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Goodness. Going through this thread is both puzzling and perplexing. Watts was a completely different person pre-presidency. What in the world happened during those BOT interviews? Blackmail? Faustian deal? At any rate... a Manchurian candidate could easily be installed again after Watts leaves. BOT reform has to remain on the front burner.

(06-02-2015 11:50 PM)BirminghamBound Wrote:  Goodness. Going through this thread is both puzzling and perplexing. Watts was a completely different person pre-presidency. What in the world happened during those BOT interviews? Blackmail? Faustian deal? At any rate... a Manchurian candidate could easily be installed again after Watts leaves. BOT reform has to remain on the front burner.

I'm thinking Watts received a visit from a group, Don Corleone style.

"You do this one thing for me, and you'll be forever in my good graces" style conversation.

Now Ray gets to answer to the boss on why the plan got changed.

This is about to get good!

(06-02-2015 11:50 PM)BirminghamBound Wrote:  Goodness. Going through this thread is both puzzling and perplexing. Watts was a completely different person pre-presidency. What in the world happened during those BOT interviews? Blackmail? Faustian deal? At any rate... a Manchurian candidate could easily be installed again after Watts leaves. BOT reform has to remain on the front burner.

Hind site is always 20/20 but the med school was slipping under his watch. Garrison got the blame when he should have been on the fire too. The songs were there but we were blinded by the fact he graduated from UAB.

I love you guys. Get derision for being too pessimistic that Watts would change his mind. Also get derision for being too optimistic when Watts was hired. Make up your minds.

Bring back Carol Garrison! ! !

Over the course of the last 6 months I have gone back and forth about who is behind Watt's behavior and actions - Watts alone, Watts' strings being pulled by the 3 Evil Trustees, or both.

I have come to the conclusion that it has been both. I recall back to when I received my new UAB car license plate in the mail. It was ugly, featured the medical side of the campus and Blaze had been removed. I knew something was wrong. Yes, the NAS is responsible for approving the new plate design, but I have been told by several NAS board members that the new plate was Watts' baby. I don't think the BOT forced him to do that.

That should have told us right away Watts would side with medical school and its research over athletics should the objectives of the two ever collide. Given the Trustees' primary interest in UAB is its function as cash factory, and obsession of the Evil 3 Trustees with UAB athletics, especially football, Watts was the perfect hire.

You can draw your own conclusions on when in how the decision to cut the football program was reached and who really pulled the trigger, but you can bet that Watts and the Evil 3 were in it together.

(06-03-2015 12:08 PM)CajunBlazer Wrote:  Over the course of the last 6 months I have gone back and forth about who is behind Watt's behavior and actions - Watts alone, Watts' strings being pulled by the 3 Evil Trustees, or both.

I have come to the conclusion that it has been both. I recall back to when I received my new UAB car license plate in the mail. It was ugly, featured the medical side of the campus and Blaze had been removed. I knew something was wrong. Yes, the NAS is responsible for approving the new plate design, but I have been told by several NAS board members that the new plate was Watts' baby. I don't think the BOT forced him to do that.

That should have told us right away Watts would side with medical school and its research over athletics should the objectives of the two ever collide. Given the Trustees' primary interest in UAB is its function as cash factory, and obsession of the Evil 3 Trustees with UAB athletics, especially football, Watts was the perfect hire.

You can draw your own conclusions on when in how the decision to cut the football program was reached and who really pulled the trigger, but you can bet that Watts and the Evil 3 were in it together.

I don't think it was Watts being hired with the mandate "you will kill football and gut the undergraduate side of campus", I think Watts went into the interviews and and process with the clear understanding that was his agenda, and that's why he was chosen. Now, whether he decided to have that agenda because he knew Paul Bryant Jr. wanted that in a President, only Watts knows, but I'm sure Bryant (who was the chair of the search committee) didn't explicitly say "do this and you're hired"

(06-03-2015 01:05 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(06-03-2015 12:08 PM)CajunBlazer Wrote:  Over the course of the last 6 months I have gone back and forth about who is behind Watt's behavior and actions - Watts alone, Watts' strings being pulled by the 3 Evil Trustees, or both.

I have come to the conclusion that it has been both. I recall back to when I received my new UAB car license plate in the mail. It was ugly, featured the medical side of the campus and Blaze had been removed. I knew something was wrong. Yes, the NAS is responsible for approving the new plate design, but I have been told by several NAS board members that the new plate was Watts' baby. I don't think the BOT forced him to do that.

That should have told us right away Watts would side with medical school and its research over athletics should the objectives of the two ever collide. Given the Trustees' primary interest in UAB is its function as cash factory, and obsession of the Evil 3 Trustees with UAB athletics, especially football, Watts was the perfect hire.

You can draw your own conclusions on when in how the decision to cut the football program was reached and who really pulled the trigger, but you can bet that Watts and the Evil 3 were in it together.

I don't think it was Watts being hired with the mandate "you will kill football and gut the undergraduate side of campus", I think Watts went into the interviews and and process with the clear understanding that was his agenda, and that's why he was chosen. Now, whether he decided to have that agenda because he knew Paul Bryant Jr. wanted that in a President, only Watts knows, but I'm sure Bryant (who was the chair of the search committee) didn't explicitly say "do this and you're hired"

Either scenario is certainly plausible.

As pissed off as he was about returning football, Killing it was something he believed in. Whether or not the BOT told him to do it is a guess.

(06-03-2015 01:59 PM)Blazer Engineer Wrote:  As pissed off as he was about returning football, Killing it was something he believed in. Whether or not the BOT told him to do it is a guess.

The BOT protected him when he botched the entire affair which means that at least some powerful Trustees approved of what he was doing. Whether or not it was Watts' idea or theirs to begin with, both had to be involved. If not they would have fired him long ago.

Man, I just so happened to see this topic and saw that it had ten pages. I thought I missed some big news.

Eventually, I suppose.

(06-03-2015 02:24 PM)Hopeful Wrote:  Man, I just so happened to see this topic and saw that it had ten pages. I thought I missed some big news.

Eventually, I suppose.

Nah, someone just dug it up from the dead files to show how there was such hope there was originally for Watts as the new president.

Your screen name is appropriate.

I love this picture.

It captures it all without uttering a word.

(06-03-2015 03:06 PM)BoKnows Wrote:  I love this picture.

It captures it all without uttering a word.

I like the single red dot instead of the cross hairs myself.

IT'S A JOKE.