CSNbbs

TOL: Thinking Out Loud

So, as we sit here in the midst of a search for a new football coach (or perhaps awaiting an announcement), I've been pondering our history, where we currently sit, and where we *might* be going. Here's some thoughts:

Basketball- The first sport to draw my fan devotion at UAB in early 1990s. I'm very excited about this team, this staff, and the entire program. My excitement is back. We appear to be in excellent hands. I also think we've got a few years for the building crescendo before any realistic worry that we lose this coach, if it all. The McGee retreat might actually help, in an unexpected and strange fashion, with retention of Coach Haase, even if we strike gold post season next year.

Football- Same story, different year? Or, maybe not. As we've seen, Garrick McGee was a bust. More importantly, he was a quitter. I think in hindsight, this entire past season is reflective of him. Just my gestalt here, but I don't think he really recovered from the season's first loss to T-roy, and was troubled with indecision throughout the remainder of the season. I don't think he wasted a second thought on stepping back into a comfort zone as an assistant coach with the L'vile job. So, where does the experiment of "young, up and coming, yet unproven assistant" leave us?

Well, according to plain ol' probability, we're 50/50 with the coin toss between football and basketball. Basketball appears to have come up heads and football tails at this point. However, it's still early for basketball. Again, this is just my gestalt or impression- the summation of the whole from what I've seen, heard, read, etc. to this point in time.

But, if you step back and now only consider football, let's look at football's path since our move to D1 (no disrespect meant to Coach Hilyer), we have a serious, consistent record of producing losses, or lack thereof in terms of production. So, now back to probability. As football has consistently come up tails since 1995 (the zero era on), our overall record is 85 and 135, or 38.6% winning percentage. Folks, it's time we start coming up heads. If you want to be even more specific, we can break it down by coaches: zero 0.45%, Callaway 0.30%, mcgone 0.25%. So, we've gone from a near (but still below) 50/50 winning % coach to a 1/4 winning % coach. For coaches, we've flipped the coin 3 times, and come up losing. It is time we come up with a winner.

Being a glass is half-full guy, I choose to be optimistic. Call it a hunch (for that's all it is). But, it's time we come up with a winner. The 4th coin toss in football will come up heads. This will be interesting to see.

Go Blazers!!!

I'm the first to jump in and say that for coaches this is just a job, and you go where the money is, but I get the impression from Haase that he actually does want to build something and not just collect a paycheck and trade up as soon as he can. If he's that type of coach, he's also the best actor in the world. And even if he does build UAB up and then cash in at a bigger program, we will have the advantage in that he will have built UAB back to where it is supposed to be and in good shape for the next guy.

Football? Mackin needs to see if Haase has a brother who plays football.

We are here, we were there, we are going over there.

I hope that this announcement can lead to a lot of things that we have been deserving all along.

Once you build something, you can't unbuild something when you are playing there.

UAB has one great hope for its future - ALL its problems with football are surmountable with an influx of sufficient MONEY, and the time for it to work its effect. Money to build, money to hire, money to acquire any additional space UAB decides it needs. UAB already sits in the state's greatest population metro area and its wealthiest. It now rests upon its ability to make the product match the potential of its location. That is what I believe Dr Joe Volker had in mind about not dreaming too small dreams.

(01-18-2014 01:49 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote: [ -> ]UAB has one great hope for its future - ALL its problems with football are surmountable with an influx of sufficient MONEY, and the time for it to work its effect. Money to build, money to hire, money to acquire any additional space UAB decides it needs. UAB already sits in the state's greatest population metro area and its wealthiest. It now rests upon its ability to make the product match the potential of its location. That is what I believe Dr Joe Volker had in mind about not dreaming too small dreams.

B&BFAN, I do agree with that post. UAB, as an institution, is that dream. Unfortunately, the dream is currently limited by non-REM sleep zombies, thus they run the show to their heart's content. But, Alabamians in general are to blame.

*We* are being played against ourselves. The yearning for and identification with historical winners is the part of human nature the BoT idiots are depending on. Their intentional neglect of UAB football, the lack of equitable funding for an OCS, improved football offices, etc. is dependent upon traditional fan loyalties to the usual offenders, i.e. UA and AU. They are content in the knowledge that the lion's share of money for these programs will come from donors that historically consider themselves fans of these schools. Then, they turn around and tell UAB, "If you want to build it, pony up the fans (MONEY)" knowing that that money is already spent between the big two. The exception to this neglect was their open dismissal of a very good, well-planned OCS proposal that accounted for the vast majority of its funds coming from donors, yet still required BoT approval for university system guarantee of the "start-up" funds required to make it happen. The OCS sucker punch was poorly-disguised malfeasance, again predicated upon existing fan loyalties, and the belief that UAB could NOT walk up with the entire sum required.

Now UAB and her "small in number, yet mighty in spirit" fans, administration, teams, etc. MUST be patiently creative in realizing Dr. Volker's dream. They (the BoT) disdain, but don't realize that we aren't quitting on the dream, and we aren't going away silently... We're biding our time. If there's one thing I know about southerners in general... They don't take kindly to haughtiness. We need to keep working, and as the ol' airborne rodent used to say, "Get to work."

Let's not forget that baseball and softball, while not major sports, now have awesome facilities to be competitive. We've seen that play out for Marla and the ladies. Now with Regions Field, we've got a really cool place to take in some baseball this spring (the annual flogging of Bammer is there on 4/16). It's super-difficult to recruit in the state of Alabama for baseball, as scholarships are partial and there is no education lottery.

I'm excited about the future of not just UAB athletics, but our University as a whole (car tags and all )

Our volleyball teams are always competitive, men's soccer is consistently ranked, and women's soccer improved drastically from last year. We have a keeper in Haase, and.....we're gonna hire us a winner for football and turn this thing around.

Things are lookin good to me.

@FN: "Annual Flogging?" I like that!