Randolph Duke

And a light goes on in the darkness. And remember, colleges and universities still have to beg the federal government for financial relief due to COVID. Students are filing suit to reclaim tuition payments. And you people want to start throwing money around like drunken scumbags on coaches who are human pieces of shit.

When you can't argue the content, attack the author (or, in this case, the publisher). Would, for example, FOX Sports (an arguably more esteemed source) be more credible in your mind? Let's stick with the content of the article. Do you hire a coach who allegedly hid drug-test failures on the Florida sideline by having players wear walking boots so it looked like they were injured? Do you hire a coach who proclaims respecting women is his No. 1 priority but allows star tailback Carlos Hyde to return to the team after just a three-game suspension when video evidence showed Hyde slapping a woman at a bar? Do you hire a coach who did nothing after a star player (Percy Harvin) allegedly attacked one of his assistant coaches at Florida? Do you hire a coach who had to visit a player's family in the middle of the season to make it right with them because he created an environment where an assistant, Smith, allegedly got into an altercation with the player, Trevon Grimes, and used a racial slur? What would make anyone doubt the honesty of a coach who was caught lying by an Ohio State committee investigating the enabling of Smith? Who deleted texts on his phone prior to investigators searching it for clues? Who told investigators he met with Smith's wife in 2009 and she recanted domestic abuse claims, even though Smith himself told the committee that Meyer didn't meet with her? Who would cook up a story about flying down to Florida five days before a Big Ten road game to see Grimes' sick mother out of the goodness of his heart—not because he was concerned a damaging story would get out? At what point do college presidents see Meyer for what he is: a helluva football coach with a win-at-all-costs mentality who dangerously blurs the line between righteous and renegade?

It is utterly unethical to be taking money out of the paychecks of over 200 employees while simultaneously going on a spending spree, throwing $40 million on a football coach whose personal ethics were so demonstrably unacceptable he literally was the subject of a Harvard Business review article. Period. When "St Urban the Innocent" left Ohio State, one writer summed it up especially well:

From the Texas Monthly article on Lt. Gen. Lawrence Sullivan Ross, C.S.A.(ret), known to most as "the gallant Texas negro killer": "As he sought public office in the years after the Civil War, Ross embellished details of the event so that he would appear more heroic. Ranching legend Charles Goodnight, who inspired the character Woodrow Call in Lonesome Dove, once dubbed Ross “a lying four-flusher,” an old-fashioned term for someone who makes empty claims for personal gain. To learn more about the four-flusher, I then drove two hundred miles to the house of retired attorney and former Hood County district judge Tom Crum, on the Brazos River southeast of Granbury. Crum has spent more than 25 years researching the 1860 massacre. He has located nine accounts Ross gave, all different. “He’d be the ideal person to have on the witness stand,” Crum said, “until he gets cross-examined.” https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/pease-river-battle

(hit "quote" instead of edit. still not used to the new software)

Did it cost $40 million to make the hire happen? I don't think so. Spending $40 million on a coach, just 14 weeks after letting 80 people go and instituting pay cuts on 300 others (claiming financial necessity) and declaring "money is no object" to hire someone as controversial as Urban Meyer would be inexplicably bad management. UT Austin may well have to cut the number of teams fielded. We haven't begun to see what will be needed done to fill the financial hole COVID has created. Cutting programs and taking money from well over 350 athletics department staff (between firings and pay cuts) to pay Urban Meyer to coach football would create such a firestorm of ill-will we might as well just give up on athletics. The first priority has to be to get Bellmont's financial situation stabilized. Those alumni who insist their individual choice of football coach must be the highest (and only) priority can fuck off. There comes a point when the demands of "certain alumni" need to be subordinated to the interests of the athletes, students and those alumni who care about the long term best interests of the university.

The SEZ and Moody projects are already funded. The petulant shits who think their priorities are the only priority that matters will have to find another empty threat to make "to support the program." I'm not sure how prevalent the attitude is among the donor base, but the "BMDs" who threaten to turn their backs on the program unless they personally get their way are a cancer, not an asset to the program. You simply can't layoff staff and institute salary cuts out of financial necessity on Sept 1 and on Dec 1 declare "money is no object," and bring in a new head football coach at a massively higher salary than the old one. Do that, and the new coach would instantly be the most resented person on campus, with staff willingly undermining him at every move out of spite. That, in short order, would set the overall athletics program back and would lead to uncontrolled leaks to the media that would cost the overall athletics program dearly. We don't want or need the head football coach to be despised by the entirety of the athletics department, all to appease the most self-centered members of the alumni base. The financial ramifications of COVID are substantial and will soon be felt in full effect. And it's not going to be pretty. In light of this, the BMDs who demand to have their way "or else," can go to Hell. https://texassports.com/news/2020/9/1/forty-acres-insider-sept-1.aspx 26 contracted coaches and administrators voluntarily agreed to take temporary salary reductions (beginning Sept.1 through Aug. 31, 2021 ) 273 staff members will receive temporary salary reductions, and 11 staff members will be temporarily furloughed with benefits (beginning Oct. 16 through Aug. 31, 2021) 35 staff members will be laid off 35 vacant positions will be permanently eliminated

Evan doesn't hate A&M. In fact, he has been famous for assigning aggys to cover aggy-related stories, Matt Watkins being a prime example. And just try discussing that with Evan, because he is as thin-skinned as anyone in the media. Color me shocked that the academic powerhouse known as Texas A&M is struggling to get non-academically inclined students to take academics seriously. You want to drop admissions requirements, you should expect to have a lower caliber of student. How can this be a surprise to even the aggys? The student's response is classic - "if you are going to blame the students, then you also have to blame the professors."

Leon O'Neal is a prime example of what you get when kids who can't make a 2.5 at a JUCO are admitted to state flagship universities.

Who gives a shit about the extension. Herman isn't even in the top 10 for head football coach salaries. For recruiting purposes, head coach contracts are routinely extended to make sure the coach has at least four years left. If he was extended and is being paid less than his peers, I'm not going to fire the AD. And no, Fenves did not extend Herman's contract. Fevnes deferred to his AD in all things athletics. Fenves openly admitted on many occasions he didn't know much about managing the athletics department.

College football is live sports entertainment. As long as the games generate ticket sales and TV ratings, the AD is going to be content. If there is no sign of financial impact due to on-field performance, the AD isn't going to make a coaching change, and nothing about 2020 is meaningful when gauging ticket demand or television ratings. The program badly needs some level of stability. Five athletics directors and/or four head football coaches in a 7 year span is all one needs to tell the program is completely out of control. I can fully appreciate there are people who want the head coach fired. But people always want the head coach fired. And those same people want the coach fired using other people's money. At some point, the AD needs to take a much longer view of things. I believe CDC is doing exactly this. It was only September when UT athletics had to lay off staff and institute salary reductions because of financial issues. To now claim "money is no object" and spend $40 million on coaching a change would be horribly counterproductive to the long term health of UT athletics. The first priority is to stabilize Bellmont's finances. The SEZ project needs to get completed. Coaching changes have to wait. Gotta play the long game this time.

There has been fair amount of buzz from a number of directions around some "off-field indiscretions." Since early in the season. It's not just this board. If you believe the story that CDC didn't "fully document the issues and counsel the employee properly" then whatever the issues were, they couldn't have been too serious or firing with cause wouldn't be a question. My take on all this is we are seeing just how toxic UT football culture can get. Having our fifth AD and/or fourth head football coach within seven years would be a rather damning indictment of UT football. I'm on the "ride the storm out" bandwagon on this one. We have a number of options, but none of them seem like a true solution. The Finebaum story is just Paul having fun kicking the UT program while he can. The sad thing is no one connected with UT athletics has a clue how to handle Finebaum. And I do hold CDC directly accountable for not having a competent media team. TCU was never subjected to the level of media attention UT gets, so CDC's cluelessness in media matters is understandable. I hope he learns quickly because he already way late to the game of managing brands in the media.

Stop and think for a second. Muschamp was getting $3 mil/yr at SC. Assume Herman gets the same. Do you really think Herman would quit a job paying a guaranteed $5mil/ yr and pay a lump sum of $9mil to UT to take a job paying $3 mil/yr for an initial 5 yrs? To get a $15 mil contract at SC, Herman is supposedly giving up $15 mil guaranteed AND paying $9 mil to do it, a net loss to him of $9 mil. He would break even after 8 seasons. How can people believe the story that Herman called SC about their opening?

I can appreciate there are people who have tried all sorts of stunts to get their kid into A&M (the origin of this tangent). My point was that reasonable parents don't dumb down their kid's high school education to get them into A&M, a school with a 70% admission rate. 300,000 kids graduate from high school in Texas each year. 150,000 of them go on to some sort of post-secondary education. UT Austin takes about 8,000 each year, A&M accepts about 14,000 each year. So we are at 22,000 of the 150,000 or 15%. Any kid who wants to can go through the "Chevron/A&M Engineering Academy" and attend the JUCOs in any major Texas city. If they manage a 2.5 over their first two years, they are guaranteed admission into A&M's engineering program. Kids with below 2.5 gpas are admitted on a regular basis after review. If a kid can't manage a 2.5 at a JUCO, maybe snowflake doesn't belong at a school with a "rigorous" 70% acceptance rate. Dumbing down the high school education of a kid who already can't pull off a 2.5 at a JUCO isn't a prescription for academic success. The thought that A&M is tough to get into is laughable. I get that it is tough for some, but not for most college-bound kids. Most A&M students are far from "the best and brightest." There is a reason A&M focuses more on cultural indoctrination than on academics. Not many sharp knives in the aggy drawer. And, for the record, my offer still stands to pay $1,000 to each and every person, aggy or not, who can guess which 1907 aggy football game their "yell leader" tradition was originated. They had five home football games that year. I will give anyone who wants to play six guesses. Like I said, not sharp people.

It was from the money that Texas received for giving up claims to what is now New Mexico (the Compromise of 1850) that the initial funding for the PUF was obtained. $100,000 which was then squandered by the Legislature during the Civil War. True story.

"Destroying the program." Hilarious. I will put you down as a supporter of political interference and micromanagement as a strategy for managing others. Personally, I'm not a big fan of that approach. I don't think it has a long term record of success. What's next, letting political hacks call the plays on offense to "fix the problems"? Allowing the regents to call down to the sidelines to dictate who is on the field during the games?

Hartzell doesn't have the political capital to start making major changes. He is too new on the job. If he starts micromanaging the responsibilities of his subordinates, he will lose what support he has and face an complete revolt from the academic side. Internal politics play a big part in the operations of any university. For Hartzell to send the message he intends to interfere in every employee's responsibilities would be career suicide. We need to be solving problems, not creating bigger ones.

Told by who? Not Hartzell. CDC is not a yes-man. I find it very difficult to believe Kevin Eltife has been micromanaging UT Austin athletics, then imposing his dictates on the incoming president of the university. If that is actually what is happening, no new head coach is going to clean up the mess that is UT athletics because the rot and dysfunction seemingly goes all the way to the top of the BOR. My read on the situation s that CDC is running the show and working to implement the same long term strategy that was decided upon when he was hired. Keeping Herman is an unpopular decision with many, but CDC is very capable of handling the fallout from making uncomfortable decisions. If Eltife, or any political hack, tries to tell CDC what his decisions will be, I hope CDC resigns immediately. Having outsiders micromanage the AD's decisions is a recipe for continued futility.

CDC has (at least) a $40 million hole in his budget for 2019/2020 and another $40 million for 2020/2021. I don't see any BMDs signing up to pay either of those off, yet people want to create (yet another) $40 million hole because of Tom Herman. I will judge CDC on his ability to manage the current financial challenges without having to cut programs and take opportunities away from the students. he was hired to turn the entire athletics program around, to manage realignment, and to set a new direction after the post-Deloss malaise. I'm not going to push to have him fired after two years because people want to micromanage his decisions. There are far bigger issues at hand than Tom Herman. Or Shaka. Or Pierce. Keeping Herman for the 2021 season was the responsible thing to do, even if it is unpopular with "the loudest voices in the room." Personally, I don't like herman and never has. I have long felt he cluelessly expended goodwill with the hiring of Casey Horny and the recruitment or Reese Leitao. Herman doesn't understand he is no longer the smartest person in the room any more and he needs to up his game. He hasn't performed up to expectations. I agree he is a problem But two months after letting people go and instituting pay cuts for staff of not the time to act as if money is no object. At least not if the goal is to clean up Bellmont and get it headed in the right direction. No college athletics program has unlimited financial resources. Now is the time to start moving in the right direction and making unpopular decisions. That is what CDC is trying to do. If the fucking Regents would do their jobs and quit trying to do CDC's, I am sure it would be in the interests for everyone who supports UT and UT athletics.

No, it's not "my money, my terms." With an annual budget of over $200 million, no single alum contributes enough money to have individual say over any hiring decision within the athletics department. Hell, NIKE contributes more to UT athletics than any BMD. Should we give Phil Knight the ability to dictate every hiring and firing decision at UT, mind you with no accountability whatsoever? Bill Powers nixed the Saban hire because it usurped his authority to make hiring and firing decisions. He was right to do what he did, given the circumstances. he also clearly re-established the authority of the university president to make all hiring and firing decision, not the regents. To now change things and give people who have not proven themselves to be adept at coaching decisions total authority over hiring decisions would be very ill-advised. Who is going to manage the problems when the AD and the football coach do not have a good working relationship because the coaching hire was forced upon the AD? Does anyone think Eltife will be handling the mess he makes if this is what happens? Hell no. We don't need unaccountable regents micromanaging the athletics programs. We don't need Eltife running around hiring whoever he wants to replace whichever coach he wants replaced on any given whim. If Hartzell and CDC are incapable of managing their responsibilities, replace them. But don't force decisions upon them and then hold them accountable for Eltife's bad hiring decisions. Eltife is a political hack, not an athletics savant. His political connections are what got him appointed regent. His political connections don't give him the authority to micromanage every decision he chooses throughout the system. We don't need political hacks involving themselves where they have no expertise. Eltife (and the rest of the Regents) needs to focus on his responsibilities and leave the responsibilities of others to others. The only way UT athletics is ever going to get cleaned up is by hiring capable people, letting them do what they were hired to do, and holding them accountable for their decisions. We need to start doing this now. It is the only way UT athletics will ever get set right. In many ways, its the BMDs who are holding UT athletics back. Their interference in managing the various programs is unfair to the kids who come to UT to compete. This "look at my money, I get to fuck up UT athletics without any consequences because I'm rich" bullshit has got to end.

It is the job of the president of the university to handle hiring and firing decisions of university employees. Period. The regents approve of disapprove the contracts for highly paid employees. If Hartzell isn't up to he job of managing Bellmont, then Hartzell needs to be the one fired. CDC was hired to do a job. Eltife and Hartzell need to either let him do his job or fire him. The dysfunction within the system is becoming painfully evident. I thought we settled the hiring and firing authority of the university president back during the Saban fiasco. We do not need Eltife telling CDC who to hire and fire and then Eltife holding CDC accountable for a hiring decision CDC never made. We do not need CDC calling plays on offense and then holding Herman accountable for the offense. There are clearly defined responsibilities and when people can't grasp the limitations of their positions, accountability goes out the window. Either we commit to getting UT athletics cleaned up or we commit to dysfunction and bullshit. I vote for accountability and cleaning the mess up the right way.

Eltife has no business being involved with the hiring decisions on the UT Austin campus. We have someone (Hartzell) assigned that job. If he isn't up to it, then he needs to be replaced. If people are going to be involved in decisions, they need to be public about their involvement and be willing to be held accountable. This bullshit of regents interfering and then not being held accountable is unacceptable. The dysfunction isn't within Bellmont. It goes all the way to the top of the UT System. If Eltife wants to be President of UT Austin, let him apply for the job. If he wants to be AD at UT Austin, let him apply for the job. If not, he needs to worry about his individual responsibilities as Regent and let others do their assigned job. If Hartzell is incapable of handling oversight of Bellmont, then Eltife needs to fire his ass and find someone who can do the job. The one thing we don't need at the end of this is people micromanaging the responsibilities of supine, spineless twits who aren't capable of handling the responsibilities they are being paid to handle. What's next, Eltife calling plays during games? The bullshit micromanaging has got to end. We need competent people held accountable for their decisions, not Regents needlessly involving themselves in the jobs of others.

So we are back to the pre-Bill Powers era where the Regents (Eltife) are going to micromanage Hartzell’s job and tell him who he has to hire and fire. Great. If Hartzell can’t handle personnel decisions, then why in God’s name does he even have a job? Football aside, the last thing we need at UT Austin is a spineless yes-boy who can’t lead. Spineless leadership is how universities bloat enrollment, water down academics and become redneck finishing schools for junior colleges.

Lol. Is that in 1939 dollars?