The Illinois AD Search

[AutoPoster 3000]

I'd love to see the emails we're sending out to other school's athletic directors, by the way. I'm guessing the subject line says something like:

"Hey jwhitman@ wustl.edu -- Do U want 2 B ;; a t h l e t i c d i r e c t o r for B-one-G univer.? C L 1 C K BELOW NOW."

Of course we have to write it out that way to get past their spam filters.

 

[ritster]

This is the story: Illinois committee is a bunch of incompetent academes who are fumbling around with no idea what they're doing. All facts and news must fit this conclusion so that's all we'll read in the press.

Reminds me of a story years ago my Dad told me. Saw a guy in Champaign who was obviously a college professor painting the exterior of his house. He would get off his ladder, go down, dip the brush in the paint can, and go back up and do this over and over. My Dad watched this and then went up to him and said, " Why don't you take the paint can up with you and sit it on the top of the ladder?" Professor gave him a dumbfounded look.

Illinois has too many people in charge going up and down the ladder. Book smart but street stupid.

 

[IlliniBuff]

I find it hard to believe people are emailing ADs at work asking them about Illinois. But I'd believe people may be reaching out asking to chat about "opportunities" or "networking" - not uncommon for that outreach to hit work email. That said the conversations all occur offline or through personal channels. This article is bizarre and how did it get printed? Wtf is going on behind the scenes?

I concur with this. College administrators get emails everyday from firms asking them to nominate someone they think would be good for this and that C-suite position. They always encourage self-nomination...and they always go to the official email. My guess is that the committee is running the search the way they'd run any other university search process and this is the 'recruitment' phase.

For conspiracy theorists, this is all smoke and mirrors so we can work under the radar to get our real target. While a great plan, I doubt this is actually occurring...

 

[IlliniScottie]

Good ole Indiana Dan in reference to our AD search

@dandakich Dan Dakich
Just hire New Mexico's Paul Krebs and move on...it ain't that hard Illinois

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Good ole Indiana Dan in reference to our AD search

@dandakich Dan Dakich
Just hire New Mexico's Paul Krebs and move on...it ain't that hard Illinois

LOL, yeah let's hire the guy who fired Rocky Long to hire Mike Locksley, and then gave Locks 3 years despite getting into fights with his own coaching staff.

Krebs was AD at Bowling Green while Dakich was head coach there for a long while and Dakich was fired shortly thereafter by the new guy when Krebs left for New Mexico. That's where the affection comes from.

He is the man who made Urban Meyer a head coach for the first time, give him credit where it's due.

 

[Illiniboardfan]

This is the story: Illinois committee is a bunch of incompetent academes who are fumbling around with no idea what they're doing. All facts and news must fit this conclusion so that's all we'll read in the press.

Whether you like it or not, the people running the athletic department have done absolutely NOTHING to earn any kind of good media coverage in the past few months. Our athletic department has earned every bit of negative coverage that it has received.

 

[mattcoldagelli]

I will say that the next time the Tribune writes anything positive about the Illini will be the first time in several decades. Every article regarding NW is a fawning love fest with horse teeth etc. These Chicago reporters are human, have personal agendas and for the most part dislike Illinois. In 2007 we get to the Rose Bowl and the Chicago press and media is still largely critical. ESPN and more professional outlets treat us with more respect than the Chicago press.

For the millionth time, this is totally imagined, and the fawning rockstar treatment our '05 basketball team received is the strongest possible evidence to the contrary.

I'm sorry no one wants to hear it, but we take a beating in the press because we suck. We suck and our university conducts itself in an embarrassing manner. We will not gain many impartial friends that way. This is not complicated.

 

[Sybok]

People love winners.

 

[ILLmatic04]

We suck and our university conducts itself in an embarrassing manner.

This might as well be our motto for the foreseeable future.

 

[ChicagoChief]

an Bernstein ‏@dan_bernstein 5m5 minutes ago
Follow-up to Brief: source says unhappy Illini faction actually planning to conduct its own AD/coach search. This could get crazy.

 

[dgcrow]

an Bernstein ‏@dan_bernstein 5m5 minutes ago
Follow-up to Brief: source says unhappy Illini faction actually planning to conduct its own AD/coach search. This could get crazy.

"My, my, my. What a mess."

 

[Second and Chalmers]

an Bernstein ‏@dan_bernstein 5m5 minutes ago
Follow-up to Brief: source says unhappy Illini faction actually planning to conduct its own AD/coach search. This could get crazy.

As much as we all aren't in love with the chain of command, people who aren't in the chain of command acting like they run the place are not helping and need to sit the hell down.

 

[ILLmatic04]

Shannon Ryan's going to be on the Tay & J show at 4:05 to discuss the AD search. That could be some interesting radio.

 

[IlliniJim20]

As much as we all aren't in love with the chain of command, people who aren't in the chain of command acting like they run the place are not helping and need to sit the hell down.

From my outsiders perspective, this is 1000000% right on.

Leaks to the media, rumors of doing their own search, blah blah blah.

My only hope is the university is not as dysfunctional as it appears, rather people leaking things outside the scope of the university who make it appea to be so dysfunctional.

Fleeting hope, but hope nonetheless.

 

[EJ33]

For the millionth time, this is totally imagined, and the fawning rockstar treatment our '05 basketball team received is the strongest possible evidence to the contrary.

I'm sorry no one wants to hear it, but we take a beating in the press because we suck. We suck and our university conducts itself in an embarrassing manner. We will not gain many impartial friends that way. This is not complicated.

YES

We've made ourselves the punching bag of the Chicago media by consistently losing and making stupid decisions. What else are they supposed to write about?

 

[PaytonHighstep]

As much as we all aren't in love with the chain of command, people who aren't in the chain of command acting like they run the place are not helping and need to sit the hell down.

100% agree. If you don't like it, get a job/appointed to a position to have some impact within the university.

 

[WesterveltVictoryCigar]

My only hope is the university is not as dysfunctional as it appears, rather people leaking things outside the scope of the university who make it appea to be so dysfunctional.

Fleeting hope, but hope nonetheless.

Oh don't worry, it's not that dysfunctional.

It's completely incompetent, but not dysfunctional.

 

[riffraff]

I recall talking to Temple Buell back in 1989 when he was on campus to give the money to build Buell Hall about how he and the other big academic donors had a long term plan to make Illinois into the Harvard of the Midwest.

Well, we see the plan unfolding in all the new academic buildings, the many more living/learning communities (not just Allen Hall any more), the new dorms and slow marginalization of the Greek system, and now the sliding of Illinois into more of an Ivy League state of athletics with strong Olympic and gentile sports and mediocre revenue sports.

Better than following in the footsteps of another Big Ten founding member and former athletic powerhouse, the University of Chicago, in eliminating sports altogether as a distraction from academic pursuits.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

slow marginalization of the Greek system

:huh:

UIUC is Greeker than a hot, fresh tray of spanakopita. What are you talking about?

 

[TooHot4Tots]

This AD search rocks!! Keep up the good work Illinois

 

[rdillini]

Excuse my naivete and lack of desire to go through 42 pages of comments on this but I can understand the potential new AD wanting to know who the chancellor will be. Is there a time line or process of naming a new chancellor? It would seem to me that our dear old alma mater needs to get its act together and competently fill these "interim positions" in its administration and then a true AD search can be conducted. It seems silly to try and hire the "most qualified AD candidate" when he wont know if the person who has the ultimate power to hire or fire him may be replaced with someone new with a different idea of the "most qualified AD candidate." Also, the urgency to hire a football coach is over and while the basketball season is heading down a rocky road, we need the university to get its S--- together and stop being an embarassment across the board. I love this school but quite frankly I dont like it right now for a lot of reasons. any help on the timeline would be appreciated.

 

[AutoPoster 3000]

Excuse my naivete and lack of desire to go through 42 pages of comments on this but I can understand the potential new AD wanting to know who the chancellor will be. Is there a time line or process of naming a new chancellor? It would seem to me that our dear old alma mater needs to get its act together and competently fill these "interim positions" in its administration and then a true AD search can be conducted. It seems silly to try and hire the "most qualified AD candidate" when he wont know if the person who has the ultimate power to hire or fire him may be replaced with someone new with a different idea of the "most qualified AD candidate." Also, the urgency to hire a football coach is over and while the basketball season is heading down a rocky road, we need the university to get its S--- together and stop being an embarassment across the board. I love this school but quite frankly I dont like it right now for a lot of reasons. any help on the timeline would be appreciated.

It's hard to imagine that the candidates with Illinois connections that are presumed to be targets of the search (Josh Whitman, Mike Small, Craig Tiley) would turn down the job because we haven't named a permanent chancellor yet. I mean, this is supposed to be their dream job, right? Now, a candidate without Illinois connections like Sean Frazier? I don't know, maybe he wouldn't love the situation, but you don't put the future of the entire athletic program on hold for months or more just to enhance our chances that the chancellor and athletic director will like each other.

Of course, some people seem to believe it's worthwhile to halt all efforts at program building and allow the football program to wither on the vine for 16 months just to ensure that the head coach and athletic director are bestest buddies, so what do I know.

 

[LurkLongandProsper]

:huh:

UIUC is Greeker than a hot, fresh tray of spanakopita. What are you talking about?

Lol, love the analogy, but I had the same reaction

 

[rdillini]

It's hard to imagine that the candidates with Illinois connections that are presumed to be targets of the search (Josh Whitman, Mike Small, Craig Tiley) would turn down the job because we haven't named a permanent chancellor yet. I mean, this is supposed to be their dream job, right? Now, a candidate without Illinois connections like Sean Frazier? I don't know, maybe he wouldn't love the situation, but you don't put the future of the entire athletic program on hold for months or more just to enhance our chances that the chancellor and athletic director will like each other.

Of course, some people seem to believe it's worthwhile to halt all efforts at program building and allow the football program to wither on the vine for 16 months just to ensure that the head coach and athletic director are bestest buddies, so what do I know.

Only issue I have is are the individuals with Illinois contacts is that they don't seem to be blowing the doors off as a "get." The University needs to get these hires right. If the candidates with Illinois' contacts are the most qualified then go get them. If not, I am not looking to remain in limbo for months but this deadline of naming someone by the 24th or so of January seems like the same kind of short sightedness that got us into the situation. Just incredibly frustrated with the university as a whole. Thanks for the insight.

 

[BZuppke]

When we hear these rumors I take them with a grain of salt. The idea of some rogue alums trying to bypass the committee sounds pretty crazy and frankly seems overstated. Just how do they think they'll not only identify and work out a deal with someone and then get Wilson, Killeen, et al. to simply hire them. I agree with S&C that different groups are leaking overstated rumors to push their own agendas. I do not take these rumors at face value, but there's some kernel of truth behind each one I'm sure.