Something I've Been Thinking About Regarding Coaching...

cover2

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...is that, including Stricklin, our last two AD's aren't necessarily "football" guys. Not that it says anywhere that you must have a guy who was a successful football coach and/or player to oversee your entire athletic program, but at least where UF is concerned, Foley has been pretty much unspectacular in his hires for the largest of the team sports. Can't argue the success he has helped foster among the other sports, which is important, but shouldn't be at the perceived detriment of the football program in terms of the coaching leadership, should it? Might still be early for some where Stricklin is concerned, but what I can read on him is that he's a great building and facilities guy. His work, or the credit he gets for MSU football, kinda speaks for itself.

Again, not all great AD's have got to be football coaches and/or players, and the wave these last several years or to have guys who are better all-sport program builders (if you can find them). I'd like to try a guy like SOS, if he was inclined, to serve in the AD capacity. I'd have to think he might have better luck in attracting the right candidates and, ultimately, the best fit to right the football ship and still maintain the success of the other programs. It can be argued that Gator football isn't as bad as it could be or has been, but why settle for that when we've also been so, so much better? Curious to hear what people think about these specifics.
 

MidwestChomp

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When the day comes that Mac leaves UF, Stricklin should ask SOS to be on the committee to hire a new coach. SOS could help identify those individuals who have a great offensive Xs and Os mind.
 
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GMDGator

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SOS should be the AD
Bell could be the coach and learn from OBC...
 

GatorSkin

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I woulda loved to see Spurrier take on some sort of role in the Ad's office instead of the made up role he has now. Not sure he'd be interested though think he's content on having an office and still having all the free time that comes with retirement.
 

GatorJB

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When the day comes that Mac leaves UF, Stricklin should ask SOS to be on the committee to hire a new coach. SOS could help identify those individuals who have a great offensive Xs and Os mind.

I agree with this. I also think it would be wise to add a another former player or two to the committee. But the most important thing about the search committee is to keep Foley away from it!
 

GatorSkin

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SOS should be the AD
Bell could be the coach and learn from OBC...
Love Bell but he needs to go prove himself at another big time school before we even consider him.
Florida is not the place for on the job training gator or not.
 

Okeechobee Joe

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So some people want to hire a 72 year old man with no experience running a mult-million dollar mult-sport athletic program and no interest in being an administrator as the next athletic director of the University of Florida?
 

MJMGator

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So some people want to hire a 72 year old man with no experience running a mult-million dollar mult-sport athletic program and no interest in being an administrator as the next athletic director of the University of Florida?
Yeah, I'm glad they aren't hiring my staff. :lol:
 

T REX

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I don't mind the building of the other sports but at the cost of burning down the football program?

Someone should have taken the keys away from Foley a long time ago. Sorry dude, you can't drive anymore. Now, he has a permanent office within the athletic dept.

His ego couldn't let him walk away...instead he hired Hannah Montana to purdy kewl his way into all of our hearts.
 

cover2

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So some people want to hire a 72 year old man with no experience running a mult-million dollar mult-sport athletic program and no interest in being an administrator as the next athletic director of the University of Florida?
Joe, you don't think Spurrier or somebody of similar experience might not have some insight and expertise they could add? If they were "inclined" was a qualifier in the OP. I mean, it's not like there aren't Asst. AD's that could fill a staff and add particular skills. I'm just at the point where I'm tired of seeing football looking like its circling the drain and a ton of money being lost in the process under a guy (and maybe another one) who, arguably, have experience running a multi-million dollar operation.
 
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Swamp Donkey

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So some people want to hire a 72 year old man with no experience running a mult-million dollar mult-sport athletic program and no interest in being an administrator as the next athletic director of the University of Florida?
They hired a bald, bucktoothed popcorn salesman before.

What is the difference really?

However, I agree. SOS is a joke. I want him on the committee making the decision about the next coach. He was never an admin type of guy. He didn't really even like most aspects of coaching that didn't involve playcalling and reliving his days as the O&B QB. I always felt like he really, REALLY wanted to steal a uniform and run it himself.
 

CU-UF

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Idk, there are plenty of athletic directors that have never played nor are they "football guys" whatever that means. I know folks around here dont want to hear, but there is an element of catching lightning in a bottle when hiring a head football coach. Even the "cant miss" hires still miss, see Michigan (pre Harbaugh, although a reasonable argument can be made that he still hasnt done anything significant), Texas and Charlie Strong, UCLA and Mora, USC and Kiffin, Oregon and Helfrich hell even UF and Muschamp. Like life, timing is everything. Hindsight is always 20/20 and its easy to look back now and point out the deficiencies in a particular hire that seem so obvious. Its concerning to me, although I guess given the long football downswing not unexpected, how quick folks are already starting to turn on an AD that hasnt even been hear a year. Make no mistake, the AD at a major program is a CEO and is managing a BRAND, yes the most significant component of that brand is its football team, but the sum of the parts are greater than the individual and enhance the overall brand, so tanking all the small programs for the perceived benefit of football would be a foolish approach to managing that brand in my opinion.
 

T REX

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Idk, there are plenty of athletic directors that have never played nor are they "football guys" whatever that means. I know folks around here dont want to hear, but there is an element of catching lightning in a bottle when hiring a head football coach. Even the "cant miss" hires still miss, see Michigan (pre Harbaugh, although a reasonable argument can be made that he still hasnt done anything significant), Texas and Charlie Strong, UCLA and Mora, USC and Kiffin, Oregon and Helfrich hell even UF and Muschamp. Like life, timing is everything. Hindsight is always 20/20 and its easy to look back now and point out the deficiencies in a particular hire that seem so obvious. Its concerning to me, although I guess given the long football downswing not unexpected, how quick folks are already starting to turn on an AD that hasnt even been hear a year. Make no mistake, the AD at a major program is a CEO and is managing a BRAND, yes the most significant component of that brand is its football team, but the sum of the parts are greater than the individual and enhance the overall brand, so tanking all the small programs for the perceived benefit of football would be a foolish approach to managing that brand in my opinion.

Completely disagree with your last part. The other programs only survive because of football. Period. That funds the whole dept. You think ESPN is paying for volleyball or baseball or track.

Football>all the other parts combined

And it's not even close. Overall brand? That's funny. Football is 98% of THE BRAND and BB 1% and then your sum of the other parts. And that might be generous. LOL.
 

LagoonGator68

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Foley is nothing more than a ticket office intern who ass-kissed his way to the top by keeping all programs feeding off the football teat....everybody's happy at the expense of the only part that makes money.....typical bureaucracy.

Stricklin is Foley's handpicked lackey.
 

Swamp Donkey

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but the sum of the parts are greater than the individual and enhance the overall brand, so tanking all the small programs for the perceived benefit of football would be a foolish approach to managing that brand in my opinion.
There is only one program that matters. All the rest exist solely because of football profit.

Wanna be Kansas? Good luck. They tremble every winter at the thought of ending up in 1AA or a minor conference.
 

CU-UF

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Completely disagree with your last part. The other programs only survive because of football. Period. That funds the whole dept. You think ESPN is paying for volleyball or baseball or track.

Football>all the other parts combined

And it's not even close. Overall brand? That's funny. Football is 98% of THE BRAND and BB 1% and then your sum of the other parts. And that might be generous. LOL.
You're talking about revenue, a brand is more than that and includes things like perception, how people view the Brand when it is presented in a variety of contexts. I agree with you, the most important part is football. All I am saying is that when football is humming, the success of the other parts makes the success of football even more. And ya, that massive SEC Network contract is so massive because of how competitive the "other" sports are and hence makes good programming throughout the year.
 

Okeechobee Joe

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Joe, you don't think Spurrier or somebody of similar experience might not have some insight and expertise they could add? If they were "inclined" was a qualifier in the OP. I mean, it's not like there aren't Asst. AD's that could fill a staff and add particular skills. I'm just at the point where I'm tired of seeing football looking like its circling the drain and a ton of money being lost in the process under a guy (and maybe another one) who, arguably, have experience running a multi-million dollar operation.

Hey Cover. Hope everything is well with you. Sure, I think Spurrier would definitely have some insight into who would be a good fit for UF. But, as you know, finding the right guy is a lot easier said than done. Just because Spurrier can come up with a name doesn't mean that his pick is going to turn out to be a great coach. A lot of people know a lot about football and know just as much as Spurrier does. There is a luck factor into getting the right guy at the right place at the right time. Didn't Spurrier want Muschamp to be the coach at South Carolina?

It takes two very different kinds of mindsets to be a head football coach and an AD. In medicine it would be like being a surgeon or a psychiatrist. Both are medical doctors but they couldn't be more worlds apart. The days of football coaches being the athletic director is a thing of the past. Back in the days of Ray Graves, Graves could be the AD and the football coach. But the overall athletic programs were a lot smaller and simpler to run. That was the time when assistant football coaches also helped out with basketball. You have to have a business background to be an AD at a major athletic program today.

So ask Spurrier his opinion and take it into account but take everything else that factors into the equation also.
 

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