(04-23-2013 11:53 AM)TG4 Wrote:  Why any Southern Miss fan would question Jeff Hammond's job security is beyond bizarre.

Because he was hired under questionable circumstances. The person who hired Hammond, also hired Ellis Johnson, but is now gone herself due to monetary and policy misconduct. The IHL was going to get rid of her, and since Hammond was basically pushed through by her, there is a good chance they get rid of him too.

(04-23-2013 11:53 AM)TG4 Wrote:  The man was handed a mess and has done more than any other AD, short of a divine miracle, to stabilize your program.

There are lots of qualified people with experience that could handle USM's "mess", which, despite some would have you believe, isn't as huge a problem as it's made out to be. To believe otherwise is naive. That's a big point with his detractors, that we may be missing out on even better leadership simply to have "on of us".

Also, JH wasn't handed anything, he wanted this "mess"

(04-23-2013 11:53 AM)TG4 Wrote:  Be thankful you didn't get a RC Johnson.

True, but that's setting the bar pretty low, isn't it?

(04-23-2013 01:08 PM)Big Dub Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 11:53 AM)TG4 Wrote:  Why any Southern Miss fan would question Jeff Hammond's job security is beyond bizarre.

Because he was hired under questionable circumstances. The person who hired Hammond, also hired Ellis Johnson, but is now gone herself due to monetary and policy misconduct. The IHL was going to get rid of her, and since Hammond was basically pushed through by her, there is a good chance they get rid of him too.

(04-23-2013 11:53 AM)TG4 Wrote:  The man was handed a mess and has done more than any other AD, short of a divine miracle, to stabilize your program.

There are lots of qualified people with experience that could handle USM's "mess", which, despite some would have you believe, isn't as huge a problem as it's made out to be. To believe otherwise is naive. That's a big point with his detractors, that we may be missing out on even better leadership simply to have "on of us".

Also, JH wasn't handed anything, he wanted this "mess"

(04-23-2013 11:53 AM)TG4 Wrote:  Be thankful you didn't get a RC Johnson.

True, but that's setting the bar pretty low, isn't it?

Yes but I could have stooped even lower and said Charlie Cavagnaro. Memphis, without a doubt , holds the longest losing streak when it comes to Athletic Directors.

TG4, aren't you the guy who played football for Memphis State but doesn't like them now? Man, I'd love to hear that story. I can empathize sometimes. There is a limit to "my school, right or wrong." It hasn't been reached yet, in my case.

(04-23-2013 01:50 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  TG4, aren't you the guy who played football for Memphis State but doesn't like them now? Man, I'd love to hear that story. I can empathize sometimes. There is a limit to "my school, right or wrong." It hasn't been reached yet, in my case.

There are too many stories to take up your time. The easiest way .....at least for some of the mt.org groupies, is to blame it on Larry Porter's firing. As usual, most of them are too young and don't have a clue.

I guess the alumni should have banded together & fired RG back when louisville, cincy & usf left since he did not get us into the nbe back then. RG should have been fired for not getting us out of cusa in all those years he was the AD? He was on the job far longer than the General & should have done more but here we are......

The General should get an extension. I think he is following a lot of larger schools in getting the major mens sports winning & profitable then address womens sports when you have the additional cash. Womens sports are not profitable & even though we are a majority female school women do not contribute to athletics like men do.

(04-23-2013 11:35 AM)GrandPointEagle Wrote:  You think Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in the SEC because of the quality of their programs? Hell no, but they are rich as hell.

Take away their SEC TV money and they've got roughly the same athletic budget as any upper level non-AQ school. Rich? No. Right place, right time? Yes. They've just benefitted from being in that league from WAY back when geography mattered.

(04-23-2013 02:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 11:35 AM)GrandPointEagle Wrote:  You think Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in the SEC because of the quality of their programs? Hell no, but they are rich as hell.

Take away their SEC TV money and they've got roughly the same athletic budget as any upper level non-AQ school. Rich? No. Right place, right time? Yes. They've just benefitted from being in that league from WAY back when geography mattered.

How many teams all benifited from being geographicaly in the right spot 50-100 years ago? way too many......

(04-23-2013 03:03 PM)eagleriffic Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 02:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 11:35 AM)GrandPointEagle Wrote:  You think Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in the SEC because of the quality of their programs? Hell no, but they are rich as hell.

Take away their SEC TV money and they've got roughly the same athletic budget as any upper level non-AQ school. Rich? No. Right place, right time? Yes. They've just benefitted from being in that league from WAY back when geography mattered.

How many teams all benifited from being geographicaly in the right spot 50-100 years ago? way too many......

Agree 100%. Just saying Old Piss and Mistake aren't where they are because they're "rich as hell".

(04-23-2013 11:00 AM)panama Wrote:  I guess it comes down to 1) will the Goa'ould system lords band together and attack the Earth as a united force? 2) Will the Asgard step in?

This was where my mind went with "Gen. Hammond" as well

(04-23-2013 02:31 PM)eagleriffic Wrote:  I guess the alumni should have banded together & fired RG back when louisville, cincy & usf left since he did not get us into the nbe back then. RG should have been fired for not getting us out of cusa in all those years he was the AD? He was on the job far longer than the General & should have done more but here we are......

The General should get an extension. I think he is following a lot of larger schools in getting the major mens sports winning & profitable then address womens sports when you have the additional cash. Womens sports are not profitable & even though we are a majority female school women do not contribute to athletics like men do.

RG should be criticized for that, and has been. I don't remember if/when his contract ever expired, though, and that's the situation we're about to be in.

I don't think he's getting an extension. I think we'd have heard about it by now.

Filtering info down to.me says the General gets a 1 year extension. This gives the new president time to evaluate.

Don't you know Andre won't say a cross word about RG but the General has had a year to do all the things the wonderful RG did in his entire tenure at USM including move us to another conference.

(04-23-2013 03:06 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 03:03 PM)eagleriffic Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 02:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 11:35 AM)GrandPointEagle Wrote:  You think Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in the SEC because of the quality of their programs? Hell no, but they are rich as hell.

Take away their SEC TV money and they've got roughly the same athletic budget as any upper level non-AQ school. Rich? No. Right place, right time? Yes. They've just benefitted from being in that league from WAY back when geography mattered.

How many teams all benifited from being geographicaly in the right spot 50-100 years ago? way too many......

Agree 100%. Just saying Old Piss and Mistake aren't where they are because they're "rich as hell".

Currently, Ole Miss has a 43 million dollar budget and MSU has a 54 million dollar budget. Their conference payout was roughly 31 million dollars last year. CUSA's payout was about 3.3 million dollars. Subtract 28 million dollars from Ole Miss's budget and you have a school generating less revenue than La Tech or UNT. Subtract 28 million dollars from MSU and you have a school generating less revenue than any school in the AAC with the possible exception of Tulsa (24-25 million I believe). Less even than ODU with FCS football.

Now, add their tier three academics to the mix.

Toss in the fact that one of them has the state's only public medical school and the only public law school while the other is the state's land grant institution.

Basically, we are being asked to do things in terms of revenue generation that no other school in this state has to face. On top of that, our own fan base has now come to realize the hard way that we didn't hire a Tom Jurich back in the day and instead settled for mediocrity. Hammond won't get a free pass, but then, no one else would either in this situation.

(04-23-2013 03:33 PM)Monarch_Pride Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 11:00 AM)panama Wrote:  I guess it comes down to 1) will the Goa'ould system lords band together and attack the Earth as a united force? 2) Will the Asgard step in?

This was where my mind went with "Gen. Hammond" as well

Hammond retired from the US Army as a Major General to take a job as Assistant AD for Football at Southern Miss. His last active command was as commander of all troops assigned to the Baghdad area. He is a Southern Miss alumnus and a former starting QB for us in the mid-late '70s. Part of the reason he is considered a reach as an AD is because he has no experience in the field. We are basically relying on his leadership skills and hoping he is savvy enough to hire the right people and make up for his lack of experience.

(04-23-2013 03:39 PM)gdunn Wrote:  Don't you know Andre won't say a cross word about RG but the General has had a year to do all the things the wonderful RG did in his entire tenure at USM including move us to another conference.

Look up two posts for some RG criticism from me. I said it was time to go after the Hawaii Bowl thing, too. I'm not wearing blinders re. RG and I never said Hammond should go... at least, that is not what I am saying here. I just asked the question, and I think the answers have mostly been reasonable.

(04-23-2013 03:47 PM)Freshy Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 03:06 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 03:03 PM)eagleriffic Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 02:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 11:35 AM)GrandPointEagle Wrote:  You think Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in the SEC because of the quality of their programs? Hell no, but they are rich as hell.

Take away their SEC TV money and they've got roughly the same athletic budget as any upper level non-AQ school. Rich? No. Right place, right time? Yes. They've just benefitted from being in that league from WAY back when geography mattered.

How many teams all benifited from being geographicaly in the right spot 50-100 years ago? way too many......

Agree 100%. Just saying Old Piss and Mistake aren't where they are because they're "rich as hell".

Currently, Ole Miss has a 43 million dollar budget and MSU has a 54 million dollar budget. Their conference payout was roughly 31 million dollars last year. CUSA's payout was about 3.3 million dollars. Subtract 28 million dollars from Ole Miss's budget and you have a school generating less revenue than La Tech or UNT. Subtract 28 million dollars from MSU and you have a school generating less revenue than any school in the AAC with the possible exception of Tulsa (24-25 million I believe). Less even than ODU with FCS football.

Now, add their tier three academics to the mix.

Toss in the fact that one of them has the state's only public medical school and the only public law school while the other is the state's land grant institution.

Basically, we are being asked to do things in terms of revenue generation that no other school in this state has to face. On top of that, our own fan base has now come to realize the hard way that we didn't hire a Tom Jurich back in the day and instead settled for mediocrity. Hammond won't get a free pass, but then, no one else would either in this situation.

Exactly. The cellar dwellers up north aren't in $EC because they have money, they have money because they're in the $EC. Take away the big TV checks, attendance boost from getting Bama, Auburn, Florida, etc. at home. Plus all the merchandise sales from the t-shirt fans who only see the $EC logo and all mouth breather.

(04-23-2013 09:52 AM)AndreWhere Wrote:  I remember hearing that he only had a one-year contract. And oh what a long year it's been. Now that the door has closed another couple of inches on USM's chances of getting into a conference that's worthy of our history / ambition , I can't help but think Jeff's days are numbered. He's done an OK job of balancing the budget, if anyone cared about that, but other than that I perceive zero progress coming from Jeff or his department.

Does anyone know anything specific about his status? Has anyone heard anything about a contract extension, for example?

The only thing I will add here is that USM had absolutely NO friends, not even one, when the New Big East was being formed by the members that had not defected. All of the cusa teams who were invited did not have a vote, they still have none but wait until June 1 of this year and same time following year when all of our historical sidekicks will be in place in sufficient numbers to turn it our way. Just relax in the meantime.

(04-23-2013 06:13 PM)eager eagle Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 09:52 AM)AndreWhere Wrote:  I remember hearing that he only had a one-year contract. And oh what a long year it's been. Now that the door has closed another couple of inches on USM's chances of getting into a conference that's worthy of our history / ambition , I can't help but think Jeff's days are numbered. He's done an OK job of balancing the budget, if anyone cared about that, but other than that I perceive zero progress coming from Jeff or his department.

Does anyone know anything specific about his status? Has anyone heard anything about a contract extension, for example?

The only thing I will add here is that USM had absolutely NO friends, not even one, when the New Big East was being formed by the members that had not defected. All of the cusa teams who were invited did not have a vote, they still have none but wait until June 1 of this year and same time following year when all of our historical sidekicks will be in place in sufficient numbers to turn it our way. Just relax in the meantime.

Why would schools we've owned in the past want to put us back on equal footing with them?

(04-23-2013 06:26 PM)LR Eagle Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 06:13 PM)eager eagle Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 09:52 AM)AndreWhere Wrote:  I remember hearing that he only had a one-year contract. And oh what a long year it's been. Now that the door has closed another couple of inches on USM's chances of getting into a conference that's worthy of our history / ambition , I can't help but think Jeff's days are numbered. He's done an OK job of balancing the budget, if anyone cared about that, but other than that I perceive zero progress coming from Jeff or his department.

Does anyone know anything specific about his status? Has anyone heard anything about a contract extension, for example?

The only thing I will add here is that USM had absolutely NO friends, not even one, when the New Big East was being formed by the members that had not defected. All of the cusa teams who were invited did not have a vote, they still have none but wait until June 1 of this year and same time following year when all of our historical sidekicks will be in place in sufficient numbers to turn it our way. Just relax in the meantime.

Why would schools we've owned in the past want to put us back on equal footing with them?

Because it is easier to justify losing to us than it is losing to UMass.

I hope so. I flew up to Memphis to see the USM baseball series (and for me & the Mrs. to visit my Mom & Grandma) this weekend and it was interesting to get the perspective of the Memphis fans about this being the last time we play them in any sport conference-wise. When it sunk in after I said it, they were very sad to say the least.

Most UM fans confided in me that they knew they were giving up a valued rival for all sports. I agreed, but wished them the best and said who knows what will happen.

I wish the Tigers well...gonna miss playing the college team from my hometown & will miss those reasons to travel to the Bluff City.