VCU Rams Football Program

[vcu70]

We sure missed the boat years ago on FB. I know this is mostly BB people here that are scared to death it would hurt our BB program. Lots of FB talent in Va. We are always downing UR, ODU, etc but it's more jealousy than anything. People who went to FB schools know what we are missing out on. Title 9 certainly hurts for startup. Still undefeated? If we hadn't started BB in 68, BB would be undefeated too. What a ridiculous slogan. Alumni donors and fan base would quadruple at least. Believe it or not there are people who hate BB.

 

[AlienAiden]

I agree with Litos who just tweeted this

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/905060247416565760

Not sure why you came out of hibernation to revive this

 

[vcu70]

I agree with Litos who just tweeted this

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/905060247416565760

Not sure why you came out of hibernation to revive this

Just my opinion. Cant post over there anymore. I'm
a stupid, idiotic moron that is always negative and passive aggressive, I don't fit in at all. I know we will never have FB. Just think it's a shame a great university missed out.

 

[AlienAiden]

I do not feel like VCU missed out. I like being a basketball school.

 

[vcu70]

I do not feel like VCU missed out. I like being a basketball school.

That's fine.

 

[vcugq08]

Would be nice to skip the build up and go straight to a top flight football program. We'd definitely be a P5 school right now.

 

[vcu70]

Would be nice to skip the build up and go straight to a top flight football program. We'd definitely be a P5 school right now.

Well 08, that's basically what I was saying. If we had started back in the 70s before adding all these other sports it would have been less costly and maybe be a P5 now, maybe even ACC. Now without FB where are we going down the road? Never be a P5 I can see. Will always be a high mid major fighting to stay afloat trying to recruit against the big boys.
Everybody has to start at the bottom, can't skip it. But I will say ODU and Liberty are coming along faster than anyone thought was possible. I wont be around but wonder what the state athletic scene will look like 20 yrs from now.
I had no idea FB was being added by so many schools in this decade.

 

[vcu70]

You're right, foolish idea. Plus we don't really have the support of anyone or the staff to seriously pull off a successful new sports program.....plus we might lose Shaka if we even talk about it......you're right, this is no time to double down.......let's just be happy with what we have.........

bahahaha, now isn't this some post to look back at?

 

[vcu70]

Well 08, that's basically what I was saying. If we had started back in the 70s before adding all these other sports it would have been less costly and maybe be a P5 now, maybe even ACC. Now without FB where are we going down the road? Never be a P5 I can see. Will always be a high mid major fighting to stay afloat trying to recruit against the big boys.
Everybody has to start at the bottom, can't skip it. But I will say ODU and Liberty are coming along faster than anyone thought was possible. I wont be around but wonder what the state athletic scene will look like 20 yrs from now.
I had no idea FB was being added by so many schools in this decade.

I wouldn't dare post this publicly but here is my take. Most here are so happy we are a BB only school because they are afraid FB would ruin everything but my take is not having FB is hurting our BB program now that we have gotten to this level. We are at a dead end without FB. Where are we gonna go? A small step up to the Big East is it. And down the road the P5s are probably gonna leave the NCAA and we will be whats equivalent to FCS in FB. We are gonna keep struggling to sign 4 stars and hardly ever a 5 star. A NC is not gonna happen that way. Making the NCAAs every year is top 50. I doubt we ever see a FF again. They better get used to it because we are stalled and I dont see a way out now. We should have started it in the 70s. Am I nuts or what?

 

[vcugq08]

I wouldn't dare post this publicly but here is my take. Most here are so happy we are a BB only school because they are afraid FB would ruin everything but my take is not having FB is hurting our BB program now that we have gotten to this level. We are at a dead end without FB. Where are we gonna go? A small step up to the Big East is it. And down the road the P5s are probably gonna leave the NCAA and we will be whats equivalent to FCS in FB. We are gonna keep struggling to sign 4 stars and hardly ever a 5 star. A NC is not gonna happen that way. Making the NCAAs every year is top 50. I doubt we ever see a FF again. They better get used to it because we are stalled and I dont see a way out now. We should have started it in the 70s. Am I nuts or what?

I think at this point the A10 is the end of the line for us. Maybe the American but since we aren't private nor Catholic, we can forget about the Big East. The longer we wait the more expensive it's gonna be to filed a football team.

 

[RowdyPkunk]

I wouldn't dare post this publicly but here is my take. Most here are so happy we are a BB only school because they are afraid FB would ruin everything but my take is not having FB is hurting our BB program now that we have gotten to this level. We are at a dead end without FB. Where are we gonna go? A small step up to the Big East is it. And down the road the P5s are probably gonna leave the NCAA and we will be whats equivalent to FCS in FB. We are gonna keep struggling to sign 4 stars and hardly ever a 5 star. A NC is not gonna happen that way. Making the NCAAs every year is top 50. I doubt we ever see a FF again. They better get used to it because we are stalled and I dont see a way out now. We should have started it in the 70s. Am I nuts or what?

Here's the thing..... if FB had been started back in the 70's or w/e before VCU became so huge & before Basketball was the big ticket in town... then yeah conceivably we could have a successful basketball & Football program.... also because back then..... VCU hadn't taken over pretty much all of Downtown, The Redskins training camp in Richmond was not even thought of yet, and who knows what else was not here yet in Richmond back in those days (I'll leave it for the long time Richmonders to fill in the gaps there).

But there's several issues.....
1. Where would we play? There's only 2 places we could theoretically play.... both would prob need a make over if we were to try & use it for football.... SportsBacker & City Stadium.

2. Who's gonna pay for it? Where's the money going to come from?..... Is all our money that we are donating to the RAF gonna go to it.... and if so are we going to have to increase our giving just to keep our basketball season tickets? Bad enough donation levels are steadily going up as it is now.

3. If we add football.... it means we either have to add a couple more Women's sports to make up the difference in number of scholarships.... or we have to take away scholarships from the current men's teams.... So which mens teams do we wanna get rid of it? Obviously not basketball. Baseball? Soccer? T&F? Or what sports do we wanna add for the women? Swimming? Softball (which would require another field being built).

As far as where we go in terms of conferences.... ultimately that should be the least of our concern right now.... really our concern should be keeping a fricking coach longer than 3-4 years. In our programs 49 year history (not counting this coming season yet)... we've had 12 coaches.... and only 4 of them have stayed longer than 4 years (Shaka, Smith, Barnett, Noe).... and only 1 of them has stayed longer than 6 years (Smith).....

You look at Gonzaga... they're not a power 5 school, they don't have football either, yet look at how successful they are? Since 1968 when our program was created... they've had a total of 7 coaches (6 different coaches... one was coach in 2 different stints)... and only Dan Monson's tenure was fewer than 4 years.

Mark Few... the current coach has been there since 1999. He finished either 1st or 2nd in the West Coast Conference every single year. He's made the NCAA Tourney every year. And here's a breakdown of how his team has done

NCAA Tourneys: 18 out of 18 seasons
Round of 32: 15
Sweet 16: 7
Elite 8's: 2
Final Four: 1
Champ. Game: 1

That's pretty darn impressive for a non power 5 school.... and the reason they are so successful is Stability.

Sure they don't have a National Championship in that resume... but heck, there's a lot of power 5 schools who don't sniff a national championships in a lot of sports.

I'm Perfectly fine not having football.

 

[vcugq08]

Here's the thing..... if FB had been started back in the 70's or w/e before VCU became so huge & before Basketball was the big ticket in town... then yeah conceivably we could have a successful basketball & Football program.... also because back then..... VCU hadn't taken over pretty much all of Downtown, The Redskins training camp in Richmond was not even thought of yet, and who knows what else was not here yet in Richmond back in those days (I'll leave it for the long time Richmonders to fill in the gaps there).

But there's several issues.....
1. Where would we play? There's only 2 places we could theoretically play.... both would prob need a make over if we were to try & use it for football.... SportsBacker & City Stadium.

2. Who's gonna pay for it? Where's the money going to come from?..... Is all our money that we are donating to the RAF gonna go to it.... and if so are we going to have to increase our giving just to keep our basketball season tickets? Bad enough donation levels are steadily going up as it is now.

3. If we add football.... it means we either have to add a couple more Women's sports to make up the difference in number of scholarships.... or we have to take away scholarships from the current men's teams.... So which mens teams do we wanna get rid of it? Obviously not basketball. Baseball? Soccer? T&F? Or what sports do we wanna add for the women? Swimming? Softball (which would require another field being built).

As far as where we go in terms of conferences.... ultimately that should be the least of our concern right now.... really our concern should be keeping a fricking coach longer than 3-4 years. In our programs 49 year history (not counting this coming season yet)... we've had 12 coaches.... and only 4 of them have stayed longer than 4 years (Shaka, Smith, Barnett, Noe).... and only 1 of them has stayed longer than 6 years (Smith).....

You look at Gonzaga... they're not a power 5 school, they don't have football either, yet look at how successful they are? Since 1968 when our program was created... they've had a total of 7 coaches (6 different coaches... one was coach in 2 different stints)... and only Dan Monson's tenure was fewer than 4 years.

Mark Few... the current coach has been there since 1999. He finished either 1st or 2nd in the West Coast Conference every single year. He's made the NCAA Tourney every year. And here's a breakdown of how his team has done

NCAA Tourneys: 18 out of 18 seasons
Round of 32: 15
Sweet 16: 7
Elite 8's: 2
Final Four: 1
Champ. Game: 1

That's pretty darn impressive for a non power 5 school.... and the reason they are so successful is Stability.

Sure they don't have a National Championship in that resume... but heck, there's a lot of power 5 schools who don't sniff a national championships in a lot of sports.

I'm Perfectly fine not having football.

I'm with you on the money issues. But lets say money wasn't the problem. City Stadium could be renovated slowly the way ODU has been doing with their stadium. Secondly, I would love to see a softball team at VCU. And last, Gonzaga is a major player but they still are technically a mid-major. They are the only team in their conference that is almost assured an at-large bid if they don't win their conference tournmant. Look at how St. Mary's got hosed a couple of years ago. We will be fine with our basketball team. It just sucks to get left out of the football conversation every year.

 

[vcu70]

Here's the thing..... if FB had been started back in the 70's or w/e before VCU became so huge & before Basketball was the big ticket in town... then yeah conceivably we could have a successful basketball & Football program.... also because back then..... VCU hadn't taken over pretty much all of Downtown, The Redskins training camp in Richmond was not even thought of yet, and who knows what else was not here yet in Richmond back in those days (I'll leave it for the long time Richmonders to fill in the gaps there).

But there's several issues.....
1. Where would we play? There's only 2 places we could theoretically play.... both would prob need a make over if we were to try & use it for football.... SportsBacker & City Stadium.

2. Who's gonna pay for it? Where's the money going to come from?..... Is all our money that we are donating to the RAF gonna go to it.... and if so are we going to have to increase our giving just to keep our basketball season tickets? Bad enough donation levels are steadily going up as it is now.

3. If we add football.... it means we either have to add a couple more Women's sports to make up the difference in number of scholarships.... or we have to take away scholarships from the current men's teams.... So which mens teams do we wanna get rid of it? Obviously not basketball. Baseball? Soccer? T&F? Or what sports do we wanna add for the women? Swimming? Softball (which would require another field being built).

As far as where we go in terms of conferences.... ultimately that should be the least of our concern right now.... really our concern should be keeping a fricking coach longer than 3-4 years. In our programs 49 year history (not counting this coming season yet)... we've had 12 coaches.... and only 4 of them have stayed longer than 4 years (Shaka, Smith, Barnett, Noe).... and only 1 of them has stayed longer than 6 years (Smith).....

You look at Gonzaga... they're not a power 5 school, they don't have football either, yet look at how successful they are? Since 1968 when our program was created... they've had a total of 7 coaches (6 different coaches... one was coach in 2 different stints)... and only Dan Monson's tenure was fewer than 4 years.

Mark Few... the current coach has been there since 1999. He finished either 1st or 2nd in the West Coast Conference every single year. He's made the NCAA Tourney every year. And here's a breakdown of how his team has done

NCAA Tourneys: 18 out of 18 seasons
Round of 32: 15
Sweet 16: 7
Elite 8's: 2
Final Four: 1
Champ. Game: 1

That's pretty darn impressive for a non power 5 school.... and the reason they are so successful is Stability.

Sure they don't have a National Championship in that resume... but heck, there's a lot of power 5 schools who don't sniff a national championships in a lot of sports.

I'm Perfectly fine not having football.

Hey, I'm not saying start one now. I'm saying it's too late to start one and ever make a P5, so forget it. I'm simply saying not having FB has stalled where we can go conference wise, just as it has Gonzaga and St. Marys and if the P5s leave the NCAA we are all screwed. It makes our recruiting hard every year no matter the coach or longevity. MR staying a long time will help some but...Back in 70 we had the MCV campus and I think our enrollment was over 15K then and City Stadium was available. The club team played there. And if you don't count student fees, our BB program is break even now to stay where we are at. I know hindsight is 20-20 but I hate it wasn't done. Peace and go Rams.

 

[RowdyPkunk]

Hey, I'm not saying start one now. I'm saying it's too late to start one and ever make a P5, so forget it. I'm simply saying not having FB has stalled where we can go conference wise, just as it has Gonzaga and St. Marys and if the P5s leave the NCAA we are all screwed. It makes our recruiting hard every year no matter the coach or longevity. MR staying a long time will help some but...Back in 70 we had the MCV campus and I think our enrollment was over 15K then and City Stadium was available. The club team played there. And if you don't count student fees, our BB program is break even now to stay where we are at. I know hindsight is 20-20 but I hate it wasn't done. Peace and go Rams.

I don't know if not having football is hurting us recruiting wise... certainly I wouldn't put that as a bigger factor than having sustainability at the coaching position.

Sure, without football... the best conferences we could get in are the American Conference or the Big East.... but I mean Fodu has football? Have for a while now, though they just recently became D-I. Richmond has football, has for years.... though they are I-AA. I don't see their recruiting for basketball going up that much just because they have football. Just like I don't see our recruiting being affected by not having it.

Ultimately, these kids are gonna go, where they are going to go. There are kids who will get offers from us... that also get offers from Duke, UNC, Va Tech, UVA, and other P5/BigEast schools. Some kids will pick those P5/BigEast schools because they dream of playing in the NBA, and they think they'd have a better chance getting drafted by going there instead of VCU. There are some who will come to VCU because they feel like they'll get more playing time as a freshman than they will at UNC, Duke, Kentucky, UVA... etc.

Look at some of the players who have recently decommitted or transferred from VCU to go other places. Kenny Williams plays for UNC... but was originally committed to VCU... even though he had an offer from UNC initially, Jordan Murphy who plays for Minnesota... was originally committed to us.... Terry Larrier played his freshman year with us before going to UConn..... What do all 3 of those players have in common... all 3 of them were committed to / played for VCU while Shaka was coach.... but as soon as Shaka bolted to Texas.... so did they..... One could easily make the arugment that If Shaka had never left for Texas.... all 3 of those guys would be in a Rams uniform right now.

I know Wade had recruited some guys for this coming year.... but as soon as he took off for LSU..... I think it was 2 of the 4 players he had recruited for us.... de-committed from us..... Some could easily make the case that if Wade hadn't left... we'd have all the guys Wade originally recruited for us.

Ultimately, the 2 things that I think affect our recruiting most are winning & sustainability at the coaching position.... WAY MORE so than not having football.... even if it means we are not in the bigger conference. For example.... prior to our Final Four run... we were not getting nearly the Top 100 recruits, or 4 star recruits that we've gotten or have been in the running for since our Final 4. And remember.... Shaka stayed here for 6 years, the Final 4 was in year 2.... and every year since the Final 4, we've made the tourney. You don't think those 2 things (winning & stability) helped Shaka recruit better his last 4 years at VCU? I know it did. Just like it helped us start the streak of selling out the STU 99 straight games heading into this season.

 

[vcu70]

I don't know if not having football is hurting us recruiting wise... certainly I wouldn't put that as a bigger factor than having sustainability at the coaching position.

Sure, without football... the best conferences we could get in are the American Conference or the Big East.... but I mean Fodu has football? Have for a while now, though they just recently became D-I. Richmond has football, has for years.... though they are I-AA. I don't see their recruiting for basketball going up that much just because they have football. Just like I don't see our recruiting being affected by not having it.

Ultimately, these kids are gonna go, where they are going to go. There are kids who will get offers from us... that also get offers from Duke, UNC, Va Tech, UVA, and other P5/BigEast schools. Some kids will pick those P5/BigEast schools because they dream of playing in the NBA, and they think they'd have a better chance getting drafted by going there instead of VCU. There are some who will come to VCU because they feel like they'll get more playing time as a freshman than they will at UNC, Duke, Kentucky, UVA... etc.

I'm saying we will never be a P5. Did Va Tech get in the ACC because of BB. heck, they were terrible back then, terrible, but look at them now. Odu has been less than 10 years and Liberty too. I'm talking 45 years ago we should have. Lord knows what we would be like now. It's not just having FB. It's the conference you're in. Year in and year out we nor any A-10 or Big east for that matter can recruit with the ACC, Big Ten or SEC for that matter. Look what Wade has done just since March. What's odu and Liberty programs gonna look like in 40 years? I hate to think. A 4 star or two every year or so will keep us where we are at. I can't see it changing.


Look at some of the players who have recently decommitted or transferred from VCU to go other places. Kenny Williams plays for UNC... but was originally committed to VCU... even though he had an offer from UNC initially, Jordan Murphy who plays for Minnesota... was originally committed to us.... Terry Larrier played his freshman year with us before going to UConn..... What do all 3 of those players have in common... all 3 of them were committed to / played for VCU while Shaka was coach.... but as soon as Shaka bolted to Texas.... so did they..... One could easily make the arugment that If Shaka had never left for Texas.... all 3 of those guys would be in a Rams uniform right now.

I know Wade had recruited some guys for this coming year.... but as soon as he took off for LSU..... I think it was 2 of the 4 players he had recruited for us.... de-committed from us..... Some could easily make the case that if Wade hadn't left... we'd have all the guys Wade originally recruited for us.

Ultimately, the 2 things that I think affect our recruiting most are winning & sustainability at the coaching position.... WAY MORE so than not having football.... even if it means we are not in the bigger conference. For example.... prior to our Final Four run... we were not getting nearly the Top 100 recruits, or 4 star recruits that we've gotten or have been in the running for since our Final 4. And remember.... Shaka stayed here for 6 years, the Final 4 was in year 2.... and every year since the Final 4, we've made the tourney. You don't think those 2 things (winning & stability) helped Shaka recruit better his last 4 years at VCU? I know it did. Just like it helped us start the streak of selling out the STU 99 straight games heading into this season.