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On Jose Fernandez, Mark Harlan, Leadership, And Change Management

Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

When the Jose Fernandez extension news came out, I had two thoughts.

The first one: Good for Jose. He painstakingly built USF women's basketball up from nothing into a program that you can expect to make the NCAA Tournament every year. He deserves to be paid like a top women's college basketball coach, because he is one.

The second one was more self-indulgent. This extension is the kind of smart, proactive move that USF simply did not do for way too long. I remember a few years ago when this site was being called a bunch of haters, or a den of negativity, or whatever else certain corners of the USF Internet were calling us. All because we kept pointing out Doug Woolard's sloth and laziness as athletic director. The way he accepted mediocrity, refused to reward successful people (most notably Jose in 2013), planned for nothing, and generally failed to do the most basic things an athletic director should do. I guess people thought we were profiting off outrage, or using it as a strategy to build an audience.

It was neither of those. The site didn't make money then, and it still doesn't make money now. And whatever audience the site gained then was from people who felt the same way and were glad someone put it in print. The only thing that's kept the blog going as long as it's been going is that the writers all love USF athletics very much and want it to succeed as much as possible. No one has ever had unreasonable expectations here (except for I guess that one year I thought Skip Holtz was going to win the Big East; that was pretty stupid). The only thing anyone has demanded here is an honest effort out of everyone. We didn't think it was unreasonable to demand the athletic director give an honest effort when he clearly was not doing that. Sure, it probably hurt to read some of those stories, but it really hurt to write them.

I know Collin has been getting a lot of flak recently for writing about how he's already given up on the 2015 football season. It's not popular to come right out and say something like that after four brutal seasons in a row. Frankly, though, given the blog's track record, I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt. And there's a huge difference in giving up on a season that reeks of lame-duckness, and giving up entirely. After watching Mark Harlan in action for a year now, Collin is completely convinced things will get fixed, and soon.

See, Harlan understands everything his predecessor didn't, or used to understand but forgot along the way. Find talented people who want to be here and do whatever you can to keep them happy and productive. Know your strengths and play to them. Hire coaches who will thrive in the landscape you're going to put them in. (I think that's always been the problem with Willie Taggart - he's not a bad coach, it's just the wrong environment for his style of football.) Constantly work to earn support from the fans and the community, and never take any of it for granted. Set a tone and create a vision, then get everyone to buy into it and make it happen. All things USF has sorely needed for a long time.

Whatever hating and negativity people thought this blog was wallowing in from roughly 2011-2013 was our nearly single-handed attempt to bring about change in USF athletics. That change is finally underway, and we all believe it's going to be a very bright future. So for whatever small contribution we made to that whole process... you're welcome.

This post was created by one of our blog's readers.

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