Fortune.com has a great piece today about how Alabama's Nick Saban is likely coping with that crushing loss to Auburn on Saturday.
The article contains a very important quote from another Alabama legend... THE LEGEND, Paul "Bear" Bryant.
And that quote should be a lesson to Columbia, (for now), Head Coach Pete Mangurian, especially when he so frequently blames the players for losses.
Here's what Bear said:
"If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games."
15 comments:
After Dartmouth's 0-10 season in 2008, Teevens sent out a letter to boosters personally apologizing for the debacle, calling it unacceptable and vowing to make changes. Something long those lines might buy Mangurian some badly needed goodwill if he is indeed going to stay for 2014.
I can't imagine Mangurian writing such a letter. I mean, he'll talk about how 2013 was unacceptable and he may even write something like the words "I take responsibility." But he won't mean them and we'll know it when he continues to slim down the O-linemen and continues to use an offensive game plan that's all wrong for Columbia and the Ivies in general.
To date, the "best" defense of Mangurian I've seen anywhere is the "he needs more time" argument. What does he need more time to do? Slim the O-linemen down even more? Call for more low-percentage passing plays from QB's who haven't completed even 40% of their passes? Putting in more totally inexperienced freshmen into crucial positions like Left Tackle? Who would want to see him do more of that for another year, month, week or day?
Most of you on this blog tried, ofen in an intemperate manner, to get M & M ousted.
It didn't work.
Bollinger spoke.
Case closed (for now).
My advice: Give it a break.
Or run ad nauseam the risk of turning this imbroglio into a farce.
Tod Howard Hawks CC 66
The Farce is taking place in Dodge, Low and the Campbell Center.
The truth shall set you free.
You get to play your senior year for Columbia one time. Why would any sane alumnus stand by quietly and let the class of 2015 work 20-30 hours per week for the next year so that they can be embarrassed in their final season of football?
I think a better message for us to send is that
every adult who collects a paycheck is accountable, every day. Coaching CU football is a hard job, and a good coach might well post a losing record. But nobody in the history of our program turned in a worse result than Pete Mangurian in 2013. Adults who fail at work get fired. It can be awkward and ugly, but the AD owes it to the athletes to make an effort to field a competitive team.
Your argument seems to be that since LB doesn't care about football, the rest of us should step aside and stop complaining. If the team continues to be humiliated weekly, eventually somebody will do something. I think a better response is to demand a minimum standard of competence from our coaches, measured in the competitiveness of our teams.
Blaming Jake for undermining the football program is like blaming Republicans for undermining the Obamacare website. Both kinda undermined themselves.
Tod Hawks, your advice to give it a break makes me CRINGE.
Jake how many times do these people reading this blog have to be reminded how bad this season was. 0-10 pretty much speaks for itself. Not to mention , upperclassmen with talent not being able to play or dress, yes Mr.Hawks, upperclassmen got to cheer the team on from the stands. Oh , and injuries? Way too many.
Mr . Hawks maybe you could tell the team to give it a break , yea hold your heads high guys . Be proud of your 0-10 season and give them something to look forward to... Another season exactly the same.
Not all of are trying to lop off anyone's
head. Just asking for some changes to improve the overall outlook for CU sports in the future,
For the life of me I cannot understand why Campbell in particular is being so deaf to this uproar. It occurred to me today that maybe PM can be impeached with his own words. He opened the Ivy media day by commenting: "History tells you that your second season is when you make your biggest jump in a new program. Your players understand what you're looking for, you develop a work ethic and to be quite honest you tend to have some players leave your program that don't really feel comfortable in it..."
It certainly seems that the second year of this administration showed us where things are going, unfortunately, with CU football. He promised and expected better results in 2013 than 2012 but in fact we witnessed an epic fail of a season.
We keep hearing about "empirical evidence" that supports the direction taken but none of this has been provided to help inspire confidence in the program with at least this group which you would think would be communicated to given its importance in terms of legacy and financial support. That is at a minimum bad management of one set of stakeholders on PM's part. Absent a defense of the approach being taken we are left to our belief that things are going in the wrong direction. Hopefully PM and assistants are providing better information and inspiring confidence with the Fresh-Soph-Junior players needed to right the ship.
A bigger risk to the program is if more of the current players lose faith in the system...or even worse, if recruiting for the CU class of 2018 goes poorly.
Mention was made of the "nuclear option" at one point. My fear is that if current or prospective player confidence disappears then we would be witness to a 21st century China Syndrome.
Tod--You're the one that needs to give your negativity a rest. The farce is not us on this board, it's the past 60 years of apathy and incompetence by CU's presidents and ADs. "Bollinger spoke." Wow! Did he frighten you this much?
It would have been more honest, and less insulting, if Bollinger had told us to go stuff ourselves instead of signing his name to and hiding behind that ridiculous
farrago of lies and false platitudes that Murphy wrote for him.
Dick Biddle is apparently now on the market.
Ed Orgeron is available.
Rich Forzani '66C
I know Tod from a long time ago, and he may remember me.
I understand his comment.
Our challenge here is to maintain our momentum and continue the effort for improvement and change, without becoming a repetitive and hysterical Greek Chorus. That would tend to diminish our effectiveness.
I don't accept LB's position, and neither should anyone. Just because he says so doesn't make it so.
What we should do is continue our dialogue. Continue calling for change. Involve other sports if appropriate. Compliment successful team efforts. NEVER FORGET FOOTBALL. We shouldn't be seen as one-dimensional, but we should be seen as a permanent presence.
How we express ourselves is our individual choice. Let's try for the biggest bang for the buck. We all know what we want, and it's the same thing.
Biddle is 66. He's retiring, not taking on a major challenge at his age.
Orgeron quit when he didn't get the USC head job even though he was offered a senior position there. He's not taking a lower level FCS job with serious risk. BTW he failed in a previous HC job (Mississippi) not to mention he has pewrsonal background issues that would surely be fodder at Columbia.
Come on people, be semi-realistic.
I remember you, Rich, and I admire your fortitude.
I believe the die has been cast for now, and I just don't look forward to 10 more months of this kind of dialogue.
Let me add that I also admire your guts in using your real name, class, and year.
If everyone did this then we might have a more constructive conversation.
Sincerely,
Tod
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