3) Evaluate all aspects of the program.We have completed a year long evaluation of every department and every aspect of our program. I made no changes in the support staff on our arrival, although it was my right to do so (Prince sounds like a spoiled child with the last part of this sentence. They’re my toys and I can do with them as I please!!!!! Arrogant and pompous.). I did not want to come in and fire everyone with no chance to evaluate their abilities. I'm glad that we waited. (Huh? Prince has ostensibly fired the majority of his support staff because they failed to perform. Why is he happy he kept a bunch of poor performers around for an extra year?)We have terrific people in the support staff who are working hard and dedicated to excellence and they too will be highly sought after. Unfortunately, we discovered some who are not and will not. I will not go into the specifics of some of those evaluations but we have some of the very best people I have ever been around in some areas and unfortunately in other areas the performances has (Should be “have”. Not scary smart grammar by Prince) been so low for so long (Indicts Snyder for poor personnel management) that change must be made.I am evaluated on the performance of this organization on whole and on game day. We are committed to being the best organization in college football. Period. I need people who will support me in that mission. Good enough never is. (Pretty phrase that is meaningless psycho-babble, in addition to being pompous) The standards have been raised by the last 18 yrs and everyone in our organization must perform his/her job for us to win. (Another bone of praise thrown in Snyder’s direction)Every aspect of the program contributes to winning and we can not accept a refusal to perform, lack of performance nor any underminding (Should be “undermining”. Not scary smart spelling.) of the program on any level. For example, we inherited a team, last December (Should be “December”. Not scary smart capitalization), in which 43 of the 85 scholarship players were on academic warning.(Indicts Snyder for academics. Also I question to appropriateness of releasing this sort of information to the public, not matter how small and important the intended group of recipients is) Meaning, if they had a repeat performance in the classroom, they could be lost, and certainly not graduate.(Point of order. I flunked out of college twice. Not only did I graduate, I now have a MBA. I do not, however, own my own business……) Compound this with the players who had the football skills to finish last (Really nice job throwing what are now his players under the bus. At least he didn’t throw Snyder under the bus on this one, he decided to place the blame squarely on the shoulders of his players for sucking. Nice.), for two straight years and we only had ONE player on the entire team that I could promote for any scholar-athlete award. Those are facts. Changes were going to be necessary for us to survive immediately but also to look parents in-the-eye for the recruitment of their sons. I'm proud to report, that this december (Should be “December”. Not scary smart capitalization), we had 6 players with a 4.0 gpa and 32 players OVER a 3.0gpa. (Okay, any way you cut this, it is REALLY bad. The first possible interpretation is that Prince is manipulating the hell out of the numbers. At the top of this paragraph he basically states the 42 kids were doing okay academically, i.e. not on warning. 42 is more than 32 or 38, so there may have been zero change in academic performance for those 42 and Prince is just taking credit for it. The second way to interpret this sentence is that almost 50% of the team improved their GPA by somewhere between 1 and 2 full points. I don’t care how you change work habits, when you have that many students have that big a jump, there is probably some very serious academic fraud going on) Those 32 were named to the Big 12 commissioner's Honor Roll. On a team that finished 2nd in the north division in our first year! Had we not been willing to change, we may not have been able to win a single game because so many players may have been lost. I very proud of everyone associated with the academic support aspect because they were able, willing & excited to face the brutal truth and look for ways to reach our goals.4) Set the standards & demand compliance to them.I know how "change-adverse" we are in this part of the country (I'm from here) but throughout our program, we have addressed similar issues. We have seen vast improvement (Define improvement. In this context, merely change, whether for good or bad, can be defined as improvement) and in other areas we have met with resistance, coupled with a lack of performance.Many people outside of the organization do not know the importance of some positions and what they entail these days because of what those roles may sounded like when they were in high school or college many years ago. (Translation: Prince knows everything, you people know nothing. Another pompous pronouncement) Everything we do is important and we have taken an entire year to evaluate the job performance of everyone.Many people believed that there would only now be one successful period of K-State football. In fact, most of them, didn't believe there would ever be a successful period. (This is either more lazy/sloppy writing, which I have my money on, or a telling insight into where Prince perceives the problem. Per this sentence, the problem people are those who were involved or around the program before the early 90s. In other words, the administrators and alumni who have been around long enough to build up either influence or enough cash to guarantee influence.) Most of them are quick to remind me, how awful K-State was in football not so long ago. I know! I was here! (Really? I was not aware Junction City was a suburb of Manhattan. I’m also pretty sure Dodge City CC and Appalachian State are not satellite campuses of KSU.) Who would want to go back to those "low moments" and "low expectations", not me. Many of these people are refered (Should be “referred”. Not scary smart spelling) to in the title of Bill Snyder's book, "They said it couldn't be done."I reject such negativity, just as Bill Snyder did in 1988. (One more bone of praise to Snyder. I’m sure Snyder’s cup runeth over after that compliment) I will not submit to it and will not allow it in this organization. Change is uncomfortable for some, I understand that. However, I'm asking that you look at the last 14 months and as change occurs, use the body-of-work to compare it against. People in this organization are expected and excited to perform, bottom-line.The 1982 Independence Bowl trophy was not on display with all the others until we arrived. We will honor the past but will not live in it. (Another empty and meaningless, but nevertheless, pompous, pronouncement)5) Plan and expect to winWe are in the middle of our strategic planning phase for the upcoming year right now. These 6 weeks after signing date but before spring practice are the most important during the year. It is during this time we must decide who we will pursue (specifically) for next year and in concept what recruits our systems need in subsequent years. We will decide on the tactics and strategies that we will implement for next season now, so we have the time to train, develop, practice those methods that will help us win next year.That kind of specific planning and detail of agenda allows us to do a couple of things.One) our coaches to research all of the possible scenarios that could come up with on our opponents (All of the possible scenarios? More pompous poppycock. If he all likely, that would be reasonable, but that’s not good enough fro Prince. He has to make sure you know he’s the best, even when what he’s claiming is flat out impossible) and to compare notes with many of our colleagues who might encounter the same. Two) allow our players to train and develop the specific skills (So are Prince and staff violating NCAA rules, or is Prince just trying to make conditioning sound as grandiose as possible? Not even Prince is scary smart enough to be that blatant about violating NCAA rules, so I’m gonna chalk this one up to pompousity) they need so we do not waste time. For example, we were so out of shape last year, we could not sustain the tempo of a single practice and we fell further behind the competition as many of our players failed our basic conditioning test! It took us mid-way thru the year to "catch-up" and we lost some valuable training and therefore game-winning opportunities. (Game winning opportunities? Every game K-State lost was by double digits, with the smallest margin of loss being 14 and the average margin of loss being 19. Any game they had an opportunity to win, they won, which is a credit to Prince. However, that does give lie to his statement that conditioning, or, in Prince-speak, lack of skill development, let “opportunities” slip away.) That will not happen this season.I have never been more excited about a team or season in my career as a player or coach. I continue to tell recruits and coaches that K-State is the best coaching job in the country for the following reasons and I'm determined to win at the highest level here because of the following:One) we have a small (ouch) but loyal fan base that demonstrates its love for K-State around every turn. 32K at last yrs spring game-never done before. (No mention of the fact that the Spring game was little more than a side event for an all day carnival and bar-b-que cook off) 30K at this year's bowl game-has become the standard. 50k at every home game and unbelievable support for road games. This includes our student body!Two) we have the best administration in the country. They have invested their time and efforts to help recruit and support these student-athletes & coaches like no other place in the country. Rutgers, Marshall and others consistently point to the Jon Wefald, Kansas State model for university success. (No, they point to Wefald as the model of university negligence, as he consistently ignores the academics side of his job to play around in K-State athletics.)Three) Big 12 divisional play. We are so fortunate to have geographical division play in our conference. We have a chance each year to compete for the north division title. By winning that game, you are invited to the BCS tournament. (BCS tournament?!?!?!? Does this guy even know what planet he’s on?) That is our mission. We are putting our team together from a talent and make-up stand point to accomplish this.>Four) we can attract terrific players to Manhattan/K-State. This game is about people and their relationships (Interesting confession considering Prince burns bridges faster than a pyromaniac with a tanker truck full of gas and a pocket full of matches) with each other, bottom line. Talented players from high school and junior college have come here (under the previous administration) and there is a reputation nation-wide for the expectation of excellence here. The kids that are in high school do not recall the dreary old days of failure, thank goodness. They don't fear, they don't despair. (This is Prince admonishing the recipients of the e-mail for fearing and despairing at his actions. Little men, put your trust in Ron Prince. He knows all. Only a little bit pompous…..) They know K-State as a nationally respected football program. Everyone they encounter must represent that when they visit.In conclusion, surely there are some that would like to see us fail. One group would be those that support our competitors' programs. I get that, it makes sense to me. Others may like to us fail for a variety of other reasons that are difficult to pin-down, be wary of those. (Again, another shot at the recipients of the e-mail. The very act of questioning Prince’s actions means that they want K-State to fail. Pompous) However, there so many who want us and need us to succeed that we must stay focused on those individuals. we (Should be “We”. Not scary smart capitalization) have a plan (As does every other football team in the country, even those with 2-10 records), we are demanding (as is almost every other program in the country), we have integrity (Insinuation that other programs lack integrity), we are fair and we will continue to succeed.Thank you for your time.Go State!Ron PrinceHead Football CoachKansas State University
If he all likely, that would be reasonable, but that’s not good enough fro Prince.
This is my favorite "NJHawkRedux-ism"QuoteIf he all likely, that would be reasonable, but that’s not good enough fro Prince.
