Considering that San Diego State University has one of the finer business schools in the country, it's perhaps fitting that a highly teachable episode of mismanagement occurred on campus last fall and apparently led to the removal of Chuck Long as head coach of the football team. This could serve as a great "how not to" lesson, in case management professors believe that students won't be able to relate to General Motors.
According to Friday's edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune, former offensive lineman Lance Louis, apparently annoyed by being poked with a stick by safety Nick Sandford, later came up from behind and attacked his then-teammate in an athletic building meeting room, injuring him enough to require hospitalization. The article said that Louis went ahead and played the Aztecs final three games, as Long tried to handle the matter internally and protect Louis' chances to move on to professional football. When Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel found out about the incident and aftermath two weeks later, that's when he went to school President Stephen Weber with the recommendation that Long be fired, the article read.
There are so many problems that come out of this episode. Remember that SDSU was mired in an injury-plagued 2-10 season and was getting absolutely crushed by teams both good and mediocre. The preparation for the season and individual games by the coaching staff was some of the worst I've seen in my decades of watching college football.
An attack like this shows two things:
1. Morale among the players must have been horrible. Even in a losing season, Louis must have recognized that he had NFL potential (and is now in the Bears training camp), which should have given him light at the end of the tunnel. That he didn't see it and studiously avoid confrontation, even if provoked, is a sign of how bad things must have been in the locker room.
2. The coaches completely lost control of the players, and the players had no respect for the coaching staff. When you have a group of 100 people in close proximity nearly year-round, things are going to happen. Guys will confront each other somewhere, usually after drinking, throw some punches, and teammates will break it up. Happens. Not in a meeting room of the athletic administration building. No way.
Clearly, Long had a problem and should have taken it to higher-ups. I understand his reasoning in wanting to cut Louis a break. The kid suffered a terrible injury early in his career and spent the last two seasons playing out of position, sacrificing himself for the good of the team. You want someone like that to leave school with a chance for a career, not as a criminal. He should have gone right to Schemmel and incorporated his concern for Louis into a plan of action.
I think that the ultimate blame goes to Schemmel, who supported Long through all the horrible losses until he learned about the alleged assault. It's his job to determine how well things are going for any Aztecs team, and for him to back Long and completely miss the inner turmoil among the football players is absolutely inexcusable. I've never thought much of him as an athletic director, was not surprised when Weber led the effort to fire Long, and I now think that Schemmel needs to go, too.
The bottom line for management students: you have to draw the line in the sand early. I have a hard time believing the alleged assault came out of nowhere. As a manager, coach, administrator, you have to recognize problems in their early stages and solve them immediately or they will snowball. Enterprises go bad, God knows we've seen that in the current economy. The big wigs in the failing entities still have to maintain some discipline, amongst themselves and their employees. Frustration needs to be taken out elsewhere, in some other manner. Respect has to be maintained and recognition has to be made that despite everyone's best efforts, sometimes the best-laid plans don't work. If you're in middle management and a situation is spiraling out of control, you take it to upper management. You can't hide the problem, you'll be found out. If you're in upper management, your focus can't just be on the one level below you. You have to go all the way to ground level and see how life is for the line employees. Taking interest in their welfare doesn't mean you're passing up middle management. Eyes open, all the time. It's called diligence.
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No surprise that they brought in a disciplinarian like Brady Hoke, huh?
And also, congrats to Sandford for staying the course for his senior year. I don't know whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, but the easy thing would have been to leave and point fingers at everybody. Not only is he back, but he won a starting role in the new rover position in defensive coordinator Rocky Long's 3-3-5 scheme.
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I can't tell you how thrilled I am that Chula Vista's Park View Little League baseball team made it to the Western Regionals this week. There was so much excitement from recent Little League World Series appearances by Oceanside and Vista, and the anticipation of Solana Beach making it to the regional final, that I'm glad we're able to experience it again. My own son has played LL ball the past two years, and I find those games and the kids far more interesting than major league ball. Good luck.
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Kyle Banks sucks! There's the dose of karma, go have a big weekend.
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