Stand with Willie!

[GaUSFBull]

 

 

There's no reason to over complicate this situation:

 

1. Willie Taggart is RIGHT about Ybor not being a good place after dark

2. Willie Taggart is WRONG to have said what he said publicly when he could have easily handled this in house and upheld a ban

3. Harlan had to say something as part of his job is building support and maintaining donors like Gonzmart. Major donors having a say is part of college football/athletics... has been & will be. I think he should have allowed Willie to make a new statement FIRST before following up. 

 

Our local politicians and prominent figures like Gonzmart need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT YBOR. It's a very historical place and has such potential to be what everyone wants it to be. That won't happen unless someone cleans it up. 

 

That's a good summary.

 

I would also like to add:

 

4.  Gonzmart shouldn't have said what he said in the press.  He should have sat down with Harlan AND Taggart and like above, should have let Taggart be the one to clarify his comments.  I wish Gonzmart would have kept his mouth shut publicly.  

 

I agree with you, but he was probably more concerned with it affecting his business

 

 

Of course he was.  He just went about resolving it the wrong way, imo. 

[theman123]

This is just another example of money trumping the well-being and safety of student-athletes. Disappointing stuff.

[BDYZR]

Do the players have a curfew?

[DELdaBull]

Willie is a tough humble man.

[Brad]

I would not be surprised if Joey Knight's next piece were with Harlan asking "do you support your head coach"?

[Brad]

Willie is a tough humble man.

Indeed. He's one of the good guys

[raptorcj]

Willie is going to be fine. Harlan identified it as an "emotional" response, and it absolutely was--easily modified to keep Ybor businessmen from getting their panties in a wad over a silly incident like murder. Like someone else said, if you ask a parent whether they'll allow their kids to go where someone just got murdered, they're going to say "of course not". I applaud CWT for speaking his mind, and honestly I applaud Harlan for giving it a non-emotional perspective, but I give the finger to the kneejerk business response.

[USF_Grouper]

I would not be surprised if Joey Knight's next piece were with Harlan asking "do you support your head coach"?

 

It isn't amature hour with Harlan. He has been answering that question since the end of last season. Willie made a mistake, he paid for it, move on. Reporter was just doing his job.

[Bullrush33]

 

There's no reason to over complicate this situation:

 

1. Willie Taggart is RIGHT about Ybor not being a good place after dark

2. Willie Taggart is WRONG to have said what he said publicly when he could have easily handled this in house and upheld a ban

3. Harlan had to say something as part of his job is building support and maintaining donors like Gonzmart. Major donors having a say is part of college football/athletics... has been & will be. I think he should have allowed Willie to make a new statement FIRST before following up. 

 

Our local politicians and prominent figures like Gonzmart need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT YBOR. It's a very historical place and has such potential to be what everyone wants it to be. That won't happen unless someone cleans it up. 

 

That's a good summary.

 

I would also like to add:

 

4.  Gonzmart shouldn't have said what he said in the press.  He should have sat down with Harlan AND Taggart and like above, should have let Taggart be the one to clarify his comments.  I wish Gonzmart would have kept his mouth shut publicly.  

 

I have to really agree with #4.  They could have talked to Willie in private.

 

Personal rant not directed at you GA Bull:

 

Obviously and rightly Willie was emotional and I think most of us in here who are fathers would have said the same thing. The argument whether they are adults or children is subjective but as a teacher and or coach you are a mentor who feels responsible for their well being even if they are over the age 18 which is really an arbitrary number society has made up. Parenting does not stop at 18.

[Raetus]

Some time ago, I managed a club in Ybor. Not really for too long -- I think maybe three or four years. In that time period, I was held up twice, stabbed in the arm once, watched a patron stabbed to death in the street, watched a drunk man get hit/drug by a car full of other drunk men, watched a drunk girl fall off of a balcony onto the street and die, saw a crowd of recently pepper-sprayed Indians claw at the windows to escape their gestapo attackers, and so on and so on...

 

They made a lot of changes while I was working down there... they built Centro, they gave some rent-free space to HCC artists, tried to clean up Guavaween... none of it seemed to help. As long as the State rakes in the liquor tax funds without reinvesting that money into better police education/gear, infrastructure and public transportation options, it's just going to continue to be a mess down there regardless of Gonzmart's desires. If I find myself traveling to Ybor for work, I'm in and out as soon as possible. 

Edited September 8, 2015 by Raetus