HCs Chesney to James Madison

[adcs2]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... ob-chesney

[RichH]

Excellent choice by JMU. Can Cross find the next coach able to keep the program at the same level??

[ngineer]

Many places have "Associate Head Coaches" which can mean a lot of different things in terms of responsibility. Not sure who or how strong their own staff is. But, 'upheaval' or 'change' is never a good feeling..and especially the timing. Kids on the fence between Cross and other similar schools could be tilted in a different direction; so, it will be interesting to see the nature of the impact.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Holy Cross opts for Dan Curran, Merrimack's head coach, to take over for Chesney. A rather ho-hum hire for the Crusaders imo. He has 4 winning seasons in 11 years at Merrimack, never won a conference title or made the playoffs. I expect Troxell and the 'Pards to be the premiere PL program moving forward....

[Old Timer]

Owl, I agree. I guess they think sticking with the New England guy is the safe bet.

[RichH]

Cross went for speed to get a placeholder. Curran not a rising star like Chesney. He's there to keep recruit class and NOT screw up the program.

[ngineer]

Pretty quick appointment. I would think he gave HC a “heads up” that he was planning on leaving, and/or the AD was already preparing his “short list”. One never knows what someone’s ability is until they dive into the deep end. Curran appears to have done a decent job of shepherding Merrimack in its transition to D-1. Now, the quest is whether he can manage a program that has reached a high level .

[Chalkeye]

Curran is a good, hard-nosed football coach, former UNH fullback. Will tap into the UNH tree for adding to his staff. Merrimack improved rapidly with heavy reliance on 5th-year transfers. Seeing how Holy Cross has no graduate programs, that may be difficult. Part of Chesney's wanderlust was pushback from administration that he couldn't extend Covid-era fifth-year eligibility at Holy Cross.

[ngineer]

Curran is a good, hard-nosed football coach, former UNH fullback. Will tap into the UNH tree for adding to his staff. Merrimack improved rapidly with heavy reliance on 5th-year transfers. Seeing how Holy Cross has no graduate programs, that may be difficult. Part of Chesney's wanderlust was pushback from administration that he couldn't extend Covid-era fifth-year eligibility at Holy Cross.

Probably a PL policy as well?