Brad Edwards Named New Athletic Director

[Harry]

I have been one of the big football cheerleaders in the past, but I agree with the poster who said, essentially "let's get our house in order before we start on on a new wing for it".

I'd love to see Mason football, and would be a season ticket holder, but I'd settle for a well run basketball program, and competent other sports.

At the risk of turning this thread into a football discussion, it would be fun to revisit a similar discussion from many years ago. I think that a good barometer of interest, and the related capacity for fundraising, would be to look into having people put down refundable season ticket deposits (the deposits could go into an interest-bearing account, or not). This was done for MLB in Washington.

We could at least take a straw poll in the Masonhoops (ironic) boards. As I said many years ago, I would be more than happy to put my money into a refundable season ticket account (sponsored by the school, with or without interest). And there were quite a few others too.

 

[Patriotfan49]

We hired the celtics coach!?! Yes!

Brad Stevens is not equal to Brad Edwards.

 

[Vurbel]

Brad Stevens is not equal to Brad Edwards.

My bad. Got my Brads mixed up. If I were a lesser poster I would use the fact I'm posting from my hospital bed as an excuse.

 

[masonjoe]

My bad Five two, read it too fast. I hope he cleans house change is needed.

 

[Five Two]

My bad Five two, read it too fast. I hope he cleans house change is needed.

no worries. I wanted to focus on the staff as I figure we have beat a dead horse on coaching changes.........

 

[Patriotfan49]

My bad. Got my Brads mixed up. If I were a lesser poster I would use the fact I'm posting from my hospital bed as an excuse.

Thats a terrible excuse, next time dont bother until you have a real one!

 

[Portlandian]

Please please men's lax and women's field hockey

 

[Pikapppatri8]

I just so happy to see a competent and coherent approach toward an athletics from the administration. The fact Cabrera was involved in the media release shows the door to the AD has been moved to the front porch of the University.

Regardless of what will happen over the next few months...this one simple fact will keep me happy at my desk with my pants down and smilng.


Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[masonjoe]

Please please men's lax and women's field hockey

Really?

 

[gmujim92]

I just so happy to see a competent and coherent approach toward an athletics from the administration. The fact Cabrera was involved in the media release shows the door to the AD has been moved to the front porch of the University.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

For all the great things he did for the university, Mason's overall athletic program was never going to be anything better than just OK while Merten was at the helm.

Cabrera is a breath of fresh air, a guy who understands that athletics and academics can (and do, at many universities) co-exist for the benefit of both and the growth of our terrific school.

Adding Edwards, another youngish administrator with a background as a professional athlete and track record for making rain, is just what we needed.

Mason has been content to be a sleeping giant for too long. Time to wake the F up and start wrecking stuff in the A-10, bitches.

 

[Son-of-a-Gunston]

Cabrera clearly understands the value and leverage that a successful athletics program brings to strengthen the University's brand. With Mr. Edward's business background, I'm sure he has the same commitment in mind.

Building and managing a strong brand is a task that many managers overlook and don't have an inkling as to how to do it. Cabrera and Edwards appear to be on top of it.

 

[dr. gunnie]

The best take I've heard so far on the hire was from a fellow poster via email:

"It reminds me of the type of hire vcu would make."

 

[gmujim92]

The best take I've heard so far on the hire was from a fellow poster via email:

"It reminds me of the type of hire vcu would make."

That's about right.

Now all we need is to hire the type of coach vcu would hire, and we'll be set.

Sorry, gotta go wipe the vomit off my keyboard. Can't believe I just posted that.

 

[933127]

Hopefully I don't get panned real bad when everybody reads what I have to say.

First of all a football program at Mason would definately be a plus. But it probably won't be until another five years before the school gets serious and perhaps build a stadium of some sort.

Here's some things to keep in mind. A bad/losing football program is usually more costly than a bad/losing basketball program. Football fields/stadiums make no revenue once the season is over. Basketball arenas before, during, and after basketball season continue to make revenue off of concerts, and other stage performances (like when Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey comes to Mason every March-May and make parking lot A smell like elephant and horse poop).

Maintenance costs for basketball arenas cost less than football fields/stadiums. It takes much longer to create a sucessful football program than basketball. For a football program to become successful you need to start out as a non DIV. I program and work your way up to a FBS program. Then go from FBS to BCS program. This can take many decades and many seasons of losing seasons and no money being made/loss. Then you got to make it to the BCS national championship bowl game or one of the major bowl games like the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, etc.

In basketball you don't need to win the whole NCAA tournament to make headlines and gain brand recognition of your school. All you need to do is make the NCAA as often as you can, and make it to at least the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Look at FGCU or Davidson. Both did not make Final 4. But FGCU in particular got tons of more students to come to thier school and got several new buildings just by making it to Sweet 16.

Brad Edwards is a good hire, but I think the school needs to get the basketball program back into shape again before even thinking about football. Very few schools that have both a football and basketball program have both of them doing real well. Usually one suffers and other is sucessful or semi decent at best. Another thing to think about.

 

[GMUgemini]

A few things:

I wish we'd stop comparing ourselves to vcu, it makes us look lesser than them. And as an institution, we are not lesser than vcu.

I don't disagree about football. But I think it's a more viable option than people seem to make it out to be (and underestimate this country's appetite for college football).

 

[Vurbel]

A few things:

I wish we'd stop comparing ourselves to vcu, it makes us look lesser than them. And as an institution, we are not lesser than vcu.

I think the comparison is strictly athletically. We have the same enrollment (technically, we near them by 100 students) and were both public universities in Virginia. Athletically, we can only compare ourselves to non football schools, because that changes everything once you add it (see ODU, jmu). If Richmond was public and didn't have football we'd be comparing them against us.

 

[gmujim92]

I think the comparison is strictly athletically. We have the same enrollment (technically, we near them by 100 students) and were both public universities in Virginia. Athletically, we can only compare ourselves to non football schools, because that changes everything once you add it (see ODU, jmu). If Richmond was public and didn't have football we'd be comparing them against us.

Not to mention, they have a track record of successfully identifying and hiring young assistant coaches on the way up.

It makes me nauseous to compliment anything vcu does, but now that they've made a commitment to paying a coach enough to keep him around for more than 2-3 years, they've laid a blueprint that every school like ours should aspire to.

Obviously it's easier said than done. But if you can find a young, aggressive, charismatic guy who can connect with kids, then pay him and provide him with the infrastructure and tools to recruit top 50-100 talent, you can build a program capable of making the NCAA tournament on an annual basis.

Larranaga proved it was possible for a mid-major to get to the Final Four. Smart picked up the baton and took it to the next level, proving it was possible for a non-football school (other than Gonzaga) to act like a power program on and off the court.

There is absolutely zero reason why we can't do the same damn thing.

 

[Washingtonian]

http://www.insidenova.com/sports/pr...cle_04e35d8a-ea79-11e3-8664-001a4bcf887a.html
“Mason has a history of success in Division I athletics, and this appointment shows we are committed to building on that tradition,” Cabrera said. “Brad Edwards is the kind of leader that exemplifies our innovative spirit, and we are proud to welcome him to Mason Nation.”

Edwards, who has served as athletic director at Jacksonville University since 2012, replaces Tom O’Connor, who announced his retirement in March after 20 years with the Patriots and 40 years in NCAA Division I athletics.

He will be introduced during a news conference on June 9 and will officially start work July 1, 2014.

 

[KAOriginal]

Good to see Cabrera keep the "innovative" angle in this hire.

Merten/OConnor= "old school"

Cabrera/Edwards= "un-old schoolish"

 

[Enforcer]

Well done, Cabrera. Initially, looking at his track record - Edwards is a solid choice.