I guess I also get tired of the Joe was the defacto king of the university. Was he a coaching legend, absolutely. Did he generate millions of dollars for the university and not just from football, absolutely. Did he receive preferential treatment, absolutely. But I love how people claim he ran the university. I'm not saying your stating that Kwizzy but your comment reminded me that a lot of people do say that.

Of course Joe was probably a little bit different than most coaches but I guarantee that when Nick Saban, Bobby Bowden, Pete Carroll spoke people listened too. The main difference in Joe was I would he was more involved in the academic side in the liberal arts. He donated a ton of money to the liberal arts college and it's publicly known that he had tight relationships with the deans, even the current dean spoke at his memorial.

But I guarantee that if he walked into the engineering department and barked orders they aren't listening.

It's also well known that Spanier and Joe didn't really get along. Joe didn't like him messing with football and Spanier didn't like Joe not wanting him to mess with football. Everyone always talks about how Joe told them they weren't allowed to fire him in 2004. Both Joe and Spanier confirmed that it wasn't the case. Did Joe sweet talk them, absolutely. He talked them into giving a few more years and he could turn it around, and he did. That was what he did best, he was a heck of a negotiator/recruiter whatever you want to call it.

Now that I've rambled on, it just irritates me how he has always been portrayed as he behind the scene ran the show.