Under Skip we were hitting on all cylinders in all sports. Now, we just seem to be getting hit. It's true noone stays on top all the time, we all get that. But I think we all know, like it or not, our program has taken a step backwards. What's it gonna take to get us back to the top? I know very little about this AD, except that he came from Duke. Hmm...!twocrystals!
some good back ground info and articles in this thread.... http://www.tigerforums.com/tigers-den/70274-alleva-new-ad.html lets just say i still dont like him. i think he would throw his own mother under the bus if he thought it would benefit him.
Alleva's only made one hire in Trent Johnson, and after only 2 seasons it's way too early to tell how that will work out for LSU. With that said, even if you accept the idea that LSU has somehow "taken a step back", remember that it's happened under the watch of almost all the same coaches that Skip hired, who were also responsible for a lot of the good times. I'd say it's just too early to tell at this point. We'll get a feel for how good an AD Alleva really is soon enough if Les' teams continue to underwhelm and he has to make the tough decision when his contract comes up for renewal.
The success of an AD depends on the success of his coaching hires. Way to early to tell what kind of an AD we have.
not really. how he works with coaches already here can tell us what we have. his actions towards the programs can tell us what we have. his actions that directly effect fans can tell us what we have.
i think it's pretty clear that alleva doesn't really care that much about LSU -- it's a career move. skip, on the other hand, was an LSU guy and i know of NO ONE that worked as hard as he did with fund raising and PR. skip couldn't do enough to help LSU and was a true ambassador of LSU. i don't get nearly the same vibes from joe.
It's too soon to tell. AD's aren't responsible for poor team play, they are responsible for making money and personnel decisions. So far Aleva has made money and his only major hire seems to be on track. No blunders at all, so far. Skip was great but not perfect. He blundered badly with the Smoke hire. He blundered again by running off track coach Pat Henry who has now taken A&M to the top of the track world. He did that by paying rookie women's basketball coach Pokey Chapman more than Henry who had 15 national championships. Now we don't have either one of them. Still, Skip was a very successful AD. He made money, improved facilities greatly, and his other hires worked out well. I don't think Aleva is an "LSU guy" and won't stay here long, but so far he has done his job as far as I can see. Dan Radakovich was being groomed to be AD and he would have been perfect, but Skip kept delaying retirement and Radakovich found some greener pastures at Georgia Tech. He could likely be gotten back when we need to make a change.
Alleva's a really nice guy, I got to watch some TV with him in Hodges a couple years back while he was waiting to go on air. He had just gotten to LSU so of course people were asking him a lot of questions. I got the impression that he is more interested in the business aspect of the job than Skip was, and will run the athletic department accordingly. Most of what he talked about when I was in the room with him was about money, exposure, fundraising, attendance, marketing, etc. I like him as an AD so far, and I'm sure he's going to make LSU lots of money, but I don't think he'll see the same on-field success as Coach Bertman. I think he'll be satisfied with a clean program that competes for championships every now and then but always does well at the gate.
i always wondered why we didn't go after radakovich harder. but wasn't it like just a yr or two since he'd been at GT? don't remember. either way if this is just a career move for alleva i'm sure the chance for us to hire away radakovich will present itself again eventually.
