The Stable: Orsini

[RGV Pony]

Fits right in on the Blvd

[Mestengo]

Made it to the first sentence..
For anyone that has lived in a cave for a decade he was forced out of UCF.

[PonyKai]

Impressed by the laziness of the writer. Orsini couldn't spell basketball if you spotted him the consonants. He was effectively inept in handling in a competent manner 1/2 of revenue sports. And every coaching search was a national embarrassment.

[fifty]

The official long term plan is to win in basketball and football. We have multimillion dollar coaches there and efforts allegedly in progress to build uber expensive facilities for football. What else do we need? 90s TheU roster and classes?

Also I didn't think the article was that bad. Better than the pieces June had DMN write.

Fifty, obviously that has been a big part of a plan since SMU began playing sports. And I, like most everyone, like all the on the field moves SMU is making. I am particularly pumped about Brown and Morris. However, I hope the plan is much deeper than this. For example, one of the things mentioned in the article is Orsini's aggressiveness toward moving to the Big12. So, I wonder what guidelines SMU has set to follow to get into the Big12 or another of the Power 5 conferences? I'm sure they have them. I just wonder what they are and how they have changed. Do they have strategies to increase advertising? Etc, etc, etc. If you look at the history of topics on this board, you can see these related questions make up many said topics.

Those are good points. Sharing such detailed vision would be encouraging to fans and boosters, right? Is there some secrecy policy that they don't even release the vaguest of plans/visions?

[JasonB]

Politics are part of any job. Orsini took a bull in the china shop approach that worked for a while, but in the end his lack of ability to work with the administration cost him his job. Hart and Morris both understand that, as does LB, and hence a lot of the obstacles that Orsini and June were complaining about are gone.

[PonySnob]

Those are good points. Sharing such detailed vision would be encouraging to fans and boosters, right? Is there some secrecy policy that they don't even release the vaguest of plans/visions?

Top 25 in everything we do

[jpe747]

Fifty, here is a quote from the author about internal arguments on a "Long Term Plan" that caused my controversial statement.

"Thirdly, according to reports, many of Orsini’s actions and plans for SMU athletics were not as well received by SMU officials. Many believed Orsini’s style of business was too aggressive for the small private university. In fact, many speculated that he was only interested in joining the Big East because the higher power of the university was afraid to pursue Orsini’s larger goal of landing the Mustangs in the Big 12."

To make this more clear, I love what Hart is doing. I just wondered what changes if any have been made toward this goal - which has to be considered long term. I am confident we have one. And, I doubt he would make it public.

[SMUstang07]

Why did Orsini leave? What are the worst kept secrets people are referring to?

[PonyKai]

(1) He was not strong in basketball
(2) He had a brash, aggressive approach to handling the Department which did not mesh well with RGT's preferred style of befitting those below him
(3) I recall hearing -- so allegedly -- that over a few disagreements that Orsini had with RGT, he voiced that displeasure to a number of people who probably did not need to know, which RGT took exception to.
(4) Backsliding in non-revenue/Olympic sports
(5) Maybe he signed a gag-order, because he hasn't said a word since he left, and as I understand it, is happily employed in the private sector and is no longer in sports administration
(6) While the June search ended on a high note, there were two (and a half) coaching searches conducted for revenue sports under his watch. Two of them were utter and complete national embarrassments.

[RyanSMU98]

Fifty, here is a quote from the author about internal arguments on a "Long Term Plan" that caused my controversial statement.

"Thirdly, according to reports, many of Orsini’s actions and plans for SMU athletics were not as well received by SMU officials. Many believed Orsini’s style of business was too aggressive for the small private university. In fact, many speculated that he was only interested in joining the Big East because the higher power of the university was afraid to pursue Orsini’s larger goal of landing the Mustangs in the Big 12."

To make this more clear, I love what Hart is doing. I just wondered what changes if any have been made toward this goal - which has to be considered long term. I am confident we have one. And, I doubt he would make it public.

It's a point worth following up on, but the reality is that Orsini's approach to trying to get to the Big 12 was a combination of overselling and really bad timing. It's about the only dang thing he "marketed" during his tenure, and it came at a time when football was decent but not spectacular and showed no signs of being able to compete with the teams in that conference (plus basketball was abysmal on its best nights under Doh). You can't nationally advertise "we're ready to play with the big boys" while the big boys kick your [deleted] like you stole something. That said, everything points to a "P5 or Bust" approach to athletics with the investments being made; I just think the pitch to those conferences will be more nuanced than Orsini's method, and hopefully this time they'll be backed up with programs that can walk the walk (I have faith that they will be).

[bubba pony]

(1) He was not strong in basketball
(2) He had a brash, aggressive approach to handling the Department which did not mesh well with RGT's preferred style of befitting those below him
(3) I recall hearing -- so allegedly -- that over a few disagreements that Orsini had with RGT, he voiced that displeasure to a number of people who probably did not need to know, which RGT took exception to.
(4) Backsliding in non-revenue/Olympic sports
(5) Maybe he signed a gag-order, because he hasn't said a word since he left, and as I understand it, is happily employed in the private sector and is no longer in sports administration
(6) While the June search ended on a high note, there were two (and a half) coaching searches conducted for revenue sports under his watch. Two of them were utter and complete national embarrassments.

(7) he made overtures to be AD of his alma mater Notre Dame. They told him he wasn't getting it and he pulled a June-ism saying SMU is where he wanted to be.

(8) he made numerous head basketball coach offers/inquiries where the other school upend the salary. His one unbelievable attempt was to lure University of St Louis coach Rick Majerus who had serious health issue. died in fact and if Orsini succeeded we have a deceased coach instead of LB.