ScotsAU

100%. That’s why I like to talk to people about this stuff. It can be done right and done well. It should always be data oriented. And no DEIA program should ever be oriented around shame and punishment. The only way to change things is for folks like me to share what we’ve done and how it can lead to solid success.

Are you suggesting our approach isn’t working? Because there’s a lot of evidence that it is. I can’t say much more without revealing too much about my identity in a public sphere. But our office has been extremely successful.

That’s my point. People exist with the expertise to do that kind of data analytics program. A lot of companies, if they do anything at all, they hire someone with a generic business degree and make DEIA only part of a job. Compare that to my company… we employ a large team of people to do DEIA. We have a division of our office specifically devoted to the analytics part of DEIA. Then there is an accommodations division, a programs division, and a complaint investigation and mediation division. We employ lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, data scientists, industrial engineers, and a variety of other occupational backgrounds in these various roles. To do DEIA, it takes the willingness to spend money and hire a legit team of full time DEIA people that are properly trained. Most companies don’t do that.

It’s multifaceted, depending on what specific issues are found in the data. You have to consider everything in the employee lifecycle. Notice I mentioned the contact hypothesis as well, which gets more toward how to deal with problems of distrust. That has nothing to do with hiring.

Folks. This is madness. 1. Freeze could actually still be recruiting a QB, and just isn’t going to say anything until the move is made. That is 100 percent within the realm of possibilities. You don’t want to risk running Thorne off by announcing before a final decision is made. Otherwise you risk having neither guy. 2. Don’t start with the “we got turned down by everyone” crap. We just signed the best WR class in the country, and have a massive NIL fund. If we want a top QB, we could get one. It is a question of if anyone is worth the NIL funds it would take to bring them in. 3. Maybe Freeze knows something that we don’t. Maybe, of the portal QBs available, Freeze didn’t see any that he thought were better than Thorne. (Remember, Thorne was breaking records at MSU his first year. As of now, it hasn’t translated to SEC level.) Maybe all the QBs that were potentially worth getting weren’t worth the NIL $$ we would’ve had to sacrifice. Maybe Hugh thinks a massive part of Thorne’s issues will go away with better play calling and better receivers. Thorne did appear to look better down the stretch until the bowl game. Maybe he was playing hurt in the bowl. We have no way of knowing what Freeze may know that we don’t. 4. Some things to remember also before we write off Thorne anyway. How many times have Auburn QB’s had a bad season then had a light suddenly come on? Urban Meyer wanted to move Cam Newton to tight end because he was struggling to find consistency throwing the ball at Florida. Two years later… Heisman. Everyone wanted Jason Campbell benched in 2003. One year later… Undefeated season and first round draft pick. Chris Todd was awful in 2008. A year later… he broke several Auburn passing records including the longest pass in history of the program. Bo Nix gets benched for TJ Finley. Two years later? Heisman candidate. So it is even possible that the light just comes on with a different coordinator and/or position coach. So maybe let’s pump the breaks a little bit on the “sky is falling” drama.

There’s no one size fits all approach to DEIA. You use barrier analysis to detect potential needs, systematically looking collecting and analyzing data. Then the subsequent actions align with those needs identified in the analyses. Have an applicant pool that doesn’t match the skilled workforce? Then you use targeted recruiting efforts to boost the diversity in the pool. Detect a large amount of distrust? Create events to align with the contact hypothesis.

Say more. Do you mean what theories am I drawing on? Are you asking about methodologies used? Not quite sure I get where you’re going with this.

Journal of Applied Psychology. Journal of Organizational Behavior. Journal of Occupational Health… There’s peer reviewed research on this stuff. Faculty at universities teach it (myself included). Those faculty are also involved in training grad students that have helped expand that research as well. My dissertation was DEIA focused. To write it, I had to read basically everything that’s been done on that topic. I am far from the only one. It’s one of the most popular topics in organizational behavior, industrial psychology, social psychology, sociology, and management doctoral programs. So the expertise exists. Companies just generally put minimal money into DEIA to develop those capabilities.

I work with 4 other doctors, all of which are experts related to the DEIA space. There are folks out there qualified to do this kind of work. The EEOC also offers training, as do many consulting agencies.

DEIA analytics use multiple metrics that account for this. Look into the relevant civilian labor force DEIA data. It tells you what the labor pool is like demographically for every occupation. Activities differ depending on whether the discrepancy is against the workforce as a whole versus the industry specific workforce. Example, if only 35% of med school grads are women, you wouldn’t expect to have 50% be doctors. But something is going on if only 10% of the doctors at a hospital are women because it is way under the labor pool. I’m oversimplifying a bit. But you should get the idea. If theres only a discrepancy against the workforce as a whole, actions are more focused on building interest in young folks to go into those positions. But if the discrepancy exists in the skilled workforce, something is going on among recruitment, hires, and/or losses. You don’t automatically scream ”discrimination” at that point either. Then you dig into that data to figure out which one(s) is driving it. Then you dig deeper and deeper until you find an underlying root cause. At least that’s how it is supposed to be done.

I don’t completely disagree with you there. A lot of companies handle DEIA ineffectively. Many try to use a simple one-approach solution to a multi-dimensional issue (i.e., assume every demographic group’s issues can be fixed the same way). Some even do things that are illegal, largely because the don’t know any better. The answer to this problem is to expand DEIA. Expand training on DEIA issues, and create DEIA departments within companies. Then hire trained professionals into those positions, and not just people with grneric HR/business backgrounds. All federal agencies are required to have DEIA offices, but many of them are staffed with people who have minimal expertise and being managed by people who also have minimal expertise. Creating the positions only helps if the folks in them know how to actually analyze and run a DEIA program.

Sooo back the question I asked a few pages back that never got addressed… Anyone know anything about Durkin’s scheme?

I am an independent that leans a little left right now in the current political climate. I wish more folks would go out to vote for Haley. While I don’t agree with her politics completely, Haley has several things both Trump and Biden don’t… most notably clarity in thinking. Both Trump and Biden are clearly suffering from dementia. Yet they are the front runners for the election?? Seriously… how? Why? I’ll be very forward. Even though I lean a little left, I plan to vote for Haley in the primary. It is time for for extremists and folks in mental decline to leave politics. It is time for America to come together, stop listening to BS over wedge issues and actually being in someone that has the ability to be a good chief executive. But, it’s becoming incredibly hard to be optimistic. Why can’t why just ask the right questions??

Anyone know anything about Durkin’s scheme? I know he ran a base 3-2-6 dime at Ole Miss. But I think that was a Lane Kiffin demand because they continued to run that after Durkin left.

I’m less concerned about the player death. I’m more concerned about the alleged abuse of players and the odd meeting where players just walked out on him. Wish there was more info on what he said that ticked everyone off. Just odd that we would fire a DC accused of being abusive to hire one who has been accused of the same thing.

He’ll do fine. He’s a pretty good DC. I just hate the look of this given his past. But I guess if any coach knows the importance of giving people a second chance, it would be freeze.

It sounds like there’s a rumor starting to float around that we are just going to roll with Kelly as the main DC. We are allowed X number of on field coaches during games. If we do just promote Kelly, there will still be an available on field coaching spot.

I haven’t seen this rumor anywhere. It wouldn’t make any sense. We have an open on field coaching position still. What would we do with it?

Kodi was I think the run game coordinator. That means he probably didn’t call plays in the game. But he probably scouted opponents and set up the play call sheet for when the OC/Gus wanted to call a run play.

There’s a few plausible reasons. Everyone focuses on play calling. But coordinators do more than that. The head coach will usually have a hand in everything at least a little bit. But the coordinators are the main overseers for their side of the ball. They break down film of opponents to find weaknesses, break down our game film to look for things that need to be drilled, plan and run their side of the ball at practices, and then there’s all the duties that come with finding and recruiting prospects. When you see “co coordinator,” there’s usually a main coordinator that’s in charge. But they are getting assistance with one or more of these duties. For example, in the past, we’ve had coaches carry the title “co-OC/run game coordinator.” That person was given some duties to assist with the development of our play calling plan for plays where the OC wants to run the ball. They do the scouting of the opponent, and figure out what kinds of run plays are most likely to work, then draw up a list based on down and distance for what they think the OC should run. If I had to guess, Charles Kelly has been brought in mostly to handle the personnel side of the defense. If the rumors are true and Chris Kiffin is the main candidate, he doesn’t love recruiting. But Kelly a dynamite recruiter, and has a good eye for talent. If that’s the case, the main DC will likely focus most of his attention on game prep and scouting opponents, and will leave duties like scouting prospects, recruiting defensive players, etc. more to Kelly.

I don’t think many if any of us are belittling the accomplishment. We are belittling the post. This was a great recruiting class. That should be celebrated. But celebrate it correctly. Highlight the freeze five. State that it is one of the best classes in program history or that it is the best in the last 5 (or maybe 10… not bothering to fact check a hypothetical) years. What kind of idiot put okay’d the message that it was the best of a first year coach when it clearly wasn’t? They either didn’t fact check or worse, they intentionally put out something that was BS thinking no one would catch it. The social media department has been a little suspect the past few years. This is just yet again another example of them crapping the bed.

You mean the highest among coaches that are currently at the end of their first year? If so, Freeze is the only coach. The only other hire last year was Arnett, and … he’s gone. That’s like me saying my wife is the best wife I have. Doesn’t mean she’s not great. But there’s also literally no other competition. First place out of 1 team. Yay!

That’s what I’m saying though. It isn’t. Kirby is still coaching. His first recruiting cycle (equivalent to Freeze’s this year) was ranked third. If that’s where they were going with the post, that’s a huge fail to not double check that before putting it out.

Oops. Missed the SEC in the graphic.

What bugs me is that it isn’t even accurate if Im understanding it correctly. Kirby Smart’s first class was ranked 3rd. Ryan Day’s was 5th.