Ursa, this is a conference where sitting 4-8 could get you in the tournament. Granted, they'll need to win four straight, but, for crying out loud, this team won only two conference games last year and four total. The fact that Tad has them in this position speaks volumes, and given breaks going another way, this team is 8-4 in the conference. But, I continue to be reminded that this isn't a college basketball state, despite the fact that there's more hoops talent in the state than there is football talent. For some reason fans seem to prefer the Nuggets, which is foreign to me.
Now, that said, I'm not being an apologist; I'm bringing up areas where Jay has created positives, esp. since you seem to believe that he's been nothing but negative. I'm just trying to remind you and others that some good things have happened in the past five years. Also, it's interesting that people think we play in the worst basketball facility in the conference (Sac State has us beat by far) when the coaches actually like it in its current configuration. One thousand fans there make a lot of noise, two thousand makes it where a crowd mic isn't needed on the broadcast.
Trust me, I've had my issues with Jay, but I'm not going to air those here, save for one: upgrading Jackson for soccer and doing nothing for baseball, which plays more home games and has more necessity for a better facility.
I'm not playing Polyanna here; I'm just trying to point up where some urban legends have come into play: facilities upgrade was already in place before he arrived? No. Fallis may have known something? Fallis was just trying to screw UNC over after being forced out. His pursuit of the NAU job (for which he was the 3rd choice, BTW) came after he was informed his contract would not be renewed. Fallis burned half the bridges in the city, and put the department in deeper and deeper debt by making moves such as signing a contract for the football team to travel to Maine for a one-game shot.
Finally, Ursa, I realize your passion is football, and that it all rotates around that. I'm good with that, but you might want to add a little perspective. All AD's have their positives and negatives, and I'm just trying to look at things as glass half-full.
. IMHO trying to credit Jay with the Big Sky admission and the facilities upgrade is a stretch. Undoubtedly he had a hand in these but to think he was the gallant knight riding in on his white horse to make it happen is nonsense. As for the budget shortfalls, that is always tough, but I remember Jay's big opening speech was that he was a fundraiser and he was going to make it happen here. The fact that he had a hand in ticking off boosters and alumni and they decided to not donate as large makes for a pretty weak defense. The poor performance of the FB team (and thus the downturn in attendance) surely wasn't made up by the hike in beer prices. His coaching decisions have been a mixed bag. Personally I think Coach Boyle was a great hire and Jay deserves a ton of credit for that one. The women's BB team is about where they were with the old coach (around 500 give or take) so that is a wash. Football is a joke. That has to way pretty heavily on the grading system since this is (or at least was) a football school.
