Topic: Reality of Herd and Sunbelt

[DJdaHERDfan]

I know we are all up in arms over Huff / MU brass and the way it all went down.

But what?s done is done.

So here is the reality for Marshall and Gibson in the SBC.
Looking at it with a glass half full perspective.
The Sunbelt as a whole is weak conference. Yes the top teams are tough and we can argue the East division is the strongest top to bottom.
But still, all Marshall has to do is field a team and that will be 4/5 conference wins.
My point is that it?s not that hard to compete in this conference.
All is not lost.
If Gibson can get players using portal and recruiting and NIL, he is set up to be successful in the Sunbelt.
If Gibson can get some playmakers to come in and put together a strong defense he is known for, Marshall could be looking at a special year.
But, right now, he just got here and has to put together his staff and immediately hit the recruiting trail. Although the 6 year deal is concerning. I understand what the MU brass is betting on and it looks like they are all in. Let?s give him a chance and hope that he can come in here and start winning ball games.
It?s all laid out for him to be successful at Marshall.

[rileylives]

I know we are all up in arms over Huff / MU brass and the way it all went down.

But what?s done is done.

So here is the reality for Marshall and Gibson in the SBC.
Looking at it with a glass half full perspective.
The Sunbelt as a whole is weak conference. Yes the top teams are tough and we can argue the East division is the strongest top to bottom.
But still, all Marshall has to do is field a team and that will be 4/5 conference wins.
My point is that it?s not that hard to compete in this conference.
All is not lost.
If Gibson can get players using portal and recruiting and NIL, he is set up to be successful in the Sunbelt.
If Gibson can get some playmakers to come in and put together a strong defense he is known for, Marshall could be looking at a special year.
But, right now, he just got here and has to put together his staff and immediately hit the recruiting trail. Although the 6 year deal is concerning. I understand what the MU brass is betting on and it looks like they are all in. Let?s give him a chance and hope that he can come in here and start winning ball games.
It?s all laid out for him to be successful at Marshall.

This year was a down year for the Sun Belt in some ways. But I would not call it a cakewalk. It's certainly much more difficult than Conference USA.

So I wouldn't be so dismissive.

[muherd34]

Sunbelt is one of the best G5 conferences so I wouldn?t call it weak.  But look around the league.  We have one of the best programs easily.  Best facilities, one of the top budgets, passionate fan base, historical program, top salary pool and now top nil.  If a coach can?t win here then we got problems.

[whf]

I know we are all up in arms over Huff / MU brass and the way it all went down.

But what?s done is done.

So here is the reality for Marshall and Gibson in the SBC.
Looking at it with a glass half full perspective.
The Sunbelt as a whole is weak conference. Yes the top teams are tough and we can argue the East division is the strongest top to bottom.
But still, all Marshall has to do is field a team and that will be 4/5 conference wins.
My point is that it?s not that hard to compete in this conference.
All is not lost.
If Gibson can get players using portal and recruiting and NIL, he is set up to be successful in the Sunbelt.
If Gibson can get some playmakers to come in and put together a strong defense he is known for, Marshall could be looking at a special year.
But, right now, he just got here and has to put together his staff and immediately hit the recruiting trail. Although the 6 year deal is concerning. I understand what the MU brass is betting on and it looks like they are all in. Let?s give him a chance and hope that he can come in here and start winning ball games.
It?s all laid out for him to be successful at Marshall.

Couldn't disagree with you more; this is not a weak conference.  We have 8 teams in bowls this year, so the wins came from somewhere.  Other than perhaps Boise State, the SBC has more upset wins from its teams than anyone else you can think of. Attendance, although is seems weak at times, outstrips most other G5 leagues. Facilities are pretty top notch, maybe small, but pretty well designed and facilitate the fans and games well.

The teams do beat each other up, just like almost all other G5 leagues; that hurts the win/loss appearance of the teams.

The thing we will face is the ability to keep in the race due to NIL set up with schools in the AAC and MWC.

[JeremyBlake23]

Sunbelt is one of the best G5 conferences so I wouldn?t call it weak.  But look around the league.  We have one of the best programs easily.  Best facilities, one of the top budgets, passionate fan base, historical program, top salary pool and now top nil.  If a coach can?t win here then we got problems.

G5 is weak in general. Top half of the SEC/Big Ten walk through any G5 conference champion.

[herdorbust2]

SB football was weak this year and SB basketball is worse than weak. This conference is begging to be won in basketball and instead we just keep getting worse as a program. If we had the Donnie Jones or early Herrion teams we would dominate this conference. Even the early Danny teams would roll thru it. But we keep falling back to the competition.

[marshallmark]

Best facilities, one of the top budgets, passionate fan base, historical program, top salary pool and now top nil.  If a coach can?t win here then we got problems.

We do not have the best facilities.  That's something that will need to be addressed in the next 10 yrs.

[MUther]

G5 is weak in general. Top half of the SEC/Big Ten walk through any G5 conference champion.

Interesting notion.  It's almost like a team named Vanderbilt didn't stomp all over the top of the SEC and then lose to the #13 team in the Sun Belt. 

The fact that we rarely get to play those teams at home or on a neutral field does not make us weak.  There are a few teams that we'll likely never beat, but none of the other P4s ever beat them either. 

WVU is probably playing something somewhere, you should go watch them.

[herdly4]

Gibson must get a good Offensive coordinator. A defensive guy must get a creative guy and let him go. D coordinators tend to be more conservative. Let?s hope he?s the next Bobby Pruitt a defensive mind but a true believer in scoring a lot of points.

[JeremyBlake23]

Interesting notion.  It's almost like a team named Vanderbilt didn't stomp all over the top of the SEC and then lose to the #13 team in the Sun Belt. 

The fact that we rarely get to play those teams at home or on a neutral field does not make us weak.  There are a few teams that we'll likely never beat, but none of the other P4s ever beat them either. 

WVU is probably playing something somewhere, you should go watch them.

And lack of consistency is why Vanderbilt is a joke. Any given Saturday, they can beat anyone though. You can't say that about a single G5 team.

[MUther]

And lack of consistency is why Vanderbilt is a joke. Any given Saturday, they can beat anyone though. You can't say that about a single G5 team.

Boise St, 1 loss by 3 points to the consensus #1 team in the country.  I guess you can say that about a G5 team.  Who knew.  We can do this all day, you'll still be wrong about the G5.

In fact when a G5 team starts winning too many games against the P4, the P4 just makes them one of them to avoid the blurring of lines.  TCU, Utah, Louisville, Cincinnati, Houston, BYU, SMU, UCF, etc.

[whf]

Gibson must get a good Offensive coordinator. A defensive guy must get a creative guy and let him go. D coordinators tend to be more conservative. Let?s hope he?s the next Bobby Pruitt a defensive mind but a true believer in scoring a lot of points.

Maybe he'll find one under the current Christmas Tree in the Shewey Bldg, not everyone wants to move every year.

[MUther]

Maybe he'll find one under the current Christmas Tree in the Shewey Bldg, not everyone wants to move every year.

I think that would be ok.  But I'm not sold on Doege as the second coming.  I'm not saying I don't like him or think he a good OC, I do.  But he had a better than serviceable QB, a competent receiving corps, solid stable of running backs, a healthy line.  He was given a lot of advantages that his predecessors did not have.  I saw several good plays from Trickett with a whole lot less to work with, he was masterful at Notre Dame, until his starter was hurt the rest of the year and his line coach quit, and we saw Cramsey thrive before and after being here, but not while here.

I can't determine if it was the man or the tools that made the difference...that's all I'm saying.  I'm sure I'll get 100 opinions stated as fact that Doege is a God, and I'll go ahead and preemptively reply, you don't know either.   Not enough data to make that determination.

[marshallmark]

You must have missed the tweet (X) post from Colombi recently where he responded to a comment about Doege by stating that (paraphrasing) "anyone would be better than Trickett"