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Message: [QUOTE="RF2044, post: 1630560, member: 40"] Money, you and I have communicated offline numerous times in the past, and you know that I'm a big fan of your contributions to this forum. I'm also sorry for Riggins, and for you given your personal involvement in the situation. Must suck being a kid who "earned" a scholarship from a camp and had his heart set for months to attend SU, only to have that taken away from him at the 11th hour. I'm glad he landed on his feet elsewhere. Those qualifications aside, I don't resonate with some of your points. We've been down and a losing program for a LONG time. IMO, that's been as big if not the biggest factor with many of these in region high school programs as anything the coaches have done or did not do. Sure, personal relationships are important--but so is winning. You say "start winning more than 4 games." If Babers does that, then a lot of this sentiment will go away, because kids want to play for winners. They want to be part of an exciting offense that scores a lot of points and goes to bowl games. Babers will bring that, and if he doesn't, then he won't be here long. Additionally, I think it is great that SU hired an African-American coach, a group totally underserved at the head coaching level in college football. It shows we're progressive. Hiring a proven head coach with a track record of success shows we're serious, and finally committed to winning football. Once the wins start, the attention will follow--and will trump negative feelings over 1 or 2 prospects here and there. It is amazing to me that an entire generation of NYS people have grown up without knowing success at SU, or understanding that we were once a perennial power. When I was a kid, my fandom of SU sports grew at a time when the program stopped stinking and became one of the better teams in college football for a sustained period, with an exciting, highly recognizable style of play. I'm definitely concerned that the 16 years of generally sucking [with few exceptions] has done damage--but I'm far more concerned about that than I am word of mouth bad feelings over a recruiting prospect who didn't end up here. Winning cures all. I honestly believe that. Because if Babers starts to win at a high level, and the AQ coaches still won't give us the time of day, then to hell with them. As others have stated, they don't send their top prospects here anyway. Again, sorry that someone you know got impacted in all of this. I do feel bad for Riggins, I honestly do. [/QUOTE]

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