SCH890 said:

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SFASawmillGuy said:

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SFAXE93 said:

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What is the most frustrating thing is the fact that Carthel loves the Nac area and wants to stay here for a long time, even invested in a franchise business in town, meaning if the program was finding success with championships and playoffs, he would still stay on and not go elsewhere to bigger programs which is what usually happens with successful coaches at SFA.

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This. Carthel isn't like most coaches SFA gets. He's not using us as a stepping stone. This is his retirement egg. He wants to be here.

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Why I don't think we will find much better until he retires from SFA. I think our AD just needs to give him more tools to make a winning team.

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Truth.

What more tools were you thinking he needs?

Perhaps more money for either recruiting or going the route of getting an OC that wasn't a former High school coach now a D1 OC. Something more about experience and perhaps more money.

I figured there's something to all this, the right system in place that some programs have that others don't, just looking every year in the top 10 it's always the same usual suspects, especially that North Dakota State, it doesn't matter who the head coach or the coordinators are, that program just wins year in and year out, so what's the secret sauce I always wonder that they have, that SFA can't ever seem to get a hold of?

SFAXE93 said:

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I figured there's something to all this, the right system in place that some programs have that others don't, just looking every year in the top 10 it's always the same usual suspects, especially that North Dakota State, it doesn't matter who the head coach or the coordinators are, that program just wins year in and year out, so what's the secret sauce I always wonder that they have, that SFA can't ever seem to get a hold of?

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It's mostly the talent pool they have to recruit from. A lot of their guys are local or from surrounding states. Most of the FCS blue bloods are from the northern Midwest. That area is incredibly underrecruited by the FBS because there aren't many FBS schools in that area, so the FCS schools up there are bringing in guys who probably should be 4 or maybe even 5 star dudes who haven't gotten any attention their entire career because of the geographic location they played high school ball. It's how they got guys like Carson Wentz who 100% would've been recruited to a big P4 school had he played in Texas. .

We're unfortunately in Texas, which means we have to compete with like 28 other division 1 programs for recruits in our state alone, and more than half of those are FBS schools.

At the end of the day that's the biggest scale tipper in the FCS for who remains on top. Money actually has little to do with it.

SFASawmillGuy said:

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SFAXE93 said:

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I figured there's something to all this, the right system in place that some programs have that others don't, just looking every year in the top 10 it's always the same usual suspects, especially that North Dakota State, it doesn't matter who the head coach or the coordinators are, that program just wins year in and year out, so what's the secret sauce I always wonder that they have, that SFA can't ever seem to get a hold of?

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It's mostly the talent pool they have to recruit from. A lot of their guys are local or from surrounding states. Most of the FCS blue bloods are from the northern Midwest. That area is incredibly underrecruited by the FBS because there aren't many FBS schools in that area, so the FCS schools up there are bringing in guys who probably should be 4 or maybe even 5 star dudes who haven't gotten any attention their entire career because of the geographic location they played high school ball. It's how they got guys like Carson Wentz who 100% would've been recruited to a big P4 school had he played in Texas. .

We're unfortunately in Texas, which means we have to compete with like 28 other division 1 programs for recruits in our state alone, and more than half of those are FBS schools.

At the end of the day that's the biggest scale tipper in the FCS for who remains on top. Money actually has little to do with it.

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Why I loved Carthel first mentality of recruiting mostly ETX high school for sports. We could capitalize on a market that not many other people would tap into.

Money has A LOT to do with it!!

There is a common business principal to apply here... "SPEND money to MAKE money." SFA is.not willing to spend the money to really turn around the football program and win a Natty...

According to Open Payrolls,
Currently, North Dakota State University (NDSU) pays its Head Football Coach, Timothy Polasek, a base salary of $330,000 as part of a five-year contract.

SDSU pays Stiegelmeier $306,000 base per year.

Sam Houston paid Keeler in 2020 a BASE salary of $383,333.41. ($150k more than Carthel!!)

Todd Whitten made $282,500.04 BASE in 2023 with a higher renewal in 2025.

Carthel made $238,333.37 in 2023.

As long as we pay mediocre, we will continue to be mediocre....

Just to clarify, the majority of North Dakota State recruits come from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, California, and Washington. They get a lot of great players because they hired right and established an excellent program. It DID NOT happen overnight.

South Dakota State recruits primarily from South Dakota, but also recruits from
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, California, and Washington.