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Alonzo highsmith

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We have a coach who recruits and evaluates his players. He employs several coaches on his staff to also help evaluate recruits as part of their job duties.

We are paying good money to have an experienced athletic director.

What purpose would Alonzo Highsmith serve in all of this? Why would we muddy this up by bringing him in and letting him "oversee" anything? He's a scout.
 
JayCane20 said:
Possible. He also wants out of the NFL and wants to help Miami in whatever role they need him, but he's not the kind of guy to just have a role and it not mean anything. He's going to have to have meaningful input and be taken seriously.
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I agree with your overall point but I think he wants in the NFL but hasn't been given a chance to truly have control. Being attached to Miami resurgence could one day get him back to the NFL in a role with actual control. If he does get the job here he will have "scouted every major blue chip in the country for a few years and potential met alot it person. Would be a advantage if he was ever running a draft room.
 
Alonzo Hightower
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Redstate12 said:
I agree with your overall point but I think he wants in the NFL but hasn't been given a chance to truly have control. Being attached to Miami resurgence could one day get him back to the NFL in a role with actual control. If he does get the job here he will have "scouted every major blue chip in the country for a few years and potential met alot it person. Would be a advantage if he was ever running a draft room.
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i think he's kind of done with the NFL and would like to spend more time in miami rather than on a plane scouting.
 
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OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
I have no inside information.

My gut tells me he won’t have a formal role.

I think Mario (and Rad) will feel this adds administrative complications without any real benefit And they have too much respect for Zo to give him just a show/PR position.

Maybe he fulfills some role as an outside consultant, but I think that’s a super longshot.

Again, just my opinion without any inside information, I absolutely don’t see it. I just don’t think alpha leaders operate in a fashion where he would have a role.
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This
 
RightSaidFred said:
I disagree with this, especially the last sentence. I think you collect talented, driven people, and surround yourself with as much of it as possible.

His actual role is sort of irrelevant, you just want him around because he adds football value and is a perfect fit for Mario in terms of creating a culture emphasizing hard work and holding high expectations.

To use a football analogy, it’s about Jimmies and Joe’s, not X’s and O’s. In the football administration world, Highsmith is a 5-star talent. I think you add him to the team and the rest will sort itself out
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Easy to respond to cliches with other cliches. For example, this one: too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the broth.

I think the concern about how to fit Zo in that @OriginalCanesCanesCanes brings up is valid. While I'd love to have Zo in a contributing role on this team and think he would bring a lot of value, adding talent for the sake of adding talent - especially at the top of the pyramid - isn't always a good idea. That's where the executive decisionmaking happens, and the more of those types of personalities you have in the room the more likely it is there will be conflict. Conflict isn't bad in and of itself, it can hone decisionmaking and force stubborn people to see different points of view. It can also cause the org to be pulled in too many different directions when ambitious and accomplished people have different visions. There's a reason companies almost always have one CEO and it ain't because they're not able to find enough high caliber talent.

This makes sense from Mario's perspective - he's a talent evaluator too, a **** good one, and as the HFC he will have a vision for the team and how the players fit in. A dynamic where he's potentially getting challenged or second guessed by someone whose position in the chain of command isn't well defined, or is well defined but the person carries significant respect and weight in the org, puts him in a difficult position. It might be easier for him to fill that role with an outsider rather than someone like Zo who is so central to the U family. It also makes sense from Zo's perspective - the guy is going to want a position where he has the ability to contribute in a meaningful way, where his expertise is respected and he feels comfortable disagreeing without causing internal strife. It might be easier for him to find that at a place where there's not such strong emotional ties and already a clearly defined role for him in the org structure.

Without hard info we're all just speculating at this point. I hope they figure it out; I finally feel like I trust the guys behind the wheel enough to think that they will. Just making the point that it doesn't really make sense to make a decision of this magnitude based off of cliches or analogizing to recruiting players for a college football team.
 
rsa coral gables said:
i think he's kind of done with the NFL and would like to spend more time in miami rather than on a plane scouting.
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Agree but I don't think he goes back to three NFL to scout. I think he would go back to be a GM. His goes is to be the GM of the football program. That is my option not stating as fact.
 
ssvir said:
Go get a plunger b/c your head is stuck up your ***.

Zo is literally perfectly built for a role in talent evaluation and acquisition for our program.
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I'm not going to say I know everything so relax my *** is off limits. I'm like up in the air with this .....I won't care if he comes or not is what I'm saying. If he does cool if he doesn't cool.
 
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Mikesmith29150 said:
Anyone that doesn't want to have Zo on the staff is a 🤡. What would Saban do?
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what would Saban do? take whatever money we would spend on Highsmith and hire young, hungry, up and comers who are gonna spend 15 hours a day in the office and who will eventually work their way up the program to become position coaches and coordinators. he would hire a guy like Dan Lanning who started at bama as a GA for OLBs and who is now one of the most coveted defensive coaches in college football.

Bama has more history than anybody, but you don't see Saban loading up his staff w/ old Bama legends. why doesn't he do that? because old guys who used to play for your school who now want to become "advisors" or "evaluators" don't actually help you win anything. you don't think Bama has ex-players who worked in NFL front offices who would love to be on Saban's staff? yes Saban brings well-known coaches -- coaches, not "evaluators" -- into his program, but his support staff is made up of a bunch of young guys who become the next generation of coaches that keep his machine going. and btw, those coaches often make little to no money because they just got fired and are living off huge buyouts, or they're getting paid to be coordinators. they are not advisors making half a million dollars. Saban isn't taking $350k or $500k and spending it on 60 year old ex-NFL front office personnel. he's using that money on 3-5 20 somethings who are gonna bust their *** every day for his program. how many years have we been sitting around saying that Miami is grossly understaffed compared to programs like Bama, Georgia etc who shell out money for armies of young staffers. if you think Highsmith is more valuable than that you don't know anything about college football, sorry.
 
rayray said:
what would Saban do? take whatever money we would spend on Highsmith and hire young, hungry, up and comers who are gonna spend 15 hours a day in the office and who will eventually work their way up the program to become position coaches and coordinators. he would hire a guy like Dan Lanning who started at bama as a GA for OLBs and who is now one of the most coveted defensive coaches in college football.

Bama has more history than anybody, but you don't see Saban loading up his staff w/ old Bama legends. why doesn't he do that? because old guys who used to play for your school who now want to become "advisors" or "evaluators" don't actually help you win anything. you don't think Bama has ex-players who worked in NFL front offices who would love to be on Saban's staff? yes Saban brings well-known coaches -- coaches, not "evaluators" -- into his program, but his support staff is made up of a bunch of young guys who become the next generation of coaches that keep his machine going. and btw, those coaches often make little to no money because they just got fired and are living off huge buyouts, or they're getting paid to be coordinators. they are not advisors making half a million dollars. Saban isn't taking $350k or $500k and spending it on 60 year old ex-NFL front office personnel. he's using that money on 3-5 20 somethings who are gonna bust their *** every day for his program. how many years have we been sitting around saying that Miami is grossly understaffed compared to programs like Bama, Georgia etc who shell out money for armies of young staffers. if you think Highsmith is more valuable than that you don't know anything about college football, sorry.
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Easy for you to say right now, because Alabama is not at square one like Miami. If Saban had to start from scratch you can bet a million dollars he would take a man with Highsmiths talents over a "young staffer."
What does age have to do with identifying talent? With your criteria Saban is too old to coach. Sit this one out.
 
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