Since Orsini and his boys read this...

[Canadian Mustang]

he's waiting for tressel to finish his bowl game.

[OR-See-Nee]

should have just waited to fire Bennett until after the season. a nice long we will sit down to evaluation period. In the meantime, Bennett is at least recruiting. As good as Orsini is at keeping a secret in his search, what good did it do to fire Bennett early? could have raised the money and conducted these top secret interviews anyway. Its alot easier to keep a recruit than it is to steal him away from somebody else. This is one reason you dont see mid season firings very often at all.

It was done to placate all of us who were yammering for PB's resignation since week 3 of the season.

SO had replacements in his sights since last year.

[Ponyx2]

should have just waited to fire Bennett until after the season. a nice long we will sit down to evaluation period. In the meantime, Bennett is at least recruiting. As good as Orsini is at keeping a secret in his search, what good did it do to fire Bennett early? could have raised the money and conducted these top secret interviews anyway. Its alot easier to keep a recruit than it is to steal him away from somebody else. This is one reason you dont see mid season firings very often at all.

Real bad form to be recruiting a new coach before you've fired the existing one. Everyone knew Bennett was gone anyway. Offends people's sense of doing right to just leave him dangling. Say what you want about the coaching search, but Orsini did the right thing in pulling the trigger when he did.

[Hoop Fan]

should have just waited to fire Bennett until after the season. a nice long we will sit down to evaluation period. In the meantime, Bennett is at least recruiting. As good as Orsini is at keeping a secret in his search, what good did it do to fire Bennett early? could have raised the money and conducted these top secret interviews anyway. Its alot easier to keep a recruit than it is to steal him away from somebody else. This is one reason you dont see mid season firings very often at all.

Real bad form to be recruiting a new coach before you've fired the existing one. Everyone knew Bennett was gone anyway. Offends people's sense of doing right to just leave him dangling. Say what you want about the coaching search, but Orsini did the right thing in pulling the trigger when he did.

Uh, yeah right....A&M maybe? You may not like their form but they are not flushing a whole year of recruiting down the drain. I am all for treating Bennett right, I was one of the few who didn't insult him and disrespect him on this board (did you?), but he's a big boy. Wouldn't have mattered that much to him. you think he liked being the first coach fired and a lame duck for that long?

[Hoop Fan]

should have just waited to fire Bennett until after the season. a nice long we will sit down to evaluation period. In the meantime, Bennett is at least recruiting. As good as Orsini is at keeping a secret in his search, what good did it do to fire Bennett early? could have raised the money and conducted these top secret interviews anyway. Its alot easier to keep a recruit than it is to steal him away from somebody else. This is one reason you dont see mid season firings very often at all.

It was done to placate all of us who were yammering for PB's resignation since week 3 of the season.

SO had replacements in his sights since last year.

speak for yourself. and since when does orsini placate yammering? not doing so right now. He might have had replacements in his dreams too, but apparently not in reality.

[Ponyx2]

should have just waited to fire Bennett until after the season. a nice long we will sit down to evaluation period. In the meantime, Bennett is at least recruiting. As good as Orsini is at keeping a secret in his search, what good did it do to fire Bennett early? could have raised the money and conducted these top secret interviews anyway. Its alot easier to keep a recruit than it is to steal him away from somebody else. This is one reason you dont see mid season firings very often at all.

Real bad form to be recruiting a new coach before you've fired the existing one. Everyone knew Bennett was gone anyway. Offends people's sense of doing right to just leave him dangling. Say what you want about the coaching search, but Orsini did the right thing in pulling the trigger when he did.

Uh, yeah right....A&M maybe? You may not like their form but they are not flushing a whole year of recruiting down the drain. I am all for treating Bennett right, I was one of the few who didn't insult him and disrespect him on this board (did you?), but he's a big boy. Wouldn't have mattered that much to him. you think he liked being the first coach fired and a lame duck for that long?

You think he would have liked it any better reading in the DMN how Orsini was raising a war chest for a new coach before he (PB) had been fired? PB didn't get it done but he gave to us what he had. It's bad enough knowing you're going to get fired without having to put up with the "any day now" speculation. After all, it had already been going on for several weeks.

[Hoop Fan]

based on the past few weeks of super secret no leaks negotiating (i hope), you really don't think Orsini could have raised the warchest from 4 or 5 huge alums without the DMN finding out?

[Hoop Fan]

should have just waited to fire Bennett until after the season. a nice long we will sit down to evaluation period. In the meantime, Bennett is at least recruiting. As good as Orsini is at keeping a secret in his search, what good did it do to fire Bennett early? could have raised the money and conducted these top secret interviews anyway. Its alot easier to keep a recruit than it is to steal him away from somebody else. This is one reason you dont see mid season firings very often at all.

Real bad form to be recruiting a new coach before you've fired the existing one. Everyone knew Bennett was gone anyway. Offends people's sense of doing right to just leave him dangling. Say what you want about the coaching search, but Orsini did the right thing in pulling the trigger when he did.

Uh, yeah right....A&M maybe? You may not like their form but they are not flushing a whole year of recruiting down the drain. I am all for treating Bennett right, I was one of the few who didn't insult him and disrespect him on this board (did you?), but he's a big boy. Wouldn't have mattered that much to him. you think he liked being the first coach fired and a lame duck for that long?

You think he would have liked it any better reading in the DMN how Orsini was raising a war chest for a new coach before he (PB) had been fired? PB didn't get it done but he gave to us what he had. It's bad enough knowing you're going to get fired without having to put up with the "any day now" speculation. After all, it had already been going on for several weeks.

also, it happens. Fran??? was there not 10 times the intensity and speculation about Fran? you really think Orsini wilted under the pressure from SMU fans to make a move? Ha.

[Ponyx2]

based on the past few weeks of super secret no leaks negotiating (i hope), you really don't think Orsini could have raised the warchest from 4 or 5 huge alums without the DMN finding out?

It DID get out. I don't remember Orsini quoting any numbers.

[Hoop Fan]

based on the past few weeks of super secret no leaks negotiating (i hope), you really don't think Orsini could have raised the warchest from 4 or 5 huge alums without the DMN finding out?

It DID get out. I don't remember Orsini quoting any numbers.

not valid logic because once he fired bennett the fund raising process was not top secret anymore. why would it be??? so it wasnt that much of a leak at all.

[Ponyx2]

based on the past few weeks of super secret no leaks negotiating (i hope), you really don't think Orsini could have raised the warchest from 4 or 5 huge alums without the DMN finding out?

It DID get out. I don't remember Orsini quoting any numbers.

not valid logic because once he fired bennett the fund raising process was not top secret anymore. why would it be??? so it wasnt that much of a leak at all.

The basic premise you stated is he should have kept Bennett instead of firing him mid-season, and I disagree. I think it showed PB more respect (and the assistants too, for that matter) by just telling him he wasn't coming back and getting on with the search process rather than PB getting questions after every game about his status. Would it have come out? Maybe, maybe not. There's no way to definatively answer that question. But if it had, it just would have looked really bad. Orsini handled it properly.

[Hoop Fan]

by the way, never, ever play games of wits with a Sicilian.

[Hoop Fan]

based on the past few weeks of super secret no leaks negotiating (i hope), you really don't think Orsini could have raised the warchest from 4 or 5 huge alums without the DMN finding out?

It DID get out. I don't remember Orsini quoting any numbers.

not valid logic because once he fired bennett the fund raising process was not top secret anymore. why would it be??? so it wasnt that much of a leak at all.

The basic premise you stated is he should have kept Bennett instead of firing him mid-season, and I disagree. I think it showed PB more respect (and the assistants too, for that matter) by just telling him he wasn't coming back and getting on with the search process rather than PB getting questions after every game about his status. Would it have come out? Maybe, maybe not. There's no way to definatively answer that question. But if it had, it just would have looked really bad. Orsini handled it properly.

at this point, history has proven that my point correct. Granted, I have hindsight, but it is what it is. It didnt do any good whatsover for Smu to fire Bennett so early. We're still paying bennett. He wasnt going to grab a new job before next spring anyway. c'mon.

[perunapower]

at this point, history has proven that my point correct. Granted, I have hindsight, but it is what it is. It didnt do any good whatsover for Smu to fire Bennett so early. We're still paying bennett. He wasnt going to grab a new job before next spring anyway. c'mon.

It shut people up about Phil's job status, gave the fans what they wanted, allowed Orsini to raise money and start finding a replacement for PB respectfully. You have absolutely no idea what Orsini has done to fill this job since Phil got fired, so your half-baked argument, quite frankly, sucks.

[George S. Patton]

based on the past few weeks of super secret no leaks negotiating (i hope), you really don't think Orsini could have raised the warchest from 4 or 5 huge alums without the DMN finding out?

It DID get out. I don't remember Orsini quoting any numbers.

not valid logic because once he fired bennett the fund raising process was not top secret anymore. why would it be??? so it wasnt that much of a leak at all.

The basic premise you stated is he should have kept Bennett instead of firing him mid-season, and I disagree. I think it showed PB more respect (and the assistants too, for that matter) by just telling him he wasn't coming back and getting on with the search process rather than PB getting questions after every game about his status. Would it have come out? Maybe, maybe not. There's no way to definatively answer that question. But if it had, it just would have looked really bad. Orsini handled it properly.

at this point, history has proven that my point correct. Granted, I have hindsight, but it is what it is. It didnt do any good whatsover for Smu to fire Bennett so early. We're still paying bennett. He wasnt going to grab a new job before next spring anyway. c'mon.

Keep in mind that everybody knew including the coaching staff that this was in an either/or season. Either they got to a bowl or they were gone.

Orsini kept saying that as long as the goals of a bowl and CUSA title were in sight, there was nothing to talk about. Once the Tulsa loss put the team at 1-7, nothing was left to say.

Orsini probably has been doing his share of due diligence before he fired Bennett. And as I look back, you could argue the point that the search did not go full throttle until the week we finished season at Memphis.

Maybe the first three weeks were done to organize the masses, build the warchest and infrastructur. I don't know if that's valid but just chew on that.

If there are negotiations, the school/agent/major donors/coaches are probably arguing over practice facility, athletic friendly majors or a modified version thereof.

We criticized Copeland because he was a lousy administrator, ran off his mouth, did nothing to promote a winning environment, was lazy in his coaching hires and always had to run to cleaners to get mustard stains removed from his shirt because of the sandwiches he consumed.

Now, we have an AD -- perhaps a real one -- who is putting more work into this because this is the highest profile position at the school (Sorry, Dr. Turner).

We're talking about an AD who was charged to change the culture here, reform the infrastructure, get everybody on the same page and lead us out of the red. That doesn't happen in 18 months. Perhaps we really don't understand what kind of a mess he is trying to clean up.

In this instant gratification world, we aren't happy if we have to wait. Well, now we're all in a position that we don't like -- and quite possibly we aren't dealing with this very well.

You get this one right and who knows where this goes. You get this one wrong and everything collapses.

I've put some cheap shot posts up there because I'm irritated too. But we're going to have ride this one out whether we like it or not.