Perspective and the future

Dec 3, 2013, 3:30 PM

I've been gnawing at this for a few days and well I got to thinking about perspective.

It's always been "well at least we graduate our kids" and "well our kids are smart and not degenerates" or any of the other sort. We have to look at comparables and by god our National Championship was under an SEC guy, and ultimately we had to pay for some of the transgressions after he left.

What I'm saying is the SEC takes a whole different approach to this. They aren't as concerned or concerned at all with the "grad rate" and "good kids" stuff, they are only concerned with winning. We have a good program, great school and outstanding academics, but we aren't going to be a "GREAT" program with out the other factors suffering. Not that we need to disregard the academics, but let's face it, none of us here are conversing about who has the better Engineering school.

Who was it that said, "it ain't about where you start, it's about where you finish."

For the past several years the coots have managed to make that their mantra. Final AP rankings

2010 - Coots 22 CU - out of top 25
2011 - Coots 9 CU - 22
2012 - Coots 8 CU - 11
2013 - Coots 8 CU - 13 (BCS)

It's the finish that matters to me folks. Dabo is a motivator and would love to have him in Sunday School and around my children, but he ain't a football man, and he has surrounded himself with two really, really good High School guys who are also really good men.

At the end of the day, we as a university have to decide what it is we want and what price we are willing to pay for it. I know that for some, the price is already too dang high to have to hang your head and take the abuse from the cooters. A dang shame that we can't promote Dabo to Athletic Director or Spiritual Ambassador and get on a different path. The path we are on is fine, don't get me wrong, I'm proud of our guys and our school, but please don't ask me to give more money so I can continue to be slammed by my neighbors, friends, and in laws (that really burns me up) for wearing Orange.

Once was we said, wait till football season, now we seemingly have to say wait till Graduation Day, bet we have more of ours graduating than yours. That's something to be proud of don't get wrong, but dang fellas this ain't an academic board we are all conversing on. Maybe we can challenge the coots to an academic bowl or some mind games or something; cause I humbly must admit, the game we play - unless the coots are put on probation, is NOT going to beat them - atheletes or not.

The thing that is most disappointing is that while this trend continues we fall further and further behind and the catch up will take longer and longer. I can't help but think that if there is a coot that reads these boards, that they don't look at this with deja vue that this sounds like Cootville in the 80's and 90's.

I don't coach but as a businessman I have had to fire good people who were successful because ultimately they just didn't fit or their approach and how they handled my businessplan differed too much from what I wanted. Admittedly, when I let some go, I took a step backwards, but once I found what I needed I caught back up and surpassed. There have been a few I actually encouraged competitors to take (paid em less knowing the competitor would pay more). It was the right thing to do for my business.

I couldn't agree more that Dabo is a hec of a good guy, but I don't know who is lined up to come get him (a measure of your success). Perhaps even more disheartening is the increase made to Chad. That is just mindnumbing and makes it extremely difficult to offer him out to others.

Long rant, but all in all, I'm thrilled with the institution, proud of the kids that come out of it, and happy that we have 10 wins including 1 against an SEC opponent, and....one against the Citadel, SC State,Syracuse, Wake, BC, NC STate, Maryland, GT and VA: but dang gum I couldn't be more disappointed in where we are heading as far as being a GREAT football program.

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the programs aren't really that far apart. Coots have had the upper hand for the past 5 years, but that can change quickly. my fear, and what I think others might fear at this point, is sustaining the success. it's easier to decline than to improve. one blink or hicup we'll be set back. same for the Coots. Dabo is getting it done, but he's got a supporting cast that is critical to the team. i.e. Chad. Spurrier seems to be the CEO and COO and is in full control. What is also troublesome is in this high stakes game of chicken, we may be hindered as USC leverages their SEC resources that includes all the E$PN attention and soon will include the SEC Network. Folks, I'm telling you this is going to hurt us & FSU because all of the southern recruits are going to be watching this proproganda machine regularly. they'll have marathons of recruiting shows and they won't be flattering to us or the 'Noles. if & when the ACC finally gets their channel, it may be too late to repair the damage or it may miss the mark by not being football centric and will focus more on basketball and lacrosse. then you factor in the $$$ advantages that the Coots have w/ the SEC resources, and you could assume that we're having to spin more RPMs to keep up w/ the Coots, which ain't good. we've got to hold our ground for the next couple years, which won't be easy.

I think Dabo can get it done, but I'm a little nervous that our harmony is fragile. I'm sure it's just the pressure of the stakes. You all should be happy that I'm not fielding the punts.

Perspective and the future

BV was a high school coach? Oklahoma was a High School?

those ap polls could also suggest dabo in his 5th year is

Re: those ap polls could also suggest dabo in his 5th year is

i watched, my concerns are well known, he's done a good

Re: i watched, my concerns are well known, he's done a good

good teams lose in bad ways, it's the difference between

No one on here seriously cares about graduation rates

i do.

Re: No one on here seriously cares about graduation rates-

Tell 'em coot

You do realize

It's easy to say you care

it's easy to say you don't when it casts a shadow

Re: Perspective and the future

Re: Perspective and the future

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