Tiger Band...What is wrong with the band?

Seems like they don’t play “Hey baby” anymore or haven’t for a long time

I think they sound fine but their marching has definitely gotten worse. I’ve seen tons of crooked lines, even in pregame, and even people wildly out of position at the beginning of a show.

Need to tighten that up a ton.

No more Linda Moorhouse or Frank Wickes.

Quality declined.

A lot

They need to go back to playing the Beach Boys at halftime

quote:

---

Besides not playing Neck, has there been a decline?

---

Absolutely!

After Frank Wickes retired and Linda Moorhouse abruptly left for the University of Illinois, the "University of LSU" never conducted a nationwide search to interview interested individuals for the Head GBFTL Directorship.

Assistant Roy King was just moved up to the position. (Nice guy, qualified assistant, but not even close to being qualified to be the head Tiger Band director)

The School of Music (Todd Queen I assume and a few others) did conduct a weak arse search for a "Director of Bands" but that yielded one WA Damon Talley to head up the Symphonic Bands section of the Band Department.

After a few years of Mediocrity, Roy got in a little hot water and was released, then ULSU did the same thing again, promoting Assistant Dennis Ilinas to the top position.

After a few years of Ilinas, he left for the University of Oregon.

Here we go again. No interviews or search, just move up the Assistant.

Now it's Kelvin Jones.

Steady DECLINE from Roy, through Dennis and now Kelvin.

The band is too small to fill up 102, 000 seat Tiger Stadium and is weak in all-important Brass.

Half-time shows are mostly boring and unimaginative.

There's nothing there to hold your interest and keep you in your seat.

You can correlate the entire scenario to football. Wickes was Nick Saban. Moorhouse was Kim Mulkey. Roy was Curley Hallman. Dennis was Les Miles and Kelvin Jones is Willie Taggert.

The entire program has regressed, but can come back quickly with the hiring of another "College Marching Band Nick Saban" type director, but that will take a change in Leadership and most likely a move away from the School of Music and 100% into the Athletic Department.

Move it to the AD. Hire an Experienced and Proven Director. Let him hire a great Staff. Put all Band members on Athletic Scholarship. Increase size to 400. Eliminate Woodwinds and march just Brass and Percussion.

Here is what really happened (as told to me by someone in the LSU athletic department)......
Frank retired and tried to get LSU to hire Linda as his replacement. LSU said "hell no" so Linda got mad and left. So, Roy became the director. Now here's the really important part......At the same time Frank retired (2010) and Roy became the GBFTL director, the school of music (with the help of Jane Cassidy /school of music faculty AND vice provost) took a scholarship package away from the band and gave it to the school of music. The removal/stealing of that band scholarship package accounted for more than two-thirds of the band's total scholarship money. That scholarship package paid ALL tuition for out-of-state band students! The fact that Roy somehow was able to maintain the band's numbers is nothing short of a miracle. Now, because of weak leadership, their recruiting efforts are quite suspect (poor instrumentation, poor talent, etc.). Now you know, the rest of the story!

No Latin Flare

I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it.

When you hire someone as “Asst Director of Bands” and they have no music degree and haven’t even taught anything from middle school band to HS drumline, you are asking for a decline.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Too many poor hires.