I don't think any of those involved (Linda, the BoR, and our Big Money Boosters) want to publicly dredge up all the muck of the Mack era on this site...so we're never going to know all the gory details of what went wrong.

But the tea leaves and bird guts all suggest that many of the BMB folks whom Mack had reportedly turned off by oozing condescension, among other things...many of those folks are in fact friendly with Doug and/or have pleasant memories of him.

In this NIL era we're living in, BMB support is absolutely a necessary component for championship level success. We've seen across the nation that big booster NIL support is a necessary, but not a sufficient component of championship level success.

For that level of success you need both the money to build out the roster, and a staff who can coach them to a title. If you have both of those, you're all but guaranteed to garner the fan support that goes along with the whole thing - as the wins stack up so will the season ticket waiting list.

So I get it. Just hiring Doug, and he in turn rallying our biggest boosters doesn't seem like enough to turn things around when you don't believe in our Head Coach.

Let me be clear: they can fire Dave today and I'll still be proudly bleeding Green & Gold. A lot of y'all seem to grossly misunderstand my loyalties: they're not to Dave or Linda or the BoR*. My loyalty is to Baylor. Full stop.

The flipside of that is that I'll be as happy as anyone if Doug can get Dave '21 levels of support and we're winning at elite levels. In short:

• If Dave has a successful season in 2026, Hell Yeah!
• If he's flopping - let's move the hell on, ASAP.

I think what most of y'all fear is the murky midpoint of all that-- 7-5 or so --wherein we tread the waters of mediocrity. I get your fear, I really do. But I truly believe Doug's hiring is a sign that Linda and the BoR have realized how poor fan engagement had gotten under Mack.

When I say "fans", I mean the whole dang range from top to bottom to tangential: BMBs to causal fan alumni to sports fan residents of the Heart of Texas who just enjoy watching great teams. Doug really seems to understand how the whole fan base has felt ignored and left behind.

Let's give him a chance to make things right on the field and in the stands. For football, that will take patience on our part - the offseason just started! - but Doug didn't create the mess he inherited, so a little grace here is warranted if you ask me. I for, one, am interested to what the holiday season holds in store for Baylor athletics!

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*I do genuinely think Dave's a Good Dude and I'm quirky myself; so if he works out I'll be ecstatic. But if he's retained in mediocrity i'll be surprised and very disappointed.

I was very engaged circa 2012-2015.

CorsicanaBear said:

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Fan engagement had gotten poor because winning has gotten poor. Win and the fans engage themselves. Lose and there is nothing you can do to engage them.

Fan engagement is a myth sold to losers.

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Losing sucks. I'm not supporting it but atleast show up and play hard. If the other team is better but we played out azzez off then I'm going props to the team. But Dave isn't the guy to bring back consistency- he just can't coach.

There are numerous times this year that all he needed to do was go off on a ref - fire up the player. Fire up the crowd. And he either doesn't know how or just won't. It just doesn't work in a sport that is meant to slobber knock your opponent.