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Advancing the Program

D

Downwiththefoe1984

Well-known member
Interesting times in FCS ball.

There is always a huge discussion about moving up. The financial weight of the FCS just got heavier for the state of Montana with NDSU jumping ship. FCS football has been great for both schools and the playoff system is the best any brand of football has to offer.
But….money talks and a move up could be inevitable unfortunately. I love to hear opinions on this topic.

B Kennedy has advanced the program with his off the field approach. Bobby is a good football coach but antiquated for the tender generation of today. I dig the move and hopefully we see on the field gains. I want to hear what others think about this.

I’ve been and continue to be critical of Haslam. I’d like to see the next gen take over leadership here. I’ve met Haslam several times in different settings. GSA events and I hate to admit this but…at a bobcat playoff game several years back. This job is a personality driven position and Kent has fallen flat in the dozen or more times I’ve met him. Am I being too critical or do we need some more enthusiasm in our leadership?
 
In regards to Haslam, I can tell a story about this guy and my first impression of him face to face. This was all I needed to not be a big supporter of his.

Back in the 18-19 basketball season, I decided to take my 11 year old son down to Boise for the basketball tournament. After a long drive we checked into the hotel and realized pretty quick that we were staying at the same hotel that the griz basketball team and company (Haslam, Sundberg and Corcoran etc) were at. Over the course of a couple days Sundberg was awesome to us by just simply acknowledging griz fans who made the trip. Corcoran was great too including Decuire and the team. However, this one instance really stood out to me. My son and I (wearing obvious Griz gear) got on the elevator and Haslam walked in. Just the 3 of us and Haslam had one hell of an opportunity to say hello and at a minimum say “hey, thanks for coming down, where did you drive/fly from.” Easy chat right? Instead he just stood there and literally didn’t say a word to us glanced at his phone a couple times. It was actually kind of awkward. My son knew who he was and even made a comment to me that he wasn’t the nicest guy. Haslam, Of all people who shouldn’t ignore folks who came to support the team, made kind of an ass of himself. First time impressions go a long way and I wasn’t impressed by the guy. Pure arrogance was how he carried himself during that time during that tournament. He could leave this job for all I care. Wouldn’t be hard to get someone better in the AD position at the U. Maybe he was distracted and had some serious gut rot in the elevator and needed a shitter ASAP. I don’t think that’s the case though.
 
Not trying to be argumentative, but why is it his responsibility to greet you? If I were in the elevator, I would have said hello. Seems easy enough and would have been a great opportunity to model how to address a stranger to your son. If anything, your son missed out on a great opportunity because of you. The entitlement of some "fans" is something to behold.
 
catgrizfan said:
Not trying to be argumentative, but why is it his responsibility to greet you? If I were in the elevator, I would have said hello. Seems easy enough and would have been a great opportunity to model how to address a stranger to your son. If anything, your son missed out on a great opportunity because of you. The entitlement of some "fans" is something to behold.
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Really, you don't see an issue. Odd to think this is an "entitlement" problem.
 
catgrizfan said:
Not trying to be argumentative, but why is it his responsibility to greet you? If I were in the elevator, I would have said hello. Seems easy enough and would have been a great opportunity to model how to address a stranger to your son. If anything, your son missed out on a great opportunity because of you. The entitlement of some "fans" is something to behold.
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I don’t see it as argumentative. It’s his job as the athletic director to reach out to people, even if it’s a thank you for coming. It’s how you develop a rapport with people. Pretty simple. This has nothing to do with entitlement and it certainly didn’t change my life. It happened 7 years ago and merely thought it was a great opportunity to say thanks to the folks who support the program that HE is ultimately responsible for. Moreover, I’m not going to pin the guy in an elevator and say, “hey Kent, this is my son.” Not my job nor did I really care at the time. It just made my first impression of him to be a douche and didnt show he really gave a shit. Make more sense?
 
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catgrizfan said:
Not trying to be argumentative, but why is it his responsibility to greet you? If I were in the elevator, I would have said hello. Seems easy enough and would have been a great opportunity to model how to address a stranger to your son. If anything, your son missed out on a great opportunity because of you. The entitlement of some "fans" is something to behold.
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The fans aren't paid to represent the university. Haslam is. That's the difference.
 
catgrizfan said:
Not trying to be argumentative, but why is it his responsibility to greet you? If I were in the elevator, I would have said hello. Seems easy enough and would have been a great opportunity to model how to address a stranger to your son. If anything, your son missed out on a great opportunity because of you. The entitlement of some "fans" is something to behold.
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It is his job as an AD to do PR and to greet fans and supporters
 
Chucknduck said:
I don’t see it as argumentative. It’s his job as the athletic director to reach out to people, even if it’s a thank you for coming. It’s how you develop a rapport with people. Pretty simple. This has nothing to do with entitlement and it certainly didn’t change my life. It happened 7 years ago and merely thought it was a great opportunity to say thanks to the folks who support the program that HE is ultimately responsible for. Moreover, I’m not going to pin the guy in an elevator and say, “hey Kent, this is my son.” Not my job nor did I really care at the time. It just made my first impression of him to be a douche and didnt show he really gave a shit. Make more sense?
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If you aren't willing to shake a man's hand and introduce yourself and your son, then you cannot get upset when he doesn't do the same. From what I know of him, he would have loved to shake your hand and give your son some knucks. Look, I get what you are saying. It would have been easy for him to say hello. Maybe he was busy? Stressed out? Thinking? To say he is responsible for engaging with every fan he comes across wearing Griz clothing is insane.
 
catgrizfan said:
If you aren't willing to shake a man's hand and introduce yourself and your son, then you cannot get upset when he doesn't do the same. From what I know of him, he would have loved to shake your hand and give your son some knucks. Look, I get what you are saying. It would have been easy for him to say hello. Maybe he was busy? Stressed out? Thinking? To say he is responsible for engaging with every fan he comes across wearing Griz clothing is insane.
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You clearly are missing the main point. Congrats.
 
catgrizfan said:
If you aren't willing to shake a man's hand and introduce yourself and your son, then you cannot get upset when he doesn't do the same. From what I know of him, he would have loved to shake your hand and give your son some knucks. Look, I get what you are saying. It would have been easy for him to say hello. Maybe he was busy? Stressed out? Thinking? To say he is responsible for engaging with every fan he comes across wearing Griz clothing is insane.
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Easy there guy/girl. Don’t get all bothered by this. My point is that the dude chose not to engage and that was my first impression of him and it wasn’t a good one. Done and end of story. I was far from upset, but I can see how some folks, especially a potential/future donor/booster could really take this the wrong way and choose not to donate because of this type of interaction. It’s just the way the world works these days. Call it entitlement or what you want but it is what it is. I still donate to my Alma mater in spite of him.

I wish I could use the excuse of “thinking” to not say hi to someone in my line of work. Lol
 
Chucknduck said:
Easy there guy/girl. Don’t get all bothered by this. My point is that the dude chose not to engage and that was my first impression of him and it wasn’t a good one. Done and end of story. I was far from upset, but I can see how some folks, especially a potential/future donor/booster could really take this the wrong way and choose not to donate because of this type of interaction. It’s just the way the world works these days. Call it entitlement or what you want but it is what it is. I still donate to my Alma mater in spite of him.
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Honestly not the first time I have heard this.
 
wbtfg said:
The best thing MSU athletics ever did was fire Peter Fields as athletic director.
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A great AD can make a monumental difference. Costello is a great one for you guys. I miss Bill
Moos and Hogan. They were awesome, plus they said hi to me so they’re top notch in my opinion.

Kidding, they really never said hi to me, but their results were phenomenal.
 
Haslam lacks the enthusiasm to embrace the fanbase. Grizcatfan obviously doesn’t understand how a good AD should carry himself. I went to a GSA golf outing and Kent acted like he had better things to do.
Fast forward a couple months, he was on the field in Bozeman for a playoff game. I was in an end zone cabana and he walked in front of me. As soon as I saw him I said, “Hey Kent how you doing man?” He looked at me annoyingly and said “fine thanks” and walked away. The people I was with said, “Who’s that asshole??” I said, “The leader of my Grizzlies”.

They got the asshole part right. He didn’t say hey to your kid in the elevator???? That’s some weak ass shit!! Sunberg is the man! Outgoing great dude!

I hold our University of Montana in high esteem and I think we can do so much better than Kent Haslam.
 
Montana State AD Leon Costello joins the One Question Leadership Podcast with Tai M. Brown to reflect on his 10-year tenure and highlights the strategic investments in personnel and culture that have transformed the Bobcats into a perennial FCS powerhouse. Costello also emphasizes the importance of university alignment and explains how the program leverages its developmental environment and unique recruiting footprint to successfully retain players in the modern transfer portal era. Here are the key takeaways…



➤ On the importance of constant communication with university leadership: "I've always taken the approach of no surprises, right? ... I never want any information to reach my bosses, in this case the president, without them hearing it from me first. One, just because I can provide some context around it. And two, it can kind of defuse some things as well where they might think it's a big deal, but maybe hearing from me, it's just like it's really not that big of a deal."



➤ The need for self-generating revenue to fund department expansion: "We've been fortunate here the last 10 years. Our operating budget has increased by about 70%. And we generate 60% of our operating budget every single year. And so a lot of what we do every year is based on our success and our ability to sell tickets, to sell sponsorships, to have donors believing in us."



➤ Combating massive NIL offers through department culture and student-athlete development: "We can keep a student athlete for a fraction of the cost because of the experience that they're having here. They feel wanted, they feel engaged with. They feel like they can accomplish their goals here. They feel supported by their coaches and the administration and if they can accomplish their goals, they don't need to go somewhere else to do that and they don't need a big check."



➤ On not fearing coaches being poached by larger programs: "At some point, I agree some of these coaches are going to move on because they feel like they need to, professionally, or they feel it's a greener pasture and that's going to happen. But I want them to do that because we've had success here, not because I've had to make a decision to say, 'Hey, you know what? It's just not working out here.' To me, that's the best-case situation. And you can't be scared of it."

 
Chucknduck said:
Easy there guy/girl. Don’t get all bothered by this. My point is that the dude chose not to engage and that was my first impression of him and it wasn’t a good one. Done and end of story. I was far from upset, but I can see how some folks, especially a potential/future donor/booster could really take this the wrong way and choose not to donate because of this type of interaction. It’s just the way the world works these days. Call it entitlement or what you want but it is what it is. I still donate to my Alma mater in spite of him.

I wish I could use the excuse of “thinking” to not say hi to someone in my line of work. Lol
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I am not bothered and like I said, I get where you are coming from. You sound like a great supporter of the program and I appreciate people who go out of their way (at great expense) for away games, season tickets, and donations. We just have different expectations from an AD. I do believe the nature of the position is performative to some degree, but not to the extent you (and many on here) believe it should be. Agree to disagree. :)
 
Brother Bear said:
Montana State AD Leon Costello joins the One Question Leadership Podcast with Tai M. Brown to reflect on his 10-year tenure and highlights the strategic investments in personnel and culture that have transformed the Bobcats into a perennial FCS powerhouse. Costello also emphasizes the importance of university alignment and explains how the program leverages its developmental environment and unique recruiting footprint to successfully retain players in the modern transfer portal era. Here are the key takeaways…



➤ On the importance of constant communication with university leadership: "I've always taken the approach of no surprises, right? ... I never want any information to reach my bosses, in this case the president, without them hearing it from me first. One, just because I can provide some context around it. And two, it can kind of defuse some things as well where they might think it's a big deal, but maybe hearing from me, it's just like it's really not that big of a deal."



➤ The need for self-generating revenue to fund department expansion: "We've been fortunate here the last 10 years. Our operating budget has increased by about 70%. And we generate 60% of our operating budget every single year. And so a lot of what we do every year is based on our success and our ability to sell tickets, to sell sponsorships, to have donors believing in us."



➤ Combating massive NIL offers through department culture and student-athlete development: "We can keep a student athlete for a fraction of the cost because of the experience that they're having here. They feel wanted, they feel engaged with. They feel like they can accomplish their goals here. They feel supported by their coaches and the administration and if they can accomplish their goals, they don't need to go somewhere else to do that and they don't need a big check."



➤ On not fearing coaches being poached by larger programs: "At some point, I agree some of these coaches are going to move on because they feel like they need to, professionally, or they feel it's a greener pasture and that's going to happen. But I want them to do that because we've had success here, not because I've had to make a decision to say, 'Hey, you know what? It's just not working out here.' To me, that's the best-case situation. And you can't be scared of it."

Click to expand...
If Leon was as great as he (and apparently some on this board) thinks he is, why is he still at MSU after ten years?
 
catgrizfan said:
I am not bothered and like I said, I get where you are coming from. You sound like a great supporter of the program and I appreciate people who go out of their way (at great expense) for away games, season tickets, and donations. We just have different expectations from an AD. I do believe the nature of the position is performative to some degree, but not to the extent you (and many on here) believe it should be. Agree to disagree. :)
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Performative helps raise money, which is literally probably the number 1 job duty of an AD.
 
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