if i may give a small outside opine.. no way what i gonna type is a whole picture of what this university and its football team has to wake up and face.. just an inkling and only a slight slimmer of one slither of the total being of cajun football..
any ceo worth his salt takes the lumps for any bad in his company.. that's where the buck lives
downhill slide started in late stokley years.. baldwin wasn't the 1st choice (2nd or 3rd?) , but "the best" left? whoaa.. if true not good
some say bustle has had "more support".. well i believe it's because he has beat the streets since day one.. when he arrived.. he has earned it..
realizing his 1st day here, not one coach on his staff had "cars" to go out recruiting.... within the next few weeks.. every coach had a ride to hit the ground to recruit and re-introduce the program that resides in lafayette..
baldwin ( guess no cars all his years) can have his complaints of no upgrades.. well rickey made the calls to the flooring, and paint stores, etc etc etc.. this scenario can play out with just about "any" upgrade to the facilities and to any forward hints of this program..
baldwin had a "bunker mentality" that everyone was against him.. his thinking not 100% true.. though, numerous past athletes and long term supporters told me personally .. "not until" this buck is gone will i ever give a nickel.. so it wasn't really true they were against just him (baldwin) but he was just a part of the problem.. jerry waited for the kiwanas, rotary, etc type organizations to call him to come speak.. they rarely if ever did.. andhis thought pattern eventually turned to "just let me just coach" and i'll never leave my office...
well rickey called them "can i come" ...they all said yes.. he was out and about.. and we all got caught up in the newness, the outgoing persona of let's together get something done! and the thought of well lookee here.. our savior has arrived!! for instance..does anyone remember those first spring practices.. when there were buses of college students that were arranged by rickey that were brought to practice meet players, coaches and even had their chance to kick a FG?
following up to a point i above paragraph....i always had a smile during those first few years seeing an ex-cajun standing in the back of those recruiting bashes of rickey's who had told me earlier.. "not until, NEVER" .. they got the feeling that something might be new.. and started trickling back..
we have an indoor practice place because of rickey, as well as any other thing that's new.. (well not the AD, associate AD and the new Buck ).. God willing, rickey can survive to be able to reap some benefit of the "REAL NEW ADDITIONS" to the football program..
i have mentioned this previously.. rickey "has fought the good fight", no money, no help within the athletic system willing or able to make a decision to "get digging" ...up and out of the deep hole he found himself in (as he found out the next number of months on the j.o.b. just how deep it truly was) and years from now if this program fulfills, what many told rickey before he got here " it's a sleeping giant".. i only hope he will be around or if has moved on he will be able to look himself in the mirror and be satisfied with the part he played in it..
i must say there have been increments of help from above, some movement towards paying attention to reinhart dr.. although.. to little and way too late
in closing i wish to leave encouragement.... it's all in front of the cajun program. time to look ahead, pick itself up, dust it's pants off, forgetting the past and God willing follow a new buck that is for us (athletics) 150% and not against us, whatever that reason (good or bad) may have been
good night and happy father day to you daddy's out there...