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Leadership and Lack of It
AndersonDawg
✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
Fifty years ago my sorry butt was halfway through a tour in Vietnam. I saw firsthand excellent, average and poor leaders. Football coaches fall into the same mold. Examples of leaders I would “follow into battle” are Kirby Smart, Mark Richt, Vince Dooley and Erk Russell. They would put the mission and the welfare of their troops first. Examples of leaders I would not want to “follow into battle” are Urban Meyer, Jimbo Fisher and Dan Mullen. Urban and Jimbo would put themselves above the safety of their troops, while Dan would lead you unwittingly into an ambush.
I would not let my child go to a school where unethical people like Urban and Jimbo were in charge nor where a nitwit like Dan was in charge. I hope the parents of our prospective athletes consider this when helping their children make their decisions.
I’m off my soapbox now.
Comments
It's a good soapbox and I totally agree.
As we enter the summer months, leaders on our team - those molded by our staff - should emerge. It’s part of being a leader: training younger leaders. Who do you see stepping forward? I have no inside knowledge, so any name would be a guess for me.
@AndersonDawg First, thanks for your service. Second, your post is the best post I have ever seen on Dawgnation forums. Good leadership is the most important thing whether it is football, a school, business or government. I completely agree with who you chose as good leaders and bad leaders. And, I have seen my share of good and bad leaders in public education and in politics - my two careers.
As I said in another post that caused many on these forums to completely disregard everything I said (sad for them), I am a liberal. But, one of the best leaders I ever worked for was a Republican Congressman whose office I worked in. Loved him. Sherwood Boehlert was his name. I would go to the end of the world for him because he was a great person and a great leader. Leadership matters.
What bothers me is when folks don't recognize great or bad leadership because of loyalty or allegiance. I believe Smart will be coach for a long, long time at UGA. But whenever he is not, if Georgia hires a bad leader along the lines of Mullen or Meyer or even Pruitt, I hope that Dawg fans don't blindly defend him because he coaches the Dawgs. We have to demand good leadership, and we have to understand that allegiance does not mean defending bad leadership. Loyalty to UGA should compel us to not accept a deutsche bag even if he has a great winning record.
Would of definitely followed them when I was in the Mekong @AndersonDawg great post....
That clip that came out with Kirby ready to go eat I was ready to strap on a hat and run some routes
We are lacking good leaders in an area beyond football. I'll leave it at that.
Hope some team leadership emerges this year like 2017. Its important for us to get to where we want to be at year's end
I disagree on your examples of poor leadership. It is yet to be determined if Dan Mullen is a good or bad leader. He is definitely a goofball, but that might be okay in the end. Will his players get in trouble? Will they go on to become productive citizens? What impact will he have on his player’s lives? Football does involve some off the field gamesmanship, and that’s what we are getting from cousin eddie toward UGA. It’s our loyalty to Georgia that makes someone view him as a bad leader, but he was successful at Miss St and I don’t recall many problems in their program while he was there. Or maybe I’ve missed something Has he sone more than just upset Georgia fans?
Some people drink alcohol excessively and do drugs even though they know doing so is bad for their health. Maybe Urban Meyer has jumped in and out of jobs “for health reasons” because the stress of coaching really does break him down, but he loves coaching and can’t help thinking “I can control this. It will be different this time.”
Good leaders do make mistakes, and sometimes miss a problem that then spirals out of control. The optics were bad, but I think that’s what happened with his assistant coach. The guy wasn’t an important enough contributor to Meyer’s program for him to “protect” him the way it appeared from the outside looking in. I also don’t think he thought Aaron Hernandez was a homocidal maniac. That said, you don’t accomplish the things that Urban Meyer has accomplished if you aren’t one helluva great leader.
Every leader has their share of bad apples when they have as many people following them as these coaches.
When I see our players getting arrested it makes me question Kirby’s leadership.
Agree on Mullen.
Disagree strongly on Urban. His past shows how little character he really has
Bama never seems to lack leadership from year to year, care to speculate why that is ?
Leadership begins at the top. I think programs that end up hoping leadership will emerge among the current roster is lacking something from it's HC. I see great signs from Kirby but does he have what it takes to build a perennial power, or will he be reliant on player/leaders from year to year ?
I think he has staying power, but only time can really answer that question.
I don't question Kirby's ability to lead the program. He can't be responsible for every kid on his team every waking moment; even parents can't do that. Since the last arrests (Cox and Beal?), have you heard anything bad coming out of Athens in regards to players? Mistakes were made, and it seems they were dealt with. Same thing with the recruiting director; mistakes were made, and appropriate action was taken.
I do somewhat disagree about Mullen being a bad leader, he's just trying to stir the pot. He comes across as a fool, but like you said, MSU was run fairly well as a program considering their limited resources compared to the big boys in the SEC. If he keeps losing and keeps talking, I might change my stance on that.
That’s a different issue. You don’t generally get elected POTUS if you aren’t able to lead a large army of people (Dubyah being the exception), but only someone of blind loyalty would say Bill Clinton has good character. You can also be a good leader and have lots of people disagree with your decisions.
My point being that I wouldn’t follow Urban knowing his character. I’d know he only cared about himself and would throw me under the bus if it saved his skin
Good leaders are not always morally sound individuals. I.e. Hitler
successful individuals are not always morally sound. I.e. Jeff beezos
winners aren’t always morally sound.
there are very few major college football head coaches who aren’t great leaders.
If and when my son were ever to be recruited to play ball the question I would have to ask myself is, “can I live with this guys moral compass?”
Urban wouldn’t get a passing grade on that question.
Yes. And being lectured on leadership by a fan of a program that employed Danny Ford is a bit silly too.