Bobby Ross stepping down

[cortez]

Press conference at noon EST

 

[cortez]

Check that: presser at 3 p.m.

 

[wickedwritah]

Close to an impossible situation there, despite what Paul Johnson has done at Navy.

Would've been nice to see them win that game against A&M this year, though.

 

[cortez]

My dad's a 1945 West Point grad, and is fed up with the program. He wants them to downsize the schedule and play more schools like UMass., VMI, UConn., etc

 

[Pringle]

Close to an impossible situation there, despite what Paul Johnson has done at Navy.

Would've been nice to see them win that game against A&M this year, though.

Particularly when the coach insists on running a pro-style offense without the horses to do so.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Idjits never should have fired Bob Sutton, especially for Todd Berry.

And let's be honest here: Regardless of how you feel about it, the guy in the White House is doing more to hurt Army football than anyone else. MOST Navy and AFA guys won't get close to Iraq. Not so with the USMA grads, and the parents of prospective recruits know that.

 

[D-3 Fan]

Micro, leave the politics out of this. He doesn't have anything to do with the football program. Talk about a blanket statement. The deterioration of Army football has been on the rise even when Sutton was there, so don't bring that Bush **** in here. Army, Navy, and the AFA has been a non-factor for the better part of 40 years, with exception to AFA football and basketball.

The realization for Army, Navy, and the Air Force is simply this: the best players are not going to play for them. This is not 1946, where you get drafted and if you wanted to, play football for Army. The period between George Welsh and Paul Johnson, Navy was garbage. You couldn't spell inept without Navy. The landscape for military athletics have changed drastically over the last three decades. How many athletic accomplishments can we think of in respects to our military programs?

-David Robinson
-Paul Johnson
-the late Maggie Dixon
-Napoleon McCallum
-Air Force, DeBerry, and the Wishbone

Those are the only things I can think of when it comes to Army, Navy, and the AFA since 1980. A local blogger (former sportswriter for the Register) suggested that Army and Navy should drop to Division III because they are only going to get the average to below-average players that even D-II North Alabama wouldn't touch.

 

[WSKY]

bottom line, you can't compete at the D-I level at Army.

 

[wickedwritah]

Bottom line: Army needs to compete at the Division I level. You think the alums are gonna put up for Army and Navy playing in a third-tier ECAC-affiliated league?

That's not a slam on Army or Navy, that's just life.

And if Navy can get David Robinson in, and get him out of his commitment a couple years early, anything can happen.

 

[micropolitan guy]

It's impossible to leave "politics" out of it when your school is producing graduates who within two years are virtually guranteed of seeing combat action in Iraq if they have chosen the infantry. To think this doesn't affect recruiting, in which the parents have a substantial say in where their child will attend college, is to have your head in the sand.

Army was very competitive under Jim Young, and Bob Sutton, during a period of relatively little global military involvement. However, it began to slip in the mid-1990s, just after Gulf War I. Todd Berry was a disaster. Then came Iraq, and Army has had trouble recruiting.

Yet during this same period Navy has produced very competitive football programs. Air Force has been excellent in basketball, and competitive in football. You can easily compete on a Division I level at a service academy.

 

[spinning27]

Micro, leave the politics out of this. He doesn't have anything to do with the football program. Talk about a blanket statement. The deterioration of Army football has been on the rise even when Sutton was there, so don't bring that Bush **** in here. Army, Navy, and the AFA has been a non-factor for the better part of 40 years, with exception to AFA football and basketball.

The realization for Army, Navy, and the Air Force is simply this: the best players are not going to play for them. This is not 1946, where you get drafted and if you wanted to, play football for Army. The period between George Welsh and Paul Johnson, Navy was garbage. You couldn't spell inept without Navy. The landscape for military athletics have changed drastically over the last three decades. How many athletic accomplishments can we think of in respects to our military programs?

-David Robinson
-Paul Johnson
-the late Maggie Dixon
-Napoleon McCallum
-Air Force, DeBerry, and the Wishbone

Those are the only things I can think of when it comes to Army, Navy, and the AFA since 1980. A local blogger (former sportswriter for the Register) suggested that Army and Navy should drop to Division III because they are only going to get the average to below-average players that even D-II North Alabama wouldn't touch.

You're just flat-out wrong.

Micropolitan is on the money. Air Force, Army and Navy recruit from the same pool of athletes. If you have an opportunity to go to the academy of your choice, the post-graduate career path would be a huge factor for anyone. If you don't want to be on the ground in combat, you're going to go to Air Force or Navy, where you can get a desk job and get treated better.

You don't think Air Force and Navy coaches use the war situation against Army in recruiting? Come on.

 

[shotglass]

Patriot League. Just like basketball. That's where Army and Navy should be playing their football, where the other athletes are students too.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I wish I knew enough about the situation at Army to be able to call bull**** on the "Iraq hurts" idea, but I don't.

I'm sure the NYT will eventually pursue that angle, if it's there ...

 

[wickedwritah]

Patriot League. Just like basketball. That's where Army and Navy should be playing their football, where the other athletes are students too.

As long as either school has a winning Heisman Trophy alum alive, it won't happen.

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

I'd be more than a little concerned about Iraq if I was a teenager thinking about where I wanted to play college football.

That said, it remains an honorable decision. Hey they're programmed to follow orders.

Stan Brock is going to succeed Ross. He was an offensive tackle for 13 years for the Saints -- "holding, No. 67, offense" was a familiar phrase during his tenure -- but an effective run blocker on the right side. Stan was on Bobby's '95 Chargers team that got its ass kicked in the Super Bowl.

Brock is not exactly Mr. Personality, but his NFL background can't hurt at West Point.

 

[Diego Marquez]

Does this sudden "retirement" make Bobby a last-minute candidate for the Cowboys job? He's only 70.

 

[Oz]

Close to an impossible situation there, despite what Paul Johnson has done at Navy.

Would've been nice to see them win that game against A&M this year, though.

I thought Ross had them on the right track, though. You can't win at the service academies doing what everyone else does. You need to run Paul Johnson's or Fisher DeBerry's flexbone to make maximum use of the athletes you've got.

 

[BYH]

Does this sudden "retirement" make Bobby a last-minute candidate for the Cowboys job? He's only 70.

Maybe the Lions or Chargers should re-hire him.

He went farther with those teams than their current dopes.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

This guy?

 

[wickedwritah]

Is it true that Bob Ross died from sniffing glue?