The Jerry Baldwin Saga: 1998-2020

[CajunBoudin]

Maybe that crusty old guy Don Allen will let if fly in the Independent this week? He's got nothing to lose except maybe the ten cents Mike Mitchell pays him to do the occasional UL baseball game on KADN.

[jazzpop]

_ Also, no one has brought this up, but the precedent has been set by Jerry Baldwin on what would happen if you fire a coach who isn't winning. _

Does anyone else think that the Baldwin situation has played a role here? On the heels of that fiasco, could the university risk the negative publicity and consequences of firing two
black head coaches?

[Turbine]

_ Rhett Hebert is my cousin and he was not kicked off the team...He decided not to come back and play for Lee...Lee is a joke!!! _

Let me state my definition on this. Anyone who left because of the coach, was kickied off.

When a coach makes you feel unwelcome or makes you feel you are in a place you don't want to be, he in effect failed and through his actions or inaction kicked the player off the team.

A coach can NEVER quit recruiting players, even the ones he has, I stated so HERE several years ago.

[Turbine]

_Turbine you keep saying that a new coach would retain 100% but there's not certain at all. How can you make this assumption repeatedly? This is your opinion not fact.
igeaux.mobi _

So is the opinion that Lee will do something in the coming year that he has never been able to do.

Right now Lee is given credit for a close to 1000 year that only happened because a couple players out of his realm of control came back and graduated.

This year isn't over, yet it has been projected as a done deal, and next year has not even begun.

Unless it is an open admission that Walker is a poor judge of character, the opinion that the right hire would the wrong hire is absurd at best.

[Parrott]

i disagree with joshua's opinion, but that's what it is, his opinion. i would have liked for him to agree with the majority on this forum and put that opinion in the paper, but he didn't. i have to remember that he has been the best friend of our athletics program at that rag of a paper that we have had in a long time. just because he does not agree with me is no reason for me to castigate him as a traitor. i look forward to more excellent coverage of cajuns athletics from him, no matter what his opinion on this matter is.

Hey guys. Thanks for the thread about me. I certainly feel the love.

As for this column, I was well-aware that my opinion would fall into the minority. Especially on this board. But I'm a big boy and can take whatever anyone else has to say. I've been in this business long enough that this isn't the first time people have disagreed with me.

I haven't received any death threats over this column, so I guess I'm lucky compared to some of my previous jobs.

While some of you might questions my "journalistic integrity" - despite the fact really none of you have any clue what it takes to do this job - I sat down and calmly and rationally evaluated the situation. I did not allow any emotion to come into it. I went on the facts I found and also considered some of my own life experiences from previously in Kansas, Texas and Tennessee.

In the end, it's just my opinion. Probably different than your opinion. But that's all it is. It's amazing that people get so frazzled based on what I think. As my parents used to say, "Joshua, you're not THAT important."

Fortunately, I don't put much stock into what other people think of me.

To each his/her own. I just find it interesting how quickly my reputation turns into mud. If I was "in bed with the university" why would I have written anything about the practice issue and suspensions of Ryan McCoy and Lamar Roberson this season? What about the suspensions of Derrick Smith, Seth Adams and Brent Burkhalter and eventual dismissals of Adams and Burkhalter? What about last year, when David Dees left the team and then later returned? What about the transfer of Elijah Millsap, who said his departure had to do with Lee?

I never said this was the perfect decision. Just said that I felt it was the lesser of two evils. And in case anyone cares, I sleep in a bed located in south Lafayette near Broussard, not at UL.

Like I've already said, I can handle the heat. Just surprised that it's getting incredibly personal. It's sad to see that some people can no longer just respectfully disagree with someone.

As for football, I travel on the team flight. To do so, we exchange advertising with the university. It's an even trade, and even if I disagreed I have no control over that decision.

Have a blessed day.

[Turbine]

_ What about last year, when David Dees left the team and then later returned?

One of Lee's best recruiting jobs EVER.

[CajunFreak]

_ Hey guys. Thanks for the thread about me. I certainly feel the love.

As for this column, I was well-aware that my opinion would fall into the minority. Especially on this board. But I'm a big boy and can take whatever anyone else has to say. I've been in this business long enough that this isn't the first time people have disagreed with me.

I haven't received any death threats over this column, so I guess I'm lucky compared to some of my previous jobs.

While some of you might questions my "journalistic integrity" - despite the fact really none of you have any clue what it takes to do this job - I sat down and calmly and rationally evaluated the situation. I did not allow any emotion to come into it. I went on the facts I found and also considered some of my own life experiences from previously in Kansas, Texas and Tennessee.

In the end, it's just my opinion. Probably different than your opinion. But that's all it is. It's amazing that people get so frazzled based on what I think. As my parents used to say, "Joshua, you're not THAT important."

Fortunately, I don't put much stock into what other people think of me.

To each his/her own. I just find it interesting how quickly my reputation turns into mud. If I was "in bed with the university" why would I have written anything about the practice issue and suspensions of Ryan McCoy and Lamar Roberson this season? What about the suspensions of Derrick Smith, Seth Adams and Brent Burkhalter and eventual dismissals of Adams and Burkhalter? What about last year, when David Dees left the team and then later returned?

I never said this was the perfect decision. Just said that I felt it was the lesser of two evils. And in case anyone cares, I sleep in a bed located in south Lafayette near Broussard, not at UL.

Like I've already said, I can handle the heat. Just surprised that it's getting incredibly personal. It's sad to see that some people can no longer just respectfully disagree with someone.

As for football, I travel on the team flight. To do so, we exchange advertising with the university. It's an even trade, and even if I disagreed I have no control over that decision.

Have a blessed day. _

Joshua... I am not personally attacking you or anyone else. I just want one question answered... How can we be so sure that by keeping Lee we are in the clear with the APR issue. Will it not shock anyone that we have decided to keep a lame duck coach and players decide to transfer anyway and we find ourselves taking the APR hit anyway. Why is this question not being asked & answered. If the answer is that we are certain that will not occur then I might have a little patience with this decision. But I have been a Cajun fan long enough to just expect that we will be stuck with Coach Lee and feel the pain of the APR hit anyway.

I thank you in advance for covering this side of the issue in a future writing!

[KACajun]

_ Hey guys. Thanks for the thread about me. I certainly feel the love.

As for this column, I was well-aware that my opinion would fall into the minority. Especially on this board. But I'm a big boy and can take whatever anyone else has to say. I've been in this business long enough that this isn't the first time people have disagreed with me.

I haven't received any death threats over this column, so I guess I'm lucky compared to some of my previous jobs.

While some of you might questions my "journalistic integrity" - despite the fact really none of you have any clue what it takes to do this job - I sat down and calmly and rationally evaluated the situation. I did not allow any emotion to come into it. I went on the facts I found and also considered some of my own life experiences from previously in Kansas, Texas and Tennessee.

In the end, it's just my opinion. Probably different than your opinion. But that's all it is. It's amazing that people get so frazzled based on what I think. As my parents used to say, "Joshua, you're not THAT important."

Fortunately, I don't put much stock into what other people think of me.

To each his/her own. I just find it interesting how quickly my reputation turns into mud. If I was "in bed with the university" why would I have written anything about the practice issue and suspensions of Ryan McCoy and Lamar Roberson this season? What about the suspensions of Derrick Smith, Seth Adams and Brent Burkhalter and eventual dismissals of Adams and Burkhalter? What about last year, when David Dees left the team and then later returned? What about the transfer of Elijah Millsap, who said his departure had to do with Lee?

I never said this was the perfect decision. Just said that I felt it was the lesser of two evils. And in case anyone cares, I sleep in a bed located in south Lafayette near Broussard, not at UL.

Like I've already said, I can handle the heat. Just surprised that it's getting incredibly personal. It's sad to see that some people can no longer just respectfully disagree with someone.

As for football, I travel on the team flight. To do so, we exchange advertising with the university. It's an even trade, and even if I disagreed I have no control over that decision.

Have a blessed day. _

1-did walker have influence on lee's changing course after his second year?
2-did lee (walker) knowingly put the entire athletic department in jeopardy, when they chose this path?
3-what is the guaranty that these players won't leave the program if lee stays?
4-why did it take so long to make this decision?
5-How many games won will give lee a new contract?
6-what does Lotief, Robe, and Bustle think about a bunch of 19 & 20 year old basketball players having this much influence over their teams postseason future.
7-How does walker think this decision will negatively impact the RCAF kickoff?

[Parrott]

1-did walker have influence on lee's changing course after his second year?
2-did lee (walker) knowingly put the entire athletic department in jeopardy, when they chose this path?
3-what is the guaranty that these players won't leave the program if lee stays?
4-why did it take so long to make this decision?
5-How many games won will give lee a new contract?
6-what does Lotief, Robe, and Bustle think about a bunch of 19 & 20 year old basketball players having this much influence over their teams postseason future.
7-How does walker think this decision will negatively impact the RCAF kickoff?

KACajun, in the time I've been here I've shown that I'm willing to ask tough questions and demand answers.

Look at Robe and baseball last spring.

Look at Bustle back in the fall.

Look at Lee during the open-door/closed-door practices and player issues this basketball season.

Just because I haven't touched on some of your questions yet doesn't mean I don't plan to. I think some of you forget that I'm also trying to cover baseball and other UL sports, too. There are only so many hours in a day. David Walker has been unavailable for comment for the past few days after this decision was made on Friday. He was out of the office before 3 p.m. Friday. Tough to do much else when he's gone home for the weekend.

This week offers a great chance for me to ask some of those tough questions. There are some questions I will ask until the answers are provided.

And cm'on, CajunBoudin. No need to call people cats in this thread.

[jazzpop]

While Parrot and others may turn out to be right that the university "...chose the lesser of two evils...", it is of real concern that UL seems to be in that kind of situation so often.
The available choices never seem to be between good and better, or right and wrong, but between bad and worse or, perhaps dumb and dumber. The thought process is always about the escape route after the train wreck has taken place, never about how to avoid the wreck in the first place. That's the core of the problem, reaction instead of initiative.
The current mess is symptomatic of the central issue, that the decision making process always seems to be behind the curve of events. I do believe that the Baldwin fiasco had
more effect than anyone is willing to admit. Could UL put itself in the position of firing two
black head coaches on the heals of that situation? A very serious consideration I should
think.

[CajunBoudin]

And cm'on, CajunBoudin. No need to call people cats in this thread. _

The problem I see is that there are no employees in sports who are strictly columnists. It's never a good thing when beat writers also have to do opinion pieces. Which is why UL has always had their salad tossed by the Advertiser.

I seriously doubt that you would have wrote "retaining Lee was a boneheaded decision" even if you thought that was the case. I also doubt that if you turned in a column that read like that you're editors would have published it.

Heck, let's cut to the chase. There's no Glenn Guilbeau-like guy for UL sports. Tiger fans hate Guilbeau and he doesn't care what they think. He basically rips Les Miles in every column he writes.

[Parrott]

The problem I see is that there are no employees in sports who are strictly columnists. It's never a good thing when beat writers also have to do opinion pieces. Which is why UL has always had their salad tossed by the Advertiser.

I seriously doubt that if you would have wrote "retaining Lee was a boneheaded decision" if you thought that was the case. I also doubt that if you turned in a column that read like that you're editors would have published it.

Heck, let's cut to the chase. There's no Glenn Guilbeau-like guy for UL sports. Tiger fans hate Guilbeau and he doesn't care what they think. He basically rips Les Miles in every column he writes.

I agree with you. I've always been a straight-down the middle reporter. Give the fact, show both sides to an issue and let the readers form their own opinions. It's tough to be a guy who covers a team day-in, day-out and always rip them the next day in a column.

Again, if anyone has noticed, I have written plenty of things voicing my frustration about some of my interaction with Lee.

But there's nothing I can do about the DA hiring a columnist. Feel free to donate money to make that happen, otherwise it probably never will. It's out of my hands.

At multiple times this season, I would have felt that bringing back Lee would have been a bad move. But at the end of the year, I stood back and evaluated multiple issues. And then I gave my opinion based on those facts.

And as for LSU fans hating Guilbeau because he doesn't care what they think? I don't care what UL fans think when it comes to doing my job and I'm obviously not afraid to share my feelings, regardless of whether it's popular. This situation is a perfect example because I could have taken the easy road and just followed the rest of the pack because most everyone else is doing it.

But I'm not that type of person. Never have and never will. Instead, I form my own opinions and am strong enough to take the heat afterward.

The funniest thing about this thread is that a couple people have resorted to name-calling. But I'm almost positive not one of you would ever call me those same names to my face.

In fact, I'd be shocked if that ever happened.