Tuesday, when, at lunch in Miami (North Bay Village, actually, on the 79th Street Causeway), sitting on the deck at Shuckers overlooking the north bay with breezes to strong putting napkins in your lap was not possible, I finally got around to reading the sports section of USA Today and was quick to see a photo on page 3 of Carl Franks squatting along the sideline when he was head coach at Duke in 2003. The story came with a note that Duke has the number one historically hapless football program in the six major conferences according to the website LostLetterman.com.
I was quick to take a photo of the photo with my Blackberry phone and sent it via text message to two Duke fans who were just as quick to respond with something about the Blue Devils football win over NC State last fall. Just as quick as they were to respond with their response about a one-year superiority over the Wolfpack, they also failed to remember the category: Historically Hapless Football Programs. Enough said. Hand downs!
That was just after midday between appointments. It was later in the evening, just after 7:00 when I heard from one of the two again, this time through instant messaging as I was back at the bar at Shuckers, work done for the day, knocking back Amber Bocks and eating calamari while I think he was at home experimenting with Zinfandel instead of his standard Merlot or single malt something, though he claimed he was drinking a white zinfandel from the Biltmore Grape-Growing Land and Winery. Best I can figure out is he was licking the inside of the bottle of Biltmore’s Zinfandel Blanc de Noir. (“Pretty good with salsa,” he explained via text.) The phrase “blanc de noir” is a French term meaning “white wine from red grapes” and which could be a pale pink wine made from zinfandel grapes. How and why he came about with that bottle, there is probably no easy answer. Why and how I was drinking Amber Bock can be explained but not now.
Anyway, I noticed across the bottom of the SportsCenter screen hanging slightly above the Shuckers bar that Mike Garrett, the athletics director at Southern California, is out and Pat Hayden is in as the Trojans try to change its nasty and rule breaking image. I mentioned that in a text it to him. “Garret was an (expletive),” he returned. “He got (former Duke football coach) Mike McGee fired at his first USC job.” McGee was athletics director at USC west (LA CA) and USC east (Columbia SC), his second USC job. Actually, I believe, he was AD at both schools at the same time for several days, weeks, whatever, trying to wrap up one job while starting the other.
My response to his mention of McGee leaving Southern Cal for Southern Car was “Yeah” as I tried to steer away from a long discussion about anything Duke other than what I started several hours earlier. The short reaction was not what he wanted to hear or read, so, then he forced the conversation in this direction:
Him: “Wait. I start talking about Duke guys and all I get is ‘yeah’?”
Me: “They could have hired Debbie Yow. She’s available and has eight national titles in field hockey and women’s lacrosse.”
Him: “Yeah, you guys jumped too early.”
Me: “Not ‘you guys.’ Chancellor (Randy) Woodson jumped. He’s not one of us.”
Him: “So the Purdue guy isn’t a Wolfie?”
Me: “Not a Wolfie yet. You have to earn it.”
Him: “Yes, just like my daughter (a State student).”
Me: “She’s close but not there yet. Too much fuss about the importance of cheerleading.”
Him: “She will have a red class ring next year just like you Dad’s, which she will be very proud of.”
Me: “Not LIKE my dad’s. She’s close; just tell her to drop the rah-rah squad importance. She also pulls for Duke too much. Good Wolfies, true Wolfies, don’t do that.”
Him: “Smart ones do.”
Me: “No. To be a real, true Wolfie, you hope Carolina and Duke lose everything, and when the two play each other, we hope they finish the game so late the newspapers do not have coverage. She hasn’t taken the oath, not earned the right to be a Wolfie. Anyone, if they can get in, can pay to go (to State) and get a degree (if they do the work), but it takes a commitment to be a Wolfie for life. She sat at Carter-Finley Stadium last fall and pulled for Duke (to beat State), and two years ago, she was there pulling for South Carolina because one of her high school friends plays for South Carolina. That’s not a true Wolfie.”
Him: “Yeah, I guess just going to college for four years doesn’t count at State. That’s like earning a degree anywhere else in three years.”
Me: “Like at Duke where the requirements are only 75 percent of the NCSU requirements. Hard to get into Duke; easy to get a degree there. Half the students and most of the athletes couldn’t cut it at State. Sounds like my post for tomorrow.”
Him: “Right. You really believe that. I think State is a great school but academically it isn’t Duke. I’m good at helping you with column subjects.”
Me: “Other way around. Professors are easy at Duke to make sure they have high graduation rates. School policy.”
Him: “It only takes me 20 minutes, and you have another column.”
Me: “Battery going dead. This State grad lost his wall charger in Tampa. Keep it coming.”
Him: “Wonder who got Shakespeare going?”
Then it was back to talking about wine, before the battery really went dead and spent timeout in the rental-mobile getting its strength back on the car charger. When the Blackberry came back to life two hours later, the conversation continued and didn’t miss a beat.
Me: “The N&O got Marvin Austin’s Twitter transcript and wrote a story. Believe it or not, the writer actually used “(sic)” after misspelled and misused words. On Twitter! It’s okay on Twitter and the N&O writer does that!”
Him: “Oh, you State guys are so happy UNC may be in trouble after all your Wolfpack inequities. Almost like me reveling in the Wake County school system’s problems after all the grief Raleigh has given Durham.”
Me: “Only on probation or sanctions the last time Duke was: 1972-73.”
Him: “But we are mature enough to learn from our mistakes and not revel in the problems of our brother institutions.”
Me: “How much Zin have you had tonight?”
Him: “Enough. By the way, we both wish we have football players that agents wanted to take to South Beach.”
Maybe so, but Duke’s got to get over that top spot on that historically hapless football programs before that’ll happen. From the USA Today report: Duke is all kinds of atrocious on the gridiron, having won three bowl games in the program’s history—the last one 50 years ago. And the Blue Devils have been home for the holidays every year since the 1994 season. Duke has gone almost all downhill since Steve Spurrier left to coach Florida in 1990. That includes a 23-game losing streak from 1999-2001 because, as former head coach Carl Franks put it, “Winning football games has certainly been harder than I anticipated.”
Historically, speaking to my two buddies, NC State is nowhere close to the haplessness of Duke when it comes to football. On the other hand, if the Wolfpack has a fifth straight losing season…
Showing posts with label Shuckers Bar and Grill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shuckers Bar and Grill. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Winning Will Make Debbie Yow Popular
“I, fortunately, do not have a great need to be popular. I’d rather win than be popular.” —Debbie Yow.
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It was with disbelief AND skepticism (if you can have both at the same time since the meaning of each is each other) that the appointment of Debbie Yow as the next Athletics Director at NC State University greeted me. Maybe it was because during the last couple of months as I considered possibilities for that Wolfpack leadership position, she never crossed my mind prior to the moment I received a text message late Thursday night as I enjoyed dinner and a beer or two while watching the College World Series at Shuckers Bar & Grill on the 79th Street Causeway in North Bay Village FL.
When the Blackberry, sitting on the bar next to the plate of lightly-fried calamari and the cold glass of Yuengling, started to vibrate, I put down my fork and reached for my hand-held access to the world. What I found was an instant message with two words: Debbie Yow. I knew immediately the meaning of the IM and, instead of responding, I started to surf the web for confirmation. It didn’t take long to realize the messenger knew what was to be announced the next afternoon.
A few exchanges of typed words and phrases of disbelief went quickly until the person on the other end said I was playing the part of the river that runs through Egypt. I was told I was in denial. Maybe so, but again, this was not a name or a person I or anyone else other than maybe a handful of people with the ear of Chancellor Randy Woodson and the official Search Committee along with the hired consultant used to seek and find the person to lead the Wolfpack Athletics Program to the Promised Land had considered as a possible replacement for Lee Fowler.
As noted in this space last Friday, I wondered if this—Debbie Yow—was the best selection. I admittedly was disappointed not to see Bobby Purcell get the chance to prove he’s the right person for the job. Even into Friday morning and before the official announcement was made Friday afternoon, I continued to read across the Internet to see how this was playing in Raleigh, in Maryland, and in other places just short of Peoria. Most reaction was, “What were they thinking?” That was the theme among many in attendance at the memorial service for the late Fred Barakat, the former Atlantic Coast Conference Associate Commissioner who passed away recently. You can imagine the number of college athletics savvy people at that gathering.
My long-time friend, John Feinstein, a writer for The Washington Post and an author of so many books that I’ve lost track of the number and titles, wasn’t kind at all to Debbie Yow when he heard of the choice by NC State. Friday, in his blog, Feinstein On The Brink, he combined the selection of John Wall by the Washington Wizards and the departure of Yow from Maryland as a reason for Washington area athletics fans to celebrate. Of the Maryland Athletics Director, he said: “Yow won’t be missed by many in College Park. She’ll have a certain honeymoon period at State because her sister Kay, who died in 2009 of cancer, was a beloved coach there for 34 years. My guess is that honeymoon won’t last terribly long.” FYI: John is a personal friend of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams.
There was a lot more reading throughout the day and beyond the announcement, some positive towards the naming Yow and some not so flattering. Maybe the most humorous was on the WRALSportsFan.Com site where Jeff Gravely interviewed 99.9TheFan host Adam Gold who said this was a great hire. Two things: Gravely and Gold work for the same company and reduced journalism to its lowest levels with that story (if you don’t understand, well it would be like Chip Alexander of The News & Observer interviewing Ron Green Jr of the Charlotte Observer, both members of the shared sports staff of the two papers, about the renovation of Pinehurst #2 golf course) and Gold is a graduate of Maryland (or at least an attendee) and may have his own motives for Yow to move away from College Park.
While questions about the hiring and the process will persist, I was impressed with two short phrases Yow strung together when she was introduced to the public last Friday at Carter-Finley Stadium. “I, fortunately, do not have a great need to be popular,” she said. “I’d rather win than be popular.” That reminded me and others of the way Willis Casey, as far as I’m concerned the standard when it comes to being a college Athletics Director especially at NC State, was in doing his job. He ruled that department with an iron fist, kept pushing the program forward, demanded a lot of his coaches and created an overall winning atmosphere. He hired Debbie Yow’s sister, Kay, to head the women’s basketball program in its infancy.
As said earlier, questions will persist about the hiring, and, like it or not, both Yow and Chancellor Woodson will be under the microscope of Wolfpack fans. For instance, Woodson, from all we know, only met Yow for the first time earlier in the week last week and, with the recommendation of the Search Committee and the consultant, decided to offer her the job that day without the due diligence of talking with other athletics officials from across the nation. He also talked excitedly about Yow’s academic record at Maryland though Maryland ranks under NC State in the two major sports of football and basketball when it comes to the most recent Academic Progress Rate. This is something I mentioned in Friday’s posting.
Obviously, Debbie Yow is smart. In moving to NC State she will be working for a Chancellor who sought her employment, who wants her and who offers what it takes to be successful. Chancellor Woodson had to have said all the right things to get her to leave behind what she had at Maryland. And, if she had stayed at Maryland, she would have to convince a new President to like and keep her as the one who hired her is retiring.
At Maryland, part of Yow’s success was balancing a budget sorely in need of such and improving facilities, also needed for the Terrapins. She has expertise and success in two areas that do not need addressing at NC State. A solid, non-deficit budget and excellent facilities (as good as or better than any in the Atlantic Coast Conference), she said, “are two important elements to have in place.” So she comes into a program where her concentration can be on winning. In doing so, her efforts start with evaluating coaches and determining if the right people are in the right place. She said it is “critically important to match resources with expectations, to determine the needs” and to make sure everything is in place to give the coaches the opportunity to be successful.
This—asking the coaches what it will take to be successful and then providing it to them—is very much how Willis Casey governed: just enough rope to hang themselves unless they can avoid the noose. He would constantly ask the coaches, especially football and basketball, if their budgets were large enough, if the staff was right, if there was anything else they needed. The prospect for success was squarely placed on the coaches. Debbie Yow does not have to be another Willis Casey (not liked by all but respected by most), but right out of the gate she seems to be headed that way in her own style and fashion. And that’s a good thing. Maybe she’s not who I wanted as NC State Athletics Director, but then in the overall scheme of things it really doesn’t matter what I want.
But, I believe I speak for most Wolfpack fans when I say I want Wolfpack athletics—especially the football and men's basketball teams—to thrive, to win games and championships without sacrificing academics and good character. And, with a thriving program—especially the football and men's basketball teams—of winning games and bringing home championships, Debbie Yow, in winning over naysayers, will not only have her cake but she'll get to feast on a wave of her own popularity, needing it or not.
----------
It was with disbelief AND skepticism (if you can have both at the same time since the meaning of each is each other) that the appointment of Debbie Yow as the next Athletics Director at NC State University greeted me. Maybe it was because during the last couple of months as I considered possibilities for that Wolfpack leadership position, she never crossed my mind prior to the moment I received a text message late Thursday night as I enjoyed dinner and a beer or two while watching the College World Series at Shuckers Bar & Grill on the 79th Street Causeway in North Bay Village FL.
When the Blackberry, sitting on the bar next to the plate of lightly-fried calamari and the cold glass of Yuengling, started to vibrate, I put down my fork and reached for my hand-held access to the world. What I found was an instant message with two words: Debbie Yow. I knew immediately the meaning of the IM and, instead of responding, I started to surf the web for confirmation. It didn’t take long to realize the messenger knew what was to be announced the next afternoon.
A few exchanges of typed words and phrases of disbelief went quickly until the person on the other end said I was playing the part of the river that runs through Egypt. I was told I was in denial. Maybe so, but again, this was not a name or a person I or anyone else other than maybe a handful of people with the ear of Chancellor Randy Woodson and the official Search Committee along with the hired consultant used to seek and find the person to lead the Wolfpack Athletics Program to the Promised Land had considered as a possible replacement for Lee Fowler.
As noted in this space last Friday, I wondered if this—Debbie Yow—was the best selection. I admittedly was disappointed not to see Bobby Purcell get the chance to prove he’s the right person for the job. Even into Friday morning and before the official announcement was made Friday afternoon, I continued to read across the Internet to see how this was playing in Raleigh, in Maryland, and in other places just short of Peoria. Most reaction was, “What were they thinking?” That was the theme among many in attendance at the memorial service for the late Fred Barakat, the former Atlantic Coast Conference Associate Commissioner who passed away recently. You can imagine the number of college athletics savvy people at that gathering.
My long-time friend, John Feinstein, a writer for The Washington Post and an author of so many books that I’ve lost track of the number and titles, wasn’t kind at all to Debbie Yow when he heard of the choice by NC State. Friday, in his blog, Feinstein On The Brink, he combined the selection of John Wall by the Washington Wizards and the departure of Yow from Maryland as a reason for Washington area athletics fans to celebrate. Of the Maryland Athletics Director, he said: “Yow won’t be missed by many in College Park. She’ll have a certain honeymoon period at State because her sister Kay, who died in 2009 of cancer, was a beloved coach there for 34 years. My guess is that honeymoon won’t last terribly long.” FYI: John is a personal friend of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams.
There was a lot more reading throughout the day and beyond the announcement, some positive towards the naming Yow and some not so flattering. Maybe the most humorous was on the WRALSportsFan.Com site where Jeff Gravely interviewed 99.9TheFan host Adam Gold who said this was a great hire. Two things: Gravely and Gold work for the same company and reduced journalism to its lowest levels with that story (if you don’t understand, well it would be like Chip Alexander of The News & Observer interviewing Ron Green Jr of the Charlotte Observer, both members of the shared sports staff of the two papers, about the renovation of Pinehurst #2 golf course) and Gold is a graduate of Maryland (or at least an attendee) and may have his own motives for Yow to move away from College Park.
While questions about the hiring and the process will persist, I was impressed with two short phrases Yow strung together when she was introduced to the public last Friday at Carter-Finley Stadium. “I, fortunately, do not have a great need to be popular,” she said. “I’d rather win than be popular.” That reminded me and others of the way Willis Casey, as far as I’m concerned the standard when it comes to being a college Athletics Director especially at NC State, was in doing his job. He ruled that department with an iron fist, kept pushing the program forward, demanded a lot of his coaches and created an overall winning atmosphere. He hired Debbie Yow’s sister, Kay, to head the women’s basketball program in its infancy.
As said earlier, questions will persist about the hiring, and, like it or not, both Yow and Chancellor Woodson will be under the microscope of Wolfpack fans. For instance, Woodson, from all we know, only met Yow for the first time earlier in the week last week and, with the recommendation of the Search Committee and the consultant, decided to offer her the job that day without the due diligence of talking with other athletics officials from across the nation. He also talked excitedly about Yow’s academic record at Maryland though Maryland ranks under NC State in the two major sports of football and basketball when it comes to the most recent Academic Progress Rate. This is something I mentioned in Friday’s posting.
Obviously, Debbie Yow is smart. In moving to NC State she will be working for a Chancellor who sought her employment, who wants her and who offers what it takes to be successful. Chancellor Woodson had to have said all the right things to get her to leave behind what she had at Maryland. And, if she had stayed at Maryland, she would have to convince a new President to like and keep her as the one who hired her is retiring.
At Maryland, part of Yow’s success was balancing a budget sorely in need of such and improving facilities, also needed for the Terrapins. She has expertise and success in two areas that do not need addressing at NC State. A solid, non-deficit budget and excellent facilities (as good as or better than any in the Atlantic Coast Conference), she said, “are two important elements to have in place.” So she comes into a program where her concentration can be on winning. In doing so, her efforts start with evaluating coaches and determining if the right people are in the right place. She said it is “critically important to match resources with expectations, to determine the needs” and to make sure everything is in place to give the coaches the opportunity to be successful.
This—asking the coaches what it will take to be successful and then providing it to them—is very much how Willis Casey governed: just enough rope to hang themselves unless they can avoid the noose. He would constantly ask the coaches, especially football and basketball, if their budgets were large enough, if the staff was right, if there was anything else they needed. The prospect for success was squarely placed on the coaches. Debbie Yow does not have to be another Willis Casey (not liked by all but respected by most), but right out of the gate she seems to be headed that way in her own style and fashion. And that’s a good thing. Maybe she’s not who I wanted as NC State Athletics Director, but then in the overall scheme of things it really doesn’t matter what I want.
But, I believe I speak for most Wolfpack fans when I say I want Wolfpack athletics—especially the football and men's basketball teams—to thrive, to win games and championships without sacrificing academics and good character. And, with a thriving program—especially the football and men's basketball teams—of winning games and bringing home championships, Debbie Yow, in winning over naysayers, will not only have her cake but she'll get to feast on a wave of her own popularity, needing it or not.
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