Is this our best coaching staff of all time?

[Golden Tornadoes]

Know what else Faulkner has going for him? He is part of the infamous VSU football coaching lineage. Seriously, if you've never heard of some of the coaches that cut their teeth at Valdosta State, you should do some research. It's absolutely insane at the coaching talent we have turned out down here.

 

[stinger 1957]

Know what else Faulkner has going for him? He is part of the infamous VSU football coaching lineage. Seriously, if you've never heard of some of the coaches that cut their teeth at Valdosta State, you should do some research. It's absolutely insane at the coaching talent we have turned out down here.

No, I did not know that, but sensed something was different/special about VSU

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

No, I did not know that, but sensed something was different/special about VSU

Hal Mumme, Mike Leach, Kirby Smart, Buster Faulkner, Dana Holgerson, Chris Hatcher, Kerwin Bell, and Will Muschamp are just a few names who have coached at VSU. Kerwin Bell is just getting his feet wet in Division 1 as he is now the head coach at Western Carolina. I'm sure the others need no introduction. Again, this isn't even an exhaustive list, just highlights.

 

[ThatGuy]

Hal Mumme, Mike Leach, Kirby Smart, Buster Faulkner, Dana Holgerson, Chris Hatcher, Kerwin Bell, and Will Muschamp are just a few names who have coached at VSU. Kerwin Bell is just getting his feet wet in Division 1 as he is now the head coach at Western Carolina. I'm sure the others need no introduction. Again, this isn't even an exhaustive list, just highlights.

Yep. Lots of cool stuff happening at VSU. Interestingly, before Hal Mumme arrived, the university didn't get nearly as much attention in town as the two high schools did.

If you haven't read S.C. Gwynne's book The Perfect Pass about Mumme and Leach's experience developing the Air Raid at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State, and onward, definitely worth a read.

 

[jojatk]

He did stab us in the back, the Fridge said it was one of the worst feelings he had had since being in coaching or something to that effect. That crossed my mind when we hired Buster, I don't mean that had anything to do with us hiring Buster because I don't think it did.

Tangent alert... Marrone leaving wasn't so much the stab in the back. It was Marrone taking his mentor's playbook to his mentor's arch rival AND recruiting for said rival while still on staff at GT. And not like Buster was doing for us. That was in the open and everyone knew he was recruiting for us. Marrone was talking to players behind everyone's back. Dougie was slimy and I have actively rooted against every team he has coached while he is their coach and will continue to do so. It is my fervent hope that he never has anything to do with GT sports ever again.

PS I know it is fairly common practice to take a playbook with you. But Doug was a NOBODY when George O'Leary hired him and Ralph took him, and Bill O'Brien, under his wing and treated those guys like sons. Doug showed how little he valued that when he left the way he did.

 

[whitegoldsphinx]

Tangent alert... Marrone leaving wasn't so much the stab in the back. It was Marrone taking his mentor's playbook to his mentor's arch rival AND recruiting for said rival while still on staff at GT. And not like Buster was doing for us. That was in the open and everyone knew he was recruiting for us. Marrone was talking to players behind everyone's back. Dougie was slimy and I have actively rooted against every team he has coached while he is their coach and will continue to do so. It is my fervent hope that he never has anything to do with GT sports ever again.

PS I know it is fairly common practice to take a playbook with you. But Doug was a NOBODY when George O'Leary hired him and Ralph took him, and Bill O'Brien, under his wing and treated those guys like sons. Doug showed how little he valued that when he left the way he did.

Wasn't there an infamous quote from Marrone on the way out, something like "why work for Pepsi when you can work for Coke"?

 

[jojatk]

Wasn't there an infamous quote from Marrone on the way out, something like "why work for Pepsi when you can work for Coke"?

Yes indeed!

 

[stinger 1957]

Hal Mumme, Mike Leach, Kirby Smart, Buster Faulkner, Dana Holgerson, Chris Hatcher, Kerwin Bell, and Will Muschamp are just a few names who have coached at VSU. Kerwin Bell is just getting his feet wet in Division 1 as he is now the head coach at Western Carolina. I'm sure the others need no introduction. Again, this isn't even an exhaustive list, just highlights.

Wow! Had no idea all those guys were there. Did our special teams coach also spend a year or two there? Wonder what the common denominator is for each of them, if there is one. If I had to guess I would say a passionate, smart student of the game.

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

Wow! Had no idea all those guys were there. Did our special teams coach also spend a year or two there? Wonder what the common denominator is for each of them, if there is one. If I had to guess I would say a passionate, smart student of the game.

He sure did! He spent a year with us and helped us get to the 2021 DII Championship game where we got promptly destroyed by Ferris State in a rematch of the 2018 title game which we won. As an aside, our previous HC Gary Goff, is now with McNeese State and seems to be on the rise.

 

[stinger 1957]

Tangent alert... Marrone leaving wasn't so much the stab in the back. It was Marrone taking his mentor's playbook to his mentor's arch rival AND recruiting for said rival while still on staff at GT. And not like Buster was doing for us. That was in the open and everyone knew he was recruiting for us. Marrone was talking to players behind everyone's back. Dougie was slimy and I have actively rooted against every team he has coached while he is their coach and will continue to do so. It is my fervent hope that he never has anything to do with GT sports ever again.

PS I know it is fairly common practice to take a playbook with you. But Doug was a NOBODY when George O'Leary hired him and Ralph took him, and Bill O'Brien, under his wing and treated those guys like sons. Doug showed how little he valued that when he left the way he did.

I never knew much about the background of both Marrone and Billy O' before GT, never had a conversation with Doug but did have several with Billy O' and he always came off to me as a class person. Hated that Gailey would not turn the offense over to him and decided to let him go, in the long run may have been what got Gailey fired since, IMO, it was his lack of offense that got him fired.