StonyBrook Hires Def Coach

[Seawolf97]

As announced today on the StonyBrook Athletic site StonyBrook has hired Jim Gush former def. co ordinator at SMU for 6 seasons and 3 seasons at Kansas State as a defensive coach to head StonyBrooks defense in 2009. Gush is a 1981 graduate of Bucknell and was a student assistant at both Albany and Iowa State.
Hopefully this is a major step to strengthen our defense going forward.

[Bull Fan]

Tell you what, I just took a gander at your recruiting class. Impressive size, and the staff did a wonderful job pulling kids from out of state. I'm not a fan of the local LI talent, I just think it's thin. Has Chuck sold his soul? You're going to be an interesting team to watch over the next couple of years.....

[Seawolf97]

Tell you what, I just took a gander at your recruiting class. Impressive size, and the staff did a wonderful job pulling kids from out of state. I'm not a fan of the local LI talent, I just think it's thin. Has Chuck sold his soul? You're going to be an interesting team to watch over the next couple of years.....

I know we have some Big 10 size OL as freshman coming in and Mr Gush supposedly has good contacts in Texas and the Mid-West for recruiitng. This could be interesting.

[danefan]

Another Bob Ford disciple.

That is always a good hire!

[Seawolf97]

Another Bob Ford disciple.

That is always a good hire!

Thanks! The pieces are starting to come together out there. I think this is a good hire for us since he has alot experience with two major programs and another Albany disciple.

[Bull Fan]

Big 10 size, but you should hope they're not soft. You can't coach "mean". Good luck wit the squad....

[bigSfan89]

i am happy to see any BIG SOUTH school improve on the field and you had a good first year in conference. i am still ticked about CSU's one point loss against you last season. missed extra points and field goals doomed us. i root for any conference school until they play us. do you think Stony will be in B South for long? i believe that this just might be temperary. Go Bucs!!!

[Redwyn]

Stony Brook seems intent on moving up. The size of the school doesn't suggest it aligns well with other Big South members (under 10K student enrollment for most members, as compared with close to 25K at SBU). It doesn't align well with its conference for other sports - the America East - either. With the exception of Boston Univ it's the largest school in the conference by a significant margin.

While I think SBU will leave the Big South, probably to the Big 10, Big East, or other large school sports conference (Colonial unlikely due to size considerations, as is A-10 due to non-Football inclusion), it will only do this when all sports can move up, which will likely not happen for another decade or so. This is due to the need for the level of sports such as M/W basketball (2009 is first winning year since Div I move, and only post season is Women's NIT a few years back), track/field (close to bottom of conference), Swimming (consistent bottom dwellers as well), and Football (must start qualifying for playoffs, and do so consistently) to improve significantly. I'd also make a case that SBU must start adding "rich school sports", such as M/W Fencing (men's team already in NCAA conference as club member), W Gymnastics, and M (IRA) / W Crew (both already competing at IRA/NCAA level, beating Penn State/Temple consistently, just unrecognized), before any conference would consider picking them up. SBU has a lot of ground to make up.

The plus size to this situation is the massive positive growth in endowment. Now over 300 million (almost 100 million larger than Hofstra, and comparable per capita with University of Maryland, which has 100 million more for 10 thousand more students), the endowment grew almost 100 million between 2007 and 2009. The significant correlation between funding and athletic level should elevate SBU rapidly. Other bright lights include Baseball and Softball, two consistently strong Northeast programs (Northeast is weak in both sports, so it's much easier to do than in the South or West), and Volleyball and M/W Cross Country are perennial contenders. It should be exciting to see what happens.

[Bull Fan]

While I think SBU will leave the Big South, probably to the Big 10, Big East, or other large school sports conference (Colonial unlikely due to size considerations, as is A-10 due to non-Football inclusion), it will only do this when all sports can move up, which will likely not happen for another decade or so.

You're kidding, right? Not about leaving the BS, but to the Big 10 or Big East?

[Redwyn]

It's not an impossibility, especially once the conference inevitably splits, probably in a similar time span. The school also mirrors the trajectory of Penn State, who probably confronted similar arguments 50 years ago. Not saying this is an immediate future thing, but a decade ago the school was DII/DIII in all sports. A decade's a long time.

[Bull Fan]

I'd be shocked if SBU ever turned the corner to I-A, let alone a powerful conference like you've mentioned. And shock would still be a sensation 50 years from now....

[Wildcat80]

First things first. Now that SB is at full schollies can they win--or even dominate--the Big South? Hope so for Northeastern football's rep. My guess is in a few years caa breaks off into North & South leagues. SB ends up in north. Hope to see them go Big East though--that would be cool!

[VT Wildcat Fan53]

Another Bob Ford disciple.

That is always a good hire!

Touche!

[Uncle Buck]

You're kidding, right? Not about leaving the BS, but to the Big 10 or Big East?

I just spit my coffee all over the screen. Big East i can somewhat agree to way down the road, but Big 10, what the hell is Priore putting in the kool-aid at the student cafeteria.

[Bull Fan]

I just spit my coffee all over the screen. Big East i can somewhat agree to way down the road, but Big 10, what the hell is Priore putting in the kool-aid at the student cafeteria.


Crystal meth, that's what.

[Uncle Buck]

It's not an impossibility, especially once the conference inevitably splits, probably in a similar time span. The school also mirrors the trajectory of Penn State, who probably confronted similar arguments 50 years ago. Not saying this is an immediate future thing, but a decade ago the school was DII/DIII in all sports. A decade's a long time.

I think SBU will be at the FCS level for a long long time. The Long Island market is just not going to support a football program even if it is at the FBS level. I love football and made several SBU games this year when HU was away, but LI is a tough sell. You would have to increase the stadium size and bring in some big names to fill it. I just don't see it on LI.

[Seawolf97]

I seriously dont see it either. You would have to elevate all sports male and female not just football and probably add a few .

[Bull Fan]

I seriously dont see it either. You would have to elevate all sports male and female not just football and probably add a few .

Beyond elevating all sports, it goes to how the University at large, the region and fans offer support. I just don't see it on LI. It doesn't have a track record of supporting college sports. I grew up here and live here- we just don't get nuts for college teams like other areas of the country... the investment, if SBU did go all-in, would go to waste in my opinion.

Uncle Buck and I clearly see eye-to-eye on this one, and having been to and seeing stronger environments supporting I-AA football, SBU is light years away from this topic to begin with. Anyone want to try to understand this, take a trip down to Newark, DE on a gameday (not to mention Mizzoula, MT - which I haven't yet). Those are two programs that could probably support a I-A program given their history and support. But even they are comfortable in their current environment and know what a good thing is....