SidelineCoach
Well-known member
Look for UM to return to their former glory days they need to look internally at themselves and ask “are we doing everything possible to be successful (hiring the best staff, & coaches, building facilities that meet the demands of Gen Z athletes and working in a NIL world), if they can’t answer yes to everyone of those questions then they need to find leaders that can.
I’m going throw out some ideas for those questions and how the Griz can return to National prominence.
Staff -
Have to start with the top, AD needs to leave. The AD sets the tone and standards for his department and all those work under him from the heads coaches to athletic trainers and facilities folks. For example there was a SAAC letter sent to UM President, AD and some local news outlets. The letter laid out how soccer facilities were dealing with leaking fuel smells in the locker room, how the former WBB HC assaulted a staff member, and the FB HC openly using sexist language towards female staff.
You need a new AD that has a backbone, the ability to fundraise and the willingness to meet the expectations of a high caliber institution.
Facilities -
Your revenue generating sports need to always set the standard for the schools athletics. Washington Griz stadium is nice but it’s also beginning to show its age and other program’s facilities are substandard.
Going back to the SAAC letter - why are lawn mowers, weed eaters, etc stored in the same unfiltered soccer building?! If you don’t believe me go look in the double doors to the left of the Griz locker room. The building while was pretty standard in 1994 it’s not anymore, this could be a genuine Title IX issue for the school if the ladies were to file a lawsuit like the ladies at Oregon did recently. While on soccer, why don’t they have field lights?! It’s hard to be taken serious at the national level when we don’t have field lights, most colleges club sports teams have field lights yet we’re a NCAA D1 team without lights.
NIL -
Sad fact is a lot of kids at the D1 level are looking for the biggest payouts (can’t really blame them, I probably would have done the same at 19). The school needs to be doing everything they can to work on helping secure NIL deals, they need to recognize that means looking at successful NIL schools and scaling it to their size. Brand loyalty alone isn’t going to sell it to enough kids to play on a team anymore; do you think a school like Georgia could be successful with just kids that grew up bleeding red & black? Probably not.
You also need compliance staff that is great at their job because we can’t afford to be slapped with any kind of ncaa fines.
Now these are just my thoughts and observations from the personally working with UM.
I’m going throw out some ideas for those questions and how the Griz can return to National prominence.
Staff -
Have to start with the top, AD needs to leave. The AD sets the tone and standards for his department and all those work under him from the heads coaches to athletic trainers and facilities folks. For example there was a SAAC letter sent to UM President, AD and some local news outlets. The letter laid out how soccer facilities were dealing with leaking fuel smells in the locker room, how the former WBB HC assaulted a staff member, and the FB HC openly using sexist language towards female staff.
You need a new AD that has a backbone, the ability to fundraise and the willingness to meet the expectations of a high caliber institution.
Facilities -
Your revenue generating sports need to always set the standard for the schools athletics. Washington Griz stadium is nice but it’s also beginning to show its age and other program’s facilities are substandard.
Going back to the SAAC letter - why are lawn mowers, weed eaters, etc stored in the same unfiltered soccer building?! If you don’t believe me go look in the double doors to the left of the Griz locker room. The building while was pretty standard in 1994 it’s not anymore, this could be a genuine Title IX issue for the school if the ladies were to file a lawsuit like the ladies at Oregon did recently. While on soccer, why don’t they have field lights?! It’s hard to be taken serious at the national level when we don’t have field lights, most colleges club sports teams have field lights yet we’re a NCAA D1 team without lights.
NIL -
Sad fact is a lot of kids at the D1 level are looking for the biggest payouts (can’t really blame them, I probably would have done the same at 19). The school needs to be doing everything they can to work on helping secure NIL deals, they need to recognize that means looking at successful NIL schools and scaling it to their size. Brand loyalty alone isn’t going to sell it to enough kids to play on a team anymore; do you think a school like Georgia could be successful with just kids that grew up bleeding red & black? Probably not.
You also need compliance staff that is great at their job because we can’t afford to be slapped with any kind of ncaa fines.
Now these are just my thoughts and observations from the personally working with UM.
