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(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 01:02 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  It takes some real Kool-Aid to make comments like she couldn’t handle PJ and wasn’t comfortable with success, or was too sick for a coaching search. This is a hell of a lot of silly speculation.

Look guys, this isn’t rocket science, Lester was an outstanding team leader as a player, and they wanted to give him the shot and hope he’s a guy who would stay for a long time. It’s really that simple.

I’m more conservative than all of you but you guys talk about our AD as if she was some delicate flower who gets too hysterical to do her basic duties, even though she has an excellent track record and has made great hires and eventually good fires. That’s pretty damn insulting.

It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

I can completely understand where she's coming then. She just might've been TOO careful. The choices weren't 'Lester' & 'everyone else is gonna be a PJ who continuously spends overbudget.'

(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 01:02 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  It takes some real Kool-Aid to make comments like she couldn’t handle PJ and wasn’t comfortable with success, or was too sick for a coaching search. This is a hell of a lot of silly speculation.

Look guys, this isn’t rocket science, Lester was an outstanding team leader as a player, and they wanted to give him the shot and hope he’s a guy who would stay for a long time. It’s really that simple.

I’m more conservative than all of you but you guys talk about our AD as if she was some delicate flower who gets too hysterical to do her basic duties, even though she has an excellent track record and has made great hires and eventually good fires. That’s pretty damn insulting.

It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

Once again, I don't take anyone's inside knowledge seriously on here, but that sounds like Fleck should have been fired and is not competent for any executive position anywhere if he can't spend a budget properly.

If people mean "financial malfeasance" when they say Kathy couldn't handle PJ or was afraid of success, then they should also say either Fleck should rightly have been fired for that, or that breaking promises and financial chicanery is how we succeed.

(12-14-2020 04:41 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 01:02 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  It takes some real Kool-Aid to make comments like she couldn’t handle PJ and wasn’t comfortable with success, or was too sick for a coaching search. This is a hell of a lot of silly speculation.

Look guys, this isn’t rocket science, Lester was an outstanding team leader as a player, and they wanted to give him the shot and hope he’s a guy who would stay for a long time. It’s really that simple.

I’m more conservative than all of you but you guys talk about our AD as if she was some delicate flower who gets too hysterical to do her basic duties, even though she has an excellent track record and has made great hires and eventually good fires. That’s pretty damn insulting.

It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

Once again, I don't take anyone's inside knowledge seriously on here, but that sounds like Fleck should have been fired and is not competent for any executive position anywhere if he can't spend a budget properly.

If people mean "financial malfeasance" when they say Kathy couldn't handle PJ or was afraid of success, then they should also say either Fleck should rightly have been fired for that, or that breaking promises and financial chicanery is how we succeed.

PJ was simply doing in his mind what players needed to be happy. It’s the environment they have at every P5 school and some of the upper G5 ones He was trying to turn this into a non-MAC program.

I asked him one offseason how he recruits against the MAC. He said he doesn’t ever bring up the minor league schools when talking about recruits. He only wants players that can compete anywhere.

He just had a completely different philosophy than the admin. The admin is a very conservative “we’ve done it this way since the 90s”. PJ said this way sucks and to his credit won by doing it his way. I’m sure he’s done the same thing at Minn and when he goes over budget the Big 10 TV check is there to pick up the extra.

He’s taken the team to concerts and multiple pro games. Those aren’t cheap expenses.

He wasn’t going to be fired because the admin never knew just how much he was going over until he left. He emptied it all out in 2016. I’m sure if he stayed they would have had a donor foot the bill.

He had plans in his office drawn up for bowling in the end zone where the video board is and putting a restaurant in there where you could watch the game from.

(12-15-2020 12:07 AM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 04:41 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 01:02 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  It takes some real Kool-Aid to make comments like she couldn’t handle PJ and wasn’t comfortable with success, or was too sick for a coaching search. This is a hell of a lot of silly speculation.

Look guys, this isn’t rocket science, Lester was an outstanding team leader as a player, and they wanted to give him the shot and hope he’s a guy who would stay for a long time. It’s really that simple.

I’m more conservative than all of you but you guys talk about our AD as if she was some delicate flower who gets too hysterical to do her basic duties, even though she has an excellent track record and has made great hires and eventually good fires. That’s pretty damn insulting.

It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

Once again, I don't take anyone's inside knowledge seriously on here, but that sounds like Fleck should have been fired and is not competent for any executive position anywhere if he can't spend a budget properly.

If people mean "financial malfeasance" when they say Kathy couldn't handle PJ or was afraid of success, then they should also say either Fleck should rightly have been fired for that, or that breaking promises and financial chicanery is how we succeed.

PJ was simply doing in his mind what players needed to be happy. It’s the environment they have at every P5 school and some of the upper G5 ones He was trying to turn this into a non-MAC program.

I asked him one offseason how he recruits against the MAC. He said he doesn’t ever bring up the minor league schools when talking about recruits. He only wants players that can compete anywhere.

He just had a completely different philosophy than the admin. The admin is a very conservative “we’ve done it this way since the 90s”. PJ said this way sucks and to his credit won by doing it his way. I’m sure he’s done the same thing at Minn and when he goes over budget the Big 10 TV check is there to pick up the extra.

He’s taken the team to concerts and multiple pro games. Those aren’t cheap expenses.

He wasn’t going to be fired because the admin never knew just how much he was going over until he left. He emptied it all out in 2016. I’m sure if he stayed they would have had a donor foot the bill.

He had plans in his office drawn up for bowling in the end zone where the video board is and putting a restaurant in there where you could watch the game from.

What you are implying is immature narcissism and reckless irresponsibility. Other MAC programs don't need to do that to win.

(12-15-2020 12:07 AM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 04:41 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 01:02 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  It takes some real Kool-Aid to make comments like she couldn’t handle PJ and wasn’t comfortable with success, or was too sick for a coaching search. This is a hell of a lot of silly speculation.

Look guys, this isn’t rocket science, Lester was an outstanding team leader as a player, and they wanted to give him the shot and hope he’s a guy who would stay for a long time. It’s really that simple.

I’m more conservative than all of you but you guys talk about our AD as if she was some delicate flower who gets too hysterical to do her basic duties, even though she has an excellent track record and has made great hires and eventually good fires. That’s pretty damn insulting.

It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

Once again, I don't take anyone's inside knowledge seriously on here, but that sounds like Fleck should have been fired and is not competent for any executive position anywhere if he can't spend a budget properly.

If people mean "financial malfeasance" when they say Kathy couldn't handle PJ or was afraid of success, then they should also say either Fleck should rightly have been fired for that, or that breaking promises and financial chicanery is how we succeed.

PJ was simply doing in his mind what players needed to be happy. It’s the environment they have at every P5 school and some of the upper G5 ones He was trying to turn this into a non-MAC program.

I asked him one offseason how he recruits against the MAC. He said he doesn’t ever bring up the minor league schools when talking about recruits. He only wants players that can compete anywhere.

He just had a completely different philosophy than the admin. The admin is a very conservative “we’ve done it this way since the 90s”. PJ said this way sucks and to his credit won by doing it his way. I’m sure he’s done the same thing at Minn and when he goes over budget the Big 10 TV check is there to pick up the extra.

This tracks with my interactions with PJ, too. Completely different mindset. I loved it. I can't stand the old standby of being a mediocre MAC program.

I remember one particular meeting with a group of alumni and some admin in his 2nd season. One of the old timers accused him of trashing Bronco football tradition. He responded, "I love tradition. Thrive on it. I've been here over a year. Can you tell me what traditions you have?"

Silence.

"I've been to other programs and they start with their tradition. I got here and nobody shared anything. So, I'm trying to start some because there are none that I can tell. If I've missed anything, tell me."

Silence.

He was right. There were no traditions. We were just a program that did the same thing over and over. The marching band has more traditions than the football program.

Did he do it the right way? Probably not. But he pointed out something very true - Bronco football wasn't known for anything.

(12-15-2020 09:06 AM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(12-15-2020 12:07 AM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 04:41 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 01:02 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  It takes some real Kool-Aid to make comments like she couldn’t handle PJ and wasn’t comfortable with success, or was too sick for a coaching search. This is a hell of a lot of silly speculation.

Look guys, this isn’t rocket science, Lester was an outstanding team leader as a player, and they wanted to give him the shot and hope he’s a guy who would stay for a long time. It’s really that simple.

I’m more conservative than all of you but you guys talk about our AD as if she was some delicate flower who gets too hysterical to do her basic duties, even though she has an excellent track record and has made great hires and eventually good fires. That’s pretty damn insulting.

It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

Once again, I don't take anyone's inside knowledge seriously on here, but that sounds like Fleck should have been fired and is not competent for any executive position anywhere if he can't spend a budget properly.

If people mean "financial malfeasance" when they say Kathy couldn't handle PJ or was afraid of success, then they should also say either Fleck should rightly have been fired for that, or that breaking promises and financial chicanery is how we succeed.

PJ was simply doing in his mind what players needed to be happy. It’s the environment they have at every P5 school and some of the upper G5 ones He was trying to turn this into a non-MAC program.

I asked him one offseason how he recruits against the MAC. He said he doesn’t ever bring up the minor league schools when talking about recruits. He only wants players that can compete anywhere.

He just had a completely different philosophy than the admin. The admin is a very conservative “we’ve done it this way since the 90s”. PJ said this way sucks and to his credit won by doing it his way. I’m sure he’s done the same thing at Minn and when he goes over budget the Big 10 TV check is there to pick up the extra.

He’s taken the team to concerts and multiple pro games. Those aren’t cheap expenses.

He wasn’t going to be fired because the admin never knew just how much he was going over until he left. He emptied it all out in 2016. I’m sure if he stayed they would have had a donor foot the bill.

He had plans in his office drawn up for bowling in the end zone where the video board is and putting a restaurant in there where you could watch the game from.

What you are implying is immature narcissism and reckless irresponsibility. Other MAC programs don't need to do that to win.

I don't remember many other MAC programs going to a Cotton Bowl, but OK.

If it's not in the budget, it's not in the budget. KB should get crap for not doing a more involved coaching search & not wanting to trust other coaches, but I can understand why she wouldn't want a coach spending at P5 levels.

(12-15-2020 09:06 AM)RunningGame Wrote:  What you are implying is immature narcissism and reckless irresponsibility. Other MAC programs don't need to do that to win.

There’s no question he has a bit of a narcissistic personality to him. He’s the ultimate love him or hate him coach.

If he loses doing it his way he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt. But no one in the MAC ever hosted CGD, went to a Cotton Bowl and had a top 5 NFL pick who became the all time leading receiver in CFB history either.

But he felt to do that at Western he had to spend like there was no tomorrow because Western doesn’t have the inherit regional advantage that a school like Boise does or the TV money that even some of the AAC schools do.

This took a sick turn, a thread with APPROVING anonymous accusations of financial mismanagement...

Guys, football isn't THAT important.

(12-15-2020 01:04 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  This took a sick turn, a thread with APPROVING anonymous accusations of financial mismanagement...

Guys, football isn't THAT important.

I think you hit the nail on the head. The admin and MAC would agree that football isn’t THAT important because of the low ROI on overall university bottom line.

PJ and other big G5 and P5 schools live and die by footballs impact. Not many programs operate at a profit but they do bring in every day students and marketing. How else would someone outside of Idaho ever know about Boise?

What is the out of state recruitment for Ball State? 84.7% come from Indiana because there’s no national footprint.

So no winning the football championship in and of itself isn’t that important. But could you imagine how the school would have been helped this year by getting into a national conversation at the same time the Pfizer world saving vaccine is being manufactured a few miles away? Those are stories ESPN lives for.

(12-15-2020 10:49 AM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  I don't remember many other MAC programs going to a Cotton Bowl, but OK.

How 'bout the Orange Bowl (NIU 2013)?

(12-15-2020 01:47 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-15-2020 01:04 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  This took a sick turn, a thread with APPROVING anonymous accusations of financial mismanagement...

Guys, football isn't THAT important.

I think you hit the nail on the head. The admin and MAC would agree that football isn’t THAT important because of the low ROI on overall university bottom line.

PJ and other big G5 and P5 schools live and die by footballs impact. Not many programs operate at a profit but they do bring in every day students and marketing. How else would someone outside of Idaho ever know about Boise?

What is the out of state recruitment for Ball State? 84.7% come from Indiana because there’s no national footprint.

So no winning the football championship in and of itself isn’t that important. But could you imagine how the school would have been helped this year by getting into a national conversation at the same time the Pfizer world saving vaccine is being manufactured a few miles away? Those are stories ESPN lives for.

Yep...PJ was doing something in Kalamazoo that could've rivaled Boise St IMO. Sounds like he was cutting some corners on how to get money into the program. Maybe, that stuff would've caught up to him. Maybe, he would've found people to pay for those things. Who knows. But, if you dig into any major college football program, you'd find all kinds of gross things about money & boosters. I think it's likely we'll never see anything in our lifetime again like PJ running the Broncos. I guess some think that's bad & some think that's good.

(12-15-2020 01:55 PM)MajorHoople Wrote:  

(12-15-2020 10:49 AM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  I don't remember many other MAC programs going to a Cotton Bowl, but OK.

How 'bout the Orange Bowl (NIU 2013)?

Yep...we're up to 1 other example. Seems consistent with my "many other MAC programs" comment.

So we go from 'the program is in the bottom third of the MAC in regards to budget thx to all the budget cuts this year' to 'too bad we don't have a Fleck-type running up the bill w/ no limit.'

After the PJF departure, I would've hired JMU's coach Mike Houston. He's currently 7-14 at East Carolina

My other choice was NDSU's coach Chris Klieman. He jumped over the G5 right to a decent Kansas St job. Is 12-11.

So my top choices: 1 of them's struggling at East Carolina, the other is doing better record-wise but jumped right over the G5. Both of them are still early in their tenure so we'll have to follow them close.

Would be interesting to see what ECU's paying Houston compared to what we're paying TL. Klieman would've probably passed on us for a higher-paying P5 job. We can't outpay KSU anymore than we can outpay Minny.

Not convinced Pinkham or Ciarocca would've been any better then TL, both are job-bouncing around.

Houston is making $1.3 million ($500k base) at ECU.

I think it is obvious my gripe with TL is the way we have returned to embarrassing ourselves on the field as we did under Bill Cubit. There's really no excuse for Tim to recruit the way he has and to not turn out results. We should really wonder how long it will take for committed recruits to decide to go elsewhere, because I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.

B/c a recruit who wants to win championships is gonna choose a team that's squandering rather then us who are so close?

(12-15-2020 10:25 AM)broncofan1 Wrote:  

(12-15-2020 12:07 AM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 04:41 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 01:02 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  It takes some real Kool-Aid to make comments like she couldn’t handle PJ and wasn’t comfortable with success, or was too sick for a coaching search. This is a hell of a lot of silly speculation.

Look guys, this isn’t rocket science, Lester was an outstanding team leader as a player, and they wanted to give him the shot and hope he’s a guy who would stay for a long time. It’s really that simple.

I’m more conservative than all of you but you guys talk about our AD as if she was some delicate flower who gets too hysterical to do her basic duties, even though she has an excellent track record and has made great hires and eventually good fires. That’s pretty damn insulting.

It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

Once again, I don't take anyone's inside knowledge seriously on here, but that sounds like Fleck should have been fired and is not competent for any executive position anywhere if he can't spend a budget properly.

If people mean "financial malfeasance" when they say Kathy couldn't handle PJ or was afraid of success, then they should also say either Fleck should rightly have been fired for that, or that breaking promises and financial chicanery is how we succeed.

PJ was simply doing in his mind what players needed to be happy. It’s the environment they have at every P5 school and some of the upper G5 ones He was trying to turn this into a non-MAC program.

I asked him one offseason how he recruits against the MAC. He said he doesn’t ever bring up the minor league schools when talking about recruits. He only wants players that can compete anywhere.

He just had a completely different philosophy than the admin. The admin is a very conservative “we’ve done it this way since the 90s”. PJ said this way sucks and to his credit won by doing it his way. I’m sure he’s done the same thing at Minn and when he goes over budget the Big 10 TV check is there to pick up the extra.

This tracks with my interactions with PJ, too. Completely different mindset. I loved it. I can't stand the old standby of being a mediocre MAC program.

I remember one particular meeting with a group of alumni and some admin in his 2nd season. One of the old timers accused him of trashing Bronco football tradition. He responded, "I love tradition. Thrive on it. I've been here over a year. Can you tell me what traditions you have?"

Silence.

"I've been to other programs and they start with their tradition. I got here and nobody shared anything. So, I'm trying to start some because there are none that I can tell. If I've missed anything, tell me."

Silence.

He was right. There were no traditions. We were just a program that did the same thing over and over. The marching band has more traditions than the football program.

Did he do it the right way? Probably not. But he pointed out something very true - Bronco football wasn't known for anything.

I definitely understand this and agree but come on. He started a tradition of rowing the boat after the third quarter and then left after four years and took RTB with him lol. "Tradition" isn't something you can just take from program to program. Also... would WMU football be better or more prestigious if we had some banner we ran under before the game and jumped up and touched and called it tradition? Is the cannon tradition? I loooooove PJ but come on.

(12-15-2020 03:55 PM)StrikeGold1 Wrote:  

(12-15-2020 10:25 AM)broncofan1 Wrote:  

(12-15-2020 12:07 AM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 04:41 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 03:50 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  It’s not silly speculation. I know 100% that’s what happened. For instance PJ set up a deal with Mangia to provide meals for the players. Nothing wrong on the surface, until he leaves and the admin found out what the bill was.

Also PJ solely approved the championship ring design the week after the MAC Championship despite promising it would be done with admin to gauge pricing options.

When you’re talking about apparel, rings and meals for 100+ people, oversights easily accumulate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These are two of the basic examples how PJ ran the program like a P5 and didn’t care about the WMU budget. I know it runs much deeper than that, but that’s why KB needed someone that would stay in line and not think the Bill Brown Center is the same as Dabo’s palace in Clemson.

Once again, I don't take anyone's inside knowledge seriously on here, but that sounds like Fleck should have been fired and is not competent for any executive position anywhere if he can't spend a budget properly.

If people mean "financial malfeasance" when they say Kathy couldn't handle PJ or was afraid of success, then they should also say either Fleck should rightly have been fired for that, or that breaking promises and financial chicanery is how we succeed.

PJ was simply doing in his mind what players needed to be happy. It’s the environment they have at every P5 school and some of the upper G5 ones He was trying to turn this into a non-MAC program.

I asked him one offseason how he recruits against the MAC. He said he doesn’t ever bring up the minor league schools when talking about recruits. He only wants players that can compete anywhere.

He just had a completely different philosophy than the admin. The admin is a very conservative “we’ve done it this way since the 90s”. PJ said this way sucks and to his credit won by doing it his way. I’m sure he’s done the same thing at Minn and when he goes over budget the Big 10 TV check is there to pick up the extra.

This tracks with my interactions with PJ, too. Completely different mindset. I loved it. I can't stand the old standby of being a mediocre MAC program.

I remember one particular meeting with a group of alumni and some admin in his 2nd season. One of the old timers accused him of trashing Bronco football tradition. He responded, "I love tradition. Thrive on it. I've been here over a year. Can you tell me what traditions you have?"

Silence.

"I've been to other programs and they start with their tradition. I got here and nobody shared anything. So, I'm trying to start some because there are none that I can tell. If I've missed anything, tell me."

Silence.

He was right. There were no traditions. We were just a program that did the same thing over and over. The marching band has more traditions than the football program.

Did he do it the right way? Probably not. But he pointed out something very true - Bronco football wasn't known for anything.

I definitely understand this and agree but come on. He started a tradition of rowing the boat after the third quarter and then left after four years and took RTB with him lol. "Tradition" isn't something you can just take from program to program. Also... would WMU football be better or more prestigious if we had some banner we ran under before the game and jumped up and touched and called it tradition? Is the cannon tradition? I loooooove PJ but come on.

And yet old timers constantly accused him of stepping on "tradition".

I would love to see our team walk the quad (or the area outside Sangren?) before games. Would love to see pep rallies again. Would love to see more fan interaction. We don't do those things.

I think the cannon is the closest thing we have to "tradition".