Jordan Kendall | Thoughts on Rob Ambrose's tenure at Towson

Nov. 23—The Towson Tigers football team announced that head coach Rob Ambrose will not return next season. It comes as a surprise to many including myself.

It didn't seem like Towson would move on from him in the near future. Ambrose spent the last 13 seasons as head coach and finished with a 76-76 record.

I was surprised to see this, and many fans and former players were as well. Most of the responses on social media were positive; however, a few fans and former players voiced their critiques of Ambrose.

I've been going back and forth for a while on how I feel about Ambrose. He did a lot of great things for the Towson program, but he also disappointed in several areas.

Starting with the positives, he turned the program around. When he became head coach in 2009, the Tigers hadn't made the playoffs since joining division one in 1987. In two years, he led Towson to a CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) championship in 2011.

Two years later, the Tigers went 13-3 and reached the national championship game. Running back Terrance West set FCS (Football Championship Series) records for rushing yards (2,509) and rushing touchdowns (41).

Towson returned to the playoffs in 2018 led by Tom Flacco and Shane Simpson. They were both among the best at their positions in the FCS level. Flacco, the brother of New York Jets quarterback Joe Flacco, was the CAA Offensive Player of the Year. He threw for over 3,200 yards with 28 touchdowns and added 741 rushing yards.

Simpson was named All-CAA at three different positions. He finished with 2,058 all-purpose yards as a running back, kick returner and punt returner. He was second in the FCS with 171.5 all-purpose yards per game.

Several of his players went on to play in the NFL and CFL. Jordan Dangerfield was a key member of the Pittsburgh Steelers' special teams unit. Tye Smith had a two-week stretch in 2014 where he returned a block field goal for a touchdown and forced a fumble in back-to-back games with the Tennessee Titans.

Ambrose brought a level of respect back to the Towson program. As a Towson alum and former player, he took a lot of pride in being the head coach. He was a great representative of the university and the football program.

However, he also had several flaws. He was a very aggressive head coach. He liked to go for it on fourth down even when he probably shouldn't have. I can recall several games where the Tigers kept the offense on the field.

It often came when Towson was in field goal range, but Ambrose would decide to go for it. It usually didn't work and cost the Tigers a handful of games.

He also wasn't a great recruiter, especially in the last four or five years. The high school recruits usually don't contribute much. In the last few years, most of the players he gets the most production from are transfers. There's been a noticeable trend of transfer players becoming the key players. For the most part, it seems the high school players never pan out.

There are exceptions, a few veterans that were directly recruited from high school have been solid for Towson. Kick returner D'Ago Hunter has at least 600 return yards in each of the last three seasons. Linebacker Ryan Kearney had 72 tackles and five pass breakups this year.

However, it seems like the best players on the team as of late have been transfers. Defensive end Jesus Gibbs had 44 tackles and five sacks this year after transferring from South Carolina in 2018. Wide receiver Da'Kendall James led the Tigers with 520 yards after transferring from Norfolk State.

This year's starting quarterback, Tyrrell Pigrome played at two other colleges before Towson. Last year's starter Chris Ferguson came from Liberty. Flacco transferred from Western Michigan. The Tigers haven't had a starting quarterback who wasn't a transfer since Ryan Stover in 2017.

Ambrose has received some great players from the transfer portal, but he also tended to rely on it more than he should've. This season, Towson had 50 new players on the roster. The majority of them were transfers.

Baltimore is a great area to recruit, and so is Maryland and the mid-Atlantic area. Even Western Maryland and West Virginia have proven to have talent. Former Fort Hill stars Luke Hamilton and Blake White were on this year's roster. I can think of several players from this area who would make the Tigers better on day one.

Since finding out that Ambrose won't be back, I've gone back and forth with how I feel about it. On one hand, he turned around a program that desperately needed it and turned it into a respectable team. On the other hand, he hasn't won a lot in the last few years. Towson only has one playoff appearance in the last eight seasons.

I get why the move was made. The Tigers fanbase wants to win, especially since the CAA is wide open with James Madison gone. There's no longer the clear front runner that everyone else is trying to catch. However, Ambrose was also very loyal and passionate about Towson football.

I interviewed Ambrose often while covering the team in college. He was great to work with and always gave great in-depth answers. I appreciate what he did for the program and wish him well going forward.

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.