Ultimately, this is the reason (for me) we needed a change.
All of my life, Cal has been the place that talked about what we CAN'T do in revenue sports, in stark contrast with the rest of the university that not only believes we can do anything, but believes we can do things that people don't even dream need doing until we see the possibility. We don't have enough money. We have too much bureaucracy. We have too many academic challenges.
All of my life football and basketball coaches and athletic directors and everybody that touches revenue sports have been given excuses for failure. A lot of time for even the most basic things like being able to process ticket orders in an efficient and customer friendly manner. The bottom line message has always been "This is Cal. We can't do better." Even when we did better we immediately blew it (lose Snyder right when he achieves success. Follow up Jason Kidd with major sanctions).
Then, that changed. The chancellor decided against business as usual and promoting the obvious selection, and he hired Gladstone. Gladstone was a poor administrator, which is probably what you should expect from the crew coach, but he didn't believe you should accept coaching failure. He hired Tedford and no matter what some of you want to say about Tedford, he changed the mindset here. First people believe we COULD do better. Then people believed we SHOULD do better.
I look around now, and the last year to year and a half of bad news has brought us to square one. Horrible news on academic performance and the worst football season in school history have made people fall back on their old notions of Cal sports. We are just a few years removed from 8 straight winning seasons and grad rates in the 60 percents. And even though we just saw it happen here, the old line is back. We can't do better. Other's cheat. We are too tough academically. It's not X's fault or Y's fault. We can't expect better. We shouldn't expect better. We have gone back in a time machine to 2000 or 1980, with a nice remodel of a two thirds of a stadium, a great new training facility, but ultimately the same program and mindset.
That may not all be Barbour's fault. In fact, I don't care if it was her fault. It wasn't going to get better with status quo. That is the ultimately the deciding factor.
I thank Sandy for the charm, passion and hard work she brought to the job. She always seemed to love Cal and love her work. She did a fabulous job advancing the non-revenue sports. If she fell short in her job it was not through lack of effort or caring. She did all I could ask of her and I believe left it all on the field. It was time for a change. We will continue with our post-mortems, as we should. But for me, I think it is crucial that after the post-mortems we let Sandy go on her way. It doesn't help us to blame the one that is gone. The next person will have a tough job, but it is a job THEY must do. No excuses. No blaming predecessors.
All of my life, Cal has been the place that talked about what we CAN'T do in revenue sports, in stark contrast with the rest of the university that not only believes we can do anything, but believes we can do things that people don't even dream need doing until we see the possibility. We don't have enough money. We have too much bureaucracy. We have too many academic challenges.
All of my life football and basketball coaches and athletic directors and everybody that touches revenue sports have been given excuses for failure. A lot of time for even the most basic things like being able to process ticket orders in an efficient and customer friendly manner. The bottom line message has always been "This is Cal. We can't do better." Even when we did better we immediately blew it (lose Snyder right when he achieves success. Follow up Jason Kidd with major sanctions).
Then, that changed. The chancellor decided against business as usual and promoting the obvious selection, and he hired Gladstone. Gladstone was a poor administrator, which is probably what you should expect from the crew coach, but he didn't believe you should accept coaching failure. He hired Tedford and no matter what some of you want to say about Tedford, he changed the mindset here. First people believe we COULD do better. Then people believed we SHOULD do better.
I look around now, and the last year to year and a half of bad news has brought us to square one. Horrible news on academic performance and the worst football season in school history have made people fall back on their old notions of Cal sports. We are just a few years removed from 8 straight winning seasons and grad rates in the 60 percents. And even though we just saw it happen here, the old line is back. We can't do better. Other's cheat. We are too tough academically. It's not X's fault or Y's fault. We can't expect better. We shouldn't expect better. We have gone back in a time machine to 2000 or 1980, with a nice remodel of a two thirds of a stadium, a great new training facility, but ultimately the same program and mindset.
That may not all be Barbour's fault. In fact, I don't care if it was her fault. It wasn't going to get better with status quo. That is the ultimately the deciding factor.
I thank Sandy for the charm, passion and hard work she brought to the job. She always seemed to love Cal and love her work. She did a fabulous job advancing the non-revenue sports. If she fell short in her job it was not through lack of effort or caring. She did all I could ask of her and I believe left it all on the field. It was time for a change. We will continue with our post-mortems, as we should. But for me, I think it is crucial that after the post-mortems we let Sandy go on her way. It doesn't help us to blame the one that is gone. The next person will have a tough job, but it is a job THEY must do. No excuses. No blaming predecessors.