Guenther had no incentive to drum up fundraising any differently than he had his whole career, and his last 4 years were during the economic collapse so that was a recipe for disaster.
Thomas was not well liked, came in when the economy was still not doing great (doing well towards the end, but these uber rich people still weren't whole from the collapse yet), and immediately made 2 highly publicized poor hires in the main revenue sports. A different recipe, but definitely a disaster.
Whitman came in and made a splashy football hire, is a super smart guy, an alum (from a time a lot of these uber rich people where in their prime sports watching period), and the economy is humming. He's done an amazing job, this is how we should be doing!