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Blake James responds

This is Blake Jame resume, how does this qualify him to be an athletic director at Miami? He never even worked at a FBS football program as an athletic director. He is paying Al Golden more than $2,000,000 which is probably more than the total salary of everybody at the University of Maine. This is crazy.

James came to UM after spending seven years the University of Maine, where he first served as Senior Associate Athletic Director before serving as Director of Athletics from July 2005 to September 2010. As Senior Associate AD, his primary responsibilities focused on marketing, ticketing, retail operations, athletic development along with men's and women's track and field, cross country, men's soccer, men's basketball and baseball.

During his tenure at Maine, athletics experienced tremendous success, including three trips to the Frozen Four for the men's ice hockey program and NCAA playoff berths for football, baseball (two), women's basketball and softball. Additionally, James implemented a comprehensive $17 million facility improvement plan, which included an indoor practice facility and numerous other facility upgrades and renovations. Academically, the program flourished, earning the conference academic cup twice and maintaining better than a 3.0 GPA.

Prior to his stint at Maine, he worked in athletic development at Providence College, where he established the "Friars Forever" campaign and the Friar Athletic Fund.

James is no stranger to South Florida, beginning his athletic career with the University of Miami, working in ticket sales, corporate sales and athletic development. In April 1995, he was hired as Miami's Director of Ticket Sales, serving in that capacity until October 1997, when he was named an athletic development officer at the University of Nebraska. He returned to Miami in 1998 as the Director of Major Gifts and Corporate Sales. He was promoted to the Director of Athletic Development at Miami in March 2000 before moving on to Providence in 2002.

He graduated from Minnesota State University - Mankato with a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1992 and later received his master's degree from St. Thomas University in 1994.
 
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Unfortunately, AD in name only. Powerless figure-head, fundraiser-type with very minimal decision-making authority. So don't expect Blake to bring the hammer.
 
I wish we could tie Blake's job to his HC having some real success, but with that said, I agree with an earlier post that there is probably word coming from higher up.
 
Blake James is a worthless puppet. If it's his call, he's an idiot. I doubt that it is though. He's being told that Golden must stay, and it's coming from the upper echelon of the program.

Therein lies the issue fellas. We have a President on her way out who doesn't want to make this decision and believes it needs to come from the next President. She isn't going to cut the cord, owe Golden money, and then hire someone the new President and BoT doesn't want. So we have a lame duck president whose intentional inaction trumps all other voices, and we have a BoT focused on hiring the next President. They're wiling to let this go for now and have made their decision.

James doesn't have the authoritative voice or pedigree that the BoT give a **** about. He is who he is. He's a jag. He won't last either. They'll cut his cord in time as well if they're smart.

Therefore, this next year will be equivalent to watching a dying man go slowly to his death. Painful, sad, and likely tragic.

The best thing that can happen here is that Golden refuse to budge on firing Mark D leading to a settled buyout in which case it will be Butch, Cristobal, or Schiano.
 
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No way James is an AD with some power. Any competent AD would have dropped the hammer on Golden at the conclusion of the Pitt game. Even then if there was any faith the AD had in Golden as a person, he would have forced Golden to make changes to the staff, or die.

None of those things happened. Seriously they do not have the $$$ to cut the check and say bye to Al?

Miami has no football coach, nor does it have an AD or an admin that cares to do anything about it. Ostriches, with their heads buried in the sand.
 
wushah is right....the BOT and DS have decided to sit tight and leave the fate of Golden with the new president (and possibly new AD). However, a part of believes that Golden knows his gig is up and to protect any future potential career opportunities will leave before the axe inevitably falls. My best guess is that he works out an agreement on the buyout and leaves. It is our only hope else next season is a lost season
 
He talked to Brock Berlin? Bwahahahahaha. Who the Fugg d oes he think he's kidding. Oh, he should be fired for his grammar alone, aside from the content of what he said, which was dogshyt.
 
GonzoCane said:
He talked to Brock Berlin? Bwahahahahaha. Who the Fugg d oes he think he's kidding. Oh, he should be fired for his grammar alone, aside from the content of what he said, which was dogshyt.
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I got a great chuckle out of that quote as well.

I mean who are we to argue when one of the all time greatest Canes, Brock Berlin was consulted?
 
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Donna Shalala and James both like Al Golden and appreciate what he did in the NCAA hearings. Golden's support on the Board apparently is not as strong and they don't like the pressure being put on them by the alumni, fans and press. Everything is still up in the air if the pressure from fans and alumni remains strong.
 
"Those are things I'll talk with Al about," James said. "He needs to decide what's best for us. It's something I'm not going to get into `we need to recruit a different kid, make coaching changes."

Recruit a different kid? A different kid? 8-10 kids are NFL caliber! How is that even a thought in this dude's melon? A Director of Athletics with ZERO internal direction!
 
CandyCane said:
Donna Shalala and James both like Al Golden and appreciate what he did in the NCAA hearings. Golden's support on the Board apparently is not as strong and they don't like the pressure being put on them by the alumni, fans and press. Everything is still up in the air if the pressure from fans and alumni remains strong.
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Nothing is up in the air. They've already made the decision to bring Golden back next year.
 
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It's amusing seeing all the hatred spewed at a guy who in all likelihood is powerless to do anything about AG and crew. If he had another job option at whatever salary he's currently making or close to it, I'd bet everything I own that he'd bolt.

Those of you complaining or *****ing at what he's said aren't thinking. As someone mentioned, he's gotta say stupid crap to somehow sell a few tickets. He knows the product he's peddling is a loser, but he still has to at least try.
 
INCaneFan said:
It's amusing seeing all the hatred spewed at a guy who in all likelihood is powerless to do anything about AG and crew. If he had another job option at whatever salary he's currently making or close to it, I'd bet everything I own that he'd bolt.

Those of you complaining or *****ing at what he's said aren't thinking. As someone mentioned, he's gotta say stupid crap to somehow sell a few tickets. He knows the product he's peddling is a loser, but he still has to at least try.
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Sorry homeboy...I hear what you're saying but that mentality is just wrong, at least to me.

At some point you have to have some integrity and rather than insult people's intelligence...just be smart enough to say "no comment". He's more liable to hurt ticket sales with naive patronizing statements like that than he is to sell even one more additional ticket.
 
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INCaneFan said:
It's amusing seeing all the hatred spewed at a guy who in all likelihood is powerless to do anything about AG and crew. If he had another job option at whatever salary he's currently making or close to it, I'd bet everything I own that he'd bolt.

Those of you complaining or *****ing at what he's said aren't thinking. As someone mentioned, he's gotta say stupid crap to somehow sell a few tickets. He knows the product he's peddling is a loser, but he still has to at least try.
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For every five people dumb enough to buy the line of bull**** that James is selling and buy season tickets, he ****es off ten or fifteen who won't be renewing.
 
He's in a lose / lose situation. He's just hoping for a miracle with Al at this point or hope that the next president has no reason to fire him, seeing as how his hands are tied.

I agree that no comment would be fine, or even better a we're looking at everything....something minimal said if weightless. My biggest question is why he's even getting in front of a Mic unless it's something that's mandated by the bowls, conference, etc
 
Republicane said:
INCaneFan said:
It's amusing seeing all the hatred spewed at a guy who in all likelihood is powerless to do anything about AG and crew. If he had another job option at whatever salary he's currently making or close to it, I'd bet everything I own that he'd bolt.

Those of you complaining or ****ing at what he's said aren't thinking. As someone mentioned, he's gotta say stupid crap to somehow sell a few tickets. He knows the product he's peddling is a loser, but he still has to at least try.
Click to expand...

For every five people dumb enough to buy the line of bull**** that James is selling and buy season tickets, he ****es off ten or fifteen who won't be renewing.
Click to expand...

If we're being fair, those people already were going to keep their money.

It'll be interesting to see who actually follows through with what they're saying today. Every year we have people say that's it, but spring rolls around and they're there, same with fall. Hard to prove, but someone should make a thread for no purchasers/donations of anything and guaranteed someone will slip up saying they were at the game / event next year.

I've said not to donate, go to games, etc for over a year now. It's time everyone did that and I literally means everyone.
 
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