41-0 seems pretty reasonable considering the leftovers waddle got was Fox's crap show and the leftovers Drake got was a FCS tournament team. As for those other programs, their leftovers are also considerably better than Valpo's. Cant do much when you are given a 4-4 peak football team to begin with.
It was a known issue that Drake and Butler out recruited NWI/Indiana. An error that every single new coach in the past 3 years has a knowledge and made a commitment to remedy. Powell seems to be holding his end of the bargain with the amount of Indiana based folks on his roster.
ST. Thomas and Drake have the same geographic issues Valpo has. Drake has to deal with Iowa State and their crazies. St Thomas is practically neighbors with Minnesota. Money isnt the only reason St Thomas has been able to soar in popularity. The lesser known reason is that Minnesota fans are begging for one of their teams to be good, and St. Thomas is the perfect team to root for until the Gophers are good at football and basketball
Fox has 1 winning record. 1. Exacerbating that fact by saying "he had winning records against lower opponents" is highly disingenuous. and is just deflecting the fact that Fox was only ever mediocre at best in his career.
Rez…
saying Waddle inherited crap is wild. Most of these players on defense had multiple PFL offers. Starting QBs and RB was back. Brought in another FBS RB that had 10 FBS offers outta HS. There’s ways to lose, either be competitive or get A kicked and scores getting outta hand
Referencing Saint Thomas and Drake in the same breath as any P4 schools in terms of recruiting is also wild. About 180 scholarship programs between the two.
Fox having a winning record against lower competition is also important. Because no other Valpo coach had in 25 years.
Just missing the boat.
Waddle inheriting a program that couldn't sniff a winning record is still a program that couldnt sniff a winning record. Having a few diamonds in a coal mine doesnt mean that your coal mine is suddenly a diamond mine. Was Fox able to acquire some diamonds. Absolutely. Doesnt take away from the fact that he dealt with a lot of coal and couldt put together competitive rosters. Takes more than a handful of players to make a football team. The fact that you couldnt see that is is the real wild thing here. Once again FOX WAS ONLY ABLE TO BE COMPETATIVE IN A SINGULAR SEASON THAT WAS CUT SHORT DUE TO COVID. Doesnt matter how many "1 score games" he had. Any team can pull together a 1 score game. Any team can get blown out. Close only counts in Horseshoes and Hand grenades. A loss is a loss. No matter if you get blown out or keep it close. Claiming there are "ways to lose" that have their own value is absurd. A loss is a loss. Take it, learn from it, move on to the next week. See how fast you lose the locker room as a coach by saying "Hey guys! We did ok. We only lost by 1 touchdown. Great job!"
You made the claim that Drake, St Thomas, ect is this land of golden opportunity. I merely made the counter argument that that is far from the truth. Drake and St. Thomas have their own problems with location. The most prominent of those problems being the major P4 schools that are there to draw influence.
Once again. Celebrating a peak of mediocrity shows a lot about your beliefs. Why should Valpo lower their standards compared to every other school in the country. Better yet. Try telling your boss at work that mediocre products is actually ok because of the size of the company. Guarantee you are shown the door within the hour
Again… boat missed. Just a much larger financial, historical, cfb landscape aspect that is just missed.
Have you been to Drake, Butler , Saint Thomas? Cities/Campus aren’t even close. In terms of Chicago, it’s fun in idea but in actuality most freshman/sophomores don’t have cars and most athletes don’t have free time to go there except a few times a year. Btw Drake and Butler dominate us in Chicagoland recruiting
Fox had a winning record against lower level opponents and never took a 41-0 L, even when taking over a roster post signing day with 4 OL on roster.
Drake has already stomped D2 Upper Iowa/Valpo, Stetson has beaten Davison, Butler has beaten Marist and D3 top 25 Hanover, All with new coaches, one of which applied to Valpo.
I get it, grass is always greener. Just in this case so far the early returns was it’s not. 41-0 to another coach coaching their first game in the league as well does not scream positive results.
But let’s agree to disagree
Dude, have I been to Drake? I was at the game and I have lived in the Des Moines area for 17 years. Nice place to live, but nothing spectacular regarding activities and cool things to do. Heck, SouthPark made an episode making fun of Des Moines being three years behind the times!
Regarding Drake and recruiting, I notice several from the higher end Chicago suburbs who want to continue playing where their parents can afford it. Also regarding academics, Drake is going through the same challenges at Valpo. Enrollment is down and they have laid off employees. In fact, as our daughters and their daughters enrolled for college, several of them did not get accepted at Iowa or Iowa State but got accepted at Drake.
There are certainly arguments that Fox should not have been extended however it's also possible, but not in an eternal optimist's mind, that the situation could now be worse. The loss to Adrian was concerning. The QB issue is concerning. There's been little to indicate the program is in a better place than it was last year.
However it's been a relatively short turnaround. Fox's biggest issue was a competent OC which did him in IMHO. Did we find the next guy who's going to get Valpo to the promised land or at least move the program forward a bit? Who knows but there's not a lot of tea leaves which say yes at the moment.
The loss to Drake was terrible although predictable. The thinking of "well they should have beaten us by more. That would have been really bad" is just bizarre. The OL got completely run over and the QB the staff has chosen keeps throwing the ball to the wrong team. The staff had no answers.
We'll see as they move through the PFL season.
That was a PFL game. It should have been within 21 if we hope to win another game this season. jD24 found the boat! Situation may be worse now
I think Fox was at the end of his contract, and in all honestly it’s a coin flip whether he should have been sacked.
I am really worried about upcoming defective shields and Osteen quotes…
Waddle went 8-32 his first 40 games at Marietta. He seems like a guy who will not sacrifice his methods for a quick fix. This likely is leading to a massive rebuild. If I had to guess O/U for Waddles first 40 games at Valpo, 8 seems not out of touch. I hope I am wrong.
As an alum and a football alum. It is disheartening that we are likely heading into an era where we are not competitive heading into the fourth quarter of league games, at least not in the immediate Future. And that is disheartening
To those saying Fox should not have been extended. Sure, I get it. 99% of schools that’s not good enough. But Valpo had one winning seasons from 2003-2021, and most of those were sub 3 wins. Games were close, we were redshirting kids that were staying. I think Fox would have gotten there with a good hire at OC. but it did not happen and he is gone.
And to those who were simply and evidently not around during those times. Fox had two consecutive.500 PFL seasons after the Covid year. He played full scholarship teams or Ivy in non con which is why records were 5/6, 5/7. Show me a OfL team that can have a winning record against Illinois State, Dartmouth, IWU. (4-8 2024 season, 4 scholarship teams on schedule)
2021 Actually may have been their most impressive year. Took 55 Freshman (Freshman that committed to a 1-11 Valpo team). That stayed through the pandemic and we were a Deuce LaRose end zone drop away from a sole 5-1 PFL championship.
Beat San Diego / Drake twice. Beat Butler so bad their coach got fired
So, once again, we are in a complete rebuild
It is really sad, but you have to truly realize why football exists at Valparaiso University
Is there such a thing as a “Money Ball” approach for a low resource school like Valpo to somehow beat the odds and field some winning football teams?
The question having been raised, I am well aware of the eventual fate of the Oakland As. 
Sorry, just wondering if there’s anything outside-the-box that can be done here.
@david81 Unfortunately for Valpo( and Brad Pitt) There is about as much truth to the movie Moneyball as there is truth to the movie Rudy
@valpofb16 - I totally understand your perspective and have some excellent points. I just hate rewarding mediocrity as highly successful, which is what the program is about. Fox did a decent admirable job. I also wonder if Padilla had an issue with him, leading to his dismissal.
My understanding was Fox was interested in bringing in the best football players available. Not 4 year tuition payers that didn’t necessarily need the most financial aide.
A lot of what you and Rez are saying was Fox’s mentality. Which did not fit the school. Hosmer is there to save money in all sports, not win games
Not saying he’s Saban (checking Western Illinois scores) but our roster had more talent top to bottom in recent memory
A lot of what you and Rez are saying was Fox’s mentality. Which did not fit the school. Hosmer is there to save money in all sports, not win games
What are we doing? Hosmer is absolutely there to win games. Winning games is beneficial for the academic side as well. She wouldn't have fired mediocre coaches and spent money on a search firm to find a new coach if what you say was reality.
Fox simply couldn't hack it at a high level. Did he do good things for the program, yes. But he ultimately could not put together a good enough product to compete with other PFL teams
