(09-08-2019 08:48 PM)bill dazzle Wrote: Tommy West was a very solid head coach and is a very respectable assistant coach now at Middle Tennessee. The fiery speech he gave ... beautiful. We Tiger fans owe him for that. It helped in some manner, no doubt.
I tend to agree. When you have a speech that talked about and one that nobody could deny was true I have to believe that it did have some impact. I'm glad he did it.
The only peeps who reacted that way were those who didn't know we had already started the process. It had no effect. The shift in philosophy actually was a bone of contention with Calipari before he left, behind the scenes.
Plus, given the fact that Tommy stopped coaching and recruiting several years earlier, after he had his heart attack, sort of made that a hypocritical rant.
The West speech probably had nowhere near as much positive impact as I would like to think. I give you that. But for you to write that it had "no effect," ... that just seems extreme. I know it positively affected me and other Tiger fans I know in terms of communication between us, our re-thinking how we donated to the UofM athletics department, how we communicated with key university officials, etc.
So, yes, I do feel there was at least a bit of a positive effect and I give West credit for that.
(This post was last modified: 09-12-2019 09:16 PM by bill dazzle.)
(09-08-2019 08:52 PM)TripleA Wrote: I don't think the West speech made any difference. The decision had already been made to pour money and support into football about 9 months to a year before West was fired. It was going forward regardless of what West said. In fact, firing West was one of the first steps in turning around our football program.
I totally disagree. Tommy West BLASTED the admin to their faces, and there was no turning back from that point on. Need I remind you, RC Johnson was still the AD at that time (for another 3 years), and Shirley Raines was plenty happy with his pitiful results. Hell, they spent $30,000 on a freaking OCS study that was pronounced DOA the moment it hit the athletic department's PO Box.
Oh, how soon we forget.
Right total jokes. And what was even worse was the Larry Porter hire. I mean talk about not doing your research - he never really coached at LSU. At LSU he would leave the room when coaching was being discussed. Was there just for recruiting. And boy did it show when he got the Memphis job. So the Administration that hired Larry Porter was actually planning a reincarnation of the Memphis football program even two years before West left? so they do this on campus survey and hire Porter. Plans? That group of buffoons? It all makes sense now lol.
NO. The boosters. Not the frigging administration. They had to get rid of the administration. It took a while. Fred was the leader. Other boosters at the time were involved.
And the decision wasn't made two years before West left. It was less than one. The decision to invest in football was made in late 2008, after our first failure to make the Big East, the one where we hired Tranghese (which was Fred's doing, not admin's).
And RC hiring Porter on his own after asking for Fred's help, when Fred was about to recommend the Redskins asst. coach, was what caused a split between Fred and RC that was never resolved.
Man, reading comprehension would be helpful.
It's not reading comprehension. We are talking about two different things, and what YOU are talking about is a bit of the tail wagging the dog. Hell, I am a booster, and I decided to turn Football around back in 2003. We all KNEW we needed to "turn football around." A LONG TIME AGO. You can cite boosters' actions and opinions and timing all you want, But TOMMY'S PRESS CONFERENCE PUT PRESSURE ON THE ADMINISTRATION. PERIOD.
The simple fact is, until Tommy put that out their in the media, the admin could have backed out of any commitment at any time, just like they had so many times in the past. Yeah, I'm thinking of backhoes parked in the south campus parking lot during recruiting visits, etc.
If you're a Tommy hater, just admit it and move along.
I was talking to Tiger City, not you. He mischaracterized everything I said in my previous post. That's what I meant by reading comprehension.
I don't hate Tommy. That has nothing to do with it. All I said was the BIG boosters (Fred Smith, Graf, Rose, others, not boosters like me and you, lol) had already decided to put major support behind football before West went on his rant.
It happened in late 2008 b/c we had just made a behind the scenes attempt to get into the Big East, which failed b/c our basketball was great, but our football sucked.
THAT was the impetus to get behind football, not Tommy's rant a year later. ADMIN was the problem that had to be overcome by the whales, and they had to wait for Shirley to retire before they got their guys in there.
It's not a difficult concept. And it's exactly what happened. A couple of them and Calipari had privately already had words over the coming change in direction, too.
(This post was last modified: 09-12-2019 10:04 PM by TripleA.)
(09-08-2019 08:48 PM)bill dazzle Wrote: Tommy West was a very solid head coach and is a very respectable assistant coach now at Middle Tennessee. The fiery speech he gave ... beautiful. We Tiger fans owe him for that. It helped in some manner, no doubt.
I tend to agree. When you have a speech that talked about and one that nobody could deny was true I have to believe that it did have some impact. I'm glad he did it.
The only peeps who reacted that way were those who didn't know we had already started the process. It had no effect. The shift in philosophy actually was a bone of contention with Calipari before he left, behind the scenes.
Plus, given the fact that Tommy stopped coaching and recruiting several years earlier, after he had his heart attack, sort of made that a hypocritical rant.
The West speech probably had nowhere near as much positive impact as I would like to think. I give you that. But for you to write that it had "no effect," ... that just seems extreme. I know it positively affected me and other Tiger fans I know in terms of communication between us, our re-thinking how we donated to the UofM athletics department, how we communicated with key university officials, etc.
So, yes, I do feel there was at least a bit of a positive effect and I give West credit for that.
Okay, I'll give you that it affected regular fans who didn't know what was up. I'm simply saying the wheels were in motion a year before Tommy was fired. That's a fact. I personally talked to some of the people involved in it.
09-12-2019 10:01 PM
bill dazzle
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(09-08-2019 08:48 PM)bill dazzle Wrote: Tommy West was a very solid head coach and is a very respectable assistant coach now at Middle Tennessee. The fiery speech he gave ... beautiful. We Tiger fans owe him for that. It helped in some manner, no doubt.
I tend to agree. When you have a speech that talked about and one that nobody could deny was true I have to believe that it did have some impact. I'm glad he did it.
The only peeps who reacted that way were those who didn't know we had already started the process. It had no effect. The shift in philosophy actually was a bone of contention with Calipari before he left, behind the scenes.
Plus, given the fact that Tommy stopped coaching and recruiting several years earlier, after he had his heart attack, sort of made that a hypocritical rant.
The West speech probably had nowhere near as much positive impact as I would like to think. I give you that. But for you to write that it had "no effect," ... that just seems extreme. I know it positively affected me and other Tiger fans I know in terms of communication between us, our re-thinking how we donated to the UofM athletics department, how we communicated with key university officials, etc.
So, yes, I do feel there was at least a bit of a positive effect and I give West credit for that.
Okay, I'll give you that it affected regular fans who didn't know what was up. I'm simply saying the wheels were in motion a year before Tommy was fired. That's a fact. I personally talked to some of the people involved in it.
Fair enough. You're much more connected to the scene and would know. I was looking at this from a more "big picture" view. Overall, I'm with you.
