Why? Is the wrestling team not showing up to its matches on time? Did the DIA disintegrate? They have an interim AD getting the job done. If it takes until the Spring semester is over, it doesn't really matter except to the traffic on the message boards.
The Illinois AD Search
- Status
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
You are putting a whole lot of stock in what appears to me to be boilerplate answers that could just as easily mean nothing.
What is the alternative here? "We've still got a long way to go. Progress has been a slog because of so many competing interests. A lot of people wouldn't touch this job with a ten-foot pole."
Yes, I could see the small handful of local CU donors will get restless with the lack of success, and come out with pitchforks within the next couple years, then want "their" guy to come in and fix. And the CU admin will be held hostage by this small group, fire George and hire their donors' choice. Sound familiar???
Just saying that George should see writing on the wall that CU's future ain't that rosey. I mean they've had basically the same recruiting "success" Illinois has had in the past 5 years. And despite a decent basketball team, they struggle to sell seats. They can't even afford a baseball team!
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
Having lived on the front range for over 20 years, your assessment of CU is spot on (although I think he has quite a bit longer than 2 years before the spotlight turns on him). I suspect the real reason George is turning us down is that he's a smart exec. The CU boat may not be much better at the moment but the big difference is that their boat is headed towards the surface while ours seems to be headed in the opposite direction.
I thought it was interesting that on yesterday's Jay and Tay, Tupper alluded that Shannon Ryan's source had to be a trustee because of what she wrote. Makes perfect sense knowing just a thing or two about the overall makeup of the Trustee's, it doesn't surprise me that she got so much wrong. 
The alternative is to say "We're making good progress but we're not at a point of any kind of announcement yet." Which is what she said, verbatim, two weeks ago.
My only point is that we've shifted from "Don't expect an announcement anytime soon" to "Expect an announcement sometime soon." Obviously, file that under take-it-FWIW. But by my reading, the change is not consistent with, "Hey, let's Skype that Tiley guy this week and see if he still has an interest in this thing. He makes $1.3 million per year in his current job -- do we have that kind of cash laying around? And if we can't get him, so what? We still got that meat-lovers pizza in the trunk."
I found it, links to an article on thesportsbank.net which I won't link because the guy who blogs there is a moron. IMO.
Last edited by a moderator:
dgcrow
- Kelso, WA
Reminds me of Yogi Berra's comment while driving: "I'm lost, but I'm making good time."
Last edited by a moderator:
You're right Whitman didn't work under Guenther for very long but he was a part of the football program and understands how a lot of athletic departments interact with their boosters. Guenther wasn't that much different then a lot of schools where they have a culture that's inclusive of booster feedback in any major decisions regarding the 2 major revenue sports. I think the majority of boosters want that type of access again which is why you're not seeing many candidates outside of the Illinois circle.
MT on the other hand tried to rule with an iron fist and really only went to a few select boosters for any advice and treated the rest as banks when he needed to raise funds.
I thought it was interesting that on yesterday's Jay and Tay, Tupper alluded that Shannon Ryan's source had to be a trustee because of what she wrote. Makes perfect sense knowing just a thing or two about the overall makeup of the Trustee's, it doesn't surprise me that she got so much wrong.
Yep that makes sense. I've always figured both Ryan and Bernstein have a source on the BOT that talks to them frequently. Usually it's got some accuracy, but there's usually an agenda behind the leak as well, so it's best taken with a grain of salt. Based on the candidate list Ryan published, we know that at least some of the names were accurate based on later statements (such as Heeke), but that she got the Tiley details wrong. I'm not good enough to determine what the agenda might be there, but it's interesting.
About the only thing Bernstein said about Shannon's story was his berating the fact that they only interviewed each person for 90 minutes. He said it should have been a whole day for each one of them. However, he didn't and still doesn't have a clue if that was before/after a video conference interview or if there were second or third interviews. He also didn't really consider that it was the search committee's interviews which could or could not be just to narrow down the field. AFAIK, the search committee is not hiring the AD, they are recommending. And I don't even know if they are recommending just one person or the top 3 or what.
As you can tell, my drive time is FM for Jay and Tay till I am out of reach, then to the score to listen to the numskulls. I love the score the rest of the time.
Nobody's fooling anybody with that move.
Stevegarbs
- Mokena, IL
Agree with you. Many a mountain has been raised from a molehill on IL. "They didn't meet my arbitrary deadline- off with their heads!" :tsk:
Yep and Groce and Cubit's agents would never allow them to accept meaningless extensions anyway. Each of them would be better of betting on themselves by getting to the tourney or a bowl game respectively and then demanding extensions with full buyout clauses.
Well Said. The only need for speed would be if other schools were hiring possible candidates.
Deleted member 569417
D
Guest
And there is absolutely no concern any program is hiring our legit candidates...
So what you're saying is George should come to Illinois just to "restart the clock"? Since the CO and Il situations seem comparable. Seems like he ought to actually be looking for a "good" job instead
The ECI donors group seems pretty powerful. Sounds like a whacked conspiracy theory to me.
i would think some large donors would get attention wherever they live.
i would think some large donors would get attention wherever they live.
I wouldn't discount the impact of facetime in the equation. Seeing people face to face around the local area at events, etc probably causes the pressure to be a little more acute than the donors you see maybe once a year.
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
So what you're saying is George should come to Illinois just to "restart the clock"? Since the CO and Il situations seem comparable. Seems like he ought to actually be looking for a "good" job instead
George is a rising star. He's in his mid 50's with maybe one or two big career moves left. I don't see him taking a very risky lateral move to walk into the potential career deadend that is the Illinois athletic department. Given how he's managed his career, I see him moving on to something bigger and better pretty soon, either a MUCH better AD job or something much different. Hopefully I'm wrong and he wants the Illinois AD job but I don't see it and all indications are that he doesn't either.
I thought we knew George was out.....:doh:
I'm sure outside of a jump to UI, Washington U is a great gig for Whitman. Why would Tiley leave Tennis Australia to be the AD of UCLA? Legit candidates for a particular school are not necessarily legit candidates for every opening.
Deleted member 569417
D
Guest
No one outside of Illinois would even entertain the thought of Whitman or Michael at this time.
- Status