Excellent read


SUjagTILLiDIE

SUjagTILLiDIE

Well-Known Member
BY SCOTT HOTARD
Advocate sportswriter
Southern falls behind in championship chase


July 06, 2013
0 COMMENTS
Charles McClelland had the toughest assignment in the Southwestern Athletic Conference when the Prairie View grad was named athletic director at his alma mater in 2001.

Though just 29 and with a background in accounting, his mission was to turn around an athletic department that long had been the laughingstock of the SWAC.

McClelland figured his best bet was to look 300 miles east, to a Southern University program that treated the conference’s athletic fields like its own personal playground.

“When I became the athletic director at Prairie View, Southern was on top,â€￾ said McClelland, who has spent the past five years as AD at Texas Southern. “Not only were they winning, they had the attitude to go with it. They knew they were going to win. So I really looked in-depth at what Southern was doing in order to try to elevate Prairie View.â€￾

http://theadvocate.com/sports/6436718-128/southern-falls-behind-in-championship
 
Just so everyone one knows Greg LaFleur took over SU athletics in 2004. It took us a bit to recover, but 2013 is the return to Dominance :) .
 



Sandy Pugh, the interim AD before Broussard’s arrival. “I think there was a time right after Floyd Kerr left that we didn’t do that. We just got really stagnant.”

lafleur killed the athletic department. its so bad no one even mentions his name in the article. there was an artic;e that was posted here a couple of weeks ago on how his arrest in houston helped him reunite with his son. in it he cried about how he lost his job. cry me a river lafleur!!! what you want southern to do rehire you so they can fire you the correct way the next day? he complains how he cant get another job in college athletics because of what happened. he is to stuck up to realize that he is a HORRIBLE a.d. remember texas terror tried to warn us about him. he set back texas states athletic department several years. he should find some other line of work after southern gives him his money.
 
We've been saying this all along. This article is years late. Your open-enrollment and extra programs that other schools didn't have were the reasons su won the Commissioners cup for so long.
And may I add, you had Pete (with his quality assistants), come in at the right time.
All of that is gone now and doesn't seem like it will return for quite some time, if ever again.

LOL@ "Grambling and Southern becoming the Harvard of the SWAC".:smh:
 
dcpsujag said:
Sandy Pugh, the interim AD before Broussard’s arrival. “I think there was a time right after Floyd Kerr left that we didn’t do that. We just got really stagnant.”

lafleur killed the athletic department. its so bad no one even mentions his name in the article. there was an artic;e that was posted here a couple of weeks ago on how his arrest in houston helped him reunite with his son. in it he cried about how he lost his job. cry me a river lafleur!!! what you want southern to do rehire you so they can fire you the correct way the next day? he complains how he cant get another job in college athletics because of what happened. he is to stuck up to realize that he is a HORRIBLE a.d. remember texas terror tried to warn us about him. he set back texas states athletic department several years. he should find some other line of work after southern gives him his money.
Click to expand...

Finally, an admittance that the man was done wrong.
 
Good Article. Marino Casem had it right. Most of it came from people above Le Fleur. Le Fleur was just a patsy.... but some folks were talking about how SU would be all right with ole this or that ruinnin things. Things got worse. Like the article said, the main problem has been selective admissions, budget cuts and APR. Grambling has suffered more than Southern.
 
Great read.

I think it's easy to blame Greg LaFleur for Southern's fall from grace. As the article said, there was a confluence of things that contributed - higher admission standards, APR, fewer students, lower game attendance, state budget cuts, other SWAC schools becoming more competitive - and Greg LaFleur was in the middle of all that.

I'm not saying he didn't contribute also, but I think it's unfair to say that he "killed" the program. I think any AD would have struggled to handle all of those things successfully and keep the program on top.

Thankfully, now there seems to be a clear vision in place and a concerted effort being made to move back toward the top of the conference.
 
SUJagFan said:
Great read.

I think it's easy to blame Greg LaFleur for Southern's fall from grace. As the article said, there was a confluence of things that contributed - higher admission standards, APR, fewer students, lower game attendance, state budget cuts, other SWAC schools becoming more competitive - and Greg LaFleur was in the middle of all that.

I'm not saying he didn't contribute also, but I think it's unfair to say that he "killed" the program. I think any AD would have struggled to handle all of those things successfully and keep the program on top.

Thankfully, now there seems to be a clear vision in place and a concerted effort being made to move back toward the top of the conference.
Click to expand...

i agree with you on that, however do you think that the blow to our athletic department would have been the same or worse if kerr was still A.D. ?
 
Wait, what? Is this really a joke?

bobcatfan06 said:
SU is a bunch of fools. I wish I knew how to post that picture that floats around BF.com of LaFleur playing the tuba at LSU. I remember how right after he got fired from Texas State he was working at his wife's sandwhich shop and I asked him where his boy Matsakis (ex-football coach that got fired along with LaFleur for NCAA violations) was. He didn't think it was very funny and I have never stepped foot in there again.
Click to expand...

SU, you all hired someone that was working at his wife's sandwich shop? Fixing po-boys? Putting extra salad dressing on shrimp sandwiches?
 
dcpsujag said:
i agree with you on that, however do you think that the blow to our athletic department would have been the same or worse if kerr was still A.D. ?
Click to expand...

I agree with you, it would have been a lesser impact with Kerr. However, there still would have been an impact. Admission standards, APR, budget cuts, other schools spending 40% more money ... all of that stuff would still be tough to overcome.

Think about this, even with LaFleur, Southern still suffered less than Grambling - the other SWAC school in the state that had to go through the same thing. Just as recently as last week they were having financial and athletic administration drama. Southern may not have gotten through it unscathed, but I think Southern is in the better position today and has the people in place that would allow a return to prominence. It's just a matter of getting it done. Keeping in mind the lessons of the past.
 



SUJagFan said:
I agree with you, it would have been a lesser impact with Kerr. However, there still would have been an impact. Admission standards, APR, budget cuts, other schools spending 40% more money ... all of that stuff would still be tough to overcome.

Think about this, even with LaFleur, Southern still suffered less than Grambling - the other SWAC school in the state that had to go through the same thing. Just as recently as last week they were having financial and athletic administration drama. Southern may not have gotten through it unscathed, but I think Southern is in the better position today and has the people in place that would allow a return to prominence. It's just a matter of getting it done. Keeping in mind the lessons of the past.
Click to expand...
If Kerr was there we wouldnt have had APR issues or had been in such bad financial shape. LaFleur never serviced the accounts from the score board. According to Kerr that was 2 million yearly that SU lost out on.
 
dcpsujag said:
Sandy Pugh, the interim AD before Broussard’s arrival. “I think there was a time right after Floyd Kerr left that we didn’t do that. We just got really stagnant.”

lafleur killed the athletic department. its so bad no one even mentions his name in the article. there was an artic;e that was posted here a couple of weeks ago on how his arrest in houston helped him reunite with his son. in it he cried about how he lost his job. cry me a river lafleur!!! what you want southern to do rehire you so they can fire you the correct way the next day? he complains how he cant get another job in college athletics because of what happened. he is to stuck up to realize that he is a HORRIBLE a.d. remember texas terror tried to warn us about him. he set back texas states athletic department several years. he should find some other line of work after southern gives him his money.
Click to expand...
I don't see LaFleur getting any money. That got a whole bunch of shat on him.
 
No one wants to comment on the dismissal of Kerr. Wonder why?
This was the start of SU's downfall, not higher admission requirements.
The administration knew of the new requirements.
Dr. Jackson's decisions were also a part of SU's downfall starting with his basketball hire.
Pay Lefleur and let him go, it's call cutting your loses.
 
thegooddoctor said:
No one wants to comment on the dismissal of Kerr. Wonder why?
This was the start of SU's downfall, not higher admission requirements.
The administration knew of the new requirements.
Dr. Jackson's decisions were also a part of SU's downfall starting with his basketball hire.
Click to expand...
I agree, But again I don't see LaFleur getting any money, from the info I received.
 
thegooddoctor said:
No one wants to comment on the dismissal of Kerr. Wonder why?
This was the start of SU's downfall, not higher admission requirements.
The administration knew of the new requirements.
Dr. Jackson's decisions were also a part of SU's downfall starting with his basketball hire.
Pay Lefleur and let him go, it's call cutting your loses.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

If folks had stuff on LaFleur worthy of dismissal, they should have fired him for that before he went to Houston. But, they didn't. So, whatever they claim to have on him is irrelevant.

Dude's gonna get paid. Might as well get ready for it.

I agree with thegooddoctor. Time to cut losses and move on.
 
SUJagFan said:
Agreed.

If folks had stuff on LaFleur worthy of dismissal, they should have fired him for that before he went to Houston. But, they didn't. So, whatever they claim to have on him is irrelevant.

Dude's gonna get paid. Might as well get ready for it.

I agree with thegooddoctor. Time to cut losses and move on.
Click to expand...

You do know they tried to fire him several times. Dude had protection from high up. After that incident his protection from high up sent word to fire him imediately, and sent folks to confiscate his computer amongst other things. If I'm not mistaken SU let the AG handle the situation.
 
SUjagTILLiDIE said:
You do know they tried to fire him several times. Dude had protection from high up. After that incident his protection from high up sent word to fire him imediately, and sent folks to confiscate his computer amongst other things. If I'm not mistaken SU let the AG handle the situation.
Click to expand...

Well, protection from higher up made a couple of errors in judgment. Because that's not how you do things. Letting the AG handle it - another error in judgment. And it kind of sounds like the stuff they had on him ... irrelevant ... as I said.

Better hope protection from higher up has a judge in his pocket. Otherwise, Greg LaFleur is getting paid.
 
SUJagFan said:
Well, protection from higher up made a couple of errors in judgment. Because that's not how you do things. Letting the AG handle it - another error in judgment. And it kind of sounds like the stuff they had on him ... irrelevant ... as I said.

Better hope protection from higher up has a judge in his pocket. Otherwise, Greg LaFleur is getting paid.
Click to expand...
We shall see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top