Should Milton Overton leave?

jones682

Should Milton Overton leave? IMHO I never was a fan of him.

bb_fan

I'm not a fan of MO, but I support his decision to maintain financial responsibilty and not overpay AAR just to ensure he sticks around.

I have more respect for him today than I did yesterday.

Having said that, I still don't think he was a good hire in the first place. But he has done nothing wrong re AAR that warrants his removal.

Wingman

Let’s be a little more specific about what we like and don’t like. I will start:

Overton hired AAR. Not what I would have done but it worked out. This season was a blast. It took some patience but the end result was better than I expected.

He also hired Ryan Coe for baseball and we went to the NCAA tourney in his first year.

He replaced the track coach (not sure what happened there) but since then we have had 2 individual field champions and a runner who has made the NCAA finals several times.

I have introduced myself to him and chatted with him at basketball games. He is very personable.

Where I think he could have improved: it seems like it took him too long to decide upon and finalize the basketball coach (AAR). He should have had a facilities plan ready share when CUSA was announced (several others have pointed this out).

Overall I say keep him but interested in what grievances others have to air.

I don’t fault him for not keeping AAR. He simply does not have the budget for that.

KingOwlLegacy

I am concerned with the aspects of Overton and the department that we are not seeing as outsiders.

jones682

KingOwlLegacy Does it have to do with facilities?

jones682

[unknown] Does it have to do with facilities?

KingOwlLegacy

jones682 no. The department is allegedly a poorly run mess at the AD level

naqvi

I think Milton Overton wants to leave for a new opportunity at a P5 school, the way his LinkedIn profile is written clues to such. Building up his resume in preparation for a P5, one thing that will hurt him though, not re-signing AAR to a major contract. MO had not capitalized on the Atlanta Corporate donors, Atlanta has a big financial base, GT knows that, among other schools, KSU hasn't embraced that yet fully.

AD needs to be fundraiser in Chief in today's world. I am also disappointed in the Foundation, they have the resources, they have to capitalize on it.

Kmase14

naqvi one thing that will hurt him is he sucks at his job……..

TMac1325

So, I still want to hear why Overton is suddenly public enemy number 1 among KSU people. Do we judge an AD on the unprecedented success of the Athletic Department, or by unsubstantiated rumors? I mean seriously, this is the guy that hired AAR, hired Coe, managed to keep Bo when GA Southern offered him twice as much money, and somehow helped get us invited to an FBS conference when other schools that have been playing football for 50-100 years, have more/better facilities, and bigger fanbases we're all dying for that opportunity.

If there is some big issue with Overton, I would like to know what it is, other than rumor.

jones682

TMac1325 It does not matter if they have been playing football for over 100 years. PC has been playing football for over 100 years and look at them. There is not too many FCS schools in the Southeast or within C-USA's footprint that have better facilities then KSU or has the athletic budget as KSU. In fact I think that KSU has the highest athletic FCS budget in the southeast.

I think It is the lack of communication and the fact that he as been there 6 years and has not built a new facility or started on a capital project. He is not even telling the fan base what is goin on. He mentioned that there would be a press conference regarding the move to C-USA but that was 7 months ago. If he cannot communicate with fans, he probably cannot communicate with donors, Cobb County or the Corporations. The reality is know one knows what he is doing and he as been there 6 years and have not built a thing. You can only wait so long. Also Olens hired him and Olens did not know what he was doing as KSU's president.

Overton also had NCAA financial issues and other issues at his last school FAMU. This is not a roast Overton thread but we cannot overlook the these issue if we want to be good in the FBS and sometimes we are doing it as a fanbase. We think below ourselves and down our selves. The reality is KSU is not a small school, our budget is a budget of an average C-USA school as a FCS school, We played weak teams as a FCS program with a budget over double our opponents, We need a new stadium because the current one is not maintained well, we need a new baseball stadium, we live in Cobb county which is one of the richest counties in Georgia, We have Corporations, Cobb County and yet we cannot get them to sponsor us for a new stadium/Football Training Facility or even tried. Hell we have 5/3 Bank and Well Star. This all goes back to the main issues I have with Overton and that is communication and the maintaining of current facilities. 5/3 Bank Stadium and the sounding area looks bad and junky. This are facts and we can not over look this.

bb_fan

Members of fan sites such as this hate the AD when they don't back the Brinks truck up and pay whatever the basketball/football/whatever coach wants in order to stay. Overton showed financial responsibility by not overspending. If you like AAR you should realize that Overton gave him an extension last year that quite frankly AAR did not deserve at the time. I have no issues with the way Overton handled AAR these last few weeks. And I'm no fan of the Overton hire.

TMac1325

My only issues with Overton at the moment are fundraising and communication. I want to hear about a massive fundraising campaign to get facilities where they need to be, and I want him to communicate what the plan actually will be..

Overton should be bothering the hell out of Cobb County and surrounding area corporations on a near daily basis.

Kmase14

Yeah, my biggest complaint is fundraising. We’re moving to CUSA which should bring in some extra money but we need more money to be able to compete. I haven’t seen a campaign like many schools do, or big sponsors rolling in.

I get the transition will take time, but it’s gonna be even longer with no money.

Things I’d like to see fundraising wise -

1 - big push for more corporate sponsors.
2 - big alumni fundraising campaign.
3 - better ticket campaigns. I thought that young alumni plan was a great idea a couple years back for football, but want to see more and more getting fans locked in long term to create buy in. Locking in a ticket price this year for season tix get you same price for next year for a bigger conference type of thing. Etc.
like for football - “hey this year is gonna suck, but if you buy season tix this year, you lock in that price for the next x amount of years when we play better teams and tix wil cost more”.

That or SOMETHING.

KingOwl

The title of this thread should be "Should Milton Overton make like a tree?"