Demon Football Projections

[CajunDemonFan]

Just smoke Latech again! I saw someone called them Fireworks U! That is priceless. I like to call them latur, latex and @ruston. Good luck to you guys this season.

[DawgofNoBo]

Damn, I am amazed at how awesome NSU is compared to LA Tech?!?!





BTW, yes I did edit this post, so I sincerely hope Tech fans can take a joke

[Cajundemon11]

Good question. I have no idea, maybe if there was some optimism we would have more banter. I feel like the general consensus on here is just make it through this season and let's get excited about the Brad Laird era starting next year.

[DawgofNoBo]

Awl man..C'mon, I think this will be a closer game than some may realize. We lost some good offensive weapons to the NFL & we have a fairly inexperienced QB. He's good, but hasn't really played since we almost upset Piggies in Fayetteville last year. Plus Tech has something to prove not Demons. Y'all came in to Ruston that year & beat a good (but extremely cocky) Tech team that later got into HOD Bowl & beat Illinois. I hope the rain has departed the area by Saturday so that we both have big crowds. Look forward to hosting your fans...I have a lot of friends that are Demons. Safe travels to RSN.

[Cajundemon11]

Thanks for the kind words, but you really have no idea how bad this team was last year.

[WreckTechAGAIN]

Interestingly enough, I ran into Mike Lucas over the summer while I was on business in Lafayette. He shared some interesting thoughts on my beloved Demon country. He said from the outside looking in, you hear and see a good presentation. Once on the inside he witnessed the smoke and mirrors. He said Jay Thomas was a great leader and great with kids. He thought the lack of funds for full time coaches and actually being down a full time position added to his stress. Coach Thomas surrounded himself with youthful coaches and works tirelessly to develop those coaches. On top of that tedious task, he has a mountain of debt that Burke and Pierce chose not to help with. He thought they took a hit when he signed Daye as the DC. Felt like Lockett and Landoll were primed to take that position after he left. He admitted Lockett would be the right hire with the alumni ties and had paid his dues as an assistant, thought he would have been a solid coach with Thomas' guidance. He admitted him and Landoll didn't always agree,but he would question schemes to learn. He was a little surprised that Thomas fired him too, saying they were "family" close. He shared enough information and a real perspective and felt that if Thomas is fired, the President should also have it in him to fire Burke and Pierce for their inabilities as well. I hope Jay beats Tech, it was the greatest day in my life. Why Burke agreed to play them this close to us having pulled off the major upset is beyond me. It is major, Tech went on to win every game until their championship game and yes they won their bowl game. A few will say he did it with Peveto's players, but many of those were Thomas' recruits too. Ed, Atzenwieler, Zach Adkins, Chris Moore, Chapman, and we had several injuries in the offensive and defensive lines as well. I recall Burleson and Cryer having to play a decent big, who are they? Exactly. Lucas may have said it right when he felt hiring Daye was a mistake. Heck, win or lose you were going to see him out at a bar that night. Enough on him, he's gone. Thomas raised a young OC in Robbie Brown who is now in the NFL. He raised Foster who is now succeeding at Samford and ready for a playoff run. Lucas felt Thomas helped him land the position he did with Hud. Thomas has coaches that he developed that are onto bigger and better things. He has a proven line of success stories of people he's helped develop and move on. If he had promoted Lockett or Landoll we might all be expecting them to beat LaTech (as lousy as this choice was to play them again). We might be top 25 preseason or getting votes. We might already have hired Brad to be our HC because Thomas and the boys left for greener pastures. I wish them the best of luck, but fire him after a 1-3 September, I'll be stopping my checks to the athletic department until they fire Burke and old horny Pierce too. We can't keep blaming coaches. Burke said in the Times, "We back him, but we have to get better". Burke, I backed you and we've been let down too many times. We have youth in that office too. It's all Demon blood in there. Where are the new ideas? The new revenue streams? The time is coming soon and we will miss Dr. Henderson. We replaced him with Maggio another Demon discount. Where has he been the last 20 years? Oh natchitoches. I'm willing to bet we improve because we can't get worse. If Thomas beats LaTech do we give him 10 years like we promised the FIRST time he beat them? I'm not impressed with the administration as an alumni.

[TrackDemon]

I will agree that our last few football coaching hires have been massive failures and people need to answer for those failure.

However, I disagree 100% about Maggio as president. I believe he was the best choice and is a guy who has the intelligence and experience to help our university grow and thrive.

[TrackDemon]

Nicholls just knocked off McNeese tonight. Demons better right the ship quickly or it will be another LONG year.

nicholls is no longer the year in, year out cellar dweller...that is now the Demons. How embarrassing to say that...and nicholls has done it with even less money and resources.

[purplestorm]

I watched the Nicholls-McNeese game, too. It was very entertaining, but McNeese let Nicholls off the hook time and time again. They got inside the redzone 10 times, at least, and kicked FG after FG after FG. They had one FG blocked and literally handed the Colonels two touchdowns on a pick-six and a fumble around their own 10 yard line. That's a 17 point swing, not counting all the FGs they had to settle for early on. In the old days, McNeese could have recovered from those mistakes, but the Colonels are better now and they have a gutsy QB who literally won the game for them last night. And the Colonels' defense showed up early on when they needed to. To be fair, McNeese blocked a punt and got an easy score off of it, but only a FG. So, Cowboys should have won by a couple TDs. But, they didn't. If last night's game is a sign of how the conference will be this year, it could be a fun year to watch Southland football.

[demon4life]

Sept 1, 2017 9:55:20 GMT purplestorm said:

I watched the Nicholls-McNeese game, too. It was very entertaining, but McNeese let Nicholls off the hook time and time again. They got inside the redzone 10 times, at least, and kicked FG after FG after FG. They had one FG blocked and literally handed the Colonels two touchdowns on a pick-six and a fumble around their own 10 yard line. That's a 17 point swing, not counting all the FGs they had to settle for early on. In the old days, McNeese could have recovered from those mistakes, but the Colonels are better now and they have a gutsy QB who literally won the game for them last night. And the Colonels' defense showed up early on when they needed to. To be fair, McNeese blocked a punt and got an easy score off of it, but only a FG. So, Cowboys should have won by a couple TDs. But, they didn't. If last night's game is a sign of how the conference will be this year, it could be a fun year to watch Southland football.

Love the Nicholls QB. Great job by Rebowe turning around the  program in 2 years. They had lost 18 straight when he took over. Awesome crowd, funny how winning brings the fans back. 

[WreckTechAGAIN]

TrackDemon, I can compare our university to the government. If we continue to employ the same people in the same thought process, where will things turn around? Dr. Henderson came from NSU, yes, but he also was a proven commodity in turning around a community college. He was making things happen at NSU too. Burke was nervous around him and you could see that. Doc said this is what I want done and he didn't let anyone give him excuses. I have a hard time believing that Maggio will think outside the Demon realm of comfort. He was nervous around the Doc too. Do I question his love and passion for the university, absolutely not. I'm a business man and typically changes in upper management come from the outside because it refreshes mid-level managements thought process. Henderson was active on Twitter and taught a class on campus on communications. I look for the school system as a whole to flourish under Henderson.

But back to football and Nicholls. Rebowe stepped into a broken program I'll give him that. The information I found on glassdoor shows Rebowe makes about $20K more than Thomas. His coordinators make about $10-15k more. As far as experience, you may be right in line. Except Christophel has been coaching in college 30+ years, Rybaki has 12 years under good coaches. The DL coach Camp and RB coach spent almost a decade at quality high school programs in the New Orleans area. And that TE coach Gisclair is kin to our own Bebe Orgeron. Rebowe had done a great job turning around a program in the dumps, kudos to him. Now did they have the same issues to fix? At Nicholls they hadn't won any games and fundraising wasn't the issue, they didn't spend money they didn't have. Locals put up the money to raise the salaries to get better coaches. Burke let Thomas know his academics was close to having the program on probation. He dropped a bill on him for $200K after he accepted the job. The players were in fights at bars, getting in trouble around campus. Of the guys he inherited one was tazed 5x by the cops, another was shot at a local club, one was suspended from the team because he fired a weapon on campus (Coach Meeks was pushing for him to be the star running back too) and he was kicked out for robbing people in the columns. The equipment room was robbed after Peveto left by his players. Burke was against a wall and 5 other coaches, even Maxfield (my close friend) said that's the worst job in America and whoever takes it will commit career suicide. I've been at Football Fundraisers where Burke won't put up a dollar of his own money to help the team, but the department buys a golf team in the Stoehrs tournament. He needed to get football out of a hole, a very deep hole. Financially, Academically, and Morally. He spent $1million on a softball facility that won't be able to recoup those funds in 20 years. A dear friend of mine went to him with several million to build an indoor facility that Burke countered asking him for a larger sum and the promise of a capital campaign. He walked out the door, still thinks of that conversation because how can a man seek you out with multi millions of dollars and you ask for more? It's that thought ignorance that has our athletic department falling behind the likes of places like the other NSU. It is time for new blood and I appreciate the efforts of many of them, but anyone of quality leaves on the first ship out.

To say that Rebowe and Thomas were rebuilding similar programs under similar standards is far fetched. I hear Burke and Pierce say they are for Thomas succeeding, but I'm more in line with other posters that Thomas was brought in to pull it from the ashes, not take it to the top of the mountain. Interesting to see those of us posting about Laird's the head man in waiting. If I am Laird, I coach that defense well and I take my career elsewhere. Are they going to offer Laird a job in alumni relations when he fails as the Head Coach to get the job done like when he was DC for Peveto? Laird wasn't the tallest QB (I liked Laird by the way), he is a coaches son, he showed true grit when he played and I think he has some bigger balls than I gave him credit for backdooring a friend like Thomas. I wouldn't want Laird with that lack of integrity and character to politic for that job. I'm only echoing all the post about him taking the job to become the head coach after the season and the amount of publicity Doug and Haley are using to promote him.

Thomas has made poor choices and he's also the first to publicly own up to it. He takes the heat for his team, his coaches, his players, his program and for Northwestern State. Laird's success at NSU will be in part to the support people pour in on his behalf. He's connected enough that Greg can't take the surplus of funds Thomas has stashed to upgrade the facilities. He is walking into a much better situation at Northwestern State than the bomb Thomas has jumped on to save a community of individuals. When a gofundme account can bring in more money for a great person like Coach Black than a pathetic Legends Banquet, we need new blood.

Long rant, but let's Wreck Tech and fire Burke before he can sign us back up for a season or two down the road!!

[TrackDemon]

I agree with you. The football program has been decimated and I feel that Thomas was put in a no win situation with everything coming to a head last year.

I think Burke has done a good job overall as athletic director but I will concede at the end of the day it is HIS job to right the ship. I think he has at least earned a chance to right the ship. However he does need to be held accoutable for the program and I trust Dr. Maggio will hold everyone in the department accoutable for the growth and stability of not only the football program but the entire department. I personally like Burke and have a lot of respect for him, I won't lie anout that or apologize for that.

As far as Dr. Maggio, I believe he will be tested sooner or later. Having known him I do believe that he will make choices and look outside of NSU/Natchitoches if needed. I don't believe you NEED someone from the outside to manage well (and I know personally of someone that was in the athletic department that refused to hire a qualified local candidate and it cost him). Hiring from the inside is perfectly acceptable if that person is not afraid of making changes, even if it involves getting rid of people you are close to and have know for years, that's just the way business goes. Of course if he is unable to then the university as a whole will suffer.

He has just started as president so I think it is only fair to reserve judgement on his job until he has a full calendar year under his belt. As it is now I find he is doing a good job. I hope it continues and that the school can prosper and grow under his leadership.

I agree that as an athletic department we need to accept all the money and financial help we can and not turn people away that are willing to donate time and money. No excuse for that.

I earned a great deal of respect for Thomas when he accepted criticism and failures after last year. That gave me hope that he can turn the program around. He seems to have brought in some good people on the staff so hopefully it will pay off.

Nicholls has shown just how badly we have butchered the program over the last ten years. Absolutely no excuses for how far the program has fallen and there definitely needs to be some serious discussions regarding that. Hats off to Nicholls, they did a tremendous job bringing that program back.

Appreciate the post, defintiey well thought out and I believe we probably see eye-to-eye on many issues even if we disagree on others. Feel free to create an account on here, would love to get more input and thoughts from you.

WreckTech

[WreckTechAGAIN]

TrackDemon, thank you. I don't dislike Maggio, I just think it's difficult to grow outside of your box if you've never been outside the box. Actually heard that there were rumors as to why he fell short when he was up for it and Dr. Henderson won it. I think he is a very likable guy and a tremendous asset to the University. I just feel like we're stuck without any new ideas to help us grow or sustain our growth. The Board of Education came for Dr. Henderson because of his body of work at Bossier and NSU.

I read this site and I don't post often. I may sign up but don't want to become a regular bleacher bum crying on some message board because our football program suffers. I read the whole bit from Thomas' letter and I've grown to admire the guy, but also watched him age in his time. I have a few friends that complain, but when I ask them about attending a function or fundraiser they ask how many times can Les Miles sign a helmet and we buy it. I own two and the signatures don't even match. I don't complain, I want to help the guy he's very likable and you want him to retire and do well. I think he is trying and I don't imagine his bosses have helped him a whole heck of a lot. I know Peveto had his issues with Burke. I like Burke as a person, but let's be honest he's been here for 20+ years. Sam Goodwin was the Mike McConathy of football and technology didn't allow for guys to recruit off film. Roberts was fortunate to have Craig Nall so he could make the jump. Stoker is a great coach, proof by his success at Sam Houston. Peveto remains bouncing around from SEC to SEC. Jay Thomas won a conference championship at Nicholls in the time that our drought has been going on. We aren't falling from grace because we hired Thomas. We have been slowly falling apart for years now. All the coaches I've mentioned have moved on to bigger and better things as will Jay Thomas. It won't be on his terms as the writing is on the wall. The writing is on these message boards. Everyone in Natchitoches and on this board believe Laird to be the "coach in waiting."

If athletics is an equation, the common denominator is Burke and Pierce. I'm not here to compare us to them. I'm here to look at what we have an say we haven't kept it up very well. I watched after a scrimmage Thomas attempt to walk to the training room on his knee and thought, what about the athletes with ACLs? It's not about our facilities compared to others, it's about the lack of upkeep and renovation to keep it shining.

Consider that: Nicholls has won more conference championships than we have since our last championship. McNeese is considered a rival we haven't beat in nearly 20 years. The rivalry with Tech was something, but it would have been nice to have had the last laugh, those kids remember losing to us. The program has fallen because after Goodwin left, he found Roberts luckily. He has no interaction with Men's basketball and we all love Coach Mike. He wants to build his legacy for his influence in woman's sports. I'm all for more girls in volleyball shorts. Our woman's basketball program wasn't anything until the Stoerhs and where are they now? He gave them more money the first time they were potentially leaving, but he couldn't begin to pay them what they make now. College baseball and softball only matter if you are in the SEC. Burke uses football as his mule to feed the others. The Southland will start to pay their players per NCAA regulations. It's been coming down the pipe for years. Everyone including Nicholls has a plan to pay their football players from $1000 to $5K a semester. You think our AD has a plan for it? His plan is let's pay M and W basketball and allow others to fundraise for theirs. You think the program has fallen now, it will bottom out then. Ask him about his plans, he will fall apart like he did at the Many Victory Tour a few years ago when Dr. Henderson put him under the light. Isn't he on committees to hear of this and plan for this? The guys a joke and I can't tell you what Pierce is doing behind his desk because it doesn't belong on the internet.

Eye to Eye, maybe we do. But we need people that see it differently and want it to change for the better.

[TrackDemon]

Well said. I do believe that you are correct on something. You have to be at the front of change instead of playing catchup. NSU as a whole needs to be at the forefront of change and I hope the Dr. Maggio acknowledges this and does everything to put us at that forefront.

If not we will simply get left behind.

Stoker is an excellent coach and I enjoyed the times I got to sit down and talk to him. I think he made some mistakes early on in his head coaching career that haunted him and I'm not sure he was fully ready for the job. I do think if he had that experience he would have been an excellent head coach. I honestly wouldn't mind him returning to NSU one day.

[NSU2003]

Sept 1, 2017 16:10:31 GMT WreckTechAGAIN said:

TrackDemon, I can compare our university to the government. If we continue to employ the same people in the same thought process, where will things turn around? Dr. Henderson came from NSU, yes, but he also was a proven commodity in turning around a community college. He was making things happen at NSU too. Burke was nervous around him and you could see that. Doc said this is what I want done and he didn't let anyone give him excuses. I have a hard time believing that Maggio will think outside the Demon realm of comfort. He was nervous around the Doc too. Do I question his love and passion for the university, absolutely not. I'm a business man and typically changes in upper management come from the outside because it refreshes mid-level managements thought process. Henderson was active on Twitter and taught a class on campus on communications. I look for the school system as a whole to flourish under Henderson.

But back to football and Nicholls. Rebowe stepped into a broken program I'll give him that. The information I found on glassdoor shows Rebowe makes about $20K more than Thomas. His coordinators make about $10-15k more. As far as experience, you may be right in line. Except Christophel has been coaching in college 30+ years, Rybaki has 12 years under good coaches. The DL coach Camp and RB coach spent almost a decade at quality high school programs in the New Orleans area. And that TE coach Gisclair is kin to our own Bebe Orgeron. Rebowe had done a great job turning around a program in the dumps, kudos to him. Now did they have the same issues to fix? At Nicholls they hadn't won any games and fundraising wasn't the issue, they didn't spend money they didn't have. Locals put up the money to raise the salaries to get better coaches. Burke let Thomas know his academics was close to having the program on probation. He dropped a bill on him for $200K after he accepted the job. The players were in fights at bars, getting in trouble around campus. Of the guys he inherited one was tazed 5x by the cops, another was shot at a local club, one was suspended from the team because he fired a weapon on campus (Coach Meeks was pushing for him to be the star running back too) and he was kicked out for robbing people in the columns. The equipment room was robbed after Peveto left by his players. Burke was against a wall and 5 other coaches, even Maxfield (my close friend) said that's the worst job in America and whoever takes it will commit career suicide. I've been at Football Fundraisers where Burke won't put up a dollar of his own money to help the team, but the department buys a golf team in the Stoehrs tournament. He needed to get football out of a hole, a very deep hole. Financially, Academically, and Morally. He spent $1million on a softball facility that won't be able to recoup those funds in 20 years. A dear friend of mine went to him with several million to build an indoor facility that Burke countered asking him for a larger sum and the promise of a capital campaign. He walked out the door, still thinks of that conversation because how can a man seek you out with multi millions of dollars and you ask for more? It's that thought ignorance that has our athletic department falling behind the likes of places like the other NSU. It is time for new blood and I appreciate the efforts of many of them, but anyone of quality leaves on the first ship out.

To say that Rebowe and Thomas were rebuilding similar programs under similar standards is far fetched. I hear Burke and Pierce say they are for Thomas succeeding, but I'm more in line with other posters that Thomas was brought in to pull it from the ashes, not take it to the top of the mountain. Interesting to see those of us posting about Laird's the head man in waiting. If I am Laird, I coach that defense well and I take my career elsewhere. Are they going to offer Laird a job in alumni relations when he fails as the Head Coach to get the job done like when he was DC for Peveto? Laird wasn't the tallest QB (I liked Laird by the way), he is a coaches son, he showed true grit when he played and I think he has some bigger balls than I gave him credit for backdooring a friend like Thomas. I wouldn't want Laird with that lack of integrity and character to politic for that job. I'm only echoing all the post about him taking the job to become the head coach after the season and the amount of publicity Doug and Haley are using to promote him.

Thomas has made poor choices and he's also the first to publicly own up to it. He takes the heat for his team, his coaches, his players, his program and for Northwestern State. Laird's success at NSU will be in part to the support people pour in on his behalf. He's connected enough that Greg can't take the surplus of funds Thomas has stashed to upgrade the facilities. He is walking into a much better situation at Northwestern State than the bomb Thomas has jumped on to save a community of individuals. When a gofundme account can bring in more money for a great person like Coach Black than a pathetic Legends Banquet, we need new blood.

Long rant, but let's Wreck Tech and fire Burke before he can sign us back up for a season or two down the road!!

Dr. Henderson was supposed to be NSU's "savior" ...I really, really thought with him at the helm that we could finally see NSU advance in perception in the region but he effing left us right as things were starting to pick up steam. Every time I think about it I still can't believe he left so quickly...I respect and like him but I'll never forgive him for not following through with what he said, in his interview, that he would do with Northwestern.