NCSU's Randy Woodson / "Chancellor Solomon" ... and YELLOWSTONE!

Aug 24, 2019

.NCSU’s Randy Woodson / “Chanc Solomon”… YELLOWSTONE

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I have made side references to this opinion in recent years but never so boldly as today…

I think NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson is The Perfect Prototype for a successful / universally respected American University CEO circa 2019.

His adroit and efficient handling of the recent verbal defecation incident involving one of his senior-level administrators reaffirmed my respect / admiration for “Chancellor Randy”.

LINK To Mullen Mess.

Woodson has been at the helm of “Wolfpack U” since 2009… 10 years. That is about double the standard life expectancy of a Major University CEO these days. Chancellors, City Managers and Baptist preachers usually only last about 5-6 years before either a “palace coup” … “a sex scandal” … or a knee-jerk tweet does them in. In the case of a Chancellor… failure to beat a hated rival often enough in FB or MBB can find the locks changed on his/her office by angry pitchfork-toting “boosters”.

Randy is entering Decade 2 with nary a storm cloud on the horizon which speaks to the Solomon comparison.

Randy’s emphasis has always been The Total NCSU Community … NOT a few dozen mangy snowflakes squatting outside his office with obscene misspelled signs.

Randy’s first thought each day is NOT “what agenda lapel ribbon should I wear today?”

Randy raises all sorts of research/grant $$$ for NCSU… and is always doing Real Chancellor Stuff. How Cool Is That?

I was introduced to Chancellor Randy several years ago by one of his most enthusiastic true-believers – The Bob Kennel (TBK). It was a very brief howdy-do at a New Reynolds BB game. I attributed the briefness of the encounter to Randy’s fear of being button-holed by TBK on some issue of great personal importance to TBK. … Anyhooo …

OK… lets get one item off the table. To all you “hated rivals” of NC State… Yes, I am well aware of who Dennis Smith Jr is and the semi-permanent stain he and Mark Gottfried inflicted upon NC State Univ. Yes, IT happened on Randy’s Watch.

If Mahatma Ghandi and/or Mother Teresa were CEOs of a Power5 institution today… the odds that they are – unknowingly – harboring assorted malfeasances within their FB and/or MBB programs is at 99.3%. For an academic institution to choose to engage in Power5-level athletics is equivalent to dousing oneself in lighter fluid and “playing with matches”. You are going to get burned.

The instigating co-conspirators of said malfeasances will likely be among the deepest-pockets of one’s highly valued Fat Cat Donor data base. Names that every College CEO has in his VVIP cellphone registry.

When – not IF – the Fit Hits The Shan and NCAA goons are perp waking your head coach and AD, those Fat Cat donors might be slow to return your call. Such is the reality of being a Power5 Chancellor. Another Anyhooo …

I have no clue what transpired twixt Randy and Chancellor Of Vice Mullen a week or so ago. But Mullen The Redneck-Hater quickly “resigned” as Chancellor of Vice / Dean of Students at NCSU. He DOES retain his teaching position due to “tenure”. I do appreciate the need for “academic tenure” … AND how it is abused by the pompous asses who give all college professors a bad reputation.

The only “high crime” that might cost a college professor his “tenure” would be displaying a MAGA 2020 bumpersticker on his F-150 in the faculty parking lot. Mullen did NOT do that.

Whatever transpired between Randy and Mullen resulted in the only action Randy had in his arsenal. There was universal agreement that Mullen’s incredibly stoopid remarks ran contrary to the ideological bent of a GREAT MANY NCSU alumni. Even those with their own concerns about The Great National Divide were quick to demand his ouster… even TBK agreed his remarks were inappropriate for his position as a senior NCSU administrator.

Yes… thousands of folks have noted that if Mullen had been a senior admin at UNCCH, his highly flammable rhetoric would have likely earned him a raise and maybe a building named in his honor. If “Chihuahua” Folt were still in office I don’t doubt that might be true.

Before and beyond this Mullen Mess… Chancellor Randy has shown his Solomonesque management acumen in the issues he has disarmed before they ignited… that we never knew about. Such is the life of a University Chancellor… as with King Solomon “dividing the baby”.

Randy Woodson is a Perfect Fit for NC State University and he and the NC State community seem well aware of that fact. Such harmony is Very Rare these days and all parties appreciate that …

He has continually turned down more lucrative job offers including becoming President of The UNC System when Tom “Bagman” Ross was ousted for “Ma” Spelling. What a freakin’ train wreck that was…

Randy’s comment when his name was proposed was “classic”. … and I am paraphrasing…

“As a Chancellor, my efforts have a chance of being appreciated and I may even be “liked” by some. As System President the odds of being “appreciated” much less “liked” are slim and none…”. I like being appreciated and liked…

I love that kind of common sense “realness” from anyone. Especially from a high profile academician.

I have no idea what Randy Woodson’s “politics” is/are. Kennel claims he doesn’t know either which I find a bit hard-to-believe but I will.

A STEM-school like NCSU has a much more reality-based faculty than what inhabits a Liberal Arts asylum (UNCCH) but not 100% so as “Mad Man” Mullen indicates. Randy manages his faculty zoo quite well.

That he has “governed” NCSU so well for ten years and counting without wearing his politics on his sleeve makes him as unique as unique can be in 2019.

I hope the posting of this High Praise for “Solomon Randy” does NOT result in “the offer he can’t refuse”. I am pretty sure every NC State alum I know agrees with me.

If you have NOT been watching “Yellowstone”, you have missed a HUMDINGER of a TV series. It is “a modern-day Western”. The season finale is this Wednesday.

Kevin Costner is “John Dutton”… patriarch / owner of “the largest ranch in America” next to Yellowstone Park. The Duttons are quite dysfunctional…

My favorite characters are “Rip” the ranch manager and “Monica” the hottie Indian wife of Kayce Dutton. So far Kayce has killed three people… but they all deserved it. That number will likely increase this Wednesday.

The Arch-Villain in Yellowstone is played by Neal McDonough who is The Best Villain on TV these days.

McDonough’s very evil character in Justified was “disarmed” by Limehouse with a meat cleaver. He will likely meet a similar fate on Wednesday.

If you haven’t watched, you can see it On Demand… Google Yellowstone TV Series. Watch both seasons in order. Trust me … A HUMDINGER!

I am also a Big Fan of “Queen Of The South” on USA Network which finales on Thursday. More about THAT ONE later…

Speaking of Wisdom … The Wizards of Smarts in Major League Baseball showed “an Abundant Lack of” this weekend.

This was the 3rd Annual “players nickname weekend” or some such “THIS might fill the seats” whizband MLB-wide promotion. All the players get to choose a nickname and have it on the backs of their jerseys. And they get to design “cleats” that reflect their individual personalities … and paint their bats however they choose. OK… even ol’ Old School BobLee was all right with those three items.

90% of the nicknames were dopey and showed about 30-seconds of original thought but what the heck. Surely some kids somewhere think its cool … I guess. Again… I was OK with it.

But then some pin-headed nitwit intern at MLB HQ suggested …

“Lets have all the home teams wear All-White uniforms and all the visiting teams wear All-Black uniforms. And lets have all the team logos… the numbers… and the dopey nicknames the same color as the uniforms…” – WHAT!

Apparently the MLB intern had a focus group of seven dim-witted millennials over-dosed on avocado toast who had never heard of Mordecai “Three Fingers” Brown and who thought “Mike Trout” was a new menu special at Bonefish. Can you spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R?

The shebang was unveiled Friday night all across America… with the impact of “passing gas in church”.

Comparisons to “New Coke” and “The Edsel” were posted first… then it got scary nasty. I, of course, quickly compared the debacle to Jimmy V’s “Unitard”.

My favorite fan reaction, so far, is from “Chad in Cleveland”.

“It looks like a Calcutta Cricket team playing a team of Ninjas. This is really stoopid…”

Jim Edmunds, the color guy for The Cardinals, thought the Rockies had seven guys in their infield. The players and the umpires were all dressed in all-black.

FWIW… last year each team got to design special custom jerseys that reflected their city / team name. That was kinda cool… and actually made sense.

I know what you are thinking. What happened to “that pin-headed intern at MLB HQ”. At 10 AM Saturday a team of US Marshalls frog-marched her (“Madeline”) out of MLB HQ into a WITSEC program. She was screaming “BUT MY FOCUS GROUP REALLY LIKED IT…”