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Copeland needs to be fired.

For instance, Copeland hired Cossaboon last year only after failing to hire him back in 1997 when he first applied, he was the choice of the hiring committee but chose Greg Ryan who almost RUINED the Women's program in two years.

Dement was Copeland's first hire in basketball, not a success.

Cavan was Copeland's first hire in football after firing Rossley. Should have held on to Rossely who did more with less. Cavan's 1st year success was with all of Rossley's players.

Suspending of the men's track team without giving the alumni a chance to first raise the money to support it, mistake. Should I continue.

An AD hardly ever gets fired do they. Pity!

At least he got it right this time with Coach Cossaboon. He's taking a good team and making it vastly better. He has recruited very well in his first year, and is in on some sensational players for next year. And he's not just a recruiter - he's a terrific coach and administrator of a program. Fearless prediction: within a couple of years, SMU will re-claim its rightful place as the unquestioned top team in Texas and one of the best in the nation.

Apparently the committee wanted Cossaboon from the beginning but Copeland changed without getting approval from the student-athlete and faculty panel. He was swayed by a few Highland Park parents who convinced him not to hire Cossaboon for false reasons, when they were just jealous he did have their girls on his teams. Didn't matter b/c these girls ended up at other schools besides SMU anyway. Just think how well the girl's soccer program would be doing if he had hired him in the first place instead of Greg Ryan, who was a joke.

Copeland has had too many opporunities and has made way too many mistkaes. Send him back to Virgina.

Copeland gets a pass for getting us into CUSA when we didn't deserve it, getting recruiting restrictions eased (albeit slower than we would have liked), biting the bullet and firing Cavan and Dement (Cavan - a highly sought after 1-AA coach and Dement -a Duke assistant recommended by Coach K) despite hiring them, and for keeping the NCAA off our butts for the most part. Remember, the Malin incident could have gotten us back into NCAA DP status and it didn't. The jury is still out on Bennett and Tubbs.

The jury is already in on Copeland. Needs to go.


They let Tulsa and Rice in Conference USA (don't be too proud), so it was b/c they wanted us, not b/c of anything Copeland did. Biting the bullet on Dement and Cavan????? He was the one who hired them. None of that logic makes sense. And the man has no personality, you need a salesman as an AD.

But again, I would love to have job where there is no accountability.

and, as far as the DP, the NCAA will never give that again. Anyway Mailin giving $50 is not even close to what all of the public schools are getting away with

the real crime is the money the spent to make Malin go away.... oh wait, was that outloud?

Yeah, but just because the big schools get away with it, doesn't mean we can get away with anything. We are the bad boys. We have 8 NCAA probations (still in first place). It was a big deal and not a traffic ticket. They took Tulsa (a bowl team). Rice and SMU were joined at the hip for a reason. Hey, he could have let Dement and Cavan hang around for another year or let Dement finish the year. Yeah, he hired them and both looked like good hires. They didn't work out in part because of recruiting restrictions they operated under which were not Copeland's fault. Also, all of those hires were made by selection committees which were not solely run by Copeland. Copeland may have no personality, but he is competent and highly thought of by other AD's. Do you think any old Richard would have landed a home and home deal with TT or with Baylor? You think anyone could have landed a home and home with Wake Forest in basketball? There's a lot more to the job than buying a round of drinks at a DCC and handing out free tickets.

Copeland still hired Dement and Cavan and Greg Ryan. It doesn't matter if they looked good in the first place or not.

CUSA was looking to add teams, again they wanted us, Copeland could not sell water to a man on fire.

Men's track team gone.

All of these teams (such as TT, Wake Forest, OSU etc..) want to come to Dallas b/c that's where some of the best athletes are. Surely that's obvious enough.

Rossley was turning things around before Copeland believed he needed to get "his people" in there. And Rossley was dealing with the worst restrictions, facilities circumstances SMU ever had.

No personality.

this is where I begin to part ways with Copeland---on the one hand he sells 'the Commitment" on the other hand some people appear to want to grade him on the curve. Did Rossley, Cavan, Shumate and Dement have a "Commitment" and were they graded on the curve? Clearly No and yet he claimed they did and fired them w/o admitting they had very little chance to succeed. I don't think Copeland should be able to walk that line anymore claiming that SMU has a Commitment and yet claiming his own performance should be graded on the curve. Copeland chose the sell the "Commitment"-- fired coaches based on it- I believe he too should be judged accordingly. Based on Copeland's performance graded against Division 1A he has failed miserably at what really matters. No program has accomplished less in FB and BB than SMU in his tenure in terms of championships, bowls and NCAA Torneys. I don't think Copeland has earned the right to fire one more coach with his own poor record.

For the fifty thousandth time, it's not Copeland's fault. It's the board of trustees' fault. Half of them didn't even go to SMU. They do not care about football, they all wish we were William & Mary, and guess what, they're not going anywhere.

Any strides we've made in the admissions program in recent years has been the work of Copeland and the coaches. In spite of the trustees. What a great idea it would be to CAN the only guy who's had any success gaining concessions from the them. Brilliant.

Stallion,

we finally agree, Copeland should go! We can respetfully disagree about Rossley.

knucklestang,

Copeland did not go to SMU so what's your point? Before anyone comes on here defending Copleand, please inspect your logic carefully.