Time to right the ships! Next few years are critical for both short term and long term success of our programs across the board. Hill firing Healy was step 1. Didnât think he had it in him, honestly. Step 2 is nail the next hire. AAC and stadium expansion has to lure some top names. 
Hill gets it right. Weâre all tired of sucking. Good luck.
3 Likes
1 Like
Healy is one of those guys you pull for the remainder of his career. Although he did not get the wins we expected, I loved his heart and fire. He brought attention to our program; good and bad. Regardless, this program needed visibility.
We are now at a critical crossroad. WE ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO GET THIS COACHING DECISION RIGHT - NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES!
7 Likes
1 Like
I have been pondering and going back and forth for several weeks now on how to structure this. It has been typed, deleted, re-typed, and debated. This is years of frustration watching first hand the effect this clown had on several players, so here is my manifesto:
Healy, et. al,
As I sat watching yesterdayâs Charlotte game against FIU, I found myself sympathizing with the many players whose body posture and energy reflected their loss of faith. Itâs a hard thing to lose faith. Itâs a hard thing realizing you have believed in the wrong thing(s). Itâs even harder when youâre a young man who has yet to become hardened by the let-downs and trials that serve to give older men that steely view. That being said, I also found myself relishing the fact that you were reaping what you sowed.
I remember the day you were introduced, with much fanfare, as the new head football coach at Charlotte. I was watching, optimistically, as you would soon play a major role in my sonâs life. As the press, boosters, administration gathered around with cameras rolling you gave a dynamic speech. You did a great job bringing the energy, hitting all the right notes. But then you started to say something akin to âI am blessed (sic) to have this opportunityâ and you stopped yourself. Some would argue you chose to deny, to play it safe. My gut tightened and I felt the heat on the back of my neck. My gut has never lied to me-it is God-given, it is my built in BS detector. Sadly, it was correct again.
While you turned the coachesâ room into a fraternity of your pals and patted backs and glad-handed people, you simultaneously conned amazing, hopeful young men and robbed them of the best years of their lives. They trusted you to do the right thing, they altered their lives by changing majors to meet your âscheduleâ, they re-upped believing you had their best interests at heart. Many fought the urge to look for another home. You were handed an incredible team- a team of football-smart, talented, loyal, incredibly hard-working young men. That team was turn-key, all you had to do was not screw it up. They took you to a bowl game year one!
But then the ego took over, you had to separate yourself from the legacy of Lambertâs boys. You started bringing in position players to take the place of guys that were good enough to take you bowling. While the nature of football dictates you have to keep your job as a player by outperforming, you chose to force your picks into positions even though they werenât of better caliber. I have not ever encountered a successful head coach that sat in film, team meetings, position meetings then took his assistant staffsâ eval. sheets, player grades and threw them in the trash and let (forced?) the coordinators put lower-graded, unseasoned, unproven players on the field. You took team leaders on and off the field and tried to strip them of their roles. Bad business model for sure but by gosh those newbies didnât have that Lambert smell, did they?! Oddly, though, the second one of Lambertâs men makes it big, you are right there making sure to stake any claim you can!
As time went on and the writing was on the wall for your position coaches, as they saw you were going to push the agenda you were, they started to leave. And, they didnât just leave, they leveled up! So, they were smart enough and talented enough for much larger, perennial programs but you couldnât let them do what they clearly did well for Charlotte?! The same is true of many of the players that chose to leave-mysteriously they were talented enough to get you to a bowl game, talented enough to play in other, larger D1 programs but not good enough for you (whose record just got worse and worse as those young men left) to play. Credit to you I guess for sticking to your guns, way to ride that ship to the bottom!
While the rumor mill is all abuzz that you have already been fired and we are just awaiting the official announcement, while I could be celebrating that fact, I am just saddened. I am sad for the young men who didnât get their chance, who didnât get a look, who poured their heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into 49er football and got treated like so much garbage by you. Maybe you listened to the wrong people. Maybe (probably) you were in way over your head, maybe you are just a pawn in someoneâs game. I donât know. If life was just, you would personally pay for the lying, scheming, snake oil slinging BS that cost these young men so much. Losing this job is the easiest price to pay. You need to bear the weight of a hundred broken hearts, of futures sacrificed, of dreams unrealized because of your actions.
After all of this, my son says I need to forgive you. I donât know if or when that will happen. But what I DO know is that he is a far, far better man than you and I am blessed by God to have him . . . and so were you.
What an incredible post. Well said.
Good Lord man. Itâs football, not life and death. He didnât perform well and got fired. Time to move on. Period
15 Likes
That post has a lot of emotion in it, and I suspect it represents only one of many viewpoints. I think thatâs important to remember. I think itâs a bit harsh, as I think a lot of the situations described in it occur at just about every program. But I understand the need to vent. Especially from a parent. Hopefully with that out of your system you can move on, especially if your son is asking you to.
Changing gears a bit, I would like nothing more than to see Healy land on his feet somewhere, preferably with a good salary to offset his $1.5M buyout. That would be good for him and even better for us.
3 Likes
Charlotte about to make the big jump to the AAC next year and will want to be competitive as theyâre sandwiched geographically between ECU and Memphis
Bet someone a beer Healy winds up at Clemson. Dabo loves the guy
2 Likes
Thanks for sharing. I believe all of it.
1 Like
This is a business, a result oriented business, and if Healy was 7-1 instead of 1-7, he would be entertaining P5 offers and for the right one he would leave us high and dry, leaving all of the players that he recruited just like he did at Austin Peay, it is not personal, these are business decisions, and they are greatly compensated for their duties, they understand going into this occupation the rewards and consequences, if Healy was successful here he would be leaving us for a better situation
9 Likes
Thank you
1 Like
I agree, this happens at all programs. Football has a 4 or 5 deep depth chart. Some guys donât play and others donât even make the team. I understand coaches have to sell an opportunity to play or they will not have a team. I also understand a parents hurt when their childâs one chance at college or high school ball and the coach seems to pass on their talent. No one is wrong, lifeâs tough!
2 Likes
Absolutely! Well said.
I wanted Healy to succeed but he didnât. Time to move on. He will land on his feet somewhere else and I hope he is successful. Forward and Go Niners!
2 Likes
FWIWâŚofficial release at 1pm.
Football has brought me closer to Charlotte than when I was a student sadly. I went to few basketball games when I was at school, and I regret it immensely. And MSOC really opened my heart up in 2011 right after I had graduated. Had I been in school then, I probably wouldâve been at that game.
But footballâŚwas something else.
I live in NYC now, so getting down to games is hard. But I have my tickets from the first game in a special place in my apartment. I have my jersey (old logo). Football became something I followed more and more. I watched the bowl game on Delta wifi while flying home to North Carolina. Any chance I could, I was watching, following, reading this forum, following articles. It was important.
I say all of this because I care about this university. I know how great it is, and how hard it tries, and yet leaders continue to just stonewall that progress. And football has been no different. Healy seemed like a hire that was accepted because we had to save face. He did some great things, and a bowl game is nothing to sneeze about considering how young we are. But, man, we havenât had a winning season since. All the energy was deflated. No offense to Reynolds, but I got tired of depending on him to carry us. It was clear that we had talentâŚwhy else would we have four NFL players (and even more trying to break through)? But, it just seemed like we were coasting. Healy was coasting. I honestly thought after the bowl game he thought he was going to move up, and it didnât happen, and he just coasted.
One of the posts above references the assistant coaches and coordinators who moved up. Something they saw in Healy faded, changed their perception, and they left. That speaks volumes.
This speaks volumes. And Hill, for all the hope I give him, he has to get this right. I am not asking for a coach to come in and produce 8+ wins in his first season. I am asking for a coach to not look at losing games as signs of progress. We were fucking blown out, on our home turf, homecoming. 14 pointsâŚmercy pointsâŚwere ours. Itâs embarrassing. That embarrassment is what motivated the firing.
A week ago, reading the article where Healy said he saw progress in our losses, I knew he was going to be kept. I hate that shit. Stop saying losing has signs of progress if that progress just keeps losing. But when I watched this gameâŚsaw what was happeningâŚI knew, this was something our leaders donât like to seeâŚembarrassment. Had the loss been closer, Healy wouldâve stayed.
So this is up to Hill, Gaber, and others. Fuck playing it safe. Fuck stonewalling us to save face for others (a la Tar Holes). This is the moment you have to take a chance and go down swinging.
Sorry for the long post.
10 Likes