Per USA Today- SMU

[PoconoPony]

For those who criticize RGT there many be some valid basis. The state of college athletics has become so big in every respect with TV, big $$$, alumni pressures, media....etc. that it is fairly well established that most current university presidents are well out of their league. Most are academic types who were hired mainly to run the academic side of the house and have little background or experience with athletics, TV contracts, coach contracts, athletic sponsors, press conferences...etc. Many scenarios result to include: basically ignoring athletics, micromanaging things they are not prepared to handle or fully understand, delegating too many decisions to an AD or others, becoming a cheer leader and failure to manage programs ( Penn State, UNC) and out of control alumni and any other combination of issues you can imagine. In the case of RGT, you can make a strong case that for his first 10 years he was clueless and did not understand athletics or the possible impact of athletics on the university. However, I believe that commencing with the formation of the C of C and the hiring of JJ that RGT has come full circle and has taken the time to understand and be guided into appreciating and managing an athletic program. He obviously now understands the dramatic impact on admissions and enhanced quality of applicants. He now understands the impact of alumni giving based on athletic interest. He further understands managing and directing the athletic program as evidenced with the hiring of LB and firing of Steve Orsini. Further, he was instrumental in gaining access to the AAC and formation of the new league. In my opinion, I think RGT has become an excellent President advancing academic interests through fund raising, academic standings and new facilities and programs not to forget the Bush Library. He has also sucked it up and invested roughly $100 million of university revenues the past 10 years in athletic department deficits. Obviously, his first responsibility is academics, but he has done a great job on the athletic side and evolved into that role. As a result, I think RGT is a person we need as President for the next few years to help dig athletics out of the doldrums. We will see how he deals after the season with the JJ situation; however, I personally think JJ is totally safe and will finish his current contract much to my chagrin.

[Stallion]

not time to judge AD or President with regard to June-he was never getting fired in the first place but June absolutely can not go into his final year of his contract without some resolution. Its recruiting suicide-recruits want to know who their coach will be and it needs to be clear by January

[PonySnob]

Don't be surprised if there is an extension given.......

[Nacho]

if we make a bowl game i don't know how we can fire him.
the media would destroy us for firing the guy who took us to 5 straight bowls.
we better be careful. southern miss is a case in point. they weren't satisfied with 17 straight bowls and are now possibly the worst team in the fbs.

[ponyinNC]

if we make a bowl game i don't know how we can fire him.
the media would destroy us for firing the guy who took us to 5 straight bowls.
we better be careful. southern miss is a case in point. they weren't satisfied with 17 straight bowls and are now possibly the worst team in the fbs.

I said from the beginning of this season that, with our OOC and entry into a new league, if Jones took us to a bowl I would be okay with an extension - provided we tie some of the $ to recruiting milestones or staff changes.

Basically make the contract more incentive-driven. Let's not forget the schedule - I know it turned out that many of those teams weren't as good as we thought - but we did have the #1 ranked OOC schedule in the nation at the beginning of the year.

That Rutgers loss is going to sting even worse if we don't make a bowl game.

[sbsmith]

if we make a bowl game i don't know how we can fire him.
the media would destroy us for firing the guy who took us to 5 straight bowls.
we better be careful. southern miss is a case in point. they weren't satisfied with 17 straight bowls and are now possibly the worst team in the fbs.

Southern Miss did not make 17 straight bowls and the guy they replaced Bower with led them to the best record in school history.

[Nacho]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_So ... ll_seasons


bower went to 10 bowls in 11 years.
fedora went to 4 bowls then bolted after they went 11-2 in his last year.
they went 0-12 the next year and are winless this year.

[Stallion]

They were pretty good even before Bower with Bobby Collins, Jim Carmody and Curley Hallman. Southern Miss has been a strong program for 4 decades until this collapse. Disasterous timimg

[ghost]

2nd worse team in Texas isn't that bad this year. Kind of like Kentucky or Vanderbilt in the SEC. The question is that acceptable to SMU fandom and the ones who support the program. Keeping up with the Jones's so to say. The state of Texas is huge for football so if you are going to compete at this level you better go all in with everyone pulling in the same direction. If you are just trying to stay D1 with little fan support and tread water then it is best to go to another level. You willl have the nicest facilities at a lower level and you could stay D1 in basketball and best of all the Boulevard will still be there for fans to congregate and not go to the game that day against Abilene Christian, Sam Houston, Stephen F Austin, Tarleton or Midwestern State.

[PK]

...go to the game that day against Abilene Christian, Sam Houston, Stephen F Austin, Tarleton or Midwestern State.

That would force me to become a TCU fan. PLEASE don't make me do that.

[redpony]

not time to judge AD or President with regard to June-he was never getting fired in the first place but June absolutely can not go into his final year of his contract without some resolution. Its recruiting suicide-recruits want to know who their coach will be and it needs to be clear by January

If jj is here next year watch the season ticket sales fall dramatically. He has continually shown that he has no respect for our traditions, our school and refuses to reach out to the students and community in general. I am finished with this crap, in fact I quit buying tickets after he recruited our players for ASU. I hope someday we can get an admin. that will stand up for the university and commit to a top level athletic program.