Barry J. article discussing the internal power struggle

[JimmyJohnsonsHair]

You make good points and I’ve gone over a bunch of scenarios with this. Other people have stated this; and it’s that there is no job there. We can throw out all the scenarios we want, but there’s no way Blake will hire an Alonzo Highsmith type of guy to oversee Diaz. This is more of a fan reaction to how bad Diaz has been. People are saying this will save Blake’s job. Really? Because if the Canes go 6-6 next year even with Highsmith, which is very possible, both Blake and Diaz are gone.
So the fan reaction to a terrible season is to bring in another guy, not a college guy btw, to oversee the guys who messed up. Why? Fire Diaz and Blake and hire the right guys this time. It’s that simple.
Some posters on here are throwing AZ’s name around as if he’d be a savior. The risk of doing something no other program does, at an athletics department as political and dysfunctional at UM is borderline hysterical. it’s not as simple as, ‘I hate Diaz he sucks, Alonzo will come in and change everything.’ I’m not talking about you specifically, but people on this board throw out ideas and get upset when you tell them it’s not realistic or that it’s a lot harder than they make it seem.
What hiring Highsmith does, in a role where he has power over the HC, is it tells me that Miami is the school that doesn’t trust its HC or AD to do their jobs. And we’d be the only ones. And people want to spin it like it’d be innovative. No, it’s not. Hire the right coach, hire the right AD and let them be innovative on their own terms.

This is all logical but it is based on the premise that this BOT is functional and competent enough to fire Blake and replace him with a quality AD who knows how to hire a decent football coach. That's not happening. So the alternative to hiring Highsmith is trying the same thing we've done with the last 5 coaching hires and expecting different results.

 

[Ethnicsands]

This is all logical but it is based on the premise that this BOT is functional and competent enough to fire Blake and replace him with a quality AD who knows how to hire a decent football coach. That's not happening. So the alternative to hiring Highsmith is trying the same thing we've done with the last 5 coaching hires and expecting different results.

You can’t structure around ineptitude or misaligned incentives. If the board doesn’t care, it will get what’s comin. If it cares but doesn’t know enough, then it needs to get an AD who does, or it will get what’s comin. If it doesn’t fire James, the only possible reason is it doesn’t care, because even a third grader can see that the results are a fail.

 

[AlexCane]

This is all logical but it is based on the premise that this BOT is functional and competent enough to fire Blake and replace him with a quality AD who knows how to hire a decent football coach. That's not happening. So the alternative to hiring Highsmith is trying the same thing we've done with the last 5 coaching hires and expecting different results.

Your assumption is that the BOT would care what Highsmith would have to say. I mentioned this in another thread, but if he's viewed as a meathead football guy, he might be dismissed. I had suggested that someone with some political savvy would do well in that role. Some one that has both a football and corporate background. Pure fantasy world, but someone like Gino Torretta.

 

[Scrape into the C Gap]

This is all logical but it is based on the premise that this BOT is functional and competent enough to fire Blake and replace him with a quality AD who knows how to hire a decent football coach. That's not happening. So the alternative to hiring Highsmith is trying the same thing we've done with the last 5 coaching hires and expecting different results.

You can’t structure around ineptitude or misaligned incentives. If the board doesn’t care, it will get what’s comin. If it cares but doesn’t know enough, then it needs to get an AD who does, or it will get what’s comin. If it doesn’t fire James, the only possible reason is it doesn’t care, because even a third grader can see that the results are a fail.

exactly, thank you

 

[miamicanephins]

Your assumption is that the BOT would care what Highsmith would have to say. I mentioned this in another thread, but if he's viewed as a meathead football guy, he might be dismissed. I had suggested that someone with some political savvy would do well in that role. Some one that has both a football and corporate background. Pure fantasy world, but someone like Gino Torretta.

This is straight up bs and racist. Why would he be viewed as a meathead football guy?? The dude is a very successful businessman. What experience does Gino have running an NFL franchise? Really, idk.

 

[AlexCane]

This is straight up bs and racist. Why would he be viewed as a meathead football guy?? The dude is a very successful businessman. What experience does Gino have running an NFL franchise? Really, idk.

LOL. Really? The BOT isn't made up of football fans. It's made up of largely wealthy CEO types. Alonzo has been a lifelong NFL guy. Someone with a corporate background might appeal more to that group.

 

[305_separatist]

Was in Miami for a week. One wealthy businessman that I spoke with said that there is a 0.9 inverse correlation between football prowess and academic ranking. He is thrilled about Miami's national academic ranking. He says 2/3 of donors agree with him and cites the $35M allocated to football from the $4B in recent campaigns.

Another large donor said that they expected "growing pains" with Manny, but they were also expecting a 9-3 record during 2019 with noticeable improvement during the latter half of the season. If Manny does not win 9 games next year, they will fire him. (Also spoke with FSU BOT member. Taggart arrived at office at 8AM and departed at 5PM. Taggart does not believe in ever disciplining players. Laziest high ranking executive they have ever met.)

One thing about Manny that everyone agrees on is that he is a manical worker. No one outworks him. Diaz puts in 100 hour weeks routinely. He is genuinely trying to succeed.

Everyone I spoke to at this point expects Manny to be fired next year by late November. They are preparing for his replacement... He will probably fail, but one never knows. He is working like a fiend.

Marx called. He would like his labor theory of value back.

The number of hours put into something =/= competence, quality, or anything else especially when it's all marred by crazy inexperience and bad ideas.

 

[miamicanephins]

LOL. Really? The BOT isn't made up of football fans. It's made up of largely wealthy CEO types. Alonzo has been a lifelong NFL guy. Someone with a corporate background might appeal more to that group.

I've got a New Year's resolution suggestion for you, stop posting.

 

[CivilianCane]

Stubbornly repeating the same thing about the AD being canned isn’t going to make the view more compelling. There’s more than just football involved; the fundraising is holding its own and even the baseball and basketball programs aren’t total crap shows right now. Whether or not the AD’s nearterm job security is directly tied to Diaz and only Diaz is even debatable.

 

[305_separatist]

Stubbornly repeating the same thing about the AD being canned isn’t going to make the view more compelling. There’s more than just football involved; the fundraising is holding its own and even the baseball and basketball programs aren’t total crap shows right now. Whether or not the AD’s nearterm job security is directly tied to Diaz and only Diaz is even debatable.

I find this impossible to believe and would like to see supporting evidence. How can fundraising be alright when the football team is 6-7? The most beneficial thing that can happen for fundraising, admission numbers (and subsequent acceptance rate), and so much else is a dominant football program. That's pure business. And let's not pretend baseball didn't implode in the last several years under Blake. Let's not jump the gun that that's getting turned around yet.

 

[Canedog]

Parents four girls soccer team are BIG donors.

 

[CivilianCane]

I find this impossible to believe and would like to see supporting evidence.

I wish Canes football was even remotely in as good shape now as the baseball future:

As for "supporting evidence" why not work on showing CIS the actual messages from GoFundMe for your billboard disaster?

 

[1mg of Epi]

You make good points and I’ve gone over a bunch of scenarios with this. Other people have stated this; and it’s that there is no job there. We can throw out all the scenarios we want, but there’s no way Blake will hire an Alonzo Highsmith type of guy to oversee Diaz. This is more of a fan reaction to how bad Diaz has been. People are saying this will save Blake’s job. Really? Because if the Canes go 6-6 next year even with Highsmith, which is very possible, both Blake and Diaz are gone.
So the fan reaction to a terrible season is to bring in another guy, not a college guy btw, to oversee the guys who messed up. Why? Fire Diaz and Blake and hire the right guys this time. It’s that simple.
Some posters on here are throwing AZ’s name around as if he’d be a savior. The risk of doing something no other program does, at an athletics department as political and dysfunctional at UM is borderline hysterical. it’s not as simple as, ‘I hate Diaz he sucks, Alonzo will come in and change everything.’ I’m not talking about you specifically, but people on this board throw out ideas and get upset when you tell them it’s not realistic or that it’s a lot harder than they make it seem.
What hiring Highsmith does, in a role where he has power over the HC, is it tells me that Miami is the school that doesn’t trust its HC or AD to do their jobs. And we’d be the only ones. And people want to spin it like it’d be innovative. No, it’s not. Hire the right coach, hire the right AD and let them be innovative on their own terms.

I think you’re overthinking things to a degree. There’s no reason for the AD to have a problem with that hire... he isn’t good at picking coaches. Why shouldn’t he bring someone in who can help? Delegating responsibility and power isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of a good manager.

It’s not the university not trusting the AD, it’s the AD acknowledging and attempting to fix a weakness.


As far as Manny goes... yea, no way he wants Alonzo coming in. He shouldn’t have that choice tho. If he doesn’t like it, he can resign... which would be great. Now our new football czar can pick a real head coach.

You said it shows UM doesn’t trust it’s head football coach. You’re right. They don’t. Nor should they.

 

[1mg of Epi]

You can’t structure around ineptitude or misaligned incentives. If the board doesn’t care, it will get what’s comin. If it cares but doesn’t know enough, then it needs to get an AD who does, or it will get what’s comin. If it doesn’t fire James, the only possible reason is it doesn’t care, because even a third grader can see that the results are a fail.

This isn’t the board looking at Alonzo, this James looking into bringing him onboard. It’s a smart move by an AD looking to compensate for an obvious weakness. That’s not a bad thing.

 

[AlexCane]

I think you’re overthinking things to a degree. There’s no reason for the AD to have a problem with that hire... he isn’t good at picking coaches. Why shouldn’t he bring someone in who can help? Delegating responsibility and power isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of a good manager.

It’s not the university not trusting the AD, it’s the AD acknowledging and attempting to fix a weakness.

No. From Blake's point of view, he'd be conceding some power. It'd have to come from over Blake. That's why the potential of this happening is more unlikely than likely.

 

[1mg of Epi]

Marx called. He would like his labor theory of value back.

The number of hours put into something =/= competence, quality, or anything else especially when it's all marred by crazy inexperience and bad ideas.

It’s all about perception. These heavy donor big business types correlate hours worked with value

 

[1mg of Epi]

No. From Blake's point of view, he'd be conceding some power. It'd have to come from over Blake. That's why the potential of this happening is more unlikely than likely.

That’s not how the article read...

Besides, Blake isn’t conceding power. He’s delegating it. Big difference.

 

[AlexCane]

That’s not how the article read...

Besides, Blake isn’t conceding power. He’s delegating it. Big difference.

That's semantics. It's in Blake's self-interest to retain as much power as possible. If he hires Alonzo, it'd be very easy for folks to go over Blake and talk to Highsmith instead. If you're Blake, you will not want to hire someone below you with a very powerful and influential voice.

 

[Dghustla]

And this is where Manny Fails.

He should be all in on winning!

Instead he’s too focused on how much power he’ll have.

What he needs to know is that with or without highsmith if he doesn’t win he’s gone. He should be open to anyone who can help him.

The though of zo’s scouting expertise sounds like a dream come true.

 

[duke4heisman]

FFS, who cares what Flake or Shanny want? Their incompetence is the reason we need to hire Zo.