I believe in Tim Rebowe

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The Nicholls State University football team won’t win the Football Championship Subdivision National Championship this fall. You can just about bet the house on that one.


Heck, I’m not even ready to say that the Colonels will have a winning season, though with that bet, I wouldn’t quite be so quick to lay down a large sum of money against the Colonels.

It’s been a rough go for Nicholls in the past few seasons, and, yes, it takes a lot of work to climb from the bottom of the barrel to become a contender.

But I’m here to tell you that it can be done. Better yet, I’m here to tell you that great things will happen at Nicholls State University in the next few seasons.


I believe in Tim Rebowe.

Everything that Rebowe has done in his first few months on the job show me that he will be a big-time winner. His regime is new. It’s fresh. It’s everything that the past one wasn’t, and that’s exactly why it’ll succeed in a big way.

I liked former Nicholls coach Charlie Stubbs as a man, but he was never the right fit for the Colonels. He didn’t know the area’s high schools well enough and had zero grasp of the culture and what makes our community tick. To speak like a true Cajun, he knew football, but he didn’t know the recipe for a good gumbo. Of course, that’s not literally why Stubbs didn’t succeed, but his inability to make this community his home is the biggest reason why his tenure with the team wasn’t very good.


Stubbs didn’t get out in the community very much, and he too often shied away from recruiting local, homegrown players – when he even got on the road and recruited at all. A lot of those players went on and enjoyed collegiate success – some even for Southland Conference rivals.

Rebowe is the exact opposite – a total 180-degree turn from the man he’s replacing. Unlike his predecessor, Rebowe IS a Cajun through and through – born and bred in Southeastern Louisiana. There wasn’t any acclimation period for Rebowe once he was hired, because he’s known Thibodaux and this community for his whole life.

He was practically raised here – both as a child playing in the bleachers at John L. Guidry Stadium while his brother Rusty played for the Colonels, and also as a young assistant coach for the Colonels in the 1990s.


Through those rich local roots, Rebowe also didn’t have to come in and build relationships with the area’s high school coaches, because he and the guys in local prep field houses were already on a first-name basis.

I’ve had several local prep coaches tell me that in the nine months that he’s been Nicholls’ head coach, Rebowe has visited their school more than Stubbs did in his entire four-plus seasons at Nicholls.

The fruits of those labors are beginning to show, as well.


The single biggest reason for my optimism in a turnaround is recruiting – something that the Colonels are now doing with great success. In Rebowe’s initial recruiting class, the Colonels brought in an all-Louisiana class that features a slew of guys who will surely compete for immediate playing time.

While that class was good, it was also rushed, because Rebowe only had a few months to recruit from the time he was hired until Signing Day. With more time to maneuver right now, the Class of 2016 looks even better.

The Colonels already have a handful of announced verbal commitments from some of the best players in our area. South Lafourche defensive end Jacob Jackson is committed. So, too, is Central Lafourche defensive back Anfernee Poindexter. But Rebowe’s reach isn’t just up and down Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Terrebonne. He’s shown an ability to get some of the best players in New Orleans, as well.


Rummel State Championship-winning starting quarterback Chase Fourcade is committed, as-is his teammate offensive lineman Joe Oliver. Those two guys will both likely be multi-year starters with the program in the future.

Rivals.com two-star receiver Christian Booker, of De La Salle, has also given his verbal pledge to the coach – a 6-foot, 4-inch standout who would be Nicholls’ most touted playmaking signee since Lardarius Webb transferred to the school many moons ago.

Of course, there’s much more work to be done in the future – that comes with the territory when you’ve only won 10 games in the past five seasons.


But from where I stand, I see Nicholls as a penny stock that an investor should buy right now, because the price is about to go way up.

It won’t be today. It might not even be next season. But the Colonels will be a contender under Rebowe.

It can be done. I say it will be done.


In my eyes, all this team needed a hard-working Cajun at the helm – a guy who loves football, yes, but loves the Bayou Region itself just a little bit more.

It got exactly that, so now is the time where we all sit back and watch him build this thing from the ground-up.