McBride Denied Money, Needs to Be Treated Better

As first published at The Good in Ogden:

A Jan. 23 article by Jason Staley in The Signpost talked about how Ron McBride has asked for more money for recruiting at Weber State. The article says that WSU is ranked fourth in the conference with their football recruiting budget at $33,000. Montana State's budget is $129,000 and Montana's budget is $90,000. With those stats in mind, it is no wonder that McBride asked for another $20,000 for his recruiting budget. Here's a quote from Ronny Mac himself in the aforementioned article:

"I've been a national recruiter for years, I've recruited the whole United States, so I know coaches in all areas of the country and I can get players and I can put this program where I want this program to be. I want this program to be the number one program in Utah; I want it to be the number one program in this conference and the only way you can do that is you got to have big players; now I can get the players, you just have to give me the help to get them."

Remember when everyone in town was ecstatic when Weber State got McBride? Remember 16000+ people packing Stewart Stadium? Remember a team with a much improved record? Well it looks like the honeymoon is officially over up on the bench. In another Jason Staley article from the Feb. 6th version of The Signpost we get this:

Football coach Ron McBride did not receive his $20,000 to help recruiting efforts. The SFRC allocated the athletic department just enough money to cover last year's budget and the required $74,391 to cover salaries, compensation and scholarships.

What that means, I don't exactly know. I don't know if there is another way around it, but I hope that there is. McBride is definitely taking a step down by coaching at Weber State. He is the best thing to happen to Weber State football since Jamie Martin. The university needs to take a look at what they hope to accomplish with McBride at the helm. If they want to continue to be a low level division I-AA program, than keep denying the football team the things they need. But it seems to me that since they already have a great coach, they need to jump in the water completely and not let this opportunity go to waste. Weber has potential in all sports. Their facilities are the best in their conference. The Dee Events Center and the newly remodeled Stewart Stadium provide excellent and scenic athletic venues where success can happen.

However, our budget cannot be nearly one-fourth of that of other schools in the Big Sky. Events like this seem to be what keeps Ogden's university treading along in mediocrity. All we have to do to see Weber's mediocrity is look at what has happened in their own conference over the last decade or so. Remember Nevada-Reno? Weber used to have a decent rivalry with them. They now compete in the WAC and won the Hawaii Bowl this past year. How about Boise State? Though some people think they may not do it in the most legal of fashions, they are constantly ranked in the National Top 25 and usually in the top fifteen or ten. I'm talking about the I-A rankings here, folks. Remember the Idaho Vandals? Though they have not had a great deal of success since becoming a division I-A program, they just landed former S.F. 49ers head coach Dennis Erickson and look to be on the way up. All of this goes on while Junction City 'U' remains in the middle or bottom of the Big Sky.

That basketball stadium needs to be filled. The football stadium needs to be filled. But the bottom line of any sport is that people won't come unless the team is winning. People won't consistently attend unless the team wins for a long period of time. Some people at Weber don't seem to get that. Maybe the University needs to look at spending a few million less dollars on remodeling the Student Union Building and give Mac his $20,000. If we don't we may just lose him.

Until Weber State gets up off of the mat and realizes that they have to compete for the athletic dollar in Ogden and in this state, then nothing will happen. Montana and Montana State don't have to worry about the Jazz, RSL, and the Blaze. They are the only games in town. They don't even have to worry about division I-A programs like Weber does. The crew on the bench need to realize that people would much rather travel two hours in traffic to watch BYU take on USC and see two future Heisman Trophy winners, than stay in Ogden and practically walk to a stadium and watch Sac. State.

All I have to say is this: give me the real Washington, not Eastern Washington. Give me Arizona, not Northern Arizona. Give me Colorado, not Northern Colorado. All of these directionally named state schools aren't nearly as exciting as the real deals. That's what you have to do in this market.

Since these teams won't be coming to Ogden any time soon and we can drive a few to see them play, at least do what it takes to give me a winner.

Then I'll gol; and so will many others.