Copeland Must Go First!
Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:15 amWe have a failing athletic program. Responsibility begins at the top. He is the last one to leave in charge of judging our coaches and recruiting their replacements. An example needs to be set and set now! I can think of no other business enterprise that would not set the responsibility for failure at his doorstep.
Let's be more specific:
He has no positive energy for the position. Last week when asked if he thought last nights game would be a sellout, he remarked to a friend at the opening lunch, "when has SMU ever had a sellout?". This is the leader reponsible for filling the stadium? This is the man incharge of being the university's no. one cheerleader?
He is not a leader. He told me personally that he doen't get close to our coaches as it makes it more difficult for him to fire them if it gets to that. What? How can a leader be a leader, especially to the number of head coaches we have that have never previously been a head coach? How do you mentor? how do you decipline? how do you encourage? how do you assist them in acheiving their goals? Quite frankly how do you get these people to buy into your goals and objectives? In short, how do you lead if you don't get close? Are you too gutless to lead?
He doesn't want to be here. We all know about the number of interviews he has taken when at other instituitions. Great! Leave! We don't want you either.
He has limited vision for SMU athletics. His vision and his goals are not ours. Ask him! Would you settle for a top 20 finish every decade? A Conference USA title every five years? No! Our goals are much higher than those he will settle for. Quite frankly, if we don't aspire for higher goals we will never meet those mediocre goals he has set for our program. Just ask TCU what their goals are? What are Copeland's?
What are his acheivements? He is not responsible for Ford Stadium. He was not a supporter of the new stadium as quite simply he didn't think it was possible. President Turner was responsible for setting the goal and convincing our alumns and of course Mr. Ford to make it happen. Again, where is the vision? Where is the leadership? I am sure that President Turner made is happen in regards to Conference USA, not Copeland.
He has no love or passion for SMU. Sit down with the man and find out. He will spend most of the time talking about his retirement and how to successfully transition into to it. Great! At no time does he even give an indication that he might settle in Texas, might want to be close to SMU, might even attend a game in the future. Go back to Virginia where you express your desire to be. Why wait?
People, you can't have this person associated with our program any longer. Too many decisions haven't been taken. Fire a head coach? hire a head coach? you have got to be kidding. He hasn't even dealt with a golf coach that is so fat, he couldn't participate in the NCAA tournanment with his team.
Our turn around has got to begin somewhere. Let's have a big bondfire and exorcise our death penalty. Lets bring back those blacklisted and welcome them back into the university. In all honesty hundreds of us should have been blacklisted as we knew what was going on. But, even in Texas, when someone gets life sentence, they generally are considered for parole after twenty years! Tell the NCAA that with regard to that penaly, we are through letting both them and ourselves keep penalizing us or our university. Until we see Ohio State and Alabama get treated the same way, stay out of our backyard, we won't be your easy target for your young investigators. You are no longer relevant to this university, we will police ourselves, as others claim. Let's move forward, but with a new general, a new leader.
I want Coach Bennett to succeed, but where does he go after a loss like last night? Who is there to get him off the mat? Who has the experience to point out poor coaching decisions, yet get him fired up to beat TCU? In short where is Bennett's support? His leader? His inspiration?
Let's be more specific:
He has no positive energy for the position. Last week when asked if he thought last nights game would be a sellout, he remarked to a friend at the opening lunch, "when has SMU ever had a sellout?". This is the leader reponsible for filling the stadium? This is the man incharge of being the university's no. one cheerleader?
He is not a leader. He told me personally that he doen't get close to our coaches as it makes it more difficult for him to fire them if it gets to that. What? How can a leader be a leader, especially to the number of head coaches we have that have never previously been a head coach? How do you mentor? how do you decipline? how do you encourage? how do you assist them in acheiving their goals? Quite frankly how do you get these people to buy into your goals and objectives? In short, how do you lead if you don't get close? Are you too gutless to lead?
He doesn't want to be here. We all know about the number of interviews he has taken when at other instituitions. Great! Leave! We don't want you either.
He has limited vision for SMU athletics. His vision and his goals are not ours. Ask him! Would you settle for a top 20 finish every decade? A Conference USA title every five years? No! Our goals are much higher than those he will settle for. Quite frankly, if we don't aspire for higher goals we will never meet those mediocre goals he has set for our program. Just ask TCU what their goals are? What are Copeland's?
What are his acheivements? He is not responsible for Ford Stadium. He was not a supporter of the new stadium as quite simply he didn't think it was possible. President Turner was responsible for setting the goal and convincing our alumns and of course Mr. Ford to make it happen. Again, where is the vision? Where is the leadership? I am sure that President Turner made is happen in regards to Conference USA, not Copeland.
He has no love or passion for SMU. Sit down with the man and find out. He will spend most of the time talking about his retirement and how to successfully transition into to it. Great! At no time does he even give an indication that he might settle in Texas, might want to be close to SMU, might even attend a game in the future. Go back to Virginia where you express your desire to be. Why wait?
People, you can't have this person associated with our program any longer. Too many decisions haven't been taken. Fire a head coach? hire a head coach? you have got to be kidding. He hasn't even dealt with a golf coach that is so fat, he couldn't participate in the NCAA tournanment with his team.
Our turn around has got to begin somewhere. Let's have a big bondfire and exorcise our death penalty. Lets bring back those blacklisted and welcome them back into the university. In all honesty hundreds of us should have been blacklisted as we knew what was going on. But, even in Texas, when someone gets life sentence, they generally are considered for parole after twenty years! Tell the NCAA that with regard to that penaly, we are through letting both them and ourselves keep penalizing us or our university. Until we see Ohio State and Alabama get treated the same way, stay out of our backyard, we won't be your easy target for your young investigators. You are no longer relevant to this university, we will police ourselves, as others claim. Let's move forward, but with a new general, a new leader.
I want Coach Bennett to succeed, but where does he go after a loss like last night? Who is there to get him off the mat? Who has the experience to point out poor coaching decisions, yet get him fired up to beat TCU? In short where is Bennett's support? His leader? His inspiration?
