| Welcome to Privateer Island Fan Forum. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Sports Information Director | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 20 2013, 01:30 PM (386 Views) | |
| Bill73 | Nov 20 2013, 01:30 PM Post #1 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
It's been very quiet since the 10/11/2013 deadline for applications for the job. I wonder if they have selected someone, but can't announce it until their current employer finishes football season? I was told by the New Orleans Advocate sports editor there would be a UNO/LSU article in today's Advocate with quotes from UNO coach and players on last night's game, but that the reporter would obtain said quotes from our SID department. Today's article had no such UNO quotes, as there is no SID. Am I out of line saying this? |
![]() |
|
| Steve | Nov 20 2013, 01:54 PM Post #2 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Wondered if there was some movement on this given all the sudden tweeting from @UNOPrivateers last night after two months of nothing. Your educated guess makes sense, though. |
![]() |
|
| Jude Young | Nov 20 2013, 02:41 PM Post #3 |
|
Sophomore
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Brandon Rizzuto has taken over as the Media Relations contact for UNO. He is a talented and experienced hand in the SID field. See the previous release on his hiring for External Affairs: http://www.uno.edu/news/2012/UniversityofN...lRelations.aspx Last night, LSU handled the postgame press conferences for both teams. No one to my knowledge sought out Brandon on-site for additional quotes after the game. |
![]() |
|
| Steve | Nov 20 2013, 03:10 PM Post #4 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Wow, so that's permanent? I wonder if interest in the UNO job was scarce. Solo D1 sports information offices are rare -- on paper, it is a lot of work and without much pay, especially at UNO. Or, I wonder if they simply saw this as an opportunity to cut costs. Brandon is talented but he has other stuff to do. That is a lot to take on. There has been practically nothing coming from sports information of late. I hope that at least changes now that this is apparently permanent. It has been better over the past week or so. |
![]() |
|
| Bill73 | Nov 20 2013, 03:14 PM Post #5 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Matt Harris was supposed to attend the LSU postgame interviews, then get with UNO SID for quotes. It was expected to be a problem for one reporter to handle, because both coaches are interviewed at the same time in separate rooms. I guess it did not work out this time. |
![]() |
|
| Privateer6 | Nov 20 2013, 03:40 PM Post #6 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
In the recently published SLC men's basketball media guide, Rizzuto is listed as "Interim Basketball Sports Information Dir." on page 52 (page 26 of 58 at the link below), which would seem to indicate that this expansion of his duties is not permanent. http://www.southland.org/Portals/0/content...eam%20Pages.pdf |
![]() |
|
| Steve | Nov 20 2013, 03:52 PM Post #7 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
It was interim... Jude answering this post made me wonder if it is permanent now. I thought we all understood that Brandon was covering things while there was a void. Unless we are waiting on someone's football season to end, it is pretty curious that we've gone this long without making a hire. |
![]() |
|
| Jude Young | Nov 20 2013, 04:16 PM Post #8 |
|
Sophomore
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
It is no longer interim. |
![]() |
|
| Bill73 | Nov 20 2013, 04:39 PM Post #9 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
This dropping of the "interim" has happened before, with Keeshawn Carter being named women's interim basketball coach, then interim disappears. I guess I should read about these important news items in the PAF newsletters I don't get. |
![]() |
|
| Steve | Nov 20 2013, 04:57 PM Post #10 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
The main problem with this, as I see it, is the following: "We don't even have a full-time SID for 14 sports, and you think we're ready to start football? You're lucky we're still D1..." |
![]() |
|
| reduno | Nov 20 2013, 10:54 PM Post #11 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
SAME AS IT EVER WAS! |
![]() |
|
| Privateer6 | Nov 21 2013, 10:04 AM Post #12 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I know we're never going to have a massive budget, but they assured us we'd have what we need to be competitive in the Southland. That may be true -- I hope that it is -- but you can lead people to assume the worst if you do not communicate what's going on with basic matters such a this. I hope they communicate to the fans about it soon, both that it happened and the rationale behind it (was it a temporary budget issue? something else?). I'm giving the new regime the benefit of the doubt, but I'd hope that they'd explain what's happening and why. One way to bolster your reputation, gain trust, etc., is to provide clear communication. |
![]() |
|
| Slidell | Nov 21 2013, 10:33 AM Post #13 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
The new regime is approaching two years on the job. And yet the information from the department barely trickles out. I've seen no comprehensive plan or fundraising campaign rolled out. I haven't even seen "leaks" about a comprehensive plan or fundraising campaign. It's clear that we won't have football until the department is stabilized at a certain level of funding. But there's no indication as to what exactly we are doing to accomplish that. There's no public timeline or benchmark. So, as much as I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, I'm really starting to feel like we've been fooled again. We had a tremendous opportunity to reinvent this department. The old regime had nearly destroyed it. It was a blank canvas. A chance to start over and build a truly viable, stable program. And so far all we've done is patch together exactly what we had before the near-collapse...a fringe D-I program on life support without the bell cow sport that everyone else has and takes for granted. Are there things going on behind the scenes? I sure hope so. So why not tell us? What freaking harm could be done by telling the few of us remaining who give a damn what is going on and what the plan is. I'm really really afraid it's because there is no plan. I don't mean to be a downer at the start of the season guys, but aside from actually competing in a D-I conference at a D-I level, I don't see very many positive signs. And I find myself giving less and less of a damn all the time. |
![]() |
|
| Steve | Nov 21 2013, 12:44 PM Post #14 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I wonder at what point the "benefit of the doubt" time period ends. It's reasonable to opine that that time's not here yet, but it's quite concerning to me to pretty much never hear anything from the department about anything. We're your few fans, guys! We like you. It's okay to tell us stuff sometimes. - We've not really heard about any major fund-raising initiatives (and are still waiting for a non-carefully-politically-phrased hint on football). - The basketball season ticket brochure not even making it to the official site until one week before the season. I think that at least Red, a season ticket holder for many years before the last few seasons, had to order from an attachment I posted here. Given how many times it was downloaded I suspect he was not the only one. The lack of any sort of preseason basketball event was also puzzling. - Although it's not being made an issue because we replaced him with Ron Freaking Maestri, we did fire Bruce Peddie for no real reason. Or at least the department never gave one. - Little things like never announcing the Fall World Series dates and times even though we're pretty sure it was more or less open to anyone interested. INFORMATION, y'all. Come on. The SID situation falls under that umbrella as well. If it's simply that nobody applied that was qualified to the department's liking, I'm okay with that, and maybe this isn't going to be the long long-term situation. If they're simply cutting costs, I see that as close to alarming. It's not as bad as having a part-time AD, but it certainly isn't the way a healthy or even somewhat healthy D1 department operates either. To be fair, things I am happy about: - 1,100 people at the basketball opener. Even though there was less preseason hype I can ever remember, complete with the aforementioned lack of a season ticket brochure until almost tip-off, a surprisingly nice crowd for a Tuesday night against Millsaps College. Wondering if we've done some stuff behind the scenes. More likely it's just because it was the season opener, but Boise crowd will be interesting -- usually a terrible time for a home game, but they seem to be really trying to hype this one up on campus. - Ron Maestri being back in the department could be a big help, money-wise. Too early to say now but still hopeful. - New basketball scoreboard. It is kind of small and fairly no frills, but still the nicest scoreboard we've ever had. I would have been happy with less, so I'm quite happy this is finally taken care of. Kudos. |
![]() |
|
| Steve | Nov 21 2013, 01:03 PM Post #15 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I can't compare in-state because hey, friendly reminder, we're the only D1 school in Louisiana without football! But, for one example, our old non-football pals UALR have three on staff in the SID department. At other non-football schools in the Southland, TAMU-CC has three (one intern). ORU has three. |
![]() |
|
| reduno | Nov 21 2013, 04:38 PM Post #16 |
|
Senior
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I agree with A LOT of what Slidell and Steve say here and yet I sometimes feel like I should keep my hands off the keyboard because I've been away for 2-3 years and maybe I don't have a right to say what I feel because I "left" during the dead period........... but one of THE main reasons I did so was because of stuff like this.........UNO was given a second and third chance at new life in D1 and they haven't shown that much has changed, if anything. Communication has always sucked there but now it seems even worse. You can only have so many excuses. So what are the reasons? Too many of the same people there? It's worse than we thought or were told? I don't know but I'm like Slidell in the sense that, I've already given 'less of a damn' for a few years and came back, so to speak because I was given the impression this new canvas was going to show something great......and obviously that's not yet true. I've found some hobbies that have really taken away that awful, empty feeling I had when basketball season rolled around while I was away, and I got used to being away and not hurting.........and if that happens to enough people, UNO will be lost for good. |
![]() |
|
| Steve | Dec 5 2013, 01:57 PM Post #17 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Note that per Emmanuel Pepis' Twitter (@ep504) he is now the SID for UNO women's basketball and baseball. No record of this in the staff directory but it appears Brandon has at least some part-time help. |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · UNO Sports Main Board · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)



8:26 AM Jul 11