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Some of you radically overrate Orsini. SMU was ready to commit, so it did, and we're blessed w/huge booster money. Fundraising isn't skill when you have a room full of rich guys dying to be competitive again. Orsini leaves a legacy of overpaying. He didn't get a long w/Turner, and performed very poorly over the last year. The ASU debacle, losing the recruiting class, and worst search in revenue history are performance issues. Allowing Brown the ability to mass cut the team, and then bring in guys just sobering up from felonies, and no transcripts, had to be eye opening for academic admin as well.

Couple that w/highly successful boosters who fund the department, watching first hand, as the guy they've entrusted the money to, just shrinks in the face of the challenge. All confidence lost. When national media changes their avatars to your ADs pic, just to mock your search, the guys funding that search, are gonna get testy.

it's probably something to do with the alumni band

So who was his Don Drapper side item?

I think Orsini pulled a 'Travolta' on Turner and he didn't go with it....

I don't have enough fingers on my hands for the number of transfers with "no transcripts", as Tony Montana says, that have been admitted to FB and BB in the last few years. These guys were full qualifiers out of high school so I don't see much difference. June loads up on JUCOs who were non-qualifiers out of high school.

None of these moves by Orsini were firable offenses. I know these hires, transfer signees, basketball coach search, etc. were not done in a vacuum. I just hope nothing more serious surfaces over the coming weeks. Long time SMU fans and season ticket holders like me (35 years) are always a little gun shy hoping no serious infractions have occured.

In fact the kid who was the discipline problem had a 3.2 GPA out of high school. He moved to several schools but the reasons are pretty well documented that his mother was unhappy with his Coaching. But rather than be accurate Tony Montana throws the "no transcript" defamation on the kid so he can act like SMU is "playing dirty". I am also running out of fingers for the number of quality student athletes he has defamed by calling them academic risks when in fact they were not.

smu owes us, the fans, some comfort....at least confirm the firing was not the result of any ncaa infraction,moral misbehavior or such....it may take some courage to admit the cause was just over administrative or personal issues between turner and orsini,but smu owes us some assurance there is no upcoming scandal....

Stallion wrote:In fact the kid who was the discipline problem had a 3.2 GPA out of high school. He moved to several schools but the reasons are pretty well documented that his mother was unhappy with his Coaching. But rather than be accurate Tony Montana throws the "no transcript" defamation on the kid so he can act like SMU is "playing dirty". I am also running out of fingers for the number of quality student athletes he has defamed by calling them academic risks when in fact they were not.

It is what it is. Head has no transcript, Turner was sobering up from an extreme DUI. Never said Turner was a transcript issue. Roscoe Smith's transcript is worse than Head's. You wouldn't believe how Duke tried to admit him out of high school. I'm not saying SMU is playing dirty, nor would I care if we were. Just stating the way it looks to the outside world. You can rubber stamp kids like Turner all day, but you're also the same guy who googled him when you heard we were after him. Not familiar w/the kid through personal interaction, coach speak, or just following him over the past 3 or 4 years. He's a polarizing kid, for the good & bad. His issues were never academic.

Currently, they aren't building this team on character, and that's ok by me, but that's also the truth. We branded ourselves as stupid rich, changed the pay scale, allowed Brown a public guillotining of student athletes (which you should know isn't as commonplace as people here want to admit), and brought on two pretty questionable transfers, for different reasons.

Guess what? I don't give an ish. Bring on Roscoe & anyone else that gets Ws, but let's not sit here an lie about what it is and isn't. So, call me names all day, but the reality is that you're the one hitting all the SMU boards stating that this smells of an impending investigation of some sort. Talk about reactionary garbage. All I'm saying is that we ran a garbage search, determined to pay 3 or 4 mill per, and ended up w/the slickest set of characters we've seen in forever. I love the new staff, don't get that twisted, but I also can take a step back, and call it what it is. Its the Godfather and the best hit men money can buy, w promise to step out of the way. If you think Doherty could have gotten Turner in, you're just lying to yourself.

hoopmanx wrote:

Stallion wrote:In fact the kid who was the discipline problem had a 3.2 GPA out of high school. He moved to several schools but the reasons are pretty well documented that his mother was unhappy with his Coaching. But rather than be accurate Tony Montana throws the "no transcript" defamation on the kid so he can act like SMU is "playing dirty". I am also running out of fingers for the number of quality student athletes he has defamed by calling them academic risks when in fact they were not.

the slickest set of characters we've seen in forever. I love the new staff, don't get that twisted, but I also can take a step back, and call it what it is. Its the Godfather and the best hit men money can buy, w promise to step out of the way.

This is the most encouraging this.g I have read on these boards in a long time. We appear to be finally in to win.

Change is always difficult, but get used to it. Love that SMU athletics is in the limelight even it is about June's debacle with ASU, signing kids with questionable pasts, or firing "Top 25" Steve O.
Let the jobs and enjoy the ride. Otherwise, get off the damn train.

Whatever you do, don't put much faith in an Ole Miss fan's opinion of Turner.

Turner fired a popular football coach who got caught cheating by the NCAA twice. Both times they were serious violations, and the second time around the coach, Billy Brewer, was singled out by the NCAA for unethical conduct.

I guess in the SEC, that makes you anti-athletics.

The choice of 'firing' is surprising. Typically, someone exiting is given the "seeking other opportunities" quote is save face for the individual. Also, the assumption that Turner is part of the problem is likely to be untrue. He looks for way to successfully balance academic and athletics with a demonstrated ability to serve and raise our on-field/court ... performance/investments/hirings.

constantly running a deficit is not an issue for a small private university.

Constantly running a deficit that you spring on everyone at the last second because yourself did not know it was coming is a problem - especially multiple years in a row.

gostangs wrote:constantly running a deficit is not an issue for a small private university.

Constantly running a deficit that you spring on everyone at the last second because yourself did not know it was coming is a problem - especially multiple years in a row.

SPRUNG on everyone at the LAST SECOND? you're joking right?

the University is required by the IRS to file a 990 EVERY year. additionally, we have an external audit performed (i believe by E&Y) every year. there were NO SURPRISES.

that 'deficit' is WAY "overstated" too. in fund accounting for universities, they are required to list scholarships at full value, yet do you know what the actual cost of a scholarship is? zero (other than negligible hard cost of food or other minimal amounts that can be thrown out for this purpose). so full tuition, room, board is right at $50,000. we have 425ish athletes, so assume half are on full ride. that's $10,000,000.00 a year that is included in that expenditure number that isn't a 'real' cost. meaning they don't go to the bank account and write a check to put those 200 students in the classes with the other 8,000 students. if you wanted to just assume the other 225 were on average getting a 20% ride, you've got another $2,000,000.00 you can add. PER YEAR.

So, $12,000,000.00 per year of that is a paper cost, not an actual cost.

not NEARLY as bad in reality as understood by the fiduciaries/accountants who have to actually manage the money as it sounds to an undergrad journalism major writing for the Daily Campus who wants to sensationalize his story (and enrage his spanish prof at the same time).