LSUChicageaux

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Interesting fellow.

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THANK YOU SIR

Unless you mean that in a weird way, in which case THANK YOU SIR

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The Trough was must read! Dosn't LSU Chicageaux post here?

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Every once in a while.

A turdonkillo.

An armadillo inside of a donkey. You’d think the first beast was turkey but no it’s turd.

Smeared with a paste made of deviled ham, Durkee’s, and Lawrey’s - Delta Dust.

Yes - I still have it somewhere.

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The Boss Move in Oxford next week...

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Nope. Opening drive, first play: punt.

Dare them to do anything.

Maybe also smear dog poop on any handles.

I was there for nearly 8 years. Lived largely North Shore (just N of Wrigley), spent most time between Wrigleyville, Edgewater, Andersonville, Evanston area. It wasn't L.A. and it wasn't D.C. or NY.

Great food everywhere, from everywhere. Incredible architecture, which I really miss, especially on brownstones and old buildings tucked between major thoroughfares. Added real charm even to crappy places.

Fantastic museums, music venues, and generally decent L service made it a great place to be young-ish with some income. I enjoyed being able to walk anywhere and everywhere, from pharmacy to dry cleaners to grocery.

Chicago winters make you appreciate Louisiana summers, and lush green foliage in general.

I only had brushes with crime a few times (stolen car, theft, violence down the block), and really felt pretty safe except the one time I nearly ran out of gas on South Side. Old fella practically escorted me to safety a few blocks north.

As soon as a baby came into the picture it became far less charming. But overall a fine town, and consider it a formative place (hence the name).

Yep. There literally aren’t enough 18yo or “customers” who could or would go to UA. Football powered the brand nationally. Alabama has to spend money on kids not just because they can (and maybe couldn’t at one point) but because they have to…that doesn’t mean all the other schools shouldn’t either, it “just means more” because it’s existential. The school will close unless they throw money.

The demographics don’t favor any colleges but LSU seems to have weathered it, still seeing 50k+ applications annually.

Dat’s me too, cher.

You raise something I’ve thought and thought about for a long time as someone who loves LA and home.

I tried to describe it once as having a chip on our collective shoulders, but it’s airbrushed and only moves when someone says we can’t throw a good party.

It’s an insistence on stupidly fighting stupid battles with no appreciation that there’s even a war we could win. See chip, shoulder.

Maybe it’s being proud to be from a place, not of a place.

I’m just waxing philosophical, which is different than philosophical waxing.

I don't think there are many professional experiences that prepare you for the job of this kind, even in higher ed. Being a "university president" is close, but not quite it.

I think "educator + researcher + fundraiser turned administrator turned lobbyist turned organizational enabler turned visionary founder turned evangelist" is the closest description.

The scale of the entire enterprise is enormous. From the HSCs to the Ag Center extension offices to the facilities and campuses and athletics and the fundraising and the students and their parents and the alums and the donors and the Board and the state and national policies and politics.

Just in BR, there are 3-4 "campuses" (individual units) alone: A&M, Law, Ag Center, and PBRC. Just A&M has 40k students, 1500 faculty, and 5000 staff - and that's one campus. It's a massive regional and state employer, but it's not really thought of that way.

In short, it's a wild job.

GOOD LUCK SABAN

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National optics are horrendous right now

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The line between provincialism and charm gets blurry here…

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Remember when you could come here and talk about LSU sports? Good times.

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To be fair, it *was* a place to talk about LSU sports and not explicitly the Governor until he began talking about and explicitly involving himself into LSU leadership and sports, thus inextricably linking the two, at least for the foreseeable future.

So we can debate the merits and impacts of those arrangements, but it ain’t going away until those dynamics change.

I would argue the firestorm of stuff isn’t really Kelly or Woodward or the next HC - it’s those dynamics. Again debate whether they are good or bad but one thing they are most certainly not is normal.