000.  ;) I don't think Lamar had anything to do with how popular HS football is in SE Texas. So I'm not sure what you meant by your last comment.

[quote name="TexasTerror" post="822053" timestamp="1280506296"] [quote author=Ruckdad link=topic=71281.msg822047#msg822047 date=1280505771]I don't expect us to win at McNeese - but I do expect us to compete as soon as possible.  That's what the transfers are for.  They will bring the younger guys along better than two years of nothing but losing to more experience teams could do.[/quote] I understand the purpose for transfers. I just do not understand the LARGE amount of transfers... [quote author=Ruckdad link=topic=71281.msg822047#msg822047 date=1280505771]What school are you assisting so we can see the blueprint for future success?[/quote] You'll just have to wait and find out. Hard to go public on something that has not been made public...  ;) [/quote] For you to be so pro SLC and FCS it would seem to me with 3 SLC teams ranked in Top 25 polls you would understand the reason Lamar went heavy on juco transfers. Lamar has to have early success (wins-losses) to have a good fan base because our region is known for HS football. Coach Woodard and his staff have to make in-roads into these communities and get them excited for local college football on Saturday's. This will not happen if Lamar is getting blown out of stadiums especially versus SLC teams. So to just be recruiting freshman in our situation would be suicide for our program. We can't wait 3-4 years down the road to be competitive. Guess you just don't understand our unique situation.  

It was mentioned on ESPN when Appalachian State beat Michigan.

Countdown to Kickoff 37 days until opener - Dave Hofferth, now sports director at Beaumont's KBMT TV, Channel 12. He talks about Lamar's victory over AP I-A Top 20 ranked Baylor. LU was the first DI-AA now (FCS) school to beat a ranked DI school on Sept. 8, 1981 by a score of 18-17. [Hidden Content]

Here are Coach Woodards remarks from another article regarding recruiting and the reason for several junior college players. Woodard’s first step was to put the coaching staff together, drawing on a combination of experience and familiarity with the Beaumont area. The next task was even tougher — recruiting players to a team that hasn’t played a game since most of them were born. “[b]Visiting with people who tried to begin programs, they said it was very important to get older quicker[/b]. It’s going to be difficult anyway. But (it would) be extremely difficult to go to McNeese with all freshmen and redshirt freshmen,” Woodard said. “That worked out good, because I was coming out of junior college and brought two junior college coaches with me. We hit the junior colleges pretty hard. And from there making the right decisions on the right transfers to take. You can’t just take every transfer. We got lucky with a number of transfers from the Beaumont area that we felt were good fits.” I guess he didn't visit with TT.

[quote name="LUFAN" post="821833" timestamp="1280429569"] Well here is the things I know terror did not agree with. 1) We did not hire a big name coach 2) We are going to play in the SLC in 2011 3) We brought in to many transfers 4) We did not do a good enough job marketing our start up [/quote] 1. Well, he doesn't know the budget for football. The funding was not there to hire a "big name" coach. 2/3. What, he thinks it is better to go to McNeese State with freshman and redshirt freshman while McNeese is known for having several 5th year seniors, seniors, and juniors. 4. I believe the article he posted shows that there was enough marketing of our program. “It’s a great feeling that our community is backing us. It’s a great feeling to be a part of history. Everybody wants this back. They’re pumped up for it. We’re pumped up for it. We just can’t wait to play. No matter how the season goes, we’re all a part of history. No matter what happens, we’re going to do our best and go 110 percent.” “It’s crazy. We get support wherever we go,” Hayes said. “If we have a shirt that says Lamar football, people want your autograph and your picture. There’s a certain swagger you pick up. You just have to stay composed and make plays on the practice field, which hopefully will transcend to Saturdays.

If McNeese finds a QB, I believe they have the defense to win the league.

Seems to be a good coach and recruiter. However, coaching them in HS had a lot to do with them signing with SFA in my opinion. They already had a relationship with the coach.

The Lady Cards averaged about 1400.

Something is wrong with this darn computer. To finish my statement about Coach Tubbs, he didn't always do what was best for the SLC but what was best for Lamar. I've heard he made some people in the athletic department upset and at age 70 it was probably the right time for Dr Simmons to make a change in leadership. Who hired Coach Tidwell? Oh, that's right Coach Tubbs. I'm sure he'll do a great job as interim AD and we'll see what decisions are made in the future that he makes regarding Lamar athletics and status as AD at Lamar.

[quote name="TexasTerror" post="821803" timestamp="1280424593"] [quote author=LUFAN link=topic=71281.msg821798#msg821798 date=1280424110]How is SHSU in such a better place than LU, what decisions were made that were such bad decisions?? I think LU is on a better track than SHSU in athletics, but since you don't why don't you line out why.  [/quote] 1) Never said that SHSU or LU is on a better track for anything nor will I try to determine that. 2) I've already lined out numerous bad decisions by Tubbs regarding football and his mishandling of Roc. [/quote] Dude, get over the Coach Tubbs and Roc issue. You have no idea what goes on in the Lamar athletic department and I can tell you one thing; if Coach Tubbs wasn't our AD there is no way Lamar would be playing football this year. Coach Tubbs did not make 'numerous bad decisions'. IMO, he made one, changing the basketball schedule to Weds/Sat. You don't personally know the man nor have you probably had a conversation with him. For one he hated the post season SLC tournament because it does not produce any revenue, the SLC is a one bid league, and he felt the regular season champion earned the automatic bid. For SHSU that would have given the Kats a couple more visits to the NCAA tournament.

Yea, that was a great read.