Al Groh - Help Us Help You

The state of UVa Football seemingly has been one of transition for the past several years. We are yet again in a true transition as members of the current staff exit and are replaced for the 2009 season. Maybe if for the same reasons that Barack Obama won the election I suspect that these moves will be well received. They represent significant change for a fan base was ready for change, any change that will give us hope that we can be consistently competitive with the top programs in the ACC. I am a hopeless Cavalier fan, no matter how frustrated I get, no matter how many times I am left with hanging expectations, I will always come back for more. There is always next year and with it hope for a better outcome. However I am worried about empty seats at Scott Stadium. I am concerned that the home field advantage is not what is was just a few years ago. I am worried about apathy setting in on this program like a thick fog.

So here are some suggestions Al Groh, help us help you improve the state of UVa football. The first point is going to be cathartic for me and seemingly negative, but a constructive suggestion nonetheless. It has to happen, this way there is too much pent up frustration that has to diffuse into space. Then we can move on with other more ideas that have nothing to do with the past but are all about the future of this program we love.

First off Al, stop with all the NFL program crap. We have heard it over and over and it does not resonate with the UVa fans. While there is less NFL-like garbage revolving around the program there is still too much. We are finally over the fiasco of building an NFL-type of defense around "jumbo athletes" who are too slow to keep pace with our competitors from VT, FSU, and others. The college game is a speed game. 6-7 270 pound kids are defensive ends in college not OLB's. I love watching Florida and LSU play football, they are all about speed. Get speed into the program and get it on the field in the right position. Always have someone on offense who is the fastest player on the field. Florida, LSU, WVa have won lot of games with this as part of their program. Also, dump the "one voice of the program" garbage let the fans see and hear from the staff. Help up build a relationship with these people. Help us like them and support them. These folks are professionals and if they cannot have a relationship with the media and the fans, then they are in the wrong job. As mentioned before, speed kills in this game, and if you do not have it, you get killed. Quit slotting players based on NFL potential. Vic Hall was a better high School QB than Ron Curry. He has been a pretty good CB for the past three years, which is a travesty. The fans want to win games at Scott stadium much more than they want to watch UVa graduates in the NFL. This is not an NFL program, don't run it like one, don't slot players like one. The fans hate it when you do and the results have not been stellar to date. I feel better, and hopefully that was was a constructive rant, though I know a rant when a write one.

Second, Al, I know you are a tireless worker. I suspect your staff is as well. Please spend great time and effort creating a visceral relationship between the fans and the program. That includes everyone in the program. We have some great coaches and great personalities that no one knows. We have some fantastic talent coming back next year. I want to hear about it. Go out on a limb, risk some locker room bulletin board material for next season, but tell us why we should be pumped about next year's team. Tell me how good of a defensive backfield we will have with Ras-I Dowling, Chase Minnefield, Chris Cook, Corey Mosely, Mike Parker etc. There is scary good talent back there. I want to hear just how freaking good they are. I want to hear that the staff is giddy about two total stud shutdown corners with a potential third all in the same backfield. I want to hear how good our running backs, and WR's can be next year. We all know the talent is there. Beat the drum, let us know that this is a program that can go places in 2009. Quit with the milk toast comments. Quit worrying about saying anything that could be construed as over the top. Go over the top, the fans are dying to support you and this program, just light the fuse and I promise we will make the noise for you.

I know you understand this about our fan base and out University. We have to run things differently at UVa. We do not want Apparel Management majors at UVa. We want student athletes. We want kids who will represent us and the University well. We understand that there are kids that are high academic risks at UVa. If you have to pass on those kids, pass on them. In fact, when in doubt, pass. We understand. We want it that way. However, if we are going to be the college football program that has kids who belong at UVa, make a big deal about it. Talk about it, sell it to the fans and the media. I think that when a players picture and bio is posted on the jumbotron, his major should be listed in bold and if he has a 3.0 gpa or better, that would be posted as well. If we are going to be the university of real student athletes, let's point it out every chance we get. It will not take long for the fan base to figure out that if only 3.0 gpa's are posted, and your GPA is not posted, then you must have one below 3.0. Who is going to want that known to the fan base? Create some competition on the team to go with public acknowledgment of how well these kids are doing in the classroom as well as the football field. Make a big deal about this. I want to hear about kids who graduate from this team who go to graduate school, become coaches/teachers, or go to work on Wall Street. Connect us with what UVa does especially well - graduate smart kids who do well in professioanl life.

Similar to the second point, tell us the stories of the kids in this program. I am not talking about stuff that is personal that should not be discussed, but I would bet that there are a dozen stories of kids on this team over coming obstacles, gutting out injuries, persevering through a family crisis that would warm the hearts of the fan base. Tell us the stories about these kids. Tell us why we should pack the stadium to cheer them on to victory, even against the longest of odds. Don't be so distant with your team and so closed with every tidbit of information. I promise that any bit of competitive advantage you may give up with this information will be returned many times over with loyalty and commitment from the fan base.

Al, everyone that supports this program is hungry for winning program. However, unlike many programs, style matters to UVa fans. We want to win the right way. Help us help you bring the results we all want by connecting yourself and your program with the fans. George W Bush is not the worst president in United States history. He is a man of deep convictions who has, by an objective measure, done many things right. However, he is one of the worst salesmen on the planet. He has no clue that packaging the message matters and that being right does not guarantee success. Don't make the same mistakes that "W" has made. The message and how it is packaged matters. Selling the program and all the personalities in it matters, especially to those who support this program with their checkbooks in addition to their time. Spend time letting us know that you care about the fans and how they feel. Make the connection between all this program has to offer and the fans. You do not have to change who you are, you do not have to be a back-slapper, joke telling glad hander. However, become outward facing. Let us know why you are as committed to these players as you clearly are. Help us be just as committed.

Back when the UVa program was giving FSU all it could handle at Scott Stadium, Bobby Bowden commented on time that no one talks about the game day atmosphere at UVa, but that when he was in town, UVa was as tough a place to play as any. Help us make that game day excitement the norm. Make us feel part of the program, part of the advantage, and part of what makes UVa special. You can do it, I am certain, but we need you out here creating those connections. We aren't watching the NFL because we don't care about it like we care about UVa.

Republicans Got What They Deserved

Now that the election results have settled in, one thing is clear as a bell, the Republicans got exactly what they deserved, especially those in congress. The republicans are supposed to be the party of small government and fiscal restraint. Let's just cut through that clutter and state that they failed miserably on both counts, and when performance is that bad, why should the Republicans have felt that they deserved more time to do what...more big government and big spending? Compounding their performance problem is an ethics hangover from the midterm elections. My expectation is that all elected officials should be of high character, not easily led astray by greed. Those expectations generally go unmet by representatives of both parties, however, the republicans, it seems to me, got fat and lazy in their short stay as the congressional majority. They exuded the type of cronyism that regular Americans detest. Several got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Their place as leaders of this nation, representing conservative, maybe ever libertarian values will have to be re-earned over time before they can be trusted with the car keys again.

To their credit, and most of this falls to President Bush, there has not been a terrorist attack since 9/11/01. This is no small feat. Many have tried and all have failed to bring terror back to our shores. Al Quaeda is a mess, almost all of their top brass are dead or in prison. Iraq is on the cusp of total victory, representing a toehold of democracy in a highly unstable region. Kudos to President Bush and the leadership in Congress for this success over time. Anyone who denies this success is simply a leftist zealot beyond reason.

However, as the economy crumbled, as the government largess grew, as cronyism became part of republican politics as usual, the victory of defending the country has become obscured. The republicans have only themselves to blame. The good will and political capital they could have banked over the past 4 years was vastly over drawn. Repairing the damage will take time. It will take years of doing the right thing. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd have given the republicans a nice start on the way back to good health through their "anyone but me" finger pointing on the Freddie and Fannie scandals. Obama and his gang have a pile of good will to spend over the next four years. It will be interesting to see if he can leverage it, or if Pelosi and Reid burn through it like....well, like republicans.

The New New Economy

Whatever happened to risk/reward? Assume some risk, take some chances, put up some capital, and reap the benefits, if they come. The higher the risk the greater the reward. That used to be the deal. Apparently not anymore. I think the equation is now something like, the more irresponsible the decision, the bigger the bailout.

If the government is going to backstop every failing business in the United States, then why do we need an equity market?

Is anyone else worried about the sustainability of the bailout frenzy? We are bailing out most large banks and strategic insurers. We are discussing a bailout for the US automakers, homeowners who borrowed too much money and credit card holders who cannot pay their bills. Just about everyone who is strapped for cash is apparently bailout-eligible. We can print all the money we want, it doesn't mean it will be worth anything. We can float all the bonds we want, but it does not mean that anyone will buy them. Anyone remember stag-flation?

Why can Toyota and Honda make money selling small cars and the Big 3 can't? Maybe the UAW has something to do with it. Maybe artificially high wages and rich benefits for life have something to do with it. The Big 3 will never be competitive until they get the UAW monkey off their backs, which means they will never be competitive.

Remember Eastern Airlines? Remember when the Union decided it would rather take the airline down rather than give in to management? When was the last time anyone was on an Eastern flight? The Union got their way and everyone lost. Organized labor has outlived its usefulness. It has been reduced to being a drag on the real economy and the icon of the new, new economy, where no one can fail, and and guarantees of guarantees result mediocrity at best and implosion at worst. Feel better? Me either.

Malcolm U. "Buck" Pitt...Thanks-a-Lot

I found out a few minutes ago that Malcolm U Pitt, Jr...aka "Buck" Pitt to anyone who ever was lucky enough to go to Camp Virginia, I found out that he died early this afternoon. I am not sure that Buck would want a lot of fan fare surrounding his death. I am not sure he would want to see a lot of downtrodden looks and despondent mourners. That was not his way. I think that second to my dad, Buck Pitt and his best pal Petey Jacobs had the most profound "adult" influences on my life to date. Buck and Petey, reinforced all the things my dad was trying to teach me about fair play, sportsmanship, doing the right thing even when no one is looking, humility, giving 100% all the time...and a host of other qualities that I still strive to fulfill. Buck Pitt was a living testament to all the things my dad was trying to teach me as a kid and as a young adult. He was 3rd party evidence that the qualities that mattered, did in fact exist in the world and they mattered more than I could imagine.

I am not expert on Buck's life by any stretch and there are many people who knew him far better than me. However, I was one of the lucky few who got to learn from him and see him live his life by the principals he held dear. He came from a generation that took care of business. They did not talk a lot, they didn't have to. Buck let his actions speak for themselves. He was not a self promoter and was always happy to let others take center stage, yet he was always there, supporting, teaching, listening. Buck came from a generation that believed in hard, clean competition. While I never saw him play, I know that on the football field Buck Pitt would knock your lights out with a clean hit during a play, and then help you up and tell you "nice play". He played hard, he played to win, and he played by the rules. His victory was not to be interpreted as your defeat. While I know he wanted to win on the athletic field as badly as anyone who ever played sports, he also did not want have his victory leave his opponent feeling like someone who lost.

Winning was important to Buck Pitt, but the way you played the game mattered more. The world needs more Buck Pitts and Petey Jacobs. While I fear we may not find many more like them, I am heartened by knowing that there are thousands like me who were privileged to know them. They taught many of us the right way to compete, on the sports field and in life.

"When the great scorer comes to mark against your name, he writes not if you won or lost, but how you played the game." I doubt a lot of people have heard this message before, and even fewer heed its call. I know where I learned it. I know who lived it. I am sorry we lost him but eternally grateful to have known him.

Buck Pitt, for what you did to help me and thousands like me, Thanks-a-Lot, we can never repay the debt, but are better for having it.

An Obama Victory and the Economy

I want to be on the record a week prior to the election. This election looks like it is going to tilt in favor of Barack Obama and the democrats. It looks like we are simply haggling over how big of a majority the democrats will hold in both houses of the legislature and whether or not pusillanimous, left-wing, ninnies like Al Franken will be swept into office along with Obama.

What I want on the record is....I will bet what is left of my entire portfolio, which is not a very big bet any more, that as soon as Barack Obama is in office, and maybe even right after the election, the tone of the economic news will change, and change dramatically. The tide of economic bad news washing over the working folks in this country will begin to subside and miraculously, the the economy will cease to be the worst since the Hoover administration. We have seen this in the past. Almost immediately after Bill Clinton won election, the economy that at the time was the worst sice the depression according to the press, was suddenly out of recession and the "economy stupid" which propelled Clinton to victory was on the road to recovery. To his credit, and with the help of the republican victories in 1994, Clinton stayed out of the way of the economy and enjoyed a rising economic tide for the vast majority of his administration.

Part of me is looking forward to an Obama victory so the hourly bludgeoning of our economy by the mainstream press can abate. Obama and his buddies are going to get a tremendous head start on getting the economy back on track from the press. Negative stories will fall from the headlines and hopefully the general feeling of economic helplessness will begin to recede. However, my fear, and candidly my expectation, is that an Obama administration along with a big majority in Congress will tax the producers in the country to the point of breaking. There is no way that rational and motivated producers in this economy can stand the barrage of income redistribution that is headed their way.

Let's enjoy the rays of media sunshine after the Obama victory. I suspect that it will be the eye of the hurricane. Once Team Obama unravels the capitalist fabric of this nation, it will take years, maybe generations to repair. Mark those words too.

Global Warming...Life's Little luxury

It is funny how global warming has dropped off the front pages of the paper like the value my of now meager portfolio. It seems to me that if the threat of global warming was killing polar bears as we speak, if we were less than ten years away from irreversible global doom, if the rising tides were going to wash across the streets of Manhattan, then shouldn't the global warming alarm be sounding just as loud when the Dow is at 9,000 as it is when the Dow is at 14,000? The alarmists seem to have been pushed not just below the fold, but off the pages altogether. Maybe global warming isn't quite as bad when people are more worried about the mortgage than the polar caps. Never mind the data that show the oceans actually cooled over the past few years...that never stopped the global alarmists. But the Dow dropping into the tank, now we have something a little more pressing to occupy our time.

I guess when $ 4.00 coffee at Starbuck's is no longer an affordable luxury, global warming isn't either. Maybe Al Gore is too busy trying to figure out to recoup his losses to blab on about his latest weird science. If nothing else I hope he is bawling out Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for being asleep at the switch. I guess he lost more in any given day than I did over the past month. When you have that much at stake, the polar bears are probably better swimmers than we thought.

"The Wealth" versus "Your Wealth" Obama doesn't know the Difference

Whether or not one favors or opposes Barack Obama there are things about the senator that are undeniable. Senator Obama makes very few mistakes on the campaign trail. He chooses his words very carefully, and he means what he says. So when Senator Obama tells a plumber in Ohio that "when we share the wealth everyone is better off" there is no doubt in my mind that he means what he says and believes in his heart that if we share the wealth we will all be better off. The problem with Mr. Obama's statement is that he refers to "the" wealth, as though wealth were a public asset, like federal parks, public waterways, and interstate highways. I guess this view of wealth as a public trust should not come as a surprise when one considers that Barack Obama has never worked in the private sector of our economy, the part that creates wealth. He has always worked in the part of the economy that relies on the wealth created by others. If Obama understood how wealth is created, he would have rephrased his comment to state "when we share your wealth everyone is better off". That would have been an accurate statement to Mr. Plumber from Ohio, but I am pretty sure that is something that Obama does not understand.

If I figured out a way to hack into Warren Buffet's account at Berkshire Hathaway and took $ 100M and gave them to the most destitute in the Richmond area, I would be a thief and should go to jail. However if Barack Obama and his tax and spend pals in congress decide to take 50% more of the money I earn on a monthly basis and give it the most destitute in Richmond, it is called "sharing the wealth". Maybe Obama and his Ivy League friends can explain the difference to me, because I can't see it. Obama meant what he said to that plumber, he just said it in an way that demonstrates his lack of understanding of free market capitalism. He is going to spread the wealth, yours, mine, and that plumber's. If Obama is going to pick my pocket, I wish he at least understood what it was he was really doing.

Liberal Democrats and Celebrities...Dumb and Dumber

Some people can throw a baseball 95 mph. Some people can hit a golf ball 350 years with a high degree of accuracy. Others can run faster than the wind blows. These people's talents result in unequal outcomes in terms of their ability to perform in the professional sports business. As a result people with these talents earn salaries and bonuses that make them among the richest people on Earth. Some people are smart. Some people work very long hours and sacrifice pleasure for the sake of their work. Other people are very effective leaders and motivational communicators. These people are often successful in "the real world". They have jobs and do things better than their competition in the market. These people are called "the rich" by demagoging liberals. For some reason equal opportunity and equal rights to liberal democrats, including the likely next president, means that results in income and wealth should be as close to equal as possible. We should share the wealth. I am at a loss for words when our next president and the rank and file of his party are essentially socialists, who, in an effort to ensure their political power, work tirelessly to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those who have not. Some people are smart. Others are not. There is very little correlation between being one of the smart people and being a member of the US Congress. In fact, many of these people are either dumber than the average dolphin or they are so blinded by ideology and the lust for their own power that they will say anything and do anything, no matter how moronic. Very sad times for the pathetic state of our leadership...or lack of leadership.

It would be funny if it were not so sad that celebrities confirm all that most normal and thoughtful people think of them...that they are self absorbed, shallow stooges who should keep their mouths shut when they are not reading a script, singing a song , or chatting mindlessly in the privacy of their own homes. It is kind of sad when people think you are an imbecile, it is really sad when you prove it every time you open you mouth to comment on topics which you do not have the mental capacity to understand. When we want a celebrity to comment on the root cause of the financial crisis and the viability of the proposed solutions, we will ask...in the mean time, chomp on your tofu, count the shoes in your closet, and ponder the ramifications of next year's hem lines. Leave thinking to people who are equipped to do it.

Barney Frank & Barney Fife - What's the Difference

If anyone has listened to Barney Frank recently and at the same time watched the meltdown of the financial system, one can't help but think that barney Frank is about as effective as a member and now leader of the House Finance Committee as Barney Fife was as deputy sheriff of Maybury. Neither Barney's had the slightest idea how to do their jobs, neither had the gumption to admit their shortcomings. and when times got tough Barney Fife tended to shoot his pistol off in his holster. Barney Frank shoots his mouth off and makes himself look as silly as his alter ego. The biggest difference between these two is tat Barney Fife's incompetence is intentional and makes us laugh. Barney Frank's incompetence is a result of his blind partisanship and makes us poorer. America loved Barney Fife. Americans who understand the financial crisis in America loathe Barney Frank. Frank has earned the nation's ire. He was asleep at the switch as his pet projects Fannie and Freddie crumbled taking the US financial system with them. Frank blames everyone else for his failings. Does anyone wonder why no one respects the US Congress. Barney Frank is leading the move to the bottom of the barrel, and he is the only one in the country too obtuse not see the obvious. What a loser, how can this guy still be in congress, he is a disgrace to us all.

Washington Observations & Suggestions

It looks to me like Barack Obama will be the next president. If I could tell Obama just one thing, it would be to remember that no country has ever taxed its way back to prosperity...never happened never will. My biggest fear is that he will be obligated to the left-wing socialist wing of the democratic party - the folks that hate corporations, that hate profits, that hate people who are successful and who have never held a job that requires business acumen. I am fearful that his obligation to them will force his hand to tax the people who make our economy work, at a time when the economy is in its most fragile state in 75 years. His plans for tax increases will wreck the economy with 100% certainty.

It is amazing, or pathetic, that Barney Frank has red ink all over his blubber-laden body, but according to his self absorbed rants he has no responsibility whatsoever for the financial crisis. It is truly remarkable that the chairman of the house finance committee could be either so irrelevant or so weak that he has had no hand in financial affairs for the past two years. If he did not wear the stench of rotting investment portfolios slaughtered directly or indirectly by the Freddie and Fannie failures, he might have a shred of credibility, but he does, so he doesn't. What a putz. He has no clue his "who me? the other guy did all the bad stuff, I did all the good stuff" attitude is why most of America despises the current members of congress.

I was so disgusted to see that the members house of the representatives were admittedly swayed in the vote for the financial bailout package by the upcoming elections. Huh....maybe they could just vote for what is right, what is best for the country, not what is best for their election chances.

Does anyone in the mainstream media understand that this crisis is not a failure of capitalism, but rather further evidence that central planning from well-intentioned do-gooders? If banks are coerced to lend to people who cannot possibly repay their loans....why is anyone surprised when they don't? Sometimes these liberal elitists who want to appear so so smart, do things that are so so dumb.