Josh Whitman Named 14th Illinois Athletics Director

#226      

Illinigirl

I
Illinigirl
South Farms said:
Was Mark Rutkowski still teaching undergrad business law in the late 90's - early 00's ? He was one of my favorite teachers back in the 80's .

He and tax accts teacher Ken Willis were superb
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Roszkowski I think - but yes, he was still there - I had him in 01-02.
 
#229      

UIUC1867

UIUC1867
Christian County, IL
UIUC1867
Well, at least it wasn't Tom Michael at the podium . . . (whew).
 
#230      

Oskee67

Oskee67
Champaign
Oskee67
I'm curious. A lot of folks on this board claim academic requirements are too high for our athletic programs, but does a Whitman hire change any of that? I don't believe our admissions department is the boogeyman some think it is, and I can't see him advocating for reduced standards.
 
#231      

WesterveltVictoryCigar

WesterveltVictoryCigar
WesterveltVictoryCigar
Oskee67 said:
I'm curious. A lot of folks on this board claim academic requirements are too high for our athletic programs, but does a Whitman hire change any of that? I don't believe our admissions department is the boogeyman some think it is, and I can't see him advocating for reduced standards.
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And could be part of the reason he was hired and not George.
 
#232      

Cubby Blue

C
Cubby Blue
AutoPoster 3000 said:
I realize I'm the only person on this thread who cares, but as a classmate and section-mate of Whitman's in the College of Law class of 2008, I can confirm that he just nailed the question about his former professors -- Reynolds, Leipold, Tabb ... he got all of them but one from memory, which I could never have done. A reminder why he was summa cum laude and I was merely cum laude.
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Slacker :cool::D
 
#233      

Second and Chalmers

S
Second and Chalmers
Oskee67 said:
I'm curious. A lot of folks on this board claim academic requirements are too high for our athletic programs, but does a Whitman hire change any of that? I don't believe our admissions department is the boogeyman some think it is, and I can't see him advocating for reduced standards.
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Far too early to tell on any of that.
 
#234      

IrishIllini

I
IrishIllini
Oskee67 said:
I'm curious. A lot of folks on this board claim academic requirements are too high for our athletic programs, but does a Whitman hire change any of that? I don't believe our admissions department is the boogeyman some think it is, and I can't see him advocating for reduced standards.
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Yeah, makes no sense that Michigan (bball and fball)/Wisconsin(bball and fball)/Penn State(fball)/Notre Dame (fball and recently bball)/Standford (fball) can field competitive teams, yet we struggle year after year to. A large part of that is history, but I'm sure Admissions looking the other way every time and again doesn't hurt.

Plus it has been proven time and time again that success on the field yields higher application numbers which leads to increased selectivity, which is what Illinois is all about!

:chief::shield:
 
#235      

jagaf22

J
jagaf22
Oskee67 said:
A lot of folks on this board claim academic requirements are too high for our athletic programs, but does a Whitman hire change any of that? I don't believe our admissions department is the boogeyman some think it is, and I can't see him advocating for reduced standards.
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Others, here will argue it depends if he's serious about WINNING! #wewillwin
 
#236      

Cubby Blue

C
Cubby Blue
IrishIllini said:
Yeah, makes no sense that Michigan (bball and fball)/Wisconsin(bball and fball)/Penn State(fball)/Notre Dame (fball and recently bball)/Standford (fball) can field competitive teams, yet we struggle year after year to. A large part of that is history, but I'm sure Admissions looking the other way every time and again doesn't hurt.

Plus it has been proven time and time again that success on the field yields higher application numbers which leads to increased selectivity, which is what Illinois is all about!

:chief::shield:
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Michigan and Penn State both have lower entrance levels for athletes. I heard Mike Thomas say that the only two B1G that held their athletes to the same entrance standards as the general population were Wisky and Illinois and that Alvarez was trying to change Wisky's now.
 
#237      

BZuppke

BZuppke
Plainfield
BZuppke
I for one have no concerns over some in the media making a big issue that we've fallen so far we're now settling for Div III ADs. We didn't settle for him, we chose him over Chun and others who were/are assistants at FBS schools. We chose JW because he brings so much more to the table. It really is a small risk that someone of his intelligence will fail to make the transition.
 
#238      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
[YOUTUBE]BOQreM9A7Zk[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]-GlHK59-neE[/YOUTUBE]
 
#239      

sigint

S
sigint
BZuppke said:
I for one have no concerns over some in the media making a big issue that we've fallen so far we're now settling for Div III ADs. We didn't settle for him, we chose him over Chun and others who were/are assistants at FBS schools. We chose JW because he brings so much more to the table. It really is a small risk that someone of his intelligence will fail to make the transition.
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This really isn't true, and I'm a pretty big fan of Whitman. Unless, you mean that we don't have much left to lose. In which case, I'd agree with you.
 
#241      

orangeswarm76

O
hastings Nebraska
orangeswarm76
Can definitely see him hiring Frazier for fb coach. Also we have our guy, and I'm guessing you don't want to cross him. :chief:
 
#242      

dgcrow

dgcrow
Kelso, WA
dgcrow
deadpool81 said:
ugh, some of these media people are just killing me with their inane questions. They come in with their story already pre-written, so they ask their canned questions to get the fill-in-the-blank quote they need, and in doing so, miss some great opportunities for real substantial follow up questions.

Example: JW gives an interesting response about his approach of implementing incremental changes. Just begging for a follow up of "what are some incremental changes we can expect to see, how about a timeline?" or whatever.

Instead we get this hard-hitting question, and yes i'm paraphrasing here: "tell us again about how you were a football player at UI and now you're the AD, OMG". so tone deaf.
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Doesn't surprise me. It's merely indicative of the level of sports "journalism" today.
 
#243      

thebizz81

T
thebizz81
South Farms said:
Was Mark Rutkowski still teaching undergrad business law in the late 90's - early 00's ? He was one of my favorite teachers back in the 80's .

He and tax accts teacher Ken Willis were superb
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True story, one day during class in some lecture hall all the the lights went out. ...pitch dark. He calmly pauses for a couple of seconds, and continues to lecture in the pitch dark for the next 10 minutes
 
#245      

Buster

B
Maui
Buster
Oskee67 said:
I'm curious. A lot of folks on this board claim academic requirements are too high for our athletic programs, but does a Whitman hire change any of that? I don't believe our admissions department is the boogeyman some think it is, and I can't see him advocating for reduced standards.
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That is a misconception.
 
#246      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
[YOUTUBE]C5HetgQmzj8[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]LK7mJJwQaCc[/YOUTUBE]
 
#247      

brosox

B
brosox
Very impressive press conference. He is smart and appears very personable. I would think that even Boers and Bernstein will have a hard time trying to make fun of him like they so often did with both Thomas and Beckman. I think he will be a great representative of our university, which is a large part of the battle.
 
#248      

HoustonIllini

H
Houston, TX
HoustonIllini
AutoPoster 3000 said:
That's an interesting read. It sounds a bit like Tim Beckman's "OSKEE" speech after it was painstakingly decoded by a team of the world's foremost cryptographers. I'm guessing Whitman will do just fine tomorrow.
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As I read his speech, my first thought was "give me a break . . . "

No one speaks like that, and I thought it was grossly over-baked. I understand the emotion and sentiment he put into it . . . . however I think it diluted his message somewhat.

Having said that, I'm hoping he's the savior we've all been hoping for! GO :illinois: