Your Wish List for Patterson

[texasforever]

Disregarding all personnel decisions, as I don't want this thread to be a retread of topics discussed ad nauseam, what are your top 3 (or 5) "wish list" moves that Patterson makes over the next several years? Mine would be:

1. Get A&M back on the schedule in as many sports as possible. Many of us love college athletics because of the passion and the rivalries, and I think it's a shame we only have one rival on the schedule right now. Hurts the fans, the players, and at the end of the day, the pocketbook.

2. Figure out the conference situation. I'm not sure what the correct answer is here, but our current conference affiliation is a joke. The Big 12 is mediocre to poor across the board. The other major conferences are ALL better than us in basketball, baseball (besides the Big 10), football, and academics. If it were me, I'd try for the SEC but am aware that is likely not an option.

3. Redo the South Endzone. Make a lower bowl with suites or a club level above it. Godzillatron can go above that. As part of this reconstruction, take out the Rec Center and convert the area just south of the stadium into state-of-the-art practice facilities for football.

4. This breaks my personnel decision rule, but I'd love to see Randa Ryan take over academics for football. What she has done with the basketball team is borderline miraculous, and I'd love to see her improve our football team's current APR/graduation rate. Our university is on-par with the Notre Dames, Northwesterns, and Stanfords of the world, but they have lapped us in graduation rates.

 

[ZoomAir34]

Dr. Pepper and better nachos at the stadium.

 

[SFlonghorngirl]

Definitely agree with you on conference affiliation. Big 12 is a dying conference. Texas is much better than this. My personal preference would be Pac 12 and then ACC.

 

[Irish in SEC country]

Disregarding all personnel decisions, as I don't want this thread to be a retread of topics discussed ad nauseam, what are your top 3 (or 5) "wish list" moves that Patterson makes over the next several years? Mine would be:
1. Get A&M back on the schedule in as many sports as possible. Many of us love college athletics because of the passion and the rivalries, and I think it's a shame we only have one rival on the schedule right now. Hurts the fans, the players, and at the end of the day, the pocketbook.

2. Figure out the conference situation. I'm not sure what the correct answer is here, but our current conference affiliation is a joke. The Big 12 is mediocre to poor across the board. The other major conferences are ALL better than us in basketball, baseball (besides the Big 10), football, and academics. If it were me, I'd try for the SEC but am aware that is likely not an option.

3. Redo the South Endzone. Make a lower bowl with suites or a club level above it. Godzillatron can go above that. As part of this reconstruction, take out the Rec Center and convert the area just south of the stadium into state-of-the-art practice facilities for football.

4. This breaks my personnel decision rule, but I'd love to see Randa Ryan take over academics for football. What she has done with the basketball team is borderline miraculous, and I'd love to see her improve our football team's current APR/graduation rate. Our university is on-par with the Notre Dames, Northwesterns, and Stanfords of the world, but they have lapped us in graduation rates.

I just started a thread after reading an SI story that says A&M does not want to resume playing Texas. So your #1 may never be possible. The Aggies think they have it too good to bother with Texas.

Your #2 is definitely an issue the university must address before too long. But any decision will be made by people higher than an AD.

As I have said elsewhere here, the A&M move to the SEC has changed the dynamics for Texas and the what is left of the Big 12. It may be that Texas needs to leave the Big 12 behind. And if that is the case, then Texas has 4 options: ACC, Big Ten, Pac, SEC. I do think Texas is so valuable that any A&M objection would be overruled by the rest of the SEC.

Maybe its just me being a Notre Dame fan, but I think the best thing for Texas football if it leaves the Big 12 is to pair with ND. Texas-ND played annually would become bigger than the Red River Rivalry or Alabama v. Auburn or even ND v. SC.

 

[DougNTexas]

On Number 1, I hope we never ever play them again.. They road out on us in a huff. Screw the horse they rode out on. I hope we once again make the Big Three relevant once again, and that we get The Longhorn Network on a national carried.

 

[theknighttrain]

If the ags don't wanna play us so bad anymore, why they still "tagging" our campus? Little spray-painting devilpunks.

 

[texasforever]

Completely understand the anti-ags game sentiment. Growing up with that game makes it tough to see it die. I just know what that game means to me, my family, and many of my friends (on both sides of it) and I'd love to see it come back. I don't think it will happen anytime soon unfortunately.

 

[Chitownhorn]

I would love to see a better relationship built with the main Texas sports boards, IT,OB & Hornsports. Provide interviews, insights and access to various players from all sports so the boards can profile Texas athletes and teams. There are thousands of Texas fans on these forums every day who want nothing more than strong Texas athletic teams.

 

[UTK66]

Strongly disagree on #1.

F@#K aggy.

 

[Pancho Negro]

To your #1: No thanks.

 

[Brasky]

No way A&M wants us back on their schedule. They cannot compete with us on a level playing field (see history of everything). The SEC gave them an Ace in the hole and losing to us every year would negate that advantage. Furthermore, the little brother complex was very literally driving them insane and while they've traded in their penis envy for penis stroking (all things SEC of course but in particular their sudden affection for the accomplishments of other schools) they are probably a much healthier bunch.

I think our best option is independent in football and ACC everything else. That would be incredible. I hope that is on Patterson's desk and priority 1 or 2.

 

[monarch]

1. Let us conclude the extreme vs desperate practice of "begging" aggie. Texas, should never allow for itself to become a national laughingstock.

2. Conference realignment issues shall need to become a top priority. Because essentially speaking, Big XII Conference issues vs problems, can easily be viewed as the "origins" and / or instability vs issues, regarding the LHN.

3. Continue to repair the overall "culture vs traditions" of how we are cultivating prospective recruits heading to Texas. I for one think that this shall start with the installation of a "new" Sports Information Director (SID).

4. Place an immediate "halt" to the profound practice of stationing the "Longhorn Band" among the "SEZ Bleacher Seats". (Who thought of this stupid idea) didn't they realize, that when they decided to arbitrarily move the band from it main "sideline" seating area, that it ultimately "altered" the overall game experience. Whereby, reducing the overall fan spirit interaction. This is why is seems "so quiet" at times during certain interval of our football games. The Longhorn Band is too far out of reach. (The aggie band sits upon the sidelines with their fans)

5. Let's go forward with Steve Patterson's "novel" concept, of placing the proposed new Tezas Basketball Arena in Downtown Austin. Can you just imagine the revenue source making it's way back into the Longhorn coffers. (A simply outstanding approach)

6. PLEASE MAKE CERTAIN, that when Texas is hereby ready to go forward as per the (SEZ) expansion, that it is hereby designed / constructed, upon the most stringent and "state of the art concepts" imagineable. This completed stadium, shall need to be a "masterpiece". Should it not exceed all standards.... aggie, shall use any design flaws, as an excuse to gain momentum with recruits. (aggie, is doing everything that they can to ensure, that they have the best collegiate stadium in Texas).

 

[DocHorn]

Aggy is on a high right now, but I suspect they will go back to being Aggy after a few yrs of SEC mediocrity.

Then , over time, the series will likely resume.

 

[TheContractor]

My wish list for Patterson.

1.Clean Belmont. Not talking about coaches but Belmont is rotted from the inside and i want him to, with a lot of detail, clean Belmont from top to bottom, inside out.

2.Figure out future scheduling. What do we need to do in the new Playoff system. will sos be a factor(i hope so).

3.Basketball stadium

4.New and better facilities for football and other sports that need it.

5.Football stadium south endzone, etc.

6.We do need to improve our graduation rates and be in the realm of Stanford, NW, ND.

7.Keep a close eye on whats going on with conference realignment. Will we be forced to add 2 teams? If so this jumps from #7 to #2. With the GOR in place, i doubt we can do anything in the next 10 years but to figure out what the next step might be and to see if something needs to be done sooner than 2024. I believe that Deloss, by not adding the right teams, signed the death warrant for the Big 12, though it will take 10+ years for it to actually go away.

Note:the Texas-Texas Aggie game will eventually played again but there is no rush. A few more years and you know they will want to play us, regardless of what they say now during the highest point in Aggie football for anyone who can still read this.

 

[HookemDTX]

UT needs to go independent and truly take the LHN and brand where it needs to be.

 

[Black Scholes]

F* no on #1. Which I'm sure means we'll see them in a bowl.

B12 is an afterthought. Keep OU as a non-conf and let's move on. P12? SEC?

 

[exped]

The Pac 12, even though it has drawbacks, would, long term be a good choice for UT. The demographics for that conf are going to be amazing.

Like the Randa Ryan idea as well. Davis is one of Mack's boys and has had plenty of missteps. That whole group needs to be 'reworked', including Ms Bryant.

Then there's S&C and MD. Where do we start? I have a feeling Bennie is the real deal but is hamstrung by the 'admin' of MD. Another case of foundation rot.

 

[SlickStreet]

some well reasoned thoughts, OP. Having said that, until we get a sterling, aggressive HC, I don't really think it benefits us to play a&m right now. We'll see how this shakes out, but they opted to leave shortly after agreeing to stay in the Big 12 with us, and IMO--despite what they "claim" about not needing Texas--it's to their advantage more to play us than vice-versa. That may not seem true at the moment with them being on the upswing and us struggling the last few years, but overall it is a huge plus to them to be able to play us, both for recruiting and for their prestige.

By them joining the SEC, they'll also gradually be more and more apt to bend/break rules in order to leverage their on-field effectiveness, while we possibly remain "sterile" in the interest of "fair play." That puts the playing field at an imbalanced level, IMO, and them playing us is a win-win for them, not so much for us, interest in rivalry rebirth aside.

 

[betogonzalez]

1. Get Mack Brown out (fire him, forced retirement, whatever...just get him out as HC)

2. Fire Rick Barnes

3. Fire Augie Garrido

4. Go Independent in football and align ourselves with ACC or PAC 12 for all other sports.

5. Expand SEZ