Taking Chances

One of the greatest compliments I ever heard about Gorrie-Regan came from a former competitor. This gentleman said that he always admired Gorrie-Regan’s ability to continually reinvent itself. Truer words have never been said about us. When I think of all the things that this company has done… Did you know we used to sell scoreboards? And even planetariums? In hindsight it may seem silly, but when we were doing these things it made great sense.

The point is, we will never stop working on our business to keep it poised for success and to be relevant within the markets we serve. As with most discussions in the south, eventually the dialog turns to college football. So here goes…

Following a disappointing 2013 season in his eyes, Alabama Coach Nick Saban made a very strange move in hiring Lane Kiffin to shake up the offense for his football team. Needless to say, this was a very off the wall move as Kiffen was one of the more polarizing figures in all of football. Having left the University of Tennessee in a last minute move and then going on to be fired mid-season from University of Southern California at an airport terminal; Lane Kiffen was the brunt of more jokes that Dan Quale and Joe Biden combined.

But in Kiffin, Nick Saban saw something that he needed to shake up his program. More to the point, Lane Kiffin thought very differently than Nick Saban. You could say many things about Kiffin – and everyone did; but no one could dismiss the fact that he was a brilliant offensive football coach. So what was the result? Lane Kiffin took a backup quarterback in Blake Sims and went on to put up the best offensive numbers in Alabama school history… Of course it didn’t hurt to have Amari Cooper catching the ball.

The next year it would be Auburn’s turn. Following a very disappointing 2014 season where the defense was the biggest weakness for the team, Coach Gus Malzahn fired his defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson. He then made one of the biggest coaching moves in the country in bringing on the former Florida head coach Will Muschamp, to fill that role.  Muschamp did not have the sustained success at Florida that many had forecast, but no one can deny that his is one of the best defensive minds in football. We have yet to see what form the defense will take under his care, but the projections are sky high given his previous success. As a result, Auburn has been a very hot topic in the country and has landed many prized recruits who want to play in this new system.

So what do these two moves have in common? They are visible proof that nothing stands still and things are ever changing. As rabid fans, we demand such actions from our football programs… and we get mad and melt the talk-show phone lines when they do not. Such is life in the modern game of college football.

The same is true at Gorrie-Regan. In the modern business climate we will always be in a constant state of change as forced upon us by reality. Things will always be changing whether we like it or not. I promise you that we will never stop searching for a best ways to be of service to our customers. But regardless of the model we may deploy, if we take care of our customers and do what we say we will do, I like our chances. That is one thing that will never change!

Have a great day and stay warm. Charlie