Hires made, pressure off, Foley says

[t-gator]

I loved playing catcher./QUOTE]

I knew it!

 

[stephenPE]

We all agree that WM was a bad hire. Add to the fact he never had a QB that was sec caliber and like you said didnt get enough OL it was doomed. But I have been all over the Swamp not in the locker room or weight rooms but hear they are nice. I know BB has a nice facility. THose banners and signs in both places speak well of the programs. But my question is who are those championship coaches you would have been more excited about? Urban is the best age wise. Saban aint coming to Fla and frankly I doubt most of us could stand that guy. Charlie S was the one I think we missed on. I loved the Boise St guy that moved to the PAC ten or was it the NFL. I do not like NFL guys. Dont think they fit for long. SOS? Hey let him jump start us for 3 years while we find the guy. Too late for that train. I like Mac and want him to succeed and do it right with some excitement. I have seen it from bad to mediocre to good to AMAZING. The bad times make you really appreciate the Dannys and Timmys and UGA beat downs and especially the TITLES.

 

[dubster1]

I loved playing catcher./QUOTE]

I knew it!

 

[VulcanAlex]

We all agree that WM was a bad hire. Add to the fact he never had a QB that was sec caliber and like you said didnt get enough OL it was doomed. But I have been all over the Swamp not in the locker room or weight rooms but hear they are nice. I know BB has a nice facility. THose banners and signs in both places speak well of the programs. But my question is who are those championship coaches you would have been more excited about? Urban is the best age wise. Saban aint coming to Fla and frankly I doubt most of us could stand that guy. Charlie S was the one I think we missed on. I loved the Boise St guy that moved to the PAC ten or was it the NFL. I do not like NFL guys. Dont think they fit for long. SOS? Hey let him jump start us for 3 years while we find the guy. Too late for that train. I like Mac and want him to succeed and do it right with some excitement. I have seen it from bad to mediocre to good to AMAZING. The bad times make you really appreciate the Dannys and Timmys and UGA beat downs and especially the TITLES.

Well Gee a well thought out post which I generally agree with. Surprise!!

Whatever!!!

 

[Okeechobee Joe]

An SEC athletic director is only as good as his last football hire. Unless you're Kentucky. Or unless you're a left-handed guitar picker named Vanderbilt.

 

[NoGaGator]

Coach, I pitched but above all things, I loved playing catcher. I loved blocking the plate and loved blocking the wild pitches in the dirt. I'm smiling just thinking about it. Probably couldn't squat for two innings now. I watch baseball, just not college. I don't like the minor leagues of the minor leagues aspects of it.

It's not that I don't appreciate the other sports. Obviously, it's great to win NCs in basketball and football and win all sports trophy in the same year. However, winning in tiddlywinks gives me no solace when we are consistently in the bottom of the SEC in football.

The University of Florida is about football period. The budget is produced by football period. We are the flagship in the richest state talent wise. Frankly it should be easy for an AD to land excellent coaches, if he weren't constantly trying to hire third tier coaches from the little league conferences and find that (cheap) diamond in the rough then forcing them to make do with a fraction of the coaching staff money that other premier staffs get, we wouldn't be in this position.

There is no excuse. The money Fooley wasted on paying Chimp, paying CSU's buyout, and hiring Mac, he could have paid the salary of any coach anywhere, including Saban or coaches capable of beating Saban. (I'm not saying we should have tried to hire Saban, that is silly, but the point is we could hire a Championship Coach instead of something from the seconds bin yet again.) Buying two KIas instead of one Lexus isn't a smart move, no matter what Fooley tells himself.

There is no excuse for the delapidated facilities with forty year old drop ceilings and the penny pinching coaches when we are ROLLING in money and would have even more if we didn't put a product on the field on par with Kintucky (in football). I know some of you don't care about facilities but you have to understand, this is the BLING generation. That stuff does matter to them. Fooley owns it.

The next point that needs to be emphasized is Fooley's assertion that "the pressure is off." Bullshiit. Not exercising institutional control is how we ended up with gang banger thugs and a serial murderer under Creyer and the disaster of the Dawg that followed. Frankly, Creyer's thugs embarrass me way more than Galen Hall paying some kid $50 to avoid going to jail for child support debts.

The pressure has never been higher and if Fooley doesn't know how to oversee a football program he DAMN sure better be hiring some counselors with subject matter expertise who CAN help him ensure we don't self destruct yet again. How hard is it?

Fooley: Chimp, this is Jeremy. I noticed we just recruited two offensive linemen and seven DBs. You know Creyer only landed two OL last year two, right?
Chimp: Well, you see, eye control, midline, controlled the ball, time of possession, 3 man surface, disguise coverage, that's on me.
Fooley; What is your plan to get that fixed? A dozen jucos and a big OL class in 2012, I hope?
Chimp: Well, midline, eagle front, weak blitz, disguise coverage, eye control, controlled the ball, time of possession, that's on me.

Fooley thinking: I'd better get on the phone to Charley Strong agents and others if this isn't fixed in the spring. And tear up that extension I was working on. Both of them.

Honestly, it was not hard to see the disaster coming. You had to close your eyes and squint them tight in order to not see it.

Best and most lucid post that I've read from you and I agree. Foley has made a lot of great hires in the other sports. He screwed up bigtime in Zook and Chump. (The girls Bball coach must have negatives on him with Caitlyn however for her to still be there).
Given how he has been known to go on the cheap, it is especially infuriating that he paid Chump the $6 mill going away present especially after he stopped recruiting at UF and then still took a couple of recruits to AU.

 

[TLB]

To me success is defined not by number of likes or ratio of likes to post.......To me it's the simple fact I have yet to be banned. Yup, this is my longest streak without a banning in my illustrious sports message board career

You'd probably miss it if you were banned. ;)

 

[TheDouglas78]

I loved playing catcher. .

Is Law really T?

 

[GatorJ]

Coach, I pitched but above all things, I loved playing catcher. I loved blocking the plate and loved blocking the wild pitches in the dirt. I'm smiling just thinking about it. Probably couldn't squat for two innings now. I watch baseball, just not college. I don't like the minor leagues of the minor leagues aspects of it.

It's not that I don't appreciate the other sports. Obviously, it's great to win NCs in basketball and football and win all sports trophy in the same year. However, winning in tiddlywinks gives me no solace when we are consistently in the bottom of the SEC in football.

The University of Florida is about football period. The budget is produced by football period. We are the flagship in the richest state talent wise. Frankly it should be easy for an AD to land excellent coaches, if he weren't constantly trying to hire third tier coaches from the little league conferences and find that (cheap) diamond in the rough then forcing them to make do with a fraction of the coaching staff money that other premier staffs get, we wouldn't be in this position.

There is no excuse. The money Fooley wasted on paying Chimp, paying CSU's buyout, and hiring Mac, he could have paid the salary of any coach anywhere, including Saban or coaches capable of beating Saban. (I'm not saying we should have tried to hire Saban, that is silly, but the point is we could hire a Championship Coach instead of something from the seconds bin yet again.) Buying two KIas instead of one Lexus isn't a smart move, no matter what Fooley tells himself.

There is no excuse for the delapidated facilities with forty year old drop ceilings and the penny pinching coaches when we are ROLLING in money and would have even more if we didn't put a product on the field on par with Kintucky (in football). I know some of you don't care about facilities but you have to understand, this is the BLING generation. That stuff does matter to them. Fooley owns it.

The next point that needs to be emphasized is Fooley's assertion that "the pressure is off." Bullshiit. Not exercising institutional control is how we ended up with gang banger thugs and a serial murderer under Creyer and the disaster of the Dawg that followed. Frankly, Creyer's thugs embarrass me way more than Galen Hall paying some kid $50 to avoid going to jail for child support debts.

The pressure has never been higher and if Fooley doesn't know how to oversee a football program he DAMN sure better be hiring some counselors with subject matter expertise who CAN help him ensure we don't self destruct yet again. How hard is it?

Fooley: Chimp, this is Jeremy. I noticed we just recruited two offensive linemen and seven DBs. You know Creyer only landed two OL last year two, right?
Chimp: Well, you see, eye control, midline, controlled the ball, time of possession, 3 man surface, disguise coverage, that's on me.
Fooley; What is your plan to get that fixed? A dozen jucos and a big OL class in 2012, I hope?
Chimp: Well, midline, eagle front, weak blitz, disguise coverage, eye control, controlled the ball, time of possession, that's on me.

Fooley thinking: I'd better get on the phone to Charley Strong agents and others if this isn't fixed in the spring. And tear up that extension I was working on. Both of them.

Honestly, it was not hard to see the disaster coming. You had to close your eyes and squint them tight in order to not see it.

That's a great post.

 

[TLB]

Foloey had nothing to do with SOS, in fact they despise each other. (For that matter, he had little to do with the overall program either, we were already winning All Sports trophies, too.) Most think Machen, our recruiting base. and the state of the SEC at the time are far more responsible for Meyer than Fooley.

Even if you credit Fooley with Meyer, he's 1-3 with two major disasters credited to his name, both of whom he defended zealously. If Mac flops, there's nothing that can save his legacy. Regardless, he's gone before we hire the next football coach, rightfully so.

You Fooley worshippers are an embarrassment. I remember this time last year when you promised we'd all be missing him now because, being the all-time pre-eminent administrator in the galaxy, he was a shoe-in to be the SEC AD. That worked out well.

Which is harder, getting to the top, or staying there? You highlight all the things in favor of a strong UF Football program, and other than the WM obvious disaster, the program held on to a top position in the national rankings and in the conference during Foley's tenure even with several coaching changes. SOS success, RZ mediocre (at best), and UM's two NCs = all on Foley's watch. A bad AD could have inserted himself into any of those regimes and royally fk'd them up. That same 'hands off' approach allowed WM to sink the ship, but fact remains even with tunnel vision to just your beloved football, there is a winning history overall under Foley, and even the WM debacle has been addressed (albiet a little late).

Let me ask you this, and answer honsetly - if JMac is a success, does Foley get any credit? Or will you find a way to bitch about that as well and still beat the 'fire Foley' drum?

I'll spare you the fact that no other AD in the country has had sustained success across ALL sports while football was strong, and even in recent years while football failed. You don't care, I know, but that doesn't lessen the fact that Foley has built a winning department overall. Ignore it if you choose, the fact stands.

The University of Florida is about football period.

Our trophy case says otherwise. All the collegiate sporting news and frustrated rival schools say otherwise. But your myopic view is your choice. The facts stand.

The budget is produced by football period. We are the flagship in the richest state talent wise. Frankly it should be easy for an AD to land excellent coaches, if he weren't constantly trying to hire third tier coaches from the little league conferences and find that (cheap) diamond in the rough then forcing them to make do with a fraction of the coaching staff money that other premier staffs get, we wouldn't be in this position.

There is no excuse. The money Fooley wasted on paying Chimp, paying CSU's buyout, and hiring Mac, he could have paid the salary of any coach anywhere, including Saban or coaches capable of beating Saban. (I'm not saying we should have tried to hire Saban, that is silly, but the point is we could hire a Championship Coach instead of something from the seconds bin yet again.) Buying two KIas instead of one Lexus isn't a smart move, no matter what Fooley tells himself.

There is no excuse for the delapidated facilities with forty year old drop ceilings and the penny pinching coaches when we are ROLLING in money and would have even more if we didn't put a product on the field on par with Kintucky (in football). I know some of you don't care about facilities but you have to understand, this is the BLING generation. That stuff does matter to them. Fooley owns it.

Let's flip this another way - over the last 20 yrs, what AD do you know of that has come close to Foley's accomplishments? Who else would you have had in that position that could have done as well? There's no excuse for us being as strong as we were up to the WM debacle other than our AD. You want to credit the coaches? Fine, but they don't own the pursestrings that hire assitants, schedlule high visibility games, manage tv contracts, or allow us to sell a recruit on the University of Florday experience beyond a (transient, as who knows how long a coach will stay) coach's pitch to play for him? THAT we have a great Universtiy may not rest on Foley, afterall he is the AD and not related to academics, but he has a hand in creating a brand that is globally relevant even if it is through other sports in addition to football.

There is no excuse for you to be so focused on one sport, but that's your choice. There is no excuse for you to endlessly criticize Foley as a failure when the rest of the world sees him not only as successful but as the best at what he does. I'd hate to see you picking a CEO and firing the most successful at the position simply because he decided to let the lobby get dated and stale. You'd have a worthless operation within a yeaer with your short sighted criteria on leaders.

The next point that needs to be emphasized is Fooley's assertion that "the pressure is off." Bullshiit. Not exercising institutional control is how we ended up with gang banger thugs and a serial murderer under Creyer and the disaster of the Dawg that followed. Frankly, Creyer's thugs embarrass me way more than Galen Hall paying some kid $50 to avoid going to jail for child support debts.

The pressure has never been higher and if Fooley doesn't know how to oversee a football program he DAMN sure better be hiring some counselors with subject matter expertise who CAN help him ensure we don't self destruct yet again. How hard is it?

Here, I'll actually agree - as the pressure is not off for the position of AD, it is never off. However, I believe the quote was in effect to 'hiring to fill coaching positions' what with WM removed, BD going to NBA, and the loss of other key coaching positions. Still, take it out of context to criticize Foley, you're good at that. But I have to admit you are right that the pressure is ever on for keeping the program(s) clean. When's the last time we had problems? Oh yeah, your beloved Urban and his two NCs. Can you figure to blame Foley for that and neglect Urban's fingerprints on those recruits and handling of team members? Or do we look at all the times we HAVE NOT been in trouble, what with so many winning sports getting headlines it would be prime pickings to have a reporter dig up dirt and get us under NCAA scrutiny? Yeah, does Foley get any credit for that, or does that 'clean programs' fall to the coaches (that he hired)? Pick which way you'll have it, becuase you can't have it both ways. By the way, I'm sure Foley knows he has to keep clean programs AND do a better job in overseeing football quality. Between your bitching and Dooley's crack reporting skills, I doubt the man ever gets any sleep.

 

[dubster1]

:fingertap:

 

[MJMGator]

Nice post, TLB. I doubt Law reads it though..too many words for a Bammer type.

 

[TLB]

I know, I expect another tl;dr coming from him and others. Maybe if I can figure out how to use crayons on the internet and more pictures I'll reach him.