Post Mortem on Saban and Harbaugh

[Cantinflas]

McPhaul,

When things settle down would be nice to learn what really happened with Saban and Harbaugh(s). I'm assuming now there is no need to keep things "quiet" unless for some reason you can't find out. Thx

 

[monarch]

...more than likely, "friend of bevo" is probably furious...

 

[Black Scholes]

One there is too much to tell and one there is nothing to tell.

 

[Speedway]

Appeared a large portion of the fan base would have been excited to get Saban. That portion of the fan base would probably like to know if Saban was diligently pursued by Patterson subsequent to Mack announcing his resignation and if Saban actually turned down the opportunity subsequent to Mack's resignation. Kind of hard to support Patterson if you don't know why it's Strong when there has been no formal indication since Mack resigned that Saban or Harbaugh or Fisher for that matter, had no interest in the job.

Strong may well have been the best choice but I don't think many will buy that without knowing what transpired with the other top choices that have been discussed ad nauseam. Patterson would have to be totally clueless to not know that Strong was not on top of anybody's wish list except maybe his. He would have to also be totally clueless if he thinks he is going to have any credibility with the fan base if they don't know what happened with the other choices. Even Strong has to know he wasn't being discussed by the Texas fan base as the must have guy. What made Strong the choice over Saban, Fisher, Harbaugh, and why he had to be offered the prior to the MNC game? If Fisher said "no interest" then great. If Saban said "no thanks" then great.

I've been buying season tickets for 25 years, traveling to away games, bowl games etc. etc. all the devoted alumni stuff, and I'm not buying "we went out and got the best coach", I want to know why it's not the other top choices. I imagine many others do as well. Strong's support will be tenuous if the product is not markedly improved quickly if the fan base is left thinking we could have had a coach with MNCs, Super Bowls, or at least a loss in the MNC. If I can't buy into Strong as the best "available" choice before Jan 15th, I certainly can't buy into Patterson. "best available choice before the 15th" being the operative phrase (Patterson's stated date), Patterson didn't say Jan 4th.

I hope Strong kills it but I'm left thinking we could have had a more proven coach. Oh well, glad I got that out of my system.

 

[beevomav]

Does it matter what happened or why? We got our guy and it's time, in my opinion, to leave the past in the past. I for one am ready to talk recruiting and the nuts of bolts of the Coach Strong era.

 

[whatthewhat]

Does it matter what happened or why? We got our guy and it time, in my opinion, to leave the past in the past. I for one am ready to talk recruiting and the nuts of bolts of the Coach Strong era.

It doesn't matter, but I'm a big fan of transparency, and if I'm a BMD- (I'm not, but my parents dump a lot of money into Texas every year)- then I want to know if the AD did his due diligence. And after the last six weeks of soap opera, for any casual or obsessed observer, it would be nice to finally hear if it was Mr. Green in the Billiards Room with the Candlestick.

 

[tcarlynyc]

No one will ever know exactly what happened. A thousand insiders and internet folks will believe what they want.

No university anywhere is going to tell you what happened because you are a season ticket holder and go to away games.

Without any facts to go on, only rumors from people who claim to know insiders, there is no basis for not buying into CS. Furthermore, it takes a whole lot of research to actually determine the quality of a coach, not just a W-L record. Who do you know for a fact was available and interested that have MNC and super bowl titles?

What is discussed on this or any board is about 1/10th of 1% of the fanbase -

 

[gecko]

You can't go forward if you keep looking back. Let's move on.....

 

[hornonthe40]

BMDs don't deserve any explanation to the hiring of a football coach. If they donate money only because of football they need to reevaluate what the university's purpose is. I think at this point we have to go with what Saban and Patterson has said. Saban was never an option. End of story. Harbaugh is a little tougher but in the end I'm not sure he had any real interest in taking the job. Our entitled BMDs ran off candidates that want to work for a professional organization.

 

[North Texas Golfer]

One there is too much to tell and one there is nothing to tell.

Which can be summed up in one sentence. All the sources used by the insiders and so-called insiders had/have agendas and try to use the insiders to further their agenda.

 

[HookemHorns]

Don't know on Saban, but Nuufaola said on ob that there were issues that korn ferry and PIs found with some of the candidates that were on the list. That's why we use firms like that for vetting. He said Texas would burn the reports and that it would not be released/leaked out of respect for the coaches. This is probably why we didn't wait to interview fisher and Malzahn.

 

[Topstarr]

One there is too much to tell and one there is nothing to tell.

NOW This is the way I like to converse and let everybody else figure out who is who.

 

[HookemHorns]

Which can be summed up in one sentence. All the sources used by the insiders and so-called insiders had/have agendas and try to use the insiders to further their agenda.

While I don't think it will happen here, I think we will see misinformation to protect insiders reputations. Nuufaola also said that all but maybe one or two of the BMDs are in support of the hire. He said that once people realize that the process was followed and that he hired who he thought was best for the program based on all of the available data, that even they would come aboard. He said that the BMDs wanted Saban but that after that, it was Patterson's call. He said that some of the early talk is just BMDs letting off steam because they didn't get their guy, but that all of the BMDs have businesses that hire managers to run things and they don't micromanage the process. He said Patterson was brought in to change the culture at Texas and he has done that. He thinks Patterson followed the process and has done a good job. He suspects the leak came from the search committee or from the finance committee thst approved the package for strong.

 

[Lukus Alderman]

My opinion (no fact at all, just opinion) is that with Saban, he just decided not to accept our offer after Black Friday. Even though we were back in it with him, I think after he sat down and thought about it after getting pummeled by OU, he decided to stay and not go into another rebuilding process.

With Harbaugh, my guess is that he is seeing that Michigan may be open next year. That's where his heart is.

With Fisher, people very conveniently forgot about the article written by the FSU professor indicating many issues with that program. That stuff is unacceptable at Texas.

That leaves Strong/Mora/Franklin/Briles.

I think you can make a very good case that Strong fits best out of that group to implement a full cultural change at Texas.

Those were just my thoughts, not facts.

 

[GARCH]

Im all in on strong, screw the others

 

[tspenc123]

Affect what we can affect- time to move on… I am very exited to see what coaches are brought in and to see if we can see some immediate impact on recruiting.

 

[steveh9801]

That leaves Strong/Mora/Franklin/Briles.

I think you can make a very good case that Strong fits best out of that group to implement a full cultural change at Texas.

Those were just my thoughts, not facts.

Those are the guys that most UT alumni and fans outside of the 1% of us that follow message boards were thinking we would get.

My brother, who is a UT grad and loves UT as much as I do doesn't do the message boards. I don't know how many times he laughed at me when I told him about the newest Saban or Harbaugh rumor. I think most people thought that getting Fisher might have been possible but things would have had to line up perfect for that to happen.

The Dallas media was consistent on Strong,Briles,Mora and Franklin. Briles if you believe what is being reported wanted the job but didn't want to interview. No way do you offer a rival coach the job over the phone without an interview. Briles could have turned us down and told all future recruits that he punked us. Mora killed the interview but Strong sold himself better and convinced Patterson that he could bring a great staff with him.

I think we should stop calling Strong a 2nd tier coach because most fans thought he would be in the final selection from day one.

It's really only those of us that follow the boards that felt we would get Saban or one of the Harbaugh brothers.

It has been a long month. Since the week that we played Baylor I have been glued to HornSports, InsideTexas and the 247 site. It's been fun but I am glad it's over and happy that we have a hungry coach that will change the culture and have us on top in the near future.

 

[TheContractor]

steve, not only most fans but Vegas had Strong 2/1 for weeks.

 

[SlickStreet]

One there is too much to tell and one there is nothing to tell.

ha, true!