Take on the future of CANES Football

A very good take from themirabeau on Canestime on the future of CANES football and the search for new president.

Here's his take in entirety and then my thoughts:
I know that our NEW President will have his hands full with learning the lay of the land and other important University issues. But a decision on the direction of our football team must among them soon or it will become increasing more difficult for Miami football. Few other problems he (she) will face may have the long term impact of finally solving that problem.

Hopefully, the new President will be a confident outsider with strong academic and sports roots.  You CAN have both. Stanford and Duke are prime examples. If not, and we select a "dandy" who doesn't see the positive impact and value of sports, and how we can take advantage of our sports roots, then we can write this program off.

Its hard to assess the psychology of any group, especially a group as large as the BOT's. BUT it seems to me that ever since a strong personality like JJ was able to succeed here without /despite lack of BOT, Admin support, Foote felt upstaged and resented it.

That fear and resentment seems to have found its way down to Shalala. Shalala has the program exactly where she wants it. If not, she would have insisted on changes like she has done elsewhere within the University.

Whatever we do must be done quickly. Not only do we have FSU and the SEC cherry picking S. Florida athletes,  PAC 12 and the Big 10 now with the addition of Harbaugh will be making much stronger inroads. That will be hard to reverse. It will become impossible to reverse if we continue being mediocre in football.

Now the way I see it is that I agree with many of his points here.

I'm told by my contact in the BOT that the leading candidate to be the next UM president is James Starvidis, the current dean of the Fletcher Law School at Tufts university in Mass. He's a native of West Palm Beach, he's 59, and was a Navy Admiral who headed Southern Command in Miami before becoming Supreme Allied Commander for NATO in Europe.

This is the kind of guy that's no-nonsense and you could tell, this guy knows what it takes to turn something around and quick.

Here's something he said back in November to the Miami Hurricane student newspaper that I found real interesting.

On Donna:
"On President Shalala, her advice was absolutely pivotal to me entering academe after a long career in the Navy.  She encouraged me by pointing out how higher education is a way to continue a life of service, by extolling the joy of being around wonderful students and brilliant faculty, and clarifying a sense that what I had learned in the military – leadership, execution of complex strategies, advocacy and the challenge of leading big organizations – would translate to the academic world.  She also recommended me for my current position as Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts, and has helped me with advice about listening, building consensus, and strategic planning as I have taken up duties there.  I owe her a great deal, and will always be grateful."

"President Shalala has been a high visibility national-level leader for U of M, and her loss will be felt strongly in many dimensions – particularly her deep knowledge of the University after over a decade in office.  She brings broad experience in leading complex organizations, a deep love of higher education, and a brilliant mind to any challenge – very hard attributes to replace."

On his possible interest in being next UM President:
"In terms of the university’s next president, I know there will be a vibrant search that will surface a superb array of candidates.  Whoever comes next to the U will be a lucky university president indeed."

Now, the way I read into that is Richard Fain (head of Royal Caribbean) is leading that search right now. There are many great candidates as Stavridis said, but according to my BOT contact, he's the leader right now to succeed Donna as the next boss at UM.

If it is Stavridis that takes over, one of the first things he'll do from what I'm told, is do a top to bottom review of the entire university. However, when I asked about the Athletics department and football specifically, I was told nothing will be done on that until the 2nd half of the year (i.e., evaluation of Blake and Al).

That's a dangerous sign if that comes to pass in reference to waiting until 2nd half of the year, because you're looking at the 2015 season already being a lost season, you put the danger of losing the 2016 class in play. If I'm Stavridis, and I get this job, one of the first things I'm doing is fixing the football program very quickly and getting it back to national prominence fast and to do that, one of the first things I'm doing is cleaning house in the Football offices in the Hecht Center and also showing Blake the door. You have to factor in Adidas wanting us to be their version of Oregon. Adidas is not going to want to see a mediocre product on the field. Another reason why next year, Al MUST get to Charlotte and win 10 games minimum to survive.

If we get off to a slow start next year (i.e. 1-3 or 1-4), it would not surprise me for Al to get the boot and not finish the season, with a new president (Stavridis?) in charge and Adidas wanting results on the field. They will not stand for mediocrity and neither will the fans, which is already wanting Al's head as well as Blake's and you can hear it at the BUC with the Fire Al chants.

CANES football is at a crossroads right now. What direction will it go in? That will be the big question going forward.