sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to Made in the USA Day!
SU News
If You Put a Dog In a Shiny Helmet, He's Still a Dog; Keeley on SU Branding (TNIAAM; Keeley)
When new Syracuse Orange Athletic Director Mark Coyle sat down with Bud Poliquin to talk about his plans for Syracuse Athletics, he admitted that he was kinda surprised to hear about just how much branding SU had been doingin New York City under predecessor DOCTOR Daryl Gross.
"I didn't know we had advertising in Yankee Stadium or on cabs or any of that. But I want to make sure about what we're doing right here."
Coyle was speaking largely to the point that SU needed to focus it's efforts on building back up community support from the immediate region, however the idea speaks to something that was a cornerstone of The Gross Era and a lightening rod of concern here on the site and elsewhere in the fanbase
#BRAND
We've talked plenty about our feelings on the topic when it came to SU, especially the football program, where ad time on Dancing With The Stars seemed to be more important than investing in winning the football games you were advertising. When SU fans wondered aloud why we were so worried about new uniforms in the midst of losing seasons, we were usually rebuked from above with a condescending quote like, "I don't think a lot of people understand the idea of brand."
I found it personally interesting when, after Coyle seemed to imply that SU would cut back on things like NYC taxi cabs and "New York's College Team"-type ads, some fans seemed disappointed by the idea. They like the idea of seeing a Syracuse ad in Yankee Stadium and Cuse awareness throughout the NYC area. Understandable. It's not that I think it's a bad thing and without value. But...what has it done for us, really?
I suppose you could make the case it helped secure Syracuse as part of the NYC market so when the ACC went looking to expand, they made sure to pick up over UConn. But I would imagine that was already clear. Our basketball team was already synonymous with MSG to the point where it's basically considered a home game. Perhaps it helps us get a foothold with some recruits, but, it's not like our football and basketball teams are brimming with NYC talent either. It's not what gets us all these Georgia and Florida recruits, for sure.
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ACC News
Mark Coyle Brings Low-Key Style to Syracuse (espn; Adelson)
Syracuse and Pittsburgh, two programs in their ACC infancy, now have different athletics directors leading them into their respective futures than the men who delivered them to their new league home. This morning, we take a look at why Mark Coyle is a good fit at Syracuse. Later this afternoon, Scott Barnes shares his perspective on Pittsburgh.
Mark Coyle has a good resume. Better than good, actually. We know he can help guide a winning football program. We know he has spent more than enough time at a hoops crazy school. We know he can fund raise. We know he can deliver a scarred athletics department out of NCAA probation and into the clear with nary a subsequent issue.
Those experiences all make Coyle more than qualified to lead Syracuse. But what cinches his hire is his demeanor. Syracuse needed to hire a strong leader with strong communication skills, but more importantly, it needed to hire an athletic director with a much more low-key approach as the program works to restore its reputation.
That's just where Syracuse is right now. Syracuse basketball sat out the NCAA tournament this past season and faces additional NCAA sanctions for various violations -- including failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. The football program, which was forced to vacate wins as a result of the NCAA investigation into the athletic department, has three winning seasons over the last 13 years.
However well-intentioned, the recent fiasco over the decision to retire/unretire/retire the No. 44 reflected poorly on the school, too.
These three headlines over the last 12 months have shown how badly Syracuse needs an image makeover. A strong leader must take charge, without any of the bravado that oftentimes characterized predecessor Darryl Gross. To fix that, Syracuse absolutely needed an athletic director who could work behind the scenes to roll up some sleeves and get to work.
Because there is absolute work to be done. Syracuse finished ninth among ACC schools in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup final standings, at No. 47 overall.
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Scott Barnes Brings Ideal Background to Pitt AD Job (espn; Fortuna)
Syracuse and Pittsburgh, two programs in their ACC infancy, now have different athletics directors leading them into their respective futures than the men who delivered them to their new league home. This morning, we looked at why Mark Coyle is a good fit at Syracuse. This afternoon, Scott Barnes shares his perspective on Pittsburgh.
Scott Barnes knows a thing or two about taking on big challenges, having sized up Karl Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon during his days on the hardwood at Fresno State, so we know he can play sports.
"I like to say I hosted Karl Malone's coming out party in the NCAA tournament," cracked the 6-foot-8 Barnes, who "held" the Mailman to 24 points in a 66-56 in 1984, whose wife was a track star at Fresno State, and whose daughter and son play hoops at the collegiate and high school level, respectively.
We also know, from a 25-plus-year career in athletic administration, that Barnes can manage sports, too.
Pitt hired Barnes as its athletic director April 24 from Utah State. Like its former Big East brethren Syracuse did last month, Pitt used the DHR International search firm, eventually entrusting its athletic department to a former Group of 5 athletic director. And like the Orange, the Panthers sought some stability during an uneven time -- even if theirs was a product of change, not of NCAA misbehavior.
The football coaching position had become a revolving door of sorts in recent years at Pitt, with four different head coaches getting hired since Dave Wannstedt was fired following the 2010 season. And while former AD Steve Pederson did plenty of good before getting ousted in December, the misfires in picking what was essentially the most prominent face of Pitt athletics ultimately led to his undoing.
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How Jimmy and Bobby Changed College Football (espn; Rittenberg)
If etymologists tackled the origins of modern college football, their research would lead to two coaches, one talent-rich state and the annual games that changed everything.
Before Vic Beasley and Shane Ray became first-round picks as sub-250-pound defensive ends, there was Danny Stubbs, a linebacker-turned-end who recorded 17 sacks in 1986 for Miami. Before Gus Malzahn and the HUNH (hurry up, no huddle) offense, there was Florida State's fast break with Charlie Ward at quarterback. Before Patrick Peterson lined up at cornerback as the best athlete on the field at LSU, Deion Sanders did the same at Florida State.
Before position descriptions became fuzzy and the term "hybrid" entered the football lexicon, Jimmy Johnson played 11-card monte with Miami's depth chart.
Picture a route map in the back of an airline magazine, all those parabolas mushrooming out from hub cities. Miami and Florida State were college football's hubs from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, spreading new ways of recruiting, evaluating and utilizing personnel to all corners of the country.
Johnson and Bobby Bowden were at the controls. The results were historic. Miami and FSU each had a national title and seven top-five finishes between 1986, Johnson's third year at the U, and 1993, when Bowden won his first national title with the Seminoles. No other program had more than four top-five finishes during that span.
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How Have Players Become So Big and So Fast? Blame a Former Pole Vaulter (espn; Moyer)
Nebraska's Boyd Epley can still remember the weight-room phone call during a warm August afternoon in 1969. He didn't know the brief talk would forever alter the college football landscape.
For months Epley, a no-name pole-vaulter from a no-name Arizona junior college, had trained -- almost inadvertently -- the Huskers' injured football players. Epley lifted weights to strengthen his injured back -- using techniques he picked up from a body-building friend in high school -- and the Huskers' football players mimicked him.
Tom Osborne, then a first-year offensive coordinator at Nebraska, noticed that those injured players returned to the gridiron even better than before, so he wondered what kind of impact strength training would have on healthy players. Why couldn't Epley work his magic on the entire Huskers team? Why not call down to the weight room and hire him as the nation's first full-time strength and conditioning coach?
"If you're looking for the most impactful change, in terms of progression, Nebraska's coaches coming onto the scene like that -- that was probably the single most important event," said Dr. Peter Weyand, an SMU professor of applied physiology and biomechanics, and one of the nation's foremost experts on human performance.
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