Millikin has about 2,200 enrollment and Wheaton somewhere around 3,000. Washington University? 13,865. They aren't similar. 17 sports, 19 NCAA championships. 63 Final Four appearances, 180 conference titles. Regarding Whitman specifically, he grew UW-Lacrosse. He hasn't been at Wash U long, but he has done a nice job. An exceptional student, NFL career, attorney at a prestigious law firm, fantastic personality, successful every stop he's been. Rising star. Your comments, as MattColdagelli mentions above, are regarding coaching. An Athletic Director has a completely different job function.
The Illinois AD Search
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He would still move from a D3 school which generates almost no revenue from their athletic programs to a P5 D1 school that generated 80mm and spent 83mm last year. Maybe a better analogy would be if the CEO of GoPro suddenly became the CEO of Cannon. I agree that Josh Whitman is a budding star but there's A LOT of risk involved in elevating someone that quickly up the chain.
And? If you can work with donors, improve facilities and are well-connected, why does it matter? Are you telling me that a former NFL player doesn't have a network available to hire football coaches because he came from a D3? Some of you seem to be posting in a vacuum, as opposed to recognizing Whitman for who he is. High ceiling type of hire. He is a solid fall back option.
I think it depends on the guy. If they think he can do the job, they hire him. There are high school coaches hired on at the NFL or College level....sometimes they skip steps...Texas football OC, Texas football HC, Junior college DC, D2, D3...etc.
You don't always have to go through all the steps.
We'll have to see how this folds out but I challenge you to find an instance of a P5 school hiring an AD with as thin of a resume as Josh Whitman. There's a good reason for that. Josh Whitman has a very high ceiling but he also has a very low floor. It's unprecedented for someone to jump from the D3 level to a P5 D1 school because of the risk involved and the consequences of a failed administration. We're seeing that failure firsthand right now.
orangeswarm76
- hastings Nebraska
Crickets:noidea:
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
Just spent some time reading through the thread the last time we went thru this process. Couple interesting things stood out:
1. Thread was only 20 pages long
2. Lots of the same names mentioned then as now
3. Did not see one mention of Mike Thomas until the hiring was announced
Process sounded eerily similar. Hope the results aren't.
1. Thread was only 20 pages long
2. Lots of the same names mentioned then as now
3. Did not see one mention of Mike Thomas until the hiring was announced
Process sounded eerily similar. Hope the results aren't.
Saying that Whitman is a low floor candidate is baffling to me. Low floor would be Tom Michael or Kelly Mehrtens. Nothing Whitman has done in life has been of the low floor variety.
By using the no D1 experience as an AD, how could you hire Tiley then? He's never been a D1 AD. See, it sounds pretty asinine to paint yourself into a corner with subjective requirements. Many people are pining for Mike Small, same discussion, no AD experience.
By this rationale, you're going to limit yourself to a MAC guy and no one at a MAC school is very inspiring and certainly doesn't have the Illini guy requirement so many on here say is a must.
At the end of the day, outside of George and Tiley, Whitman checks the most boxes. I sure as hell would take high ceiling, superior intelligence and charisma over mandated D1 AD experience from EIU.
At the end of the day, I am glad this decision isn't being made by the message boards.
I have been amazed nothing has been done for at least the past month. But I had figured that this Friday was about the latest they would wait for a press conference. I have moved to a new level of amazement. I really felt for sure that today they would announce a press conference Friday or Saturday. There aren't even many post today. Have people given up on an announcement?
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
He's a low floor candidate because he doesn't have any experience with critical components that are necessary to the job and I never said you needed to have previous D1 experience. George had no collegiate experience before he went to the Buffs either. Whitman has had little to no experience dealing with D1 compliance, marketing, merchandising, branding, television, corporate partnerships and sponsors as well as the pure difference in the amount of fund-raising done between the two levels.
Craig Tiley has experience with all of those components both at UI and during his experience as the CEO of Tennis Australia. Also I don't think we have to settle for a MAC guy. T
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
They'll have a new AD before we do.
Again, outisde of Tiley and George, who meets all of your requirements? That would be only people coming from major sports organizations or Power 5 conferences. No one is leaving a P5 job for Illinois.
Ok by me. I've seen what happens when we do precedented.
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
:rimshot:
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
One thing that I noticed about AD hires at successful athletic universities while looking at the list of qualifications was that there does not seem to be a specific cut and dried answer to the question "what makes a good candidate?"
The answers were all over the map. Some came up through the organization and worked their way to the top, some moved up the ladder of divisions, still others came from outside of college athletics. One guy actually had his high school football playing career on his bio page!?!?! What is clear is that once we have an AD in place, that AD should begin bringing in all manner of associates and assistants (like Dee) to learn and gain support. That might keep us out of this mess in the future.
The answers were all over the map. Some came up through the organization and worked their way to the top, some moved up the ladder of divisions, still others came from outside of college athletics. One guy actually had his high school football playing career on his bio page!?!?! What is clear is that once we have an AD in place, that AD should begin bringing in all manner of associates and assistants (like Dee) to learn and gain support. That might keep us out of this mess in the future.
IlliniOX08
- Bucktown, Chicago
Zero scholarship athletes. Zero coaches with national egos. Zero coaching hires in football or basketball at Wash U. In D3 there are limited stakes for a lack of success both financially and with reputation of the school. I get Wash. U. is a bigger player on the DIII stage. They have a bigger student body population than Wake Forest - is the AD at Wash U. StL a higher profile gig than Wake Forest? Having an enrollment that rivals smaller P5 schools and having had a ton of D3 success, where the competition is much less fierce, aren't qualifications for running a P5 program.
Whitman's qualification is that he's an Illinois guy. There's nothing wrong with that but he's going to be pretty green on this job. He is a risk - boom or bust. I'll disagree with the hire but support and root for his success all the same. I just don't want the fans talking themselves in to Whitman like he's ready for this on the same level as George or Tiley. There might be some pretty big bumps in the road before the light at the end of the tunnel even appears.
ilphotog
The camera never lies
- Champaign
Article about hiring AD's, kind of interesting.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/09/In-Depth/Wong-column.aspx
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/09/In-Depth/Wong-column.aspx
I haven't stated that Whitman was on the level of Tiley. Thanks for misrepresenting my post.
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