Does Anyone Remember When Hayden Fry was Fired?

[The Falcon]

Not about basketball? Hang on a minute and I'll give you a parable.

When Hayden was fired, the players were excited about hiring the defensive coordinator who had done a fine job at SMU. The decision makers at SMU didn't think he fit the "SMU Image" whatever that is. They went out and hired Dave Smith who was a disaster here although a very nice man. It was said that the passed over defensive coordinator didn't have what it took - he wore a cowboy hat, boots, and spit his chewing tobacco all around - not the SMU image you see. The cowboy left SMU and went on to become the head coach of the Houston Oilers - Bum Phillips.

The only negative I have heard of Coach Tubbs is that he may not fit the SMU image - that his communications skills may not be the best. However, he seems to communicate well with Bhop, Isham, Ross, Sasser, Davis, and
Hampton among others. He communicated well with players on his Kimball team.

Some of you on this board have said he coached here with Dement. The fact is Dement did not allow him to do much coaching here. I hear that he volunteered to coach the defense but was turned down.

I won't slit my wrists if Tubbs isn't hired - maybe there is someone else out there on our list that can do a great job; however, he better be damn good if Tubbs is not hired because I think Tubbs can make us a winner for reasons already stated. Don't listen to my opinions, but give his past players, competing coaches, and writers for the DMN some credit. If you haven't read the articles I excerpted earlier on this board under the heading "Evidence For Tubbs", please read those - they speak loudly that this is a good man and the right coach for SMU.

By the way, I don't know coach Tubbs - have never met him but his past record of recruiting and coaching At Kimball is evidence that we should hire him. I also think the h.s. coaches in DISD who are recommending him speak very loudly.

Hope this hasn't bored you Dooby - but I too am bored with your avatar.

[Hoop Fan]

This is really the point. If SMU turns its nose up at Tubbs simply because of image, we will have made a big mistake. There is always a danger of that in any hiring decision anywhere, but SMU is as vulnerable to being mislead by image alone as anybody. Frankly when you are choosing amongst a bunch of assistants with no head coaching experience, I don't know how you choose any one of these guys over Tubbs at this point. Forget judgement, that will be a very arbitrary decision and it will be loaded and ready to backfire.

[EastStang]

Dave Smith was a disaster. Part of the reason was that he took players that were recruited for a pro-set offense and tried to horn them into a wishbone because everyone else did that. He could not motivate players because he had the personality of a lemon, so he had to pay them and handed out the cash himself. Smith was considered an offensive genius because OSU won some games. Bum Phillips was not hired because he was part of the regime that was here and that committed the grievous sin of losing to Virginia Tech by a field goal. I never heard that he wasn't hired because he didn't fit SMU's image and I was a student at SMU at the time. Would Bum have ended up a better coach? Yes, he would have. Ain't 20/20 hindsight wonderful.

[BigEasyPony]

I think its irresponsible to imply that if SMU doesn't hire Tubbs then they're turning their noses up at him. There is a committee of 15 people who will assess many factors. Clearly, these individuals are in a better position to judge the candidates than we are. Let's let the committee do its job!

If you had the benefit of personally interviewing all the candidates and reading their references you may have a different opinion. I said "may." Then again your support for Tubbs may be confirmed.

Let's keep an open mind about this.

[Hoop Fan]

irresponsible? I'm not on the committee or an employee of the university, so that is not the right choice of words. If you say I am wrong or that you disagree with my opinion or prediction, fine with me.

We know who the candidates are. We know what their basic backgrounds are. We know that none of them have head coaching experience at the D-1 level, some have no head coaching experience at any level. Therefore, there is enough information on the table to make an informed judgement. If you think the dog and pony show and interview process is that important to a hiring decision, we just don't see the world the same way. I think its more important to reward loyalty and make a statement that Dallas is important to us. The BS of the interview process is just that, mostly BS. If you are content to be happy with whomever is chosen no matter what, thats your view only, don't expect others to be. Therefore, barring some surprise candidate with head coaching experience that no one knows about, this decision is clear. Thats my OPINION.

[BigEasyPony]

Who said anything about being happy about whomever the committee chooses. I simply said that I hope those alumni and fans who are rooting for Tubbs to get the job afford an opportunity to the new HC whomever it may be. I understand your passion for a candidate, but you insist on being critical of a process if you think it doesn't favor your candidate. Suppose one of the other candidates had endorsement letters signed by John Wooden, Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski. Would you dismiss those endorsements? I think Tubbs is an excellent candidate for the job, but he is not the only good candidate for the job and acting like he is, is not fair to the other candidates.

I also am well aware that Copeland formed that committee so he can get a consensus on a new HC. He wants to do that for a variety of reasons e.g. to assist in fundraising efforts of the SMU basketball program, to get the student athletes to support the incoming HC, to share responsibility for the hiring decision and simply to get multiple points of view.

I disagree that we can make an informed decision. You seem to know a lot about Coach Tubbs (so does Copeland, I might add), but you don't know as much about the other candidates. Tubbs is helped and hurt by the same thing: his familiarity with the SMU community. His realtionship with SMU reassures some people that he is the right guy for the job while that same closeness makes others more cautious. I happen to think that his strongest assets are his recruiting prowess and his dedication to SMU. I do however think that there are several candidates who are as good at recruiting as Coach Tubbs though they would not be as effective as Coach Tubbs would be in the short term.

This decision is not even close to clear and that is my opinion and that's all it is. We can respectfully disagree on this issue, but I do hope that we are both cheering on SMU in future NCAA tournaments whomever the coach may be.

[Hoop Fan]

If it wasn't stated explicitly at the time, I am pretty sure it was suggested that Dement had a recommendation from Coach K when he was hired. Dement was from North Carolina and worked as a grad assistant for K. That didn't turn out to mean much did it? So, no recommendations from name coaches are nice but they all give courtesy recommendations to guys that have worked for them. I'm sure Izzo is recommending Wojcik. That means nothing to me. Is Izzo going to help sway any recruits our way? DISD coaches probably will, so that has more real consequence.

Also, I was referring to your plea to "let the committee do its job!". I think I am, and none of us have any choice but to do so. But I don't see why that precludes opinions and strong points of view here. Maybe we just disagree, but I think you can get a pretty realistic feel by reading the bios of these guys. Their resumes are basically public information. I have read them and have a decent feel for the landscape out there, I don't think that is too bold to claim. I know more about Roberts than you might think also and have said that he is a strong candidate for the job. I think he would be a good fit. Just happens that Tubbs is a better fit in my view. I don't understand how Wojcik is much of a fit at all other than the pipe dream that he knows David Robinson and somehow that would translate to recruiting. Same for Reveeno and Treloar.

As for supporting whoever is hired, who has said they wouldn't? I haven't laid down any gauntlets and I have not read any posts by anyone else saying such either. But I will say this is a pretty critical situation and SMU cannot afford either a major mistake or a PR blunder here. This the only chance to let opinions be known. Next week it will be too late. We'll see what happens.

[FWMustang]

I read he was interested in pursuing the job. Why not give it a couple of more weeks to wait on him?

The only reason I remember him being fired at Tech was that AD Meyers wanted "Hey Knight, What's up?!?!" They had had a couple of bad years, but surely he has the experience and recruiting ties.

Not trying to knock the other two candidates, but neither has HC experience, and Dickey does.

On a side note, wouldn't it have great if our Head FB coach had been Darrell Dickey and Head BB coach was James Dickey? I know that comment just shot any credibility I had left, but I couldn't resist.