BA about to get serious with football/basketball coaching search

[PSU]

I would love to see Coach Flatt come back, but I understand he may not want to. Aside from promoting one of the great assistant coaches we have on staff. We have great people on campus already. I would love to see Jeff Rutledge. That's who many thought they should have hired the last time. This guy, if I'm not mistaken, played for Bear Bryant, won a national championship, went on to play 14 years in the pros. Was even on a couple of teams that were in the Super Bowl. Sounds like a man with a good deal of football experience that just needs a chance at the helm of the right program. We have that program.

 

For all you people who think Rutledge is a good hire just ask JP2 people, you might get a different answer and while you're at it ask the people of MBA when he was there back in the day.

[GoldenGoose85]

I hear a lot of good things about Coach Pittman. What is his background, and what makes him a strong candidate? Sorry, I have recently returned to the area after being away 20 years.

[shakinthefat]

I hear a lot of good things about Coach Pittman. What is his background, and what makes him a strong candidate? Sorry, I have recently returned to the area after being away 20 years.

Came from Ryan to BA. Defensive strategist. Rumored he was in the running fro BGA job last year. Well liked by the players and other coaches.

 

BA Offensive line coach (ex Titan) Jason Mathews could be in the running also.

[Rookie45]

Spoken from a Ravenwood supporter. Guess I would want Rector to leave Centennial if I were you too. Why are you not offering up your current coach?

 

Spoken more as a Brian Rector fan, but I won't shy away from being a Ravenwood supporter either. BA should consider him.

[SafeT]

It might not be a question of who the school will consider, rather who is applying. If I was well entrenched in a successful program, I would want to make sure that my success was not judged on beating one particular school or keeping up with a prior coach from decades ago. Don't get me wrong, I know they want to succeed, win, and excel as a program. As a parent, I echo that sentiment, however, the more I look at the Div.II picture, the road to victory seems to be a pretty complex formula.

.

[retiredtothebleachers]

It might not be a question of who the school will consider, rather who is applying. If I was well entrenched in a successful program, I would want to make sure that my success was not judged on beating one particular school or keeping up with a prior coach from decades ago. Don't get me wrong, I know they want to succeed, win, and excel as a program. As a parent, I echo that sentiment, however, the more I look at the Div.II picture, the road to victory seems to be a pretty complex formula.

.

 

It is not complex at all, you just have to know how not to get caught. Look at BA pre-lawsuit. Look at Ensworth now. The road to victory in D II is just like big time college football. The best recruiting class wins the gold ball.

[baeagles1982]

For all you people who think Rutledge is a good hire just ask JP2 people, you might get a different answer and while you're at it ask the people of MBA when he was there back in the day.

 

I will be honest, PSU, I have never met Coach Rutledge, but have heard much about him over the years and I have not heard bad things. You have an air of a disgruntled parent that didn’t get what you wanted from him. It is pretty easy to find mad parents with higher opinions of their child’s abilities than what is the truth. Maybe you don’t fit that mold, just a feeling I have.

 

If you want to discredit the man, give us some tangible evidence that he is a bad coach. Some numbers maybe. I decided after your post to dig up a few numbers and facts for myself. I admit that I started out wanting this guy, at my school, off of what I had heard about him. With that said, you did encourage me to dig a little deeper. I really like what I found. Here is a small sample of my findings:

 

Won back to back state championships as a QB at Frazier Banks High School in Birmingham, Alabama.

 

Played for Bear Bryant as a starting QB and won three SEC championships and a national championship at Alabama. Played as a QB in the NFL for 14 years, was on three different teams that played in the Super Bowl…

Coached at MBA from 2002 – 2006. Won state championships in each of his first two years as their head coach. Was let go from MBA because they found out he applied for the coaching job at BA when Coach Flatt retired. (I have heard this from numerous sources.) This is the job that Coach Potter ended up getting at BA, which has led us to this entire debacle we are discussing today.

 

In 2002, his first year at MBA he went 9-4, and went on to win a state championship; defeated BA 27-11.

 

In 2003 he went 11-1 and won a second state championship beating BA 38-14. Outscored opponents by a score of 336-132. MBA was ranked #15 in the USA Today Super 25 Poll for that year. As a side note, I see he defeated Louisville Trinity by a score of 17-13 in the first game of the season that year.

 

In 2004, went 9-3, defeated BA 23-15

In 2005, went 8-3, defeated BA 17-7

In 2006, went 4-6, lost to BA 42-7. This is the year BA went on to win the state championship.

 

At some point after leaving MBA, he was the QB coach for the Arizona Cardinals working with Kurt Warner. During that time, they made it to the Super Bowl and Kurt Warner had one of his best years of his career.

I also believe he was a QB coach for Vandy for some time too.

 

If he wants the job, BA would be foolish not to take him. They should go after him. I find it hard as heck to believe BA could find a better body of experience and work anywhere else. Why take another chance like they did last time? They cannot afford to. Bottom line. Alumni and fans DO NOT want another experiment.

[meritage]

I will be honest, PSU, I have never met Coach Rutledge, but have heard much about him over the years and I have not heard bad things. You have an air of a disgruntled parent that didn’t get what you wanted from him. It is pretty easy to find mad parents with higher opinions of their child’s abilities than what is the truth. Maybe you don’t fit that mold, just a feeling I have.

 

If you want to discredit the man, give us some tangible evidence that he is a bad coach. Some numbers maybe. I decided after your post to dig up a few numbers and facts for myself. I admit that I started out wanting this guy, at my school, off of what I had heard about him. With that said, you did encourage me to dig a little deeper. I really like what I found. Here is a small sample of my findings:

 

Won back to back state championships as a QB at Frazier Banks High School in Birmingham, Alabama.

 

Played for Bear Bryant as a starting QB and won three SEC championships and a national championship at Alabama. Played as a QB in the NFL for 14 years, was on three different teams that played in the Super Bowl…

Coached at MBA from 2002 – 2006. Won state championships in each of his first two years as their head coach. Was let go from MBA because they found out he applied for the coaching job at BA when Coach Flatt retired. (I have heard this from numerous sources.) This is the job that Coach Potter ended up getting at BA, which has led us to this entire debacle we are discussing today.

 

In 2002, his first year at MBA he went 9-4, and went on to win a state championship; defeated BA 27-11.

 

In 2003 he went 11-1 and won a second state championship beating BA 38-14. Outscored opponents by a score of 336-132. MBA was ranked #15 in the USA Today Super 25 Poll for that year. As a side note, I see he defeated Louisville Trinity by a score of 17-13 in the first game of the season that year.

 

In 2004, went 9-3, defeated BA 23-15

In 2005, went 8-3, defeated BA 17-7

In 2006, went 4-6, lost to BA 42-7. This is the year BA went on to win the state championship.

 

At some point after leaving MBA, he was the QB coach for the Arizona Cardinals working with Kurt Warner. During that time, they made it to the Super Bowl and Kurt Warner had one of his best years of his career.

I also believe he was a QB coach for Vandy for some time too.

 

If he wants the job, BA would be foolish not to take him. They should go after him. I find it hard as heck to believe BA could find a better body of experience and work anywhere else. Why take another chance like they did last time? They cannot afford to. Bottom line. Alumni and fans DO NOT want another experiment.

 

 

Pretty unfair comment about PSU. I'm pretty sure i know who PSU is and if i'm right, he is a great guy. It would be nice to keep the discussion about the football coach search, and not state opinions about the "standing" of a particular school or a poster's credibility and so on. And he is stating his opinion just like everyone else - none of us will do the hiring so i think all are free to do that and not be subjected to being called disgruntled.

[baeagles1982]

Pretty unfair comment about PSU. I'm pretty sure i know who PSU is and if i'm right, he is a great guy. It would be nice to keep the discussion about the football coach search, and not state opinions about the "standing" of a particular school or a poster's credibility and so on. And he is stating his opinion just like everyone else - none of us will do the hiring so i think all are free to do that and not be subjected to being called disgruntled.

 

Well I also think Coach Rutledge deserves a fair and free assessment of his merits to become the next head football coach at BA, if he is even interested. Let’s be honest, all we do on here is throw out names. Several people have and I haven’t seen any of them bad mouthed, only their merits discussed, other than Coach Rutledge’s.

I just clicked on his comment history and now know who he is. Should have done this before I commented. I was right. Look, this situation is not about one kid, it is about a bunch of kids, whose desire is to play good football and have a shot to win championships and continue a legacy that a great coach started a long time ago. I know I get hammered about talking about how Coach Flatt was, but he started something from nothing and made it something great. Yes my first choice is to see Coach Flatt come back, but I realize that he may not want to and we need to find the RIGHT guy. This guy is just worried about one thing. There are 98 other jersey numbers that want to win at BA, not just one.

[baeagles1982]

Pretty unfair comment about PSU. I'm pretty sure i know who PSU is and if i'm right, he is a great guy. It would be nice to keep the discussion about the football coach search, and not state opinions about the "standing" of a particular school or a poster's credibility and so on. And he is stating his opinion just like everyone else - none of us will do the hiring so i think all are free to do that and not be subjected to being called disgruntled.

 

While you have me on my soapbox, let me add this about why I say what I say. I will bet you or your friend never had to roll up into another school, playing in a classification above what your student enrollment would require you to play. In an old red, white and blue International Harvester school bus, that should have honestly been retired and achieve above and beyond what you should. TEAMS do that, not individuals. So I get a little testy when people suddenly pop up to trash a man with no real reason. Tells me it is someone who doesn’t have the team concept that made us great.

Edited December 8, 2011 by baeagles1982

[meritage]

While you have me on my soapbox, let me add this about why I say what I say. I will bet you or your friend never had to roll up into another school, playing in a classification above what you student enrollment would require you to play. In an old red, white and blue International Harvester school bus that should have honestly been retired and achieve above and beyond what you should. TEAMS do that, not individuals. So I get a little testy when people suddenly pop up to trash a man with no real reason. Tells me it is someone who doesn’t have the team concept that made us great.

 

It appears that you just want to continue this - whew. You don't know anything about me and you'd lose your bet. in fact, in the small town and state where i grew up, we had one of the top football teams in the state and in those days no classifications, and almost every school we played (and beat) was many times larger than us. Same with every sport i ever participated in during HS. I'd like to say more esp that you've now chosen to disparage me but it's the wrong thing to do so i'll get back to the relevant subject

 

Interestingly, i keep seeing so many comments about getting a coach here that "can win". I want to see us win the big one as much as the next guy but i'm not sure if most folks know but the discontent within the pgm from the coaches and players had nothing to do with winning. I have anywhere from 2-5 (or more sometimes) players at my home on a given weekend. One only needs to keep their ears open and have some refreshing conversations with some great young men to know what was going on. By taking care of those issues, the winning will happen.

[baeagles1982]

It appears that you just want to continue this - whew. You don't know anything about me and you'd lose your bet. in fact, in the small town and state where i grew up, we had one of the top football teams in the state and in those days no classifications, and almost every school we played (and beat) was many times larger than us. Same with every sport i ever participated in during HS. I'd like to say more esp that you've now chosen to disparage me but it's the wrong thing to do so i'll get back to the relevant subject

 

Interestingly, i keep seeing so many comments about getting a coach here that "can win". I want to see us win the big one as much as the next guy but i'm not sure if most folks know but the discontent within the pgm from the coaches and players had nothing to do with winning. I have anywhere from 2-5 (or more sometimes) players at my home on a given weekend. One only needs to keep their ears open and have some refreshing conversations with some great young men to know what was going on. By taking care of those issues, the winning will happen.

 

Wow, you are totally confusing me. My goodness I just made a couple of simple comments, and have somehow made you very uncomfortable. Chill out, I hope we are all here for the BA mission. I was simply saying that your friend might have motives to trash coach Rutledge and I just wanted to see every candidate have an open minded debate of their merits on here. Your comments prompted me to check the guy out further and I realize he and his son came from PJPII to BA. Look, I don’t care about all of that. I just want BA to find the right guy for everyone. I also don’t want to get dragged into a discussion about one kid. That’s not what it is all about. So let’s just talk about what is good for BA. As I said, BA has always won on overachieving as a team.. No harm no foul my friend. Hope I didn't misunderstand you.

Edited December 8, 2011 by baeagles1982