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All I know at this point is that the only "leadership" we've seen from Brian is a mushmouthed, weak statement. "Exciting times are ahead..."

Many of us are excited, but not in a good way.

I can't endorse either Dr Watts or AD Mackin from "inside knowledge", but this I do know from published news reports - UAB, like all public education institutions in Alabama - has suffered from the state legislature's cuts in per pupil funding since 2008. Over these years, Alabama leads all 50 states (and DC) in the nearly $1400 per pupil cuts and these have to hurt even in a "sacred cow" like the medical center.

Yes, i know some are tired of my reminding them of this, but it is possible that UAB's fall in national ranking may be the natural result from this slashing of funding for the school. Like K-12 excellence, medical schools cost lots of money to maintain as above average and can't be had "on the cheap".

What did we do to deserve these?

His comments to Mike Raita yesterday struck me as trying to give the impression that things are out of his hands. Trying not to look guilty when the hammer falls.

(11-23-2014 01:16 PM)58-56 Wrote:  My brothers, my sisters,

Not the header you expected, is it?

On Saturday, like all of you, I attended the UAB-Marshall game and, like all of you, had a wonderful time. I enjoyed a fiercely-fought game in the company of family, really enjoyed the flawless dancing of the exquisitely beautiful Golden Girls and the performance of the well-drilled, well-ordered Marching Blazers, and I got to see members of my Blazer family like Blazer4Life, Attalla and DoktyrX.

And then afterwards, who should I spot as I left the stadium but Athletics Director Brian Mackin. So I cornered him, quite literally. I have known Brian Mackin since we were undergraduates at UAB, and while he’s bigger than I am and I suppose could have made a break for it, he stood his ground and stood my questioning.

His responses were, as others have reported, utterly non-committal. This seems to enrage many of you, but I have great experience in putting questions to people who do not wish to answer. And so I can say with great confidence, Brian Mackin did not want to lie to me, or to any of you. And he could have done so easily. He could have just said, “of course there will be football next year, and you and I will have a beer and enjoy ourselves. Don’t be silly.”

He did not say that. He did not lie.

He could have asked me to end these screeds. He did not say that. I interpret that as a signal to continue this fight by whatever means necessary.

Brian Mackin is a flawed man and a flawed leader, there is no doubt. He is not forceful in public, and he has a propensity to hire and retain flocks of utterly useless clock-watchers and time-servers. The marketing and public relations arms of the Athletic Department are outright disasters; his sports information director’s twitter feed sports a picture of said SID at SEC Media Days. He is served by idiots, idiots he selected and promoted. Brian Mackin is not the finest leader of men and women.

Yet it is under his leadership that UAB Football has survived repeated attempts to destroy it. It was Brian Mackin who took over an athletic department run into the ground by first the imbecilic Herman Frazier and then the excremental Watson Brown, and restored it to functionality. He poured his heart and soul into funding the on-campus stadium, and did not allow that fiasco to undo UAB Football. He fired Neil Callaway, incompetent favorite of the System Board of Trustees President Pro Tem. He defied the UASBOT and hired Bill Clark.

UAB Football exists because of Brian Mackin. Do you think that marvelous atmosphere on Saturday simply appeared out of thin air, conjured by our wishes and delivered by Santa Claus like a toy train on Christmas morning? No. It was planned, it was built, it was created under the direction of Brian Mackin.

If Brian Mackin is dismissed, who do you imagine will replace him? E.J. Brophy, or some other fire-eating, experienced athletics administrator eager to build UAB into the sports powerhouse it can and should become? Of course not. It will be some minor functionary, probably currently employed by Bill Battle, charged with winding down operations and then returning to his or her “real job” in Tuscaloosa.

UAB Football faces the likelihood of becoming collateral damage in a fiendish attempt by a small cadre of partisans of the School of Medicine to re-direct funds from undergraduate education to their own ego enhancement. Unable to compete for grants, now that the best researchers have left for better schools and the UABSOM under the “leadership” of Ray Watts, M.D. has fallen to #43 per U.S. News, they now seek to cannibalize the very institution that gives them life. If they were good enough to deserve the cash taken from the undergraduate programs, they’d be good enough to compete for grants against the 42 medical schools judged more worthy than they. In the person of Ray Watts, M.D., these selfish, coddled prima donnas would put the exaltation of their own mediocrity above the excellence of the overall, comprehensive university.

Let me repeat that: UAB Football is not the central issue. The east (medical) side is attempting to castrate the west (undergraduate) side of campus, and crushing football is just a side benefit in their eyes. If they succeed, they will wreck this city and region’s economy and society for the remainder of this century. And that is not hyperbole. They may or may not realize this, but either way, in their pampered selfishness this small band of the foolish and vain simply does not care.

It’s common in American politics to say, “You can’t fix X by throwing money at it,” where X equals something the speaker doesn’t want fixed. Money is not the only problem at the UABSOM; were that so, they wouldn’t have dropped so precipitously in the rankings. Now that we’ve had a chance to see how Ray Watts, M.D. leads the university as a whole, I think we can hazard a guess as to why the UABSOM declined in status. There are still many outstanding professionals in the UABSOM, teaching and research physicians and staff who are appalled at what is being perpetrated in their name. With strong leadership, the UABSOM can regain its rankings without damaging the rest of UAB.

There is evil at work, a gross and disgusting evil, but it is not the doing of Brian Mackin. He is not the defender I would choose, but he is the defender that we have. I will stand with him until he gives me reason to believe otherwise.

My brothers, my sisters, the moment is here. Gene Bartow prepared us for this moment. We cannot allow Joseph Volker’s dream to be sodomized by the incompetent and the corrupt.

We fight.

A prophet is not accepted in his own land.

(11-23-2014 06:35 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  We fight.

A prophet is not accepted in his own land.
[/quote]

Perhaps they need to read every line, and the ones in between.

TaylorBlazer and oldragon24 are not Just Any Posters. They have called for your aid in very specific ways. Answer their call or know for the rest of your lives that when they asked for one very small thing, you failed to pay honor's price.

The time for talk is over.

We fight.

(11-23-2014 06:41 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

(11-23-2014 06:35 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  We fight.

A prophet is not accepted in his own land.

Perhaps they need to read every line, and the ones in between.

TaylorBlazer and oldragon24 are not Just Any Posters. They have called for your aid in very specific ways. Answer their call or know for the rest of your lives that when they asked for one very small thing, you failed to pay honor's price.

The time for talk is over.

We fight.
[/quote]

"Well. We didn't get dressed up for nothin'."

Black Friday 2002 Richard Scrushy makes recommendation publicly and Brian Mackin hired.

Last Bowl Game 2004

Last NCAA Tournament win 2005

Neal Callaway and Mike Davis hired 2006

Brian Mackin made AD 2007

UAB has ONE NCAA play-in game in 2011 to show for the last decade of supposedly major college athletics. Remember, Bear Jr. and his buds don't give a **** if we're good at softball or soccer. In The Great Game, those sports are irrelevant.

Brian Mackin has been a disaster of an athletics director. He doesn't carry all the blame for UAB's long slide but he's been a common factor through a long, bleak era. He would have been long fired anywhere else but UAB. His primary positive attribute seems to be his fierce loyalty to who signs his paycheck.

He finally gets a coaching hire right and he turns his back on him, along with the long suffering UAB fans.

If UAB football gets the axe there will be coaches, players, and students cast adrift but not Brian Mackin. He'll be AD at UAB as long as the UA BOT wants him to be. From their view he's doing a fantastic job.

(11-23-2014 06:33 PM)tibber Wrote:  His comments to Mike Raita yesterday struck me as trying to give the impression that things are out of his hands. Trying not to look guilty when the hammer falls.

Same impression I got.

(11-23-2014 08:26 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Black Friday 2002 Richard Scrushy makes recommendation publicly and Brian Mackin hired.

Last Bowl Game 2004

Last NCAA Tournament win 2005

Neal Callaway and Mike Davis hired 2006

Brian Mackin made AD 2007

UAB has ONE NCAA play-in game in 2011 to show for the last decade of supposedly major college athletics. Remember, Bear Jr. and his buds don't give a **** if we're good at softball or soccer. In The Great Game, those sports are irrelevant.

Brian Mackin has been a disaster of an athletics director. He doesn't carry all the blame for UAB's long slide but he's been a common factor through a long, bleak era. He would have been long fired anywhere else but UAB. His primary positive attribute seems to be his fierce loyalty to who signs his paycheck.

He finally gets a coaching hire right and he turns his back on him, along with the long suffering UAB fans.

If UAB football gets the axe there will be coaches, players, and students cast adrift but not Brian Mackin. He'll be AD at UAB as long as the UA BOT wants him to be. From their view he's doing a fantastic job.

Plus extended Callaway tenure for nothing, and Davis' tenure for Boogie and NIT runs

(11-23-2014 08:26 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Black Friday 2002 Richard Scrushy makes recommendation publicly and Brian Mackin hired.

Last Bowl Game 2004

Last NCAA Tournament win 2005

Neal Callaway and Mike Davis hired 2006

Brian Mackin made AD 2007

UAB has ONE NCAA play-in game in 2011 to show for the last decade of supposedly major college athletics. Remember, Bear Jr. and his buds don't give a **** if we're good at softball or soccer. In The Great Game, those sports are irrelevant.

Brian Mackin has been a disaster of an athletics director. He doesn't carry all the blame for UAB's long slide but he's been a common factor through a long, bleak era. He would have been long fired anywhere else but UAB. His primary positive attribute seems to be his fierce loyalty to who signs his paycheck.

He finally gets a coaching hire right and he turns his back on him, along with the long suffering UAB fans.

If UAB football gets the axe there will be coaches, players, and students cast adrift but not Brian Mackin. He'll be AD at UAB as long as the UA BOT wants him to be. From their view he's doing a fantastic job.

Damn good post

BlazerGreen left out a couple of dates.
1990- UAB begins football with only basketball facilities with which to physically prepare football players.
1996- UAB begins D1 play at Auburn
2006- Only added physical conditioning facility comes on line with renovated Bell Gym. All needed additional facilities are "planned" and we are still waiting in 2014.(If I missed a groundbreaking, let me know)
2008- State legislature cuts all public school funding and continues to do so through 2012. All incumbents from those years who want to run in 2014 are reelected (if they are Republicans).

Yes, we have the best coaches we have had in many years at the helm of BB and FB and I hope we can provide what improvements they want to encourage them to stay for years.

A person's integrity is something they have to live with. I don't know the AD's involvement in this. However, the issue I have is that somebody apparently has misled Coach Clark, and that impacts the integrity of my university. The person that did that should be terminated when this is all over.

(11-23-2014 09:22 PM)Big Dee Wrote:  

(11-23-2014 08:26 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Black Friday 2002 Richard Scrushy makes recommendation publicly and Brian Mackin hired.

Last Bowl Game 2004

Last NCAA Tournament win 2005

Neal Callaway and Mike Davis hired 2006

Brian Mackin made AD 2007

UAB has ONE NCAA play-in game in 2011 to show for the last decade of supposedly major college athletics. Remember, Bear Jr. and his buds don't give a **** if we're good at softball or soccer. In The Great Game, those sports are irrelevant.

Brian Mackin has been a disaster of an athletics director. He doesn't carry all the blame for UAB's long slide but he's been a common factor through a long, bleak era. He would have been long fired anywhere else but UAB. His primary positive attribute seems to be his fierce loyalty to who signs his paycheck.

He finally gets a coaching hire right and he turns his back on him, along with the long suffering UAB fans.

If UAB football gets the axe there will be coaches, players, and students cast adrift but not Brian Mackin. He'll be AD at UAB as long as the UA BOT wants him to be. From their view he's doing a fantastic job.

Plus extended Callaway tenure for nothing, and Davis' tenure for Boogie and NIT runs

Callaway's extension, ugh. The self-inflicted wound I will never understand.

(11-23-2014 11:22 PM)Blazer86 Wrote:  A person's integrity is something they have to live with. I don't know the AD's involvement in this. However, the issue I have is that somebody apparently has misled Coach Clark, and that impacts the integrity of my university. The person that did that should be terminated when this is all over.

Most who express on this board feel that certain promises about new facilities were surely made by UAB to get FBHC Clark to come aboard. It is likely the "study" has a statement of price tag on these promised facilities and how they may be completed.

As with Bama, the largest part of this cost must be shouldered by private charitable contributions made to our athletic department. I hope the two will be met and brought together very soon. Inflation is raising costs and the state is cutting funding so time is of the essence.

If you don't like Mackin and want him fired, I am pretty sure you will like his replacement even less.

(11-23-2014 11:22 PM)Blazer86 Wrote:  A person's integrity is something they have to live with. I don't know the AD's involvement in this. However, the issue I have is that somebody apparently has misled Coach Clark, and that impacts the integrity of my university. The person that did that should be terminated when this is all over.

This is the biggest stain of all. Going forward who in their right mind would want to work for or do business with UAB?

As much as I have been displeased with Mackin's actions (or lack of) and words ("...most exciting era in UAB athletics [history]"), there is no evidence, even circumstantial, that Mackin was a party to deceiving Clark - directly or indirectly. The study is just a study. It brings back data and recommendations. If the course of action was decided before the study was even commissioned, or during the study, it was done above Mackin's head (i.e., Watts & Cabal of BOT). There would be no reason, too much risk in fact, to inform Mackin. He may have put 2 and 2 together - scheduling and extending Clark on hold - but those factors wouldn't have risen to the surface until after Clark's hire and even those with the most inside of inside connections didn't put the picture together until a month or two ago (perhaps with an assist from Mackin, we don't know).

(11-23-2014 11:22 PM)Blazer86 Wrote:  A person's integrity is something they have to live with. I don't know the AD's involvement in this. However, the issue I have is that somebody apparently has misled Coach Clark, and that impacts the integrity of my university. The person that did that should be terminated when this is all over.

Valid point... #OccupyHattiesburg