Nicholls needs another DoBee

Everyone knows by now that Nicholls State University head football coach Charlie Stubbs has resigned so that he could focus on his health.

I’d like to personally send my thoughts and prayers to Coach Stubbs and wish him the absolute best of luck in the future. Coach Stubbs is a good man who has always been fair to myself and the rest of our sports staff.

Get those health problems in line and get back on the sidelines, coach. There’s no doubt that your expertise is going to be needed at some program around the country.

But as we say farewell to Coach Stubbs and wish him well in future endeavors, we’d like to turn our attention today to the new coach that will be guiding Nicholls into the future – whoever that may be.

The Nicholls football job is a tough one for an applicant to accept because of so many factors present at the university that make winning so difficult.

The school doesn’t have a winning tradition. Its facilities are outdated compared to the rest of the similarly sized schools in Louisiana. Oh yeah, and the state continually slashes Nicholls’ budget to the point where there’s almost no money left.

Good luck, future coach. Go get ‘em.

But with all of that said, we still believe that it can be done and that Nicholls can be a winner.

All the school has to do is make sure that the next hire is the right fit – someone that is capable of overcoming the challenges that are associated with being an underdog coach at a small, under-funded college athletic program.

Who should the Colonels look to in making their hire? Take a walk from Barker Hall to Stopher Gymnasium and talk to women’s basketball coach DoBee Plaisance.

Of course, we’re not suggesting Plaisance be the next football coach – she has her hands full in her attempts to win the Southland Conference title with her ladies on the hardwood this spring.

But what we mean by the above statement is that the Colonels need to hire a similar personality type when pulling the trigger on their next coach. They need a young, energetic bulldog of a human with too much pride to accept being at the bottom half of the Southland standings – just like Plaisance.

They need someone who will be willing to work long hours and get into the living rooms of young recruits and sell a vision and a dream that the Colonels will rise from the doldrums and get to the top of the pack in the Southland Conference – just like Plaisance.

And more importantly than that, they need a motivator of student athletes – someone who will be willing to lead Nicholls into battle and have everyone in that locker room believing that no matter who the opponent is, they can win the game on that given day – just like Plaisance.

Right now the Colonels’ football program has little buzz and even less support.

Fans don’t go to games. The community is sort of stale regarding the team and the whole area just is sort of content with the fact that Nicholls is a struggling program in the cut-throat world that is modern-day college football.

The Colonels need a coach who can inspire the masses. They need someone who can put butts into seats, which would in-turn serve as a recruiting tool used to attract new players into the program.

Again, that’s just like Plaisance. Nicholls women’s basketball attendance has gone way up during her tenure. Sure, the women don’t draw the attendance that the men do, but the numbers are healthy and are in-line with the rest of the league.

Exactly who Nicholls will chase in the coming weeks and months, we do not yet know, but it is absolutely vital that the school hits a grand slam home run and brings a solid coach into its program.

Doing so is an absolute must for Nicholls Director of Athletics Rob Bernardi, who has been wanting for years to turn the Colonels’ football program around and generate some interest in the team’s efforts.

And to do that, he needs to look at his immediate past and remember what he liked in Plaisance and just find those same traits in his next football coach.

When Coach Plaisance took over the Nicholls women’s basketball program, they were quite possibly the worst collegiate women’s basketball team in Division I athletics.

Now, they are a Southland power – a team always at the top-half of the league standings.

And all it took was one determined young woman serving as head coach – a leader with the heart of a lion and the faith and determination to not let any of the university’s negative factors serve as an excuse to stop success from taking place.

If Plaisance can do it, someone else can do the same to Nicholls football.

So go out and find a football coach that can provide the same energy passion and enthusiasm to get things fixed.

We know it can be done.

It’s been done on that campus already.

Just ask DoBee Plaisance.

She knows just how far her program has come.