This was emailed Thursday and posted on southernmiss.com .

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Nov. 2, 2017

TO THE TOP

OUR VISION FOR ATHLETICS


Special Meetings with Special People
Over the past 8 months, I have had the special opportunity to meet with hundreds and hundreds of special people who are in some way connected with Southern Miss Athletics. From our own President Bennett and his University Leadership Team, to Professors, Instructors and members of our University staff. This extends to our Department Staff, our Coaches, our Student-Athletes, our Graduate Assistants, our Vendors, Business Owners and Corporate Representatives. Some of my favorite meetings have been the fans in the stands. In turn, I’ve been to dozens of cities and a number of states (I’ve been everywhere man) to meet with our Constituents, and to watch our teams compete.

My meetings have has also included our devoted Eagle Club Donors, and a very special group of Donors known as our Circle of Champions. These individuals have committed their financial resources to support our Department of Athletics in a significant way.

As I have met with this incredible array of individuals, one of the most frequent questions I hear is:

What is your vision for the Department of Athletics?

It’s a great question and I think about it all the time. Following 24 years in the industry, I have some very specific thoughts about comprehensive excellence, and building a championship culture. This has included the development of our first formalized Needs Report, which lists our top priorities for the Department.

Diversity of Thought
Yet as I depart from my meetings, I find myself deeply interested in others’ Vision for our Department. Since day-one, I’ve been interested in our collective vision for our future. Above all else, as we envision our future, I am interested in the diversity of thought and perspectives. I am interested in developing a compelling vision that incorporates the best thoughts from across a community of constituents. And as I have shared with my staff, I firmly believe that this diversity of thought and opinion is best summarized with the statement:

No one of us is as smart as all of us!

Rest assured that my Leadership Team, our Senior Staff, and all our Staff and Coaches are familiar with the fundamental elements of a compelling Vision. We see:

Alignment – with the educational mission of the University and support of President Bennett

Mission and Guiding Principles – and embracing comprehensive excellence as our prevailing mindset

Strong and Diverse Leadership Team – seasoned Professionals and experts leading the Department

Strategic and Operational Planning – with clear priorities, plans, processes and models

Sustainable Financial Models – effective, efficient and sustainable funding for our programs

Academic Achievement – the graduation of our Student-Athletes with meaningful degrees

We see these and so many other elements of a successful and thriving Athletics Department: strict compliance to the rules and regulations and standards that mandate integrity and fair play, world-class Coaches serving exceptional Student-Athletes. We see a community of interested and engaged fans and supporters who view our Athletic Department as a point of pride.

My Vision – Your Vision – Our Vision
So the next time we meet, if you should ask about my vision for the future of Southern Miss Athletics, be prepared for a question in return:

What is your vision for our future?

You see, we invite your vision to be a part of our vision. And in the end, our diversity of thought is what will make our vision strong and clear.

Needs Report – Name Change!
On November 1st – I met with my Leadership Team to rename our Departmental Needs Report. On that day, it was named the:

OUR Eagle Vision

In short order, I will have OUR Eagle Vision posted and updated on our website. This document will represent the best of our collective thoughts on the future of our Department. So if you have thoughts about the vision for our future, I encourage you to contact us.

You might be surprised to know that we are already aware of the need for a new sound system in the Football Stadium, and of 1001 other items to improve our program – from an updated Academic Center, to a Wellness Facility, and even the food we serve on game day.

Brian Morrison on our Leadership Team will be the focal point for our efforts. I encourage you to contact Brian with your thoughts and recommendations. His phone number is 601-266-5055. He can also be reached at Brian.Morrison@USM.edu. Together, our vision is to take this program To The Top!

To The Top!

Jon
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So yeah....Here's your chance to put to use all the stuff you type on here, folks. Have at it.

Thanks for sharing. I encourage people to share input and encourage others to do the same.

Quote:Strategic and Operational Planning – with clear priorities, plans, processes and models

Sustainable Financial Models – effective, efficient and sustainable funding for our programs

This is a whole lot of "what" he wants to do, without any info on how he plans to do it. I hope there is a follow up email sent out in a few months with the "how" portion of these visions.

(11-03-2017 08:06 AM)Bleacher Eagle Wrote:  I hope there is a follow up email sent out in a few months with the "how" portion of these visions.

Hope is the vision. First day here?

I thought about this a bit before responding because I don't want to be negative. But honestly, if they have to ask what the fans vision is, then they don't need to be here. In the freakin' interview, they should have to say what THEIR vision is for the University and give at least some outline of how to get us there. Otherwise, they shouldn't get the damn job. Sorry, but to me this is bull****. Is every new AD going to come in and say, 'Ok, what do you guys want me to do?". How many guys get hired in the real world at executive positions and then ask that question?

This is all fluff and stuff. Give me details of how we get there.

Before I get the "don't post if your going to be negative", let me give some background. Do I love Southern Miss and bleed black and gold? I will until the day I die. Am I bitter about the ineptitude - damn right.

And for the record - asking what the vision is vs. asking for input from the "worker bees" and fans as to what they see stopping us from getting there, or what can be done different, is two different things.

I have been an alumni member since the year I graduated. I have been an Eagle Club member for damn near that long. My kids were Jr. Eagle club members. I even bought season tickets when I lived more that 1000 miles from campus, and sent them (along with a parking pass) to my brother's company to give to single moms that couldn't afford to take there kids to the games otherwise. I've donated money and my company matched those funds, adding up to a hefty little sum. It's been the worst damn investment I've ever made. Both my kids were honor students, both got offers from schools all over. The oldest received both athletic and academic scholarship offers. The youngest received academic (but busted his knee his senior year). They went to different Universities, but both passed the CPA exam first try. They both got jobs with one of the big four accounting. NEITHER received even a card from Southern Miss. I even called and asked for information when they were Jr.s in high school. Guess what - I was told they'd get something when they were Sr.s. - Never happened. Now - only 3 and 5 years out of college they are both considered by our Federal Government to be "High Income" and I expect they'll pass me up in the next 5 years. As much as they loved Southern Miss growing up, where will their loyalty - and money go? Can you blame them?

To me that's unbelievable. How many others are there out there? And they need us to tell them the vision? No damn wonder we've being headed the wrong direction.

I love Southern Miss, but after 30 years of bull****, I have the right to feel let down. And before you give me reasons I shouldn't feel this way - Ask yourself how you're going to feel 30 years from now if Southern Miss is playing schools that are currently NAIA. Cause that's basically where we are for me. Hell - 30 years ago, some of the schools that we not only play now, but have passed us up, didn't even have a football team.

So we’ve been hearing all week about high-dollar contributors bailing on the program because they haven’t been listened to, but when a public call for input on the department’s future goes out, the response is, “Why the hell are you asking me? It’s your job!” Fascinating.

Also, Up2stuff, you raise an excellent point about the connection between the university’s overall student recruitment and the health of its athletic program. That’s exactly the kind of thing you need to send to that email address as opposed to just venting it here to a bunch of folks reading a message board on their lunch break who can do a grand total of zero about it.

(11-03-2017 02:33 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  That’s exactly the kind of thing you need to send to that email address.

Yeah Up2 .. Be sure you e-mail Brian and call him.

(11-03-2017 02:33 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  So we’ve been hearing all week about high-dollar contributors bailing on the program because they haven’t been listened to, but when a public call for input on the department’s future goes out, the response is, “Why the hell are you asking me? It’s your job!” Fascinating.

Also, Up2stuff, you raise an excellent point about the connection between the university’s overall student recruitment and the health of its athletic program. That’s exactly the kind of thing you need to send to that email address as opposed to just venting it here to a bunch of folks reading a message board on their lunch break who can do a grand total of zero about it.

Trust me HP, I understand your frustration with me and my comments, but that's kind of my point. I seldom "vent" on here. However, over the years, I have talked to anyone and everyone that will listen, sent emails, begged, gave money. And I'm talking past presidents, ADs, and anybody else in any office that happened to pick up the phone. etc., etc., etc. And I will probably continue to put a bug in their ear. But why should I have to keep telling them? If they don't have a vision by now - well, we're going to keep going exactly where we've been going.

The best example I can relate to is what I do for a living. I've been a part of and headed projects all over this world. It's my job to have a clear definition of where we are today, and where management wants things to go, and an outline of the things that need to get done to reach the ultimate goal. Then all the team members give input on how to carry those things out. Some projects may have 20 team members, and some may have 500 in 5 different countries. But you don't ask what their goal is. You tell them the goal, then milestones to meet, and ask them for their expertise to implement. It's really a simple concept. But, if you ask 1000 Eagle Club members what their vision is, you'll probably get 1000 different visions. You'll never make everyone happy that way. In fact, you'll probably piss off 999 out of the 1000 (reference our past history for example). Some fans care about football, some fans care about basketball, some fans care about baseball, some fans care about Olympic sports.

1 goal, 1 mission, from leadership - then work to get everyone on board and headed toward the ultimate goal. Lack of leadership is exactly why we spin in circles. There's no magic to where fans want to be. The goal could be simply stated - Get in a better conference. It doesn't take a survey to figure that out. Make a freakin' statement and set milestones to reach the goal. Get fans on board of whatever milestone they want to help reach. They are in the business, they've been in the meetings (we hope), and it is their job to know what has to be done to get us where we want to be. In fact, they've been telling us for years - "To the TOP". Okay, fine, all the fans want to be at the top. But please define "TOP". Top of what? And more important, what has to happen to get there. But telling fans they need more money is not leadership. But no, we're too damn interested in hiring "one of us" (not pointed at current football coach specifically - but look at every sport). Keep hiring "one of us", and guess what, you're gonna get what you've gotten the last 40 years. And by the way, hiring one of "us" is just one of the mantra that makes me want to

Apologies to the board. I am ranting now.

I get it. I’ve been using this same username for a long time, and anyone who’s been around knows I’ve done my own share of complaining about all manner of things.

My issue here is 1) you’re reading too much into that email that isn’t there, and 2) you’re judging present leadership based upon things they didn’t do. I’ve been dealing with this athletic dept for a couple decades myself, and honestly, this is the most confident I’ve ever been about the people running things (though granted that’s not a high bar to reach). Most of our woes have been brewing for a long, long time. Bennett’s just reaching the point where things he’s implemented are starting to matter, and Gilbert hasn’t even been on the job a year yet.

Nowhere in that message does Gilbert say the soon-to-be-officially-stated vision—which everyone, including me, has been demanding for ages—is a completely blank canvas starting from scratch as of yesterday. He’s asking for input. Hell, for all we know, most of it may just be a ruse to make people feel like he actually gives a crap what they think. Some of our most vocal fans are frankly bat-s**** crazy. It’s a no-win situation sometimes. Don’t ask what they think, and their feelings get hurt. Ask and don’t do it their way, and as you say, they get pissed off. But who knows? There just may be some good ideas out there that only someone with more than 8 months on campus can really know how it’ll go over. If you want to get people behind the cause, you gotta have the best, most convincing plan possible for your audience. Engaging the audience is a means of finding out who they are.

The “one of us” bit annoys the crap out of me as much as anyone, but while, yes, a few coaches do have prior ties to here, the current AD has yet to hire or fire anyone, so we have no way of knowing yet how he’s going to handle things. The president, who let’s face it, probably had some folks against him from the start for “reasons,” actually removed “one of us” from the AD’s office and is still on the bad side of many for doing so. We know it’s not a priority of his, and he’s willing to take the hit on it.

(11-03-2017 03:49 PM)Up2stuff Wrote:  Some fans care about basketball.

No need to make **** up Chief.

(11-03-2017 06:58 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  I get it. I’ve been using this same username for a long time, and anyone who’s been around knows I’ve done my own share of complaining about all manner of things.

My issue here is 1) you’re reading too much into that email that isn’t there, and 2) you’re judging present leadership based upon things they didn’t do. I’ve been dealing with this athletic dept for a couple decades myself, and honestly, this is the most confident I’ve ever been about the people running things (though granted that’s not a high bar to reach). Most of our woes have been brewing for a long, long time. Bennett’s just reaching the point where things he’s implemented are starting to matter, and Gilbert hasn’t even been on the job a year yet.

Nowhere in that message does Gilbert say the soon-to-be-officially-stated vision—which everyone, including me, has been demanding for ages—is a completely blank canvas starting from scratch as of yesterday. He’s asking for input. Hell, for all we know, most of it may just be a ruse to make people feel like he actually gives a crap what they think. Some of our most vocal fans are frankly bat-s**** crazy. It’s a no-win situation sometimes. Don’t ask what they think, and their feelings get hurt. Ask and don’t do it their way, and as you say, they get pissed off. But who knows? There just may be some good ideas out there that only someone with more than 8 months on campus can really know how it’ll go over. If you want to get people behind the cause, you gotta have the best, most convincing plan possible for your audience. Engaging the audience is a means of finding out who they are.

The “one of us” bit annoys the crap out of me as much as anyone, but while, yes, a few coaches do have prior ties to here, the current AD has yet to hire or fire anyone, so we have no way of knowing yet how he’s going to handle things. The president, who let’s face it, probably had some folks against him from the start for “reasons,” actually removed “one of us” from the AD’s office and is still on the bad side of many for doing so. We know it’s not a priority of his, and he’s willing to take the hit on it.

Thanks for the honest dialogue. I'm sure some of my comments are from frustration over last weekends lost - just bad timing. I agree that the current administration needs more time, and I will try to give them the benefit of any doubt.

(11-03-2017 07:31 PM)Black Diamond Reb Wrote:  

(11-03-2017 03:49 PM)Up2stuff Wrote:  Some fans care about basketball.

No need to make **** up Chief.

You got me there. Probably should have said - some fans use to care about basketball.

Need to put in chair back seats... At the very least, a back rail on the seats.

(11-03-2017 08:22 PM)EagleFWB Wrote:  Need to put in chair back seats... At the very least, a back rail on the seats.

I can already see our overweight fans complaining about not enough room.

(11-04-2017 10:29 AM)EagNBran Wrote:  I can already see our fans complaining.

That’s quite a crystal ball you have there.

(11-03-2017 06:58 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  The “one of us” bit annoys the crap out of me as much as anyone, but while, yes, a few coaches do have prior ties to here, the current AD has yet to hire or fire anyone, so we have no way of knowing yet how he’s going to handle things. The president, who let’s face it, probably had some folks against him from the start for “reasons,” actually removed “one of us” from the AD’s office and is still on the bad side of many for doing so. We know it’s not a priority of his, and he’s willing to take the hit on it.

Bennett removed an AD who was very much a product of insider money interests who pushed Dr. Lucas, as interim President, to name “one of us” as an AD who had literally no athletic experience. That AD had a hand in two absolutely disastrous coaching hires that crippled football and basketball, and then had no connections when C-USA 2.0 scattered in 2012-13.

Bennett appointed McGillis largely due to his AAC connections. McGillis had us in position to move to the AAC had the XII expansion happened last year. It didn’t, and his failure to raise revenue in the interim cost him an extension. Now Jon Gilbert has the task of raising revenue in C-USA 3.0 and charting the future. It’s no small undertaking and he is asking for input and buy in to do things to help in future moves.

Gilbert Is being very deliberate. He should be. The next moves we make are crucial. He knows C-USA 3.0 is an albatross for us. I believe there are very serious discussions around a more regional league, and there’s the impending implosion of the XII to consider. He is playing chess and many of our fans aren’t even patient enough for a game of checkers.

(11-04-2017 04:55 PM)RockTheRock Wrote:  He is playing chess and many of our fans aren’t even patient enough for a game of checkers.

Hell, some get rattled by a particularly intense game of rock-paper-scissors.