Leatherneck Nation

To me it’s those two guys or you hire a defense guy look at the teams who’ve been in the title game the last few years defensive teams who run the ball at you and dare you to stop them

For crying out loud. Will anything EVER break our way????

Easy there Leathernecks, step back from the window sill! I love Coach Fisher and I am thankful for the great two years he has spent as our Head Coach. He righted the ship and got our program going again. He connected and reconnected with football alumni and friends. If he is leaving, well, I get it. But there is plenty of head coaching material on the staff and much to look forward to. This makes the westside project even more important as it gains momentum! jc

Neckfansince71 wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:17 am Easy there Leathernecks, step back from the window sill! I love Coach Fisher and I am thankful for the great two years he has spent as our Head Coach. He righted the ship and got our program going again. He connected and reconnected with football alumni and friends. If he is leaving, well, I get it. But there is plenty of head coaching material on the staff and much to look forward to. This makes the westside project even more important as it gains momentum! jc

It's just the kind of stuff you mention that makes me sad about this whole thing. He did so much for this program in a short time, I hope we can get someone who keeps the alumni/friends connections going along with getting the team back in the consistent winning Leatherneck tradition. Whatever happens, I wish him nothing but the best; however it seems the timing just sucks.

Neckfansince71 wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:17 am Easy there Leathernecks, step back from the window sill! I love Coach Fisher and I am thankful for the great two years he has spent as our Head Coach. He righted the ship and got our program going again. He connected and reconnected with football alumni and friends. If he is leaving, well, I get it. But there is plenty of head coaching material on the staff and much to look forward to. This makes the westside project even more important as it gains momentum! jc

Agreed. While I wish we could keep him around for at least a few more years, this is, unfortunately, part of being good at this level. Sooner or later, the "big boys" will start eyeing your coaches. It's pretty hard to compete financially with the money that most FBS schools (and even some other FCS schools) can throw at a coach. What it means though, is that we are doing well. He likely won't be taking many (if any) of the current staff with him to AZ, so we should be able to have consistency there, and we have a lot of talent still on this team and some great looking new recruits that will be joining us soon. Overall, it's a much better situation that we're in now as opposed to the last coaching transition.

I'm a big fan of Coach Fisher and sad to see him leave, but sadly this is how this business works. Wish it didn't, but it does.

Bob got this program headed in the right direction and skipped town, Fish did even better things and now he's gone, so lets keep the momentum going and we'll be having this same conversation in another 2 to 3 years.

For the sake of the kids coming back and recruits, I hope we can keep most of the staff and promote Tony, Doug, or Jared. Assuming we have success the next few years and guys like Tony and Jared will be off to bigger schools. Would likely be in the same spot if Yelk stayed on as HC and put together successful seasons.

I'm just happy we once again have a program with continued success and the future still looks bright.

For what its worth, footballscoop.com is saying they have not confirmed that Fisher is leaving WIU for Arizona St.

ST_Lawson wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:33 am

Neckfansince71 wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:17 am Easy there Leathernecks, step back from the window sill! I love Coach Fisher and I am thankful for the great two years he has spent as our Head Coach. He righted the ship and got our program going again. He connected and reconnected with football alumni and friends. If he is leaving, well, I get it. But there is plenty of head coaching material on the staff and much to look forward to. This makes the westside project even more important as it gains momentum! jc

Agreed. While I wish we could keep him around for at least a few more years, this is, unfortunately, part of being good at this level. Sooner or later, the "big boys" will start eyeing your coaches. It's pretty hard to compete financially with the money that most FBS schools (and even some other FCS schools) can throw at a coach. What it means though, is that we are doing well. He likely won't be taking many (if any) of the current staff with him to AZ, so we should be able to have consistency there, and we have a lot of talent still on this team and some great looking new recruits that will be joining us soon. Overall, it's a much better situation that we're in now as opposed to the last coaching transition.

Obviously his success was part of it, but I think the main thing is just he has so many connections in football. I think Arizona's St new OC worked with Fisher at one time. That was one thing that concerned me when he was hired he was at so many places, never seemed to stay in one place very long. I agree he was great for the program and really liked how he tried to connect the past with the present. We are definitely better off now than with the last coaching change.

Here is the main reason I am still here if I am Coach Fisher at the end of the day. He is a very very good football coach who has been an assistant for most of his life and only a head coach twice. West Georgia when he was quite young, and now WIU. What we have witnessed for the past two years is Charlie Fisher actually putting his stamp on his program, doing things his way. No one really remembers a great OC or DC, but Head Coaches are etched in the history of a school forever. I was an assistant at the high school level in basketball for 8 years and then as luck would have it, became the head coach and did that for 14 more. I put my stamp on that program. I wanted gentlemen, students, team players, and hard workers. I felt like this was finally my chance to effect high school kids. WIU gave Coach Fisher the chance to do just that too. The videos taken of him at practice, talking to the players, influencing them, demanding of them the best they had. He has been a very successful assistant, I still think he has much to prove as a Head Coach! Our Head Coach! That's why when the dust clears I am still in Macomb and damn the money! jc

This is extremely disappointing, if true. He was one of the biggest reasons our family felt like this was a good place for TJ to be and having just signed NLI during early period. We probably would have waited until February had there been any inkling of such a move.