Instant Eloquence

I have to say I'm impressed with the more extensive response to the NBC Sports snub by Head Coach Pete Mangurian on his personal blog yesterday.

Mangurian wants the fans to get fired up by this and respond by supporting the team more. He doesn't talk about donations, he talks about showing up to practice during training camp, (does this mean we'll be allowed to do that?!?... if so, that would be great!), going to home AND away games, meeting the team bus after road wins, etc.

I don't think anyone who reads THIS blog needs to step up our devotion to the Lions very much, but God knows most of the alumni and existing student body definitely does. So it's incumbent upon us to recruit more of our friends, family and acquaintances to get to the games this season. 

But the key element of the blog post from Mangurian is this: OWNERSHIP.

Even though he had nothing to do with it, he takes ownership of our record last year and acknowledges there's no way to get away from that unless we start winning.

There's also a good understanding from Mangurian about how social media works. His response was immediate and that's what makes social media and blogs so useful. 

Meanwhile, Dianne Murphy and Robin Harris remain silent. And that's typical. They seem to think it's their job to pretend they don't care about the daily whims of the fans. The fact that Murphy was one of the few people actually on the TV contract committee is even more telling. Some people get taxation without representation, we got screwed with or without representation!

Of course, they still respond in a way to criticism. When I wrote the old, unclosed blog I would get almost weekly, (sometimes daily), complaints from Dianne's office delivered via one intermediary who I think is working under what has to be considered something of a battered wife syndrome. Dianne's aloof nature with all fans who don't donate at least $5,000 a year is getting more than annoying, especially when all it would take to soothe most of us would be a few "rah rah" emails now and then. 

It is my fervent wish that anything Mangurian possibly owes Murphy for hiring him last year is quickly eclipsed by a strong winning record on his part. He's already asserting his strong independence with his blog, Facebook, and Twitter statements that are so much better than the often incoherent and always boring releases from the athletic department. 

Mangurian will soon find out, if he hasn't already, that he doesn't need the athletic department administration and shouldn't wait for them or extend them too much courtesy. It's been part of the problem for years, and Mangurian has already made a point of discarding anything that perpetuates our problems. 

Empire Challenged Ivies

Columbia's NYC and LI recruits are not participating in this week's Empire Challenge, but four other incoming Ivy frosh are.

They are Yale's Pat McHugh from St. Anthony's HS, (the same school where incoming Lion freshment JD Hurt comes from), and three Princeton players, Isaiah Barnes, Evan Kappatos and Brian Sheng.

Kappatos and Sheng played for Syosset HS, a great place academically but no football power.

Barnes on the other hand is from Freeport HS, a great football factory over the years which has produced guys like D'Brickashaw Ferguson of the NY Jets. 

The fact that Barnes is a QB and the Tigers are so in need of a QB this year could make things interesting in training camp.