I don’t owe you or anyone anything to post.my name and resume. I’m pretty confident in my own skin and what I post out there. But please show me where I shamed anybody in my previous post. I didn’t attack the poster or his family like he did mine.
I state facts and ideas. Not my fault it makes a majority of the posters and this fan base uncomfortable. That’s the crux of the issues. When you discuss funding, fund raising or monetary things within the MSU community it cause defensiveness, division and uncomfortable situations. Truth or not a large majority of fans don’t support or are reluctant to give toward any sport except baseball. And don’t give me the excuse, well we are winners in baseball. Facts are we have never been ultra focused on winning at football. We have a larger alumni base than our rival, we have ultra successful alumni who do give but we also have those who are still reluctant to give toward any degree in football.
In closing let me say a few more things. I’m not guilting anyone into giving, do what you can with what you can. What I’m pointing out is this. We have a very strong fan base that in fact hates NIl yet has zero problem supporting baseball but won’t support football and basketball. We have a larger alumni base percentage of our fans who just hate NiL and won’t give at all. Again, not shaming or being disrespectful but if you have the ability to support but don’t support NIL and yet continue to post negative comments, post lies and misinformation on our financial situation or our programs your being part of the problem and not the solution. At the end of the day we are all MSU fans and want the best and want to win. Where we have a large disconnect is that we don’t pull in the same direction. All I’m doing is pointing out this.
I actually agree with most of this. So that's progress. I don't think there's any MSU fan alive that doesn't think we need to be good at football. It's about the chances of it actually happening and what environment fosters those changes.
So let's start from the beginning. I don't care about what chatgpt says about living alumni bases - Ole Miss has a head start on us in money and football. Just what it is. And yes, they are united. We are not. We have a toxic football culture. So the first step is accepting that and trying to figure out ways to mitigate it. That's step one, and until that's resolved you aren't going to have the unity you see at Ole Miss. And we also won't be good at football long term. This conversation really doesn't go any further than that.
Now as far as baseball taking away from football, until we fix our football problem, it doesn't really matter. Any money invested in football is wasted. We already get the SEC check, for now. So why donate to try and win if we cannot win?
I do not want to argue about the specifics, like a game last year or this year or what happens next year with Lebby in particular. We all see the writing on the wall there (you do too). When you start assigning metrics to judge whether you keep a guy, you've got the wrong guy. So as far as this discussion, I'd appreciate staying away from why we think he in particular can't win, and if he does, great.
So back to football - I've laid out my plan many times. Keenum and a group of true visionary leaders need to get on the same page about what we want to be as an athletic department, in every sport - and we've also got to rid ourselves of this constant comparison to Ole Miss. This is the modern day SEC......they aren't going anywhere and neither are we.........fighting with them nets us nothing, it's small time. Then it becomes easier to hire AD's, as you now have that vision - which is mainly aligned on how we view football. You decide on all the variables......what type of head coach you want, what type of offense you want, what type of recruiting strategy you need - then it becomes easier to hire a head coach, over and over and over. Same for coordinators. I'm not talking lip service like we do at the press conference, I mean a written out plan, and we're not afraid to talk about it. Then you stick with that shlt no matter what, because we're going to have idiots, especially with a culture like ours'. They aren't going away, but maybe they'll be silenced when we hit the payoff.
I'm just some middle class dude who knew predicted Selmon was a mistake and predicted Lebby was a mistake, from the beginning. I wanted Benko because I thought he had a plan for the department. I didn't love everything Cohen did but I do know he also had a plan. We have none now......zip zilch. "Just give" is not a plan. But the good news is that. the night is darkest just before the dawn. The last time we had all this folks begging for money was the Croom Error. And then boom, we get rid of Templetoes/Croom and get Byrne/Mullen, and money explodes. And remember - Byrne had a plan, even if short term. He modernized our logo and branding, which of course, we've tried hard to undo, because we didn't have the strong leadership fully in place at the top. But thankfully Keenum did prevent that from completely happening.
The one positive I can say is this - I think Keenum has it in him. He's made some mistakes, but I do still believe he's a guy that can enact some positive change. It starts by forgetting Ole Miss exists. Or at least, that's the right choice. Decide who we want to be and make that reality happen. If not, and we want to just be their little brother and just another member of the SEC, that's fine. It's where we are right now and also why a significant portion of the fanbase has said the hell with it all except baseball.
