Growth of a Football Program

DeepGreen · September 19, 2006

"This is an interesting article about Louisiville and how they grew their football program. It talks about how the football team has elevated the entire university while going to eight straight bowl games."

This is what athletics mean to some universities. And don't forget, Louisville use to be in the same league as North Texas. Amazing how some schools get the picture. And then there are those who..........oh, never mind.

September 16, 2006

At Louisville, a Big-Time Program Without the Tradition

By JOE DRAPE

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 15 — It will be different for the Louisville athletic director, Tom Jurich, on Saturday when the Cardinals take the field against Miami. First, the game will be played in daylight. Second, it will be televised on ABC. Best of all, a Louisville victory means thoughts of a national title will live here another week.

The Cardinals, after all, are a team with little tradition, a team that entered the nation’s consciousness recently by agreeing to play Tuesday, Thursday — any night that ESPN asked. When Jurich came here in the fall of 1997, he had to plead with Adidas to let him buy shoes and gear for the team at retail prices.

“I offered them signs and billboards that they didn’t want just so my coaches could tell recruits that we were an Adidas school,” Jurich said.

No more. Louisville, which now plays in the Big East Conference, has gone to a bowl game eight consecutive years.

The rise of Louisville football has more to do with 21st-century marketing than 20th-century tradition.

The most famous Cardinal of them all, the late Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas, played on teams that won only seven games over three seasons in the early 1950’s. The ESPN analyst Lee Corso was 28-11-3 as the coach from 1969 to 1972. Howard Schnellenberger’s record was below .500 over 10 years, but he gave Louisville one of its most memorable seasons, going 10-1 in the 1990 season and beating Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl.

When Jurich arrived from Colorado State, he had the good fortune of inheriting a new 42,000-seat stadium, and the foresight to hire an old friend, John L. Smith, who had been the coach at Utah State and employed a wide-open, high-scoring passing game. Smith, now the coach at Michigan State, brought along an innovative offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino.

“It was by plan,” Jurich said. “We needed to play entertaining football on the field, and off it we needed change — no shock — to our culture.”

Just as he had wheedled a deal with Adidas, Jurich offered his high-scoring football team to ESPN programmers. Of Louisville’s 44 television appearances since 1998, 36 have been on ESPN networks.

“We’ve been on television every night but Monday,” he said. “It was tough on our fans, but we were reaching potential recruits and football fans.”

Soon, however, the Louisville faithful embraced nighttime tailgating, and sellouts became the rule.

Whether or not the 12th-ranked Cardinals ( 2-0) defeat No. 17 Miami (1-1), the university president, James Ramsey, says the team’s impact on campus goes far beyond the 71-30 record the team has posted the past eight years.

On Friday, Ramsey held a celebration for thousands of faculty, staff and students on the lawn in front of Grawemeyer Hall. It honored goals that were met more than a year early on a 10-year academic plan. Among them were doubling the university’s endowment and increasing the number of endowed chairs and professorships.

“The football team, and the athletics program, has helped transform this university from a financially struggling metropolitan commuter school to a major research university that is attractive to the best faculty and students in the country,” Ramsey said.

“They have helped us raise our profile and opened up new markets for recruitment,’’ Ramsey added. “This is a very different institution than it was eight years ago.”

The success of football has also helped Jurich raise $200 million privately for the athletic department; $16.5 million of it was spent on Cardinal Park, a multisport complex. It not only helped 12 of Louisville’s sports teams earn national rankings last year, but it increased the number of sports available to women and has become a focal point in the city because it is used by local high schools.

The university built new dormitories and doubled the number of students living on campus. It was Louisville’s entry into the Big East last season, however, that has increased donations for academics and athletics.

“Those two areas fuel each other,” said Harry Jones, a Louisville native who is also a former chairman of the university’s board of trustees and a major donor. “Now you’re not only catching the eyes and ears of potential students, you’re being put out in front of top-flight faculty and researchers. By raising the money and spending it, it lets them know that we’re committed to being the very best that we can be.”

Louisville demonstrated how willing it was to pursue elite status in football last July when it signed Petrino to a 10-year, $25 million contract. He was 29-8 over three seasons, including an 11-1 mark in 2004 when the Cardinals led the nation in total offense (539 yards a game) and scoring (49.7 points a game).

Each season, Petrino has attracted the attention of premier football schools like Auburn and L.S.U. He turned down a lucrative offer to coach the Oakland Raiders.

“We think he’s one of the brightest minds in coaching, and we weren’t going to lose him because of dollars,” Jurich said.

Petrino said he got the message that Louisville was committed to him, and so did the rest of college football.

“We want to win a national championship here,” he said. “I know I can see that level of commitment, and I know the resources are here.”

It was considered a recruiting coup when the junior quarterback Brian Brohm and the senior running back Michael Bush — each considered Heisman Trophy contenders until Bush broke his leg against Kentucky in the opener — were persuaded to stay at home and play for the Cardinals.

Next year, another highly rated quarterback will play for Louisville: Matt Simms, the son of the former Giants quarterback Phil, and the brother of the Buccaneers quarterback, Chris.

To Brohm, the program’s present and future seem bright, and national titles seem to be in reach.

“I talk to recruits a lot, and they see that we have as good as talent as any other school, and as good as facilities,” Brohm said. “We’re on television, the stadium is packed and wild. Instead of living up to somebody else’s history, we have everything in place to make our own.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/sports/n...int&oref=slogin

DeepGreen · September 19, 2006

"The rise of Louisville football has more to do with 21st-century marketing than 20th-century tradition."

Whether or not the 12th-ranked Cardinals ( 2-0) defeat No. 17 Miami (1-1), the university president, James Ramsey, says the team’s impact on campus goes far beyond the 71-30 record the team has posted the past eight years.

On Friday, Ramsey held a celebration for thousands of faculty, staff and students on the lawn in front of Grawemeyer Hall. It honored goals that were met more than a year early on a 10-year academic plan. Among them were doubling the university’s endowment and increasing the number of endowed chairs and professorships.

“The football team, and the athletics program, has helped transform this university from a financially struggling metropolitan commuter school to a major research university that is attractive to the best faculty and students in the country,” Ramsey said.“They have helped us raise our profile and opened up new markets for recruitment,’’ Ramsey added. “This is a very different institution than it was eight years ago.”

Edited September 19, 2006 by DeepGreen

untgirl04 · September 19, 2006

*sigh*

FirefightnRick · September 19, 2006

.......employed a wide-open, high-scoring passing game. Smith, now the coach at Michigan State, brought along an innovative offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino.
“It was by plan,” Jurich said. “We needed to play entertaining football on the field",

Rick

meanrob · September 19, 2006

While an interesting article, their situation was/is nothing like ours.

They were drawing 15k per BBall game. They are the only game in town in a major metropolitan area. That's a lot of money to draw from.

DeepGreen · September 19, 2006

While an interesting article, their situation was/is nothing like ours.
They were drawing 15k per BBall game. They are the only game in town in a major metropolitan area. That's a lot of money to draw from.
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Rob, with all due respect, we can always come up with excuses and reasons why NT can't do it and so and so university had this going for them. So how did Boise become the next darling of D1A like Louisville? It certainly wasn't their 15K fan basetball attendance. And no, BSU is not a Louisville. Yet.

meanrob · September 19, 2006

I'm not making excuses, i'm just telling you we can't do it the "Louisville way".

At least not in the short term. We don't have a nationally known/NCAA championship BBall program to help fund our athletic department.

You want to follow Boise's plan, I'm all for it. But if you want to say "why can't we do this" and post that article, I can give you a bunch of reasons. Starting with, our BBall program costs us a lot of money, theirs makes them a lot of money.

You guys want an overnight fix, well sorry it ain't gonna happen.

Edited September 19, 2006 by meanrob

GrandGreen · September 19, 2006

While an interesting article, their situation was/is nothing like ours.
They were drawing 15k per BBall game. They are the only game in town in a major metropolitan area. That's a lot of money to draw from.
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Actually back in ancient times NT had a much better football program. Basketball was not close, however NT along with Houston and UTEP where way a head of the Texas basketball scene. An advantage that NT failed horribly to use and build on.

This woe is NT thing although certainly valid on many levels gets to be a self fulfilling excuse. The fact is that NT is a major university in a football hotbed state and sets in arguably the best recruiting area in the nation. The Universtiy continues to expand as the metromess grows north. While NT is short on football tradition compared to a lot of major players, many teams with much less tradition and resources have and continue to past NT by. You can't compare Denton to Louisville but you certainly can compare a sma of close to six million people that NT shares with two relatively small private universities.

Edited September 19, 2006 by GrandGreen

DeepGreen · September 19, 2006

I'm not making excuses, i'm just telling you we can't do it the "Louisville way".
At least not in the short term. We don't have a nationally known/NCAA championship BBall program to help fund our athletic department.
You want to follow Boise's plan, I'm all for it. But if you want to say "why can't we do this" and post that article, I can give you a bunch of reasons. Starting with, our BBall program costs us a lot of money, theirs makes them a lot of money.
You guys want an overnight fix, well sorry it ain't gonna happen.
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The article said it took Louisville 9 years, one year ahead of schedule, to meet their goals. This is not an overnight fix. Ten years is very reasonable to me. Point is, at least they new the direction they wanted to go, created a plan, and worked the plan.

meanrob · September 19, 2006

I think you mistake "team" with the word "program".

Just because we had a couple of good teams like in the late 60s and mid 70s doesn't mean we had a better program in place.

Just playing in Fouts alone made us a worse program. We've never had a big donor base or season ticket base. Hell, we were, maybe still are behind a school like Idaho in donor and season ticket base. We still are behind programs like Boise and ULa La.

I'm not making excuses and I would much rather look forward than look behind and i'm certainly not feeling sorry for good ol NT.

FirefightnRick · September 19, 2006

Since 1999 Louisville has averaged at or near the top in both offensive categorys.

Average yards per game: 455

Average points per game: 38

I can't imagine their season ticket drive being much of a difficult sell to alumni and the public, do you?

Rick

BleedGreen64 · September 19, 2006

I like the article and hope our new president sees it.

I fyou do not try to improve you will only go backwards.

DeepGreen · September 19, 2006

I think you mistake "team" with the word "program".
Just because we had a couple of good teams like in the late 60s and mid 70s doesn't mean we had a better program in place.
Just playing in Fouts alone made us a worse program. We've never had a big donor base or season ticket base. Hell, we were, maybe still are behind a school like Idaho in donor and season ticket base. We still are behind programs like Boise and ULa La.
I'm not making excuses and I would much rather look forward than look behind and i'm certainly not feeling sorry for good ol NT.
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O.K. Rob, time to take it outside! Seriously, Idaho should be interesting to watch with Erickson at the helm. Not saying he's a Price or a Petrino?, but he has been around big time programs before.

I know NT is behind so many programs, but how or can we get out of this endless rut? If there is no way out and we don't even try, why bother to even support what little we do have. I'm aging fast with this program.

Oh, and BTW, I emailed the article to NT's new President.

Geeze, I'm starting to sound like Plummer on this thread!

Edited September 19, 2006 by DeepGreen

Eagle Man · September 19, 2006

UNT sits at the bottom of college athletics because thats where we choose to be. It really is that simple. It ain't rocket science.

shaft · September 19, 2006

Louisville spent more on athletics than any program outside the BCS in hopes of getting into a BCS conference. UNT doesn't have the same resources or place the same value on atheletics.

Eagle Man · September 19, 2006

"You miss 100% percent of the shots you never take." Wayne Gretzky

As I said several days ago, lack of motivation is our #1 problem.

shaft · September 19, 2006

So what, we need to hire Zig Ziggler to pump up the team?

Eagle Man · September 19, 2006

Nope.

PlummMeanGreen · September 19, 2006

O.K. Rob, time to take it outside! Seriously, Idaho should be interesting to watch with Erickson at the helm. Not saying he's a Price or a Petrino?, but he has been around big time programs before.
I know NT is behind so many programs, but how or can we get out of this endless rut? If there is no way out and we don't even try, why bother to even support what little we do have. I'm aging fast with this program.
Oh, and BTW, I emailed the article to NT's new President.
Geeze, I'm starting to sound like Plummer on this thread!
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No, Phil, not nearly enough words, "phrases with quotations", repetitious paragraphs, endless chapters, an epilogue, even who you would dedicate your post, uh, I mean your book once finished (if ever finished) and OH.................almost forgot this; also not enough...........

C O L O R !] (Although, you do show promise with your large green lettering coupled with your red tinted paragraphs).

GOING BACK TO HOUSTON (and speaking of colors) (lyrics sung by Dean Martin) I was never so upset in the sports department part of my life when my Houston Astros left their rainbow colored jerseys of the 1980's behind for the boring stuff, ie, traditional unis'?

BUT LIKE I SAID, PHIL AKA DEEP GREEN, NOT NEARLY LONG ENUF' SO HERE GOES!

Seriously DG, I am also becoming an old NT Ex fart and to you young gun alums please do lend us your ear for just a second (or two): When many of us who followed all this were in our 30's (with many of us now in our 50's, 60's on up); anyway, even when we were in our 30's we were still discussing (too) many of these same themes that we are today with our seeing so little upwardly bound direction even back then for our school's athletic program's, ie, a school who has just as much right to be side by side along such schools as Louisville (a former Missouri Valley Conference mate of UNT's). But like meanrob said in his post, we will not do this overnight at UNT but we sure do need to get started doing things differently than what we are doing now.

BUT THERE REALLY SEEMS TO BE SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT GOING ON NOW THAN I CAN EVER REMEMBER AND THAT IS:: ............there is an obvious growing army of "true green" alums just like those who have posted on this thread and most of you who are reading it; anyway, many of you who had previously hesitated to question any aspects of this athletic program lack of a higher profile success (for whatever reason) are now asking the same questions many of us have been asking for awhile now). That is, those who aspire higher rankings for our school in the elite grouping of schools across the USA we compete, this is what some might call progress. The American Revolution didn't start with people who were constantly glad-handing the King of England for giving them such a quality of life while putting some of them in debtor's prison.

BUT FINALLY............I, TOO, SAW THE LIGHT! I was a late-comer with all this, too, as my own lights on our program's direction finally turned on to full bright after losses to Tulsa and La Tech last year because as some of you know, B4 those 2 losses I was gritting my teeth and trying to be a good little NT Ex, keep my mouth shut and just "not rock the boat" and support Dickey Ball. Also, I was trying at the same time to even support some of the strangest athletic management style and hanging on to deadwood personnel (possibly) in the history of NCAA D1-A.

BUT.......................why NT leaders seemedly don't want to attack all these "obvious to all" problems at the part of our university of which most college administrators at any NCAA D1 school calls "our school's picture window" for all to see and judge us by (in many cases).

Also, why not a sense of urgency from our present leaders when surely they can see the trend we are presently stuck in; so why is their answer to that to do absolutely nothing as far as making all the necessary changes that will lead UNT to a higher profile athletic co-existance while at the same time raising our varsity athletic's stock among all our approx. 140,00 world-wide NT Exes.

After all, other than our present UNT students, aren't NT alums, ie, NT Exes the ones that they should sorta' be concerned with, that is, how we as a collective group feel about our alma mater and its athletic program's direction? How can they "with a straight face" ask NT Exes to support something that is an embarrassment and would be at any other Texas D1-A school (except for one we could all assume and that one mainly being us). How long would any of our fellow Texas D1-A schools with the leadership they have hang in with such mediocrity?

So once again...........aren't we the largest constituency of the entire UNT community that our upper echelon NT leadership needs to assure by not only just words (which are a dime-a-dozen), but also by their actions that they are doing things not to just fit their own agendas and to dress up their resume's, but to make it where our very large group collectively get so happy with a new upwardly bound D1-A direction that pocketbooks re-appear and others increase what they give now?

Edited September 20, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

FirefightnRick · September 19, 2006

Concerning the "their basketball program launched their success" arguement I'm not fully convinced that's the case with Louisville. Their BB certainly didn't hurt that's for sure but their coaching seems to have been their greatest assest to build that program. And look at Tulsa. Their BB program has been well known and they were the worse football program for many years prior to Kragthorpe getting there. Again, coaching. Then look at New Mexico State. Same thing. Their BB program has been well known for many years yet has done nothing for them in football. Again coaching. And as mentioned earlier, I don't recall current bb success at Marshall and Boise, UCF, South Florida? Maybe that line of thinking is best realized at UConn where they were able to immediately upgrade stadiums and conferences.

Use the imagination for a second and install our "Square Peg, Round Hole" offensive system that has averaged as the 107th worse, non-entertaining program in the country the past 8 years into Louisville with a 4 and 1,000 OOC record. Where would they be now? I'll tell you where. They would be on their 3rd or 4th offensive coordinator by now and still playing as an independent or in CUSA.

Rick

FirefightnRick · September 19, 2006

Since 1998 Louisville is 30-14 in OOC play with many wins over such programs as Illinios, Boston College, Kentucky, Colorado State, Brigham Young, Florida State, Syracuse, Army, North Carolina, Boise State, Oregon State, and Miami Florida.

Rick

GoMeanGreen1999 · September 20, 2006

Rob, with all due respect, we can always come up with excuses and reasons why NT can't do it and so and so university had this going for them. So how did Boise become the next darling of D1A like Louisville? It certainly wasn't their 15K fan basetball attendance. And no, BSU is not a Louisville. Yet.
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Some schools, just like some people in business, either get it or they don't. You hit it on the head with Boise State. We were with them in the Big West and at the time, they got it, and we didn't. Some will, some won't and unfortunately right now we don't get it. We will NEVER sell tickets and get anywhere running this bore of an offense that we are running. In fact, we are now 9 years into this experiment with "keep 8 men in the box" and we are no further ahead now than we were.

UNT sits at the bottom of college athletics because thats where we choose to be. It really is that simple. It ain't rocket science.
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YIP - it is that SIMPLE.

Louisville spent more on athletics than any program outside the BCS in hopes of getting into a BCS conference. UNT doesn't have the same resources or place the same value on atheletics.
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Nope, and keep "keep 8 men in the box" and we will stay right there. After a horrible loss this week, to a school most in this town believe is either D1AA or Division II, there will be few at the next home game.

Edited September 20, 2006 by GoMeanGreen1999

Cerebus · September 20, 2006

UL joined the Big East in 2005. The year before they joined, thier athletic budget was 32 million dollars.

At the same time, Oklahoma State, in the Big 12, had an a budget on 35 million.

UL decided it needed to be a BCS school, and then set a plan and spent the money to do so. I really don't see how thier situation is anything like the one the North Texas is in.

Unless, of course, Dr. Bataille is proposing to triple our athletic budget?

FirefightnRick · September 20, 2006

UL joined the Big East in 2005. The year before they joined, thier athletic budget was 32 million dollars.
At the same time, Oklahoma State, in the Big 12, had an a budget on 35 million.
UL decided it needed to be a BCS school, and then set a plan and spent the money to do so. I really don't see how thier situation is anything like the one the North Texas is in.
Unless, of course, Dr. Bataille is proposing to triple our athletic budget?
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What was their football expenses in '98?

Rick

Cerebus · September 20, 2006

What was their football expenses in '98?
Rick
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I don't know. I'de love to find some data source that showed that information for all schools.

But it doesn't matter if it was $13.78, because unless NT decides to match thier outlay growth, I agree with MeanRob that this doesn't really make a good comparison.