Is Jeff Long the worst AD in the country?

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In football, he tried to hire Jim Grobe and Tommy Bowden.

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Think of all the bad hires Mal Moore had, before he finally got it right. True, probation in the early part of the decade didn't help. Timing wasn't great for some of the hires either, but he still made some bad choices. Heck, there were even rumors right before Saban was hired that Mal was in Miami after Grobe or Petrino (Orange Bowl).

There weren't many people who thought firing Moore was a real possibility, however, almost every Alabama fan was hoping Moore would decide to retire. But then he hired Saban and all is well again (he's also vastly improved facilities and in my opinion, hired great basketball and baseball coaches in the past year).

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Was there a big outrage to fire Moore before Saban?

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You better believe there was. After the botched Rich Rod thing (looks good now), and rumors of Grobe, Tommy Bowden, and Petrino, most Alabama fans felt that if he didn't come back with Saban, Moore might as well fly on to Cuba. He was hiring for his job, basically.

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I still have no clue why Shula was hired.

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Because Mike Price was fired in May of 2003, after his stripper ordeal.

I didn't say nobody wanted him out, in fact I said just about everybody wanted him out. The problem though was that realistically there was no way he'd be fired. That's why I said everybody was hoping he'd step aside.

I, also, disagree. Sure, I wish he could pull a magic trick but the Razorback Foundation is reeling from the Houston Nutt payout. If the finances were in better shape, we'd have likely fired Pel AND Willy Robinson by now.

Getting Petrino might have been pure luck...a case of right place/right time. But Jim Grobe would have been a good hire, IMO. And if Petrino hadn't taken the job Will Muschamp was going to. I think he would have been a great hire given his passion and familiarity with the SEC.

I have no problem with the ticket price increases for FOOTBALL. Arkansas fans have been getting it easy compared to our contemporaries for years. I think it's brilliant that he's charging an extra $10/seat for the LR games. That ALMOST makes up for the money we lose there if not more. Should have been done YEARS ago. That's a simple case of supply and demand. LR tickets are as inelastic as any we'll ever sell.

Now for basketball? I don't think we can afford, given the struggles of that program, to alienate fans by raising prices. I think they've driven season ticket holders lower than they've been in a long time. One more year without improvement from Pel and it's going to get ugly from an attendance standpoint, IMO.

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Not at all. But he wasn't what our program needed at the time.

We needed an "exciting" hire. Jim Grobe, good coach or not, was not exciting.

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So you are taking coaching hiring tips from Paul Finebaum.

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So you are taking coaching hiring tips from Paul Finebaum.

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I don't listen to Finebaum

Our situation was unique, though. I'd say literally 50% of our entire fanbase were "darksiders". We had the planes, the banners, the cell phone records, the t-shirts, etc. It was just one big mess.

We needed a hire that could bring the fan base back together more than anything. The casual fan wasn't really aware who Jim Grobe was. Everyone knew about Petrino, though.

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How much money do we lose per LR game? 1 million?

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I actually think it's more than $1MM. I wanna say it was closer to 2.

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Everyone knew about Petrino, though.

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Because of what he did to the Falcons. And ESPN crucifying him for it.



But Finebaum said that Notre Dame also needed an "exciting" hire, instead of hiring a great football coach. It is idiotic statements like that which prove he knows nothing about sports.