IMO, I think it starts at the top. We need Regents who believe that a solid athletic department, and a nationally ranked football team in particular, are an important component to the college experience for students and help serve as a great marketing tool for the school with alumni and potential students & benefactors around the country.
Next, we need a President and Chancellor who feel the same, and are willing to do what it takes to make it a reality. That means providing the vision and leadership necessary to get all stake-holders on board and going in the same direction.
We need an athletic director who recognizes coaching talent and is adept at marketing, public relations and administration. He/She needs to clean up the problems with the ticket office, improve communications with fans & season ticket holders, and establish a set of benchmarks by which all coaches will be judged. There needs to be no ambiguity about the expectations. No wavering of standards.
This group of people absolutely, positively HAVE to get the facility upgrades done. Have to. There's no excuses. No bitching about needing a $50MM donor to fall out of the sky. They need to get it done.
Finally, we need a coaching staff with the knowledge and motivation to take on a moribund football program and turn it around. They need to be both solid coaches and solid recruiters. We need to be able to do more with less, because less is what we have right now and will continue to have for the foreseeable future.
That's a tall order, and frankly, I just don't see it happening. This is what schools like Wisconsin, Washington, and Stanford have. There's a commitment to excellence from top to bottom at those schools that is sorely lacking here. I foresee a CU administration that hopes it can luck into hiring the right guy who *might* win more games than he loses, and that will be good enough.
Next, we need a President and Chancellor who feel the same, and are willing to do what it takes to make it a reality. That means providing the vision and leadership necessary to get all stake-holders on board and going in the same direction.
We need an athletic director who recognizes coaching talent and is adept at marketing, public relations and administration. He/She needs to clean up the problems with the ticket office, improve communications with fans & season ticket holders, and establish a set of benchmarks by which all coaches will be judged. There needs to be no ambiguity about the expectations. No wavering of standards.
This group of people absolutely, positively HAVE to get the facility upgrades done. Have to. There's no excuses. No bitching about needing a $50MM donor to fall out of the sky. They need to get it done.
Finally, we need a coaching staff with the knowledge and motivation to take on a moribund football program and turn it around. They need to be both solid coaches and solid recruiters. We need to be able to do more with less, because less is what we have right now and will continue to have for the foreseeable future.
That's a tall order, and frankly, I just don't see it happening. This is what schools like Wisconsin, Washington, and Stanford have. There's a commitment to excellence from top to bottom at those schools that is sorely lacking here. I foresee a CU administration that hopes it can luck into hiring the right guy who *might* win more games than he loses, and that will be good enough.
