Stubbs has winning formula in place at Nicholls

TGMC dedicates pictured wall of donors
April 19, 2011
Lafourche permit office tries to stymie
April 21, 2011
TGMC dedicates pictured wall of donors
April 19, 2011
Lafourche permit office tries to stymie
April 21, 2011

Change is in the air in Thibodaux.

And the Nicholls State football team is about to reap the benefits, in a big, big way.


In the second spring under coach Charlie Stubbs, the Colonels look like a new, more improved bunch than last year’s squad, which finished the season with just a 4-7 record.


And to me, they look like a group that has what it takes to at the very least be a nuisance to everyone in the always wide-open Southland Conference when fall rolls around and the season begins. Who knows? They might just win the dang thing.

My biggest reason for optimism is Stubbs, the guy is just a winner. He really is.


There’s no reason to explain it in any more complex terms than that.


He just gets it.

He’s won at Alabama. He’s had success at Louisville. He’s had success at Tulsa. He’s had success at Oregon State. Everywhere he goes, the program he’s a part of blossoms and gets better.


He truly was a grand-slam home-run hire for Colonels Athletics Director Rob Bernardi.


Bernardi knows it, too, opening up the school’s tight pocket book to give Stubbs a multi-year contract extension, the first such deal in the history of the program.

He understands that to build a successful program in “SmallTown”, Louisiana, you need to recruit good players, but also good people, because there’s truly no room for error at a school like Nicholls State.


What good does it do to give a scholarship to a talented kid if he’s not able to qualify academically? Likewise, all of the talent in the world does little if a player drinks and parties all night and misses practice.


In his tenure, Stubbs has allowed neither scenario to become commonplace and he’s completely reworked the culture of the program. That’s not to say former coach Jay Thomas ran a circus, he didn’t at all. Stubbs is just building on what was an already stable foundation and making it better.

His players go to class, make good grades and put themselves in positions to succeed.


Don’t believe me? Look at the Colonels’ Academic Progress Rate (APR) numbers. They are the highest that they’ve been since the APR was adopted as a tool.


Winning is about being good, but also at the end of the day, there is some luck that’s inevitably involved. And I firmly believe that successful student athletes who do things the right way find ways to make their own luck.

That’s why Duke always seems to make the “lucky” shot in college basketball and why the Clippers always have the “unlucky” break in the NBA. It’s all about culture and expecting to succeed, Stubbs has put that into the minds of his players.


But Stubbs also understands the importance of recruiting inside of Louisiana, which is top-to-bottom one of the most talent rich states in the country.


If you’re reading this, it’s safe for me to assume that you’re a sports fan. If you’re a sports fan in this area, it’s safe to assume you’ve been to a prep football game in the area.

If that’s true, you know that our young men around here know how to play, in a very, very big way. How big? Ask Marshall Faulk, Peyton Manning and Terry Bradshaw. They’ll tell you.

With that said, the Colonels have capitalized on their talent pool and are vastly a southern Louisiana-based team. They will be even more-so in the coming months as they get set to welcome their 2011 recruiting class, which is comprised almost exclusively of local kids.

What that does is it will keep talent on the team, but it will also keep interest in the program, which will sell tickets. Ticket sales will mean money. Money will mean the team will be able to invest in facilities and larger salaries for assistant coaches to keep them in the program.

Sure, there were bumps in the road and you might be telling me I’m blowing too much smoke for a coach who went 4-7 in his first season.

But that was a team that was transitioning from running the triple option to running the shotgun.

That’s like a normal right-handed person switching and becoming left-handed overnight.

It’s just not a smooth transition.

Stubbs knew that. That’s why he watered down the process as much as he could to make sure his players didn’t go on mental overload.

Even then, it was sometimes painful to watch as the team’s run-oriented offensive line struggled to pass block, which led to starting quarterback LaQuintin Caston being pummeled and battered sometimes well before he could even think to throw the football.

But this year, things have clicked and the team truly understands the offense.

When it gets rolling on all cylinders, I promise you that it will be a sight to see, too.

The quarterbacks, Caston, Landry Klann and Beaux Hebert are all making reads faster and are reacting to things on the fly.

The team’s offensive line is still a work in progress, but if for nothing else, they have depth now, something they never had before.

And overall, the outlook and the attitude is just different.

These guys expect to succeed.

From what I saw this spring, I see no reason why to expect that won’t happen.

Change is blowing around northern Lafourche Parish.

A spot in the playoffs sometime soon may be next on the radar.

In Stubbs I trust.