Syracuse Orange football coach Doug Marrone was recently asked in a Bud Poliquin mailbag whether or not there is a ceiling on how high this program can go. At this point, football coach Doug Marrone tagged out and regional manager Doug Marrone tagged in:
"I do believe we can win the national championship. We have some big, hairy, hellacious goals. Big . . . hairy . . . hellacious . . . goals. Our players know that term: B-HAGS. That’s what we call them. So, we would never want our players to limit themselves in anything they do. I want them to say, ‘This is who we are. We have the opportunity to be the best.’
At first I thought maybe Doug pulled a Gary Busey and came up with that himself. Alas, B-HAGs are actually based in business-speak, making me that much happier that I'd never heard of it before:
A BHAG encourages companies to define visionary goals that are more strategic and emotionally compelling. Many businesses set goals that describe what they hope to accomplish over the coming days, months or years. These goals help align employees of the business to work together more effectively.
I got a little bummed out when I realized Marrone was pulling a Bill Lumbergh but then he totally redeemed himself with the rare Triple Standpoint in the next paragraph:
"Now, we have to have the support to win the national championship -- from a facilities standpoint, from a community standpoint and from a university standpoint. And that’s what we’re working to get. But, yes. We do have the ability to win a national championship here, so we’re not going to put any kind of ceiling on our program.