Good Bye Guido

According to State College.com, Penn State has relieved Guido D'Elia of his duties as Director of Communications and Branding.  A note was sent by carrier pigeon with GPS coordinates on the note.  After finding the geocache, a tape recorded message informed Guido of his plight.  The tape then self-destructed.

D’Elia helped redirect the focus from late Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and dwindling wins and mounting losses to the Beaver Stadium game-day experience and the school’s long tradition. Meanwhile, he was a trusted adviser to Paterno, who championed the hiring of the marketing guru.

According to the report, Penn State also has cut ties with Mind Over Media, the Pittsburgh-based firm that has produced the Emmy Award-winning “Penn State Football Story.” D’Elia is part-owner of the company, along with Joe Wittkofski, a Penn State graduate.

Under D’Elia’s watch, Penn State became “The Greatest Show in College Football,” according to Sports Illustrated on Campus.

Penn State fans--at least as far as the Internet message boards are concerned, either loved or hated him, and of course the dissatisfied seemed to outnumber the quietly content fans.  Among the criticisms were too much piped in music, too little Blue Band, too much microphone man, too much Sweet Caroline, too much Zombie Nation, too much rain, too little alcohol, and way too much time on their hands.



Guido and Joe, Dancing With the Stars!


Seriously?

I have been going to Penn State football games since the seventies, and the stadium atmosphere that Guido created, was light years ahead of the morgue that existed in Beaver Stadium before he turned the dead blue hairs into bouncing zombies.

For myself, I liked the music.  I also liked the Blue Band, but with all the stadium expansions, a point was reached where you could barely hear the band unless they were facing your section.  I liked Bon Jovi.  I liked Sweet Caroline.  Bom.  Bom.  Bom.  Maybe that's because I grew up in the era when Neil Diamond was popular--although there are some that would argue he was never popular.  I liked watching the guy swaying and directing the crowd around him as they played the song.  I liked Zombie Nation.  I hope Guido takes the microphone man with him, though, as well as the Greatest Show motif which has seen better days.  I have to agree with the annoyance level on that point.  I don't need someone asking me if I am ready to rock and roll.  Why else would I be there?  But I liked the Hey song--LET'S GO P-S-U!  I hope they keep it. 

In fact, if I could change anything, it would be to allow the replay screens to actually show replays--especially of the controversial calls.  If the refs want to make bone-head calls, then let them man-up and listen to the crowd as they see what really happened.  Don't want to deal with that?  Then make the correct call in the first place!  It ain't rocket science.

But that won't happen because the Big Ten won't make any decision that would make their precious referees look like the jokers they are.  Even Guido couldn't win that battle.

In the end, I think I'm going to miss Guido.

Ciao, baby!