Fire Brock Spack
- Thread starter Redbird
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BirdGrad2011
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Idk that I’m on the fire Spack train, but something has to change.
Coach Spack has the advantage of our football program not having a great tradition prior to him taking over and taking us to Frisco once.
But our record since then isn’t good, attendance is down, and our old school brand of football is not exciting. Outside of the 2 basketball programs, are any ISU programs trending up? Even the always successful volleyball program has been run into the ground.
But our record since then isn’t good, attendance is down, and our old school brand of football is not exciting. Outside of the 2 basketball programs, are any ISU programs trending up? Even the always successful volleyball program has been run into the ground.
SlackBooDom
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This plays into my, and many others, overall view of Illinois State Athletics in its current standing. I believe we overinflate the value of the "All-Sports Trophy" and use that to mask our lack of success and the mediocrity that has settled into the department. Attendance is down in every sport. Illinois State has five sports that sell tickets - those are the big five. Of those big five, WBB/VB have played in the NCAA tournament recently. Football hasn't been good since 2019. Baseball is 32 games under .500 the last three years. Volleyball is 13 games under .500 the last year and a half. 2018-19 was the last MBB season we were over .500 and that was 17-16. If not for Kristen Gillespie, the department's biggest sports are all failing. We don't have an AD who can make any meaningful changes. The staff size is cut in half. The senior leadership team has had more people leave in the last two years than anyone could sustain. I worry that everyone has forgotten how successful Illinois State Athletics can be and it is going to be impossible to recover from. I don't know whether to blame university leadership, Larry Lyons being forced to retire, Kyle Brennan, or some other factors - I just think Illinois State is in big trouble as a department.
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- #6
This is simply not true
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- #7
Tell me why it shouldn’t. Tell me how this team is positioned to win this year and the next two years. We are irrelevant and mediocre. This is not changing!
TIMMY
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They need to hire a new AD. The new AD needs to evaluate every HC, Spack included. Everything else is moot. Except we're running an offense that doesn't fit our personnel. That's about football.
Bird Friend
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That's my line!
This I agree with. We need a President and an AD yesterday. I understand waiting on the AD for the President. I'd like to know that the search for a President is moving forward so then we can move forward on an AD.
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- #12
I completely agree with this. As much as I want Spack gone at this point I understand the situation and realize the order of operations that need to happen. With that being said it would seem to me that Spack will get at least this season and next season before he would likely be fired......but that doesn't change the fact that in 14 years we are mediocre.
CaliRdBrd
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I’m not in disagreement. At the very least, his seat should be toasty.
ScoreboardDotRace
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Agreed, and honestly it has surprised me how long it has taken to even get toasty.
The wheels are turning. A search firm has been selected to help find a new President. I thought President Tarhule had an excellent chance of having the "Interim" removed from his title but that is looking less likely.
So a new President gets hired and then that person begins to build a staff to their liking. The new hires will include a permanent AD. Then the new AD reviews the various athletic programs and personnel. The wheels are turning but I doubt things will get rolling fast enough for anyone here.
Much at stake in ISU president search, and many ways to err
Illinois State University trustees have chosen to use Parker Executive Search as the hiring and consulting firm to help find the next president. The firm will be paid $110,000 plus expenses. There's a lot to be done to identify a diverse pool of highly qualified candidates and make sure the new...
www.wglt.org
fourthandshort
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yeesh, just 1 game later .... really ?? Let's give it a few more games people. Absolutely nothing to be gained by flying off the handle after a bad game 3 of 11.
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- #17
This not a reaction over 1 game and you know that.
fourthandshort
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So can we presume you have done extensive comparative analysis of our peer schools to determine we are failing miserably, even while still winning more than any other conference team across all sports for 4 straight years. And something like 16 in the last 20 years or so. So as it relates to coaching/recruting/playing on the field .. we're doing really well.
Anyway, you made a few statements talking about our failings and we're in "big trouble". Please share your findings comparing our failings with rest of the conference.
Illinois State wins fourth straight MVC All-Sports Trophy
Illinois State University claimed its fourth consecutive Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Championship at the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign.
news.illinoisstate.edu
Illinois State University claimed its fourth consecutive Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Championship at the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign. The distinction is based on a school’s average finish in each of the sponsored league championships.
fourthandshort
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Yes, But I'm speaking to this season .. everything was quiet, until we laid an egg. Now whether we were under-prepared, just played badly, or EIU is better than we think. Or , yes possibly to naysayers point, we're not nearly as ready as we hoped at this juncture in this season and we may not get there.
But most of us who post here recognized, there were a lot of questions heading into this season with a completely unproven offense, a highly suspect special teams (kicking anyway), and a defense that was mostly decimated .. all relative to last years performance.
So we knew there were question marks in all 3 phases. And yes, we were starting to feel more optimistic after 2 mostly positive games ... even then still recognizing we had clean some stuff up, especially given they were weak opponents.
So my post was relative only to this season. Give it more time before we give up on the season because we had a bad game 3 of 11 .. regardless of your strong feelings Spack needs to go. There is a season to play .. and we're fans.
p.s. Spack may need to go, but lets play some more games before we rule out this season.
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Virginia Redbird
Well-known member
I have not written off the season, I expected a tough game from EIU. What bothers me is not the first three games of this 2023 season but some trends over the past several years. The biggest trend of course is not very good offensive play. This, I think is my biggest complaint with Spack, he just does not do offense, he just does not. Just one thing to support my position is his failed Co-Offensive Coordinator idea that failed once and then he did it a second time with arguably worse results than the first time. We saw in the game on Saturday his instincts to always defer to his defense to win games. In my opinion his philosophy is clear as can be. He can talk about modern football but he is still a tough defense, run the ball, type of guy. It is his football DNA, it just is. He is a defensive guru, absolutely. This current team had all kinds of question marks on the defense and already they are looking pretty solid and getting better. The offense seems to be regressing and the tougher defenses are still yet to come.
The Fire Spack calls are going nowhere. Timmy is correct, they need to fill some slots before they talk about coaches. That means essentially nothing happens this year and probably nothing happens next year. Having the AD forced to resign unexpectedly has put everything back at least a year and maybe two. When the time does come I think a hard look needs to be taken on the upside and downside. Spack has been good to the Redbird program but nobody goes on forever.
What a bad football weekend this past one was. That ISU stinker and then the Bears at Tampa. The only thing offensive about either game was the smell from the offenses!
The Fire Spack calls are going nowhere. Timmy is correct, they need to fill some slots before they talk about coaches. That means essentially nothing happens this year and probably nothing happens next year. Having the AD forced to resign unexpectedly has put everything back at least a year and maybe two. When the time does come I think a hard look needs to be taken on the upside and downside. Spack has been good to the Redbird program but nobody goes on forever.
What a bad football weekend this past one was. That ISU stinker and then the Bears at Tampa. The only thing offensive about either game was the smell from the offenses!