The Latest Insult

I’m trying to lay off the obvious failure that Pete Mangurian has been as our football head coach.

I really don’t feel like harping on it every day.

But then articles like this come out. 

The Columbia College Today piece about Mangurian is so filled with falsehoods and so insulting to common sense and the loyal fans that it’s impossible not to respond and respond loudly.

Note that there is no byline for this piece, which is understandable because I can't think of anyone who would be proud to be connected to this horrific piece of garbage. But for the record, Editor-in-Chief Alex Sachare '71 must take responsibility for it and surely he should be very ashamed. If he was pressured into it by the administration, I can sympathize but not empathize. Because after a few years of being pressured by the administration to put a happy face on things on my blog and on the football broadcasts, I finally resisted. Why doesn't Sachare have the same modicum of courage and decency? 

I don’t want to waste too much time on this, because the season is about to start and the results on the field will finally speak for themselves. But here are the main and most important rebuttal points to this piece of utter tripe.

And I make these rebuttals under protest, because having to do this is basically the same thing as having to rebut someone who says “2 plus 2 is 5.”

1)      The following quote is the most serious falsehood and must be addressed:

“We’ve established a standard and we hold the players and everybody involved in the program to that standard in academics, career development, football, personal development.”

Sorry, but the truth is the exact opposite of this. The Twitter scandal of 2013, the bar fight of 2014, and the cheating scandal of 2013-14 are all part of an avalanche of problems in the player standards/personal development area that previous coaches never saw to such extent all at once. To somehow insinuate that at least we’re winning off the field is a flat out lie.

2)      The quote below is a marked departure from something Mangurian said just a year ago. Compare and contrast:

“Everyone wants to talk about winning. I get it,” says Mangurian. “One of the greatest coaches in any sport ever was John Wooden [the legendary basketball coach at UCLA] and he never talked about winning. He talked about the process of getting there, what you had to do to win. If you do the things you have to do to get there, then you’ll win. That’s our philosophy.” –Pete Mangurian, September 2014

“"There is no “four-year plan”, there is a “win every game, every year, plan” that is reevaluated and refined before during and after every season. Team #123 and I will ultimately be judged by how many games we win. I’m all for that accountability, that is the way it should be." -Pete Mangurian, March 25, 2013

3)      And this one just made me laugh:

“The last thing that’s going to happen is we’re going to start winning like we should, but only because we’ve done all the other things up to that point correctly.”

That’s right, because God forbid we should start winning the wrong way. I guess it’s better that we keep losing.  Once again, the ghost of former CU coach Bob Naso has been resurrected. It was Naso who famously said in the early 1980’s that his first goal http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/9/17/losing-the-easy-way-pin-the/ was to make sure the Lions learned how to lose right.

This is comedy gold.

Or it would be if we weren’t talking about a multi-million dollar enterprise that also includes the efforts of our players, hopes and support from decades-long fans, and the financial sacrifice of parents whose kids don’t get athletic or need-based scholarships. 

Meanwhile, all through the summer and right on to today many of the other Ivy schools are sending their fans detailed profiles of their best players. 

What do Columbia fans get? 

Disgusting lies and propaganda that resembles Pravda in the days of the Soviet Unions starvation crises and failed 5-year plans.