Monday, December 9, 2013

Spotlight

This comment from a reader on the last post was so good, I had to reprint it here.


Roar Said:


"Our 1986 team stood as the worst in Ivy history until Pete worked his magic this year. That team was outscored by 290 points and played only a couple of competitive games. There were only about 60-70 kids in the program then, as many recruits quit during or immediately after their 0-6 freshman season. And that 1986 team was the culmination of a horrible stretch: we had won two games in the prior four seasons, been winless in 1985 and had hired a terrible person as our new coach, MacElreavy. The program was completely broken and in very poor hands.

By contrast, Pete inherited a program that had won nine games in the prior three seasons and had numerous all-Ivy caliber players returning (Brackett, Ward, Garner, Ollinger, etc). There were 100 kids in the program and the Campbell Center was set to open. The team went 1-9 in 2011, but lost five games by single digit margins. So the program was weak, but not uncompetitive.

From this starting point, in just his second year Pete fielded the worst team in Ivy history, outscored by 330 points and not competitive in a single game. In fact, our score differential did not come close to describing the lopsided nature of the games, as several teams including Harvard, Dartmouth and Yale put in their 3rd string as early as the first half. Princeton could have beaten us by 70 points had they chosen to do so. I sincerely doubt David K. was at that game.

We don't need the histrionics about Pete's personality and bullying. The facts are sufficient. He destroyed our football program in two years. We have one All-Ivy HM player returning next year! That's out of 40 returning league-wide. Pete's had two recruiting classes, and if we are objective about it, they are not good enough for this level of play. That will bruise some egos, but the fact is we were not competitive against the 3rd string players from other Ivy teams.

Next year we will have another disgraceful record and Pete will be out, because our talent is decreasing year by year and not even the AD will be able to rationalize his performance away. The argument then boils down to whether it is better to take action now and try to begin rebuilding sooner or whether we stand by and let the current leadership ruin another football season and leave an even bigger mess for the next person to clean up. I continue to wait for Pete's defenders to tell us one thing he did this year as a football coach that helped us be a better team."

8 comments:

oldlion said...

Most if not all College alums should have received a letter from the CC Fund in the past few days containing an invitation to become John Jay Fellows. While I do not believe that contributions to the College in general should be held hostage by the Murphy/Mangurian debacle, I suggest that those of you who received such letters respond by indicating that you are disappointed in the failure of President Bollinger to address this situation, which has made us an Ivy League laughingstock. In other words, I suggest that you indicate that your future level of support will be determined by the deafness exhibited by Bollinger.

Anonymous said...


Roar said it quite succinctly.

Anonymous said...

Someone please help. Why would PM want anyone to quit the team? Isn't the number of recruits limited to a certain figure? The number of recruits would not go up based on the roster size. I can see a coach trying to get rid of scholarship athletes that won't ever play, but ? Intimidate kids that will still be students if they do not play?

Anonymous said...

Who is saying PM is trying to get kids to quit? That wouldn't make any sense at all...would only serve to weaken the team.

Anonymous said...

Why then would he be bullying and harassing non-players? If not to get them to leave the team.

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me like the charges of bullying are coming from parents of unhappy non-players.

Anonymous said...

if you read what Roar said, it states we "dont need the histrionics about Pete's personality and bullying..."
Whether those things exist or not does not matter as the facts are enough.
to keep it on task, the program has deteriorated tremendously.

Anonymous said...

I agree, but the bullying has been a dominate theme for several months. If not true, the veracity of the entire blog is questionable.