Eball said:
Keyser Soze said:
You are putting way too much emphasis on a single incident. They have been very clear that Briles was not terminated for any one thing. I think it was a longshot a good presentation could have saved him like McCaw, but I do think it finalized things - he was not the man to lead football to a cultural change.
I find this interesting in that the possibility of not firing was clearly considered. They just believe termination was the correct decision.
And I think this is why we are here still talking about stuff...to the world CAB is the face of the problem whether by design,plan scheme or just unfortunate timing and circumstances. It is not necessarily ridiculous that becasue of outside circumstances a majority on the BOR felt it necessary to terminate CAB. I just wish they would be more upfront, that while mistakes were made across the Board (no pun intended) it was a campus wide problem and while making a change at head coach there is nothing specific in CAB's conduct that warranted termination for cause...
Wait...technically all that has happened...so why is CAB still the face of the problem and why does BU and more of its fans who appreciated everything good CAB did not be more supportive of his efforts to get back into coaching? Why does BU continue to allow the media to wrongly put CAB as the face of this problem?
I am not arguing right or wrong to sever CAB...I am just pointing out what everyone knows CAB was not and is not and should not be the face of this issue...he has been punished far beyond what is logical.
I agree that is the approach that should have been taken if the BOR felt like the scales tipped in favor of letting CAB go. They could have still put in a good word for CAB and supported his hiring elsewhere.
I think they needed CAB to be the face of the problem though for several reasons:
1) it makes the BOR and the school look contrite and serious about change if they're willing to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. I'm sure they thought that would be a feather in the school's cap if stuff started coming to light. After all, when you sanction yourself, the NCAA (or other government agencies) typically does not come down as hard.
2) They hoped that focusing on the problems with football would be a good diversion to protect the reputation of the school at large
3) many alumni and donors would not accept that CAB should be fired absent a smoking gun and would revolt, so the BOR needed to create an impression that the circumstances were so bad they were crying out.. They could have easily stood by CAB and said he would receive more training if it was just a case of the scales tipping against CAB
4) now there's the whole spectre of racism which I had not considered. They certainly don't want that seeing the light of day.
If the BOR could have taken corrective measures with CAB, common sense surely dictates they should have done that. So absent a smoking gun, it sure looks like CAB was scapegoated..