Though I never met MT, I don't doubt anyone above who says he was a jerk. And he has to own the Beckman hire, and he was stingy - look at his last line below.looking back, it really is a mystery how TB could have ascended up the coaching ladder like he did, and MT could not have figured it out during the vetting and interviewing process that he was not the guy for us nor any P5 program, especially at that time.
MT failed miserably in the most important hire he ever had to make, and in all three hires at that time.
From Wiki: Twice during his career Thomas has won the Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletics Director Award, once in 2005 while at Akron, and again in April 2008 while at Cincinnati. Of course , when we hire him , he craps the bed
But no one wanted to come here, and that was publicly known. We were getting embarrassed in the media as candidate after candidate turned us down. So I don't 100% blame him in this case, though I sure wish his vetting would have found Campbell instead (as I recall one poster here saying at the time!).