R. Gerald Turner: Friend or Enemy?

[couch 'em]

Have we yet determined?

[Samurai Stang]

Have we yet determined?

I hold to my position.

[ontheedgeofmyseat]

...and we here at PF.com, are grateful.

[gforce021]

Present Salaries:
Steve Orsini: $438,764
JJ: $1,205,164
Pres. Turner: $1,017,618
Lori White: $272,750

Proposition Salaries:
Steve Orsini: $1,038,764
JJ: $1,377,914
Pres. Turner: $517,618
Lori White: Fired!

Thoughts

[couch 'em]

Let's look at his background:

Turner received an A.A. from Lubbock Christian College, and graduated from Abilene Christian University with a B.S. in Psychology in 1968.

While he later went to UT for grad school, undergrad is where athletics has by far the strongest influence on campus culture and college experience. Neither of these schools has a DIA football program.

From 1975 to 1979, he was a Professor at Pepperdine University.

Again, no DIA football.

He was the Vice-President of the University of Oklahoma from 1979 to 1984

Excellent football in this time frame at OU, but it was the Switzer era. Did Turner learn to associate winning football with cheating, rape, shooting, drugs, and the other crazy events under Switzer at OU? Did the recent academic troubles bring these fears to the surface?

Chancellor of the University of Mississippi from 1984 to 1995.

7 losing seasons, 4/5 winning seasons. Fired long-time football coach for NCAA violations.

Since 1995, he has served as the President of Southern Methodist University.

From 1995-2008 he did nothing but allow football to fail miserably. Instituted no changes required by coaches to get on even footing in recruiting. Only hired a big-name coach 2008-2010 when it was paid for by donors.

He and his wife, Gail, a native of Graham, Texas, have two married daughters. Angela, a professional opera singer; Jessica, an SMU alumna and professional actress

Daughters are an opera singer and an actress. Two professions full of people who historically are very anti-football.

NO stops where big-time football is present without recruiting violations and cheating. Quite likely he cannot separate winning DIA football from cheating and corruption.

Also head of the Knight Commission - an organization dedicated to reversing trends in major college football. He could be trying to walk-the-walk in addition to talking-the-talk on the commission.

Is Turner really a friend to football?

I thought this was a good post to revive based on recent events.

I tend to agree with Stallion in the sense that we don't need the very, very bottom players. But I'm not so sure a fight over the absolute cellar-dweller players would blow up to a media battle like this. There has to be more.

Is Turner holding up the IPF? Is Turner holding back an invitation to the MWC or the Big East? Is Turner not signing Orsini because of a personal issue? Is Turner somehow responsible for the number of players failing?

I don't have any knowledge that this is occuring nor do I really see how Turner would have the power to do some of this, but the 3 documented issues that Jones harps on are:
1. Admissions/eligability
2. IPF
3. Conference
I don't think signing a few bottom level guys could be the main issue. And I don't trust any university president who keeps Copeland around for that long when they say they want winning football.

[BIGHORSE]

If I were Turner, I would just tell Orsini that you run the athletic dept., and let

me know what you need and you shall have it.

[NickSMU17]

Turner's only interest is getting through century campaign with no incidents...He is gone after that...

The best way to pressure him is to write e-mails and get back in touch with people wanting to post ads in DMN....

I am not saying that I support the news ads, but communication needs to be improved amongst Admin and AD office, best way to do that is threaten RGT with a black eye the year before the centennial...

RGT's ego is as big as JJs and he would rather not see anything get in the way of his baby, the century campaign.

[RGV Pony]

How much of the 750MM goal of the Unbridled/2nd century campaign has been raised ?

[NickSMU17]

450-500

[CalallenStang]

Present Salaries:
Steve Orsini: $438,764
JJ: $1,205,164
Pres. Turner: $1,017,618
Lori White: $272,750

Proposition Salaries:
Steve Orsini: $1,038,764
JJ: $1,377,914
Pres. Turner: $517,618
Lori White: Fired!

Thoughts

My thought is that you missed the Daily Campus article that showed that Turner and JJ are both well over $2 mil.

[indianmustang]

foe

[ahhall22]

.

[Nacho]

glad i haven't sent death to the bcs to turner yet.
someone that dumb wouldn't get it anyway.

[NickSMU17]

President Turner,

As we get ready for SMU's second bowl in two years, there are rumors floating among the fans and alumni that June Jones is looking for other coaching positions.

Tonight there were some interesting tweets from June's agent Leigh Steinberg, "My client June Jones,an exemplar of wonderful values and outstanding teacher turned down riches to continue building SMU FB program" and "Coach Jones will need help at SMU w facilities and streamlined admissions process to take the Mustang program up a rung to Top 20 level." These are very interesting and telling quotes.

I hope that the administration is taking the athletic department seriously, and continuing to work daily on getting any issues between the administration and AD departments resolved.

We have evidence of how important the past two years of football success have gone hand in hand with SMU's improvement as a University. As a concerned alum, I hope we can work towards giving our athletic department every resource they need to be a top 20 football team in the near future. We only have to look 50 miles away at TCU to see what potential lies at SMU. Their move to the Big East is solely due to the success of the football program. The increased national exposure, not to mention the increase in revenues, will give them an advantage in gaining the attention of not only the best athletes, but the best students.

The recent success has been a second chance for SMU, and has brought back many alumni that would not have come back to the school without its recent success on the football field. I am afraid another negative incident involving the faculty, administration and the athletic department will cast another shadow that many alumni will not forget.

Hope to see you on the boulevard on Thursday. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

NickSMU17

Turner, Gerald
to me

show details 10:07 PM (12 hours ago)

I think a more correct statement is that everyone with an openiing is looking at June, college or pro. As we know, he is a remarkable coach and person and ends up on many lists. We have talked many times over the past week and will continue to work with him to remain our coach.

Thankfully the weather should make the Blvd a great experience.

[Mexmustang]

You left out the part of how it was about to end at Ole Miss. After turning in his own program, and dimissing the coach, he was booed during homecoming halftime, "For Sale" signs began appearing daily in his front lawn and a rapidly growing movement began to have him fired. The point being, the settiment against him had grown so, that his days were numbered. Little Ole SMU became Ole Miss' best friend. They used the term "arrogance", which I believe is a pretty big word to use in Oxford!