Holy **** man, you still haven't answered my question from the prior thread where you were whining about Tad Foote.
How many National Championships did we win under Tad Foote? Did you go to school at UM? I did, and Tad Foote killed the football program once while I was there with a national title and almost a second. Sure, Jimmy Johnson hated him and the guy wanted decorum he was never going to get...but he kept hiring good football coaches WITHOUT CAPPING SALARIES.
How many under Shalala?
There's a huge FACKING difference between "TRYING" to kill the football program...WAIT, I'm sorry..."LITERALLY trying" and actually SUCCEEDING.
Now, explain to the class how "LITERALLY TRYING" equalled IN RESULTS to the death of Miami football under Tad Foote. Also, show the class how he restrained UM in facility improvement, recruiting and hiring for any 15 year period during his tenure while the rest of major college football left us behind.
Sure, easy answer will be.."those were different times" or "he would have if he could".....BUT...HE DIDN'T, SHALALA DID.
P.S.: For those shortsighted like yourself who won't believe Shalala wanted to cap coaching salaries at UM, check her recent proposed legislation as a U.S. Representative for her thoughts on that.
Just a few things.
Pre-Shalala.
Henry King Stanford was the president for the hiring of Saban and Schnellenberger. Also, those were the days prior to having a "full-time dedicated" Athletic Director. Doc Mallios (professor at UM) was the AD for part of that time (I used to work with his son Carl).
The person most responsible for hiring JJ and Erickson is Sam Jankovich, not so much Tad Foote. Foote pretty much ran off Jankovich, pushing him to the NFL.
It should not be forgotten that Foote hired Dave "Maggot" Maggard to be the AD after Sam. Maggard is the guy who shut down multiple men's sports teams rather than make the effort to add more women's sports teams.
After Maggard was exposed, Foote moved his buddy Paul Dee (General Counsel at UM) over to fill Maggard's chair. While it is admirable that Dee hired Butch, he did so after whiffing on the first 3 to 5 candidates.
It should also be noted that Foote presided over one of the laziest periods related to UM facilities. Foote is the one who shot down Tropical Park as a possible stadium site, and he never pushed the City of Miami to renovate the OB to our liking after the Dolphins moved out. Under Foote, we "announced" the Ryder Center (basketball arena) but then never built it. Hecht was never improved. The Light only got minor upgrades. ****, the UM students had to put up a Student Government referendum to "tax ourselves" to build The Wellness Center (which is why the plaque in the building thanks the various student government leaders who supported the process).
Now, let's look at Shalala.
Yes, she's a Democrat. Yes, she's a Clinton ally. Yes, she had a (somewhat) bizarre fixation on hiring "up-and-comers" as our coaches, and paying them what you normally pay an "up-and-comer".
But as for that "capping salaries" nonsense...after Coker won the national championship, Shalala approved a 40% raise in Coker's salary. In 2005, Coker was extended:
"In late September 2005, Coker agreed to a five-year contract extension with the university. The new contract would have paid Coker in the neighborhood of
$2 million per season,
making him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football."
Now, sure, we can question the hiring of Shannon and Golden. We took chances with them, but there is no reason why we should have to pay a first-time head coach (Shannon) or a first-time P5 head coach (Golden) any of that "Coker money". Those two guys did not win a national championship and did not earn the distinction to be "one of the highest-paid coaches in college football".
Under Shalala, we built the basketball arena and we renovated the Light. We made some significant improvements to the Hecht as well. I am NOT arguing that Shalala gets all the credit, but we made more facilities progress on her watch than we did under Foote.
And we cannot EVER FORGET that the voters of Dade County APPROVED the major renovations to the Orange Bowl, including getting a chunk of "9/11 recovery money" dedicated to the project. It was the City of Miami, and their attorneys, who weaseled out of a SIGNED CONTRACT with Hammes, because of political pressure applied by the Latin Builders Association, who were not getting enough of the subcontractor money. Shalala was NOT responsible for the loss of the Orange Bowl and, if anything, helped out in the SUCCESSFUL political process of publicizing a voter referendum that DID APPROVE the funding for OB renovations.
Shalala isn't perfect, she screwed up the hospital deal and probably should have asked a few more "Nevin" questions. She probably shouldn't have written that Willie Williams letter. She did get rid of The Shermanator pretty quickly, though I'm no fan of his replacement, Blake James. And she consistently made the effort to help UM in recruiting athletes, something that Foote NEVER did.
Foote didn't like UM Athletics, though he failed to kill it. Shalala loved UM Athletics, though she failed to help it win championships.
