I don’t think the players or the coach particularly care about playoffs or championships. They are assembling 100 guys looking for a last best stop to build or rehab their personal brand and highlight reel to hopefully get noticed by a pro league or P4 school that may be a better ticket to a pro career. In essence they are playing for themselves, not Sac State. The upside for Marion is to demonstrate ability to engineer an immediate turnaround because he is already auditioning for his next gig. Assuming he doesn’t flame out, he’s one or two year max at Sac. When a P4 school next fires a coach, immediate turnaround at any cost is the service they will be looking to buy. What Wood is betting the farm on, is can all of these mercenaries with their own motivations be leveraged as a coherent team long enough to make Sac look like a viable FBS contender. My guess is that everyone involved has a max 1-2 year horizon. And perhaps Marion is just an early adopter of the new world order. It’s kind of a Silicon Valley approach - move fast, break things, ignore messes and consider humans as commodity resources instead of individuals.

Troy Taylor’s sudden infusion of success and legitimacy into the program was like a bump of cocaine for the Hornet faithful after basically being mediocre for a generation. They are chasing that high now. Fans for sure want the return of Taylor-style winning, but Marion and Wood have bet their personal reputations on it, so the opportunity cost has gone up. Potential for high reward (I guess?), to the extent that blowing out Northern Colorado makes a case. But also potential for disastrous embarrassment. But here’s another dimension- it’s still mostly a Big Sky schedule. They have kind of insulted the conference and “Montucky”. It’s not supposed to matter, but I would tend to think the officiating squad is not going to be inclined to cut them any favors this year.

well I think their president will try to spin any outcome positive because on a fundamental level “success” is making donors and sponsors for the FBS push more willing to open their wallets on Nov 22 than Aug 30. My guess is that they seek to prove they belong with the big boys and I think their make or break test comes early - at South Dakota State, last year one of the best teams in FCS. And at Nevada, last year a not-that-good FBS team that boat-raced the Eastern Washington team that beat Sac State. If they make their statement in those games I think they have to win out against the peasants. If they poop the bed week 1 and 2, idk the case gets harder to make, I think, that they are ready to play with the big dogs. I think they are going to want attendance 15k or better and demonstrate they can take a strong showing on the road to Reno.

What Marion has put together is the team equivalent of a North Korean rocket - nobody knows if it will work because it’s made of parts not meant to go together that came from all over the place. There will be a big parade and then a test. Which might explode on the pad and set off an internal crisis. Or it might work and get people talking until they realize they only had the parts to do it once.

Perhaps as part of the Hornet Stadium and Well renovations, Sacramento County Sheriff should consider a substation. Could use the film room for video arraignments.

@Aggie Cisco

Sac state is now 2nd chance U with rental players(not students) will stay only 1 year.

I mean the coach isn’t exactly noted for long stays at any job so working the long game on recruitment may not be a strategy he has time for.

ha yeah i saw that after, good one!

this probably nets $50-70k per year. The gift is invested and the proceeds are split 3 ways - the annual payout, reinvesting to grow the principal relative to inflation, and a cut off the top to pay the people in the fundraising department. Endowed professorships start at $1.5 to $3M so this seems in the ballpark.

ah got it, yeah this was no accidental contact, it was a stairwell beat down. There are situations in life that deserve second chances, this is not one of them. Totally irresponsible to bring someone like this into a program.

from what I read, 4th degree assault in Washington is unwanted contact that does not result in injury. So was it street brawl? Or merely incidental contact during a verbal dispute? I mean, a lot of spandex-clad cyclists are big time Karens about sharing the road so maybe we don’t know what happened. While I want to respect innocent until proven otherwise - and realize the wheels of justice often turn slower than the next athletic season arrives - this is an unhealthy pattern of bringing in guys with baggage. It’s not like these are nonsense charges like noise violations or public urination.

I never rule anything out but this is a different tribe. The Hard Rock Sac is affiliated with the Enterprise Rancheria, a Maidu tribe near Oroville, while it is the Wilton Rancheria, a Miwok tribe near Elk Grove, that owns Sac Republic and is publicly affiliated with Sac12 committee. I don’t know if these tribes coordinate, but in general more tribes are now using their casino money to invest in diversified businesses like sports, restaurants, and financial services that compliment gambling but have a geographic footprint beyond the reservation property.

So basically a variation of trolley question on morality. In this case the bus is going to crazy town. Which is worse? Getting in or getting hit?

I was a grad student at Florida State and had a few football players in class. They were total dummies who couldn’t write their name but each was provided a paid tutor to accompany them to class and “help” them with assignments. The tutors hired by athletics were exclusively attractive females who weren’t so good at homework themselves, it was like a tutor escort service. It was not something any self respecting school should aspire to and to boot they were still bad that year.

well, that’s probably not the standard at your tailgate specifically but salty behavior in the parking lots around Hornet Stadium is abundant. Actually, I recall as a kid some woman (in green and gold) barged into the men’s room and cut me in line, proceeded to drop trow, squat like she was getting her crack waxed and sprayed backwards into the urinal like a cat. My dad had to explain to me how cheap beer worked. As an adult I recognize this was an advanced female move, not all women could pull this off without dribbling on themselves, only the finest at Sac State.

Food trucks and families? So like not a regular Hornet football crowd of dudes in the parking lot pounding skunked Natty Ice and yelling insults at 8 year olds and grandmas passing by?

they say a rising tide lifts all boats. I think we are better when Sac, Poly, and Davis are all relevant at same time. Though Poly is currently beached so there’s only so much a tide can do.

I mean if we are going to compare non-comparables, we could say the 70,000+ at Picnic Day outdrew Sac’s game by a factor of 10. Good for them though that people are interested.

indeed it is the going rate, though perhaps the going rate needs to be broadly questioned. The Reddit poster questioned why the president of Sac State makes more than the president of the US. When pressed about being overpaid, Wood also stated there was “no mechanism” for him to accept less pay. It’s just a little rich coming from Captain Equity.

what is a “top 50 scholar”? Is that the section right after the 20 best plastic surgeons in the Southwest in-flight magazine?

I wonder if Katehi types the way she talks - without regard for “th” or “r”. Vanderhoef used to have an open office hour in the coffee house every week. I think Reddit can be a great way to have a town hall but the premise of an AMA is to ask me anything—you better be prepared for that. Refusing legitimate topics as a public employee or worse, saying ask me in person, I don’t want the internet trolls to see my response, eeesh.