We do not know the first part. In fact all indications are the opposite, he wasn't given any reign and contacted George himself. George cannot be contracted if no one official wanted him. We apparently never even started that process when he turned us down. That's what I mean when Khan isn't even being brought into any conversation that matters.
The Illinois AD Search
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We do not know the first part. In fact all indications are the opposite, he wasn't given any reign and contacted George himself. George cannot be contracted if no one official wanted him. We apparently never even started that process when he turned us down. That's what I mean when Khan isn't even being brought into any conversation that matters.
The firing of Mike Thomas happened because Shad Khan convinced the naive buffoons in charge that he had George wrapped up, all they needed to do was let him do the talking. That is the consensus of everything I've heard on the topic, and this whisper campaign started a long, long time ago.
Mike Thomas is still here if this George myth hadn't been widely, forcibly, and intentionally propagated.
Phyllis Wise wasn't buying it. Oh well :tsk:
The thing that I don't get still is that they went from relying on Khan for an AD to extending Cubit. If you're going to trust Khan/use his resources it shouldn't be a huge 180 degree change that quickly, going from "you handle it" to "full brakes, nothing is working so let's just extend Cubit." It's pure incompetence from them, because even though George didn't materialize for us it doesn't mean we couldn't have made a decent FB coach hire.
Khan still hasn't given up on recruiting George, from what I'm hearing.
The clock struck midnight and Cinderella just kept riding around in the pumpkin.
This was never a "hey Shad, what else ya got?" kind of situation. The administration naively put the DIA's future in the hands of someone who, rich and professional as he may be, did not have a deep knowledge of what he was doing.
You make that mistake in September, you find a way to recover from it.
The mystery that bedevils me in this is why almost 3 months passed between Wise's firing and Thomas', especially considering that the decision itself was apparently already made and ready to be announced on October 16. Negotiating a buyout? He was paid every penny he was owed.
Blinding, breath-taking incompetence. You have to hope that Khan can find a way to get things under control, because if a billionaire can't make things happen in this country, who can?
By all accounts he already failed once, don't really have faith in anyone right now to get us back on track. Hopefully we find someone good but the administration and boosters already failed, and the last piece is the "process" which I don't have high hopes for.
It's so funny to see people's blind faith in Khan and/or Colangelo as if those two weren't hand-in-hand with Ron Guenther every step of the way over his 19 years in charge.
I think there is an idea that a Boone Pickens-type sugar daddy is the only route to success. That couldn't be further from the truth. Especially not here.
I think there is an idea that a Boone Pickens-type sugar daddy is the only route to success. That couldn't be further from the truth. Especially not here.
We already did. Even if you feel you can live with your pick-name-from-hat of Michael/Frazier/Whitman/Tiley (and it's going to be one of those guys, who are we kidding), we can't change the fact we could have had (that guy) in November and Dino Babers last week. No realistic scenario going forward from here is better than that.
Gotta disagree with you here. Khan is not the only route to success, however there is certainly no reason to write him off just because he hasn't been able to convince Rick George to come down from the mountains. I certainly trust him more in the athletic realm than I trust Wilson and Killeen at this point. I think an ideal situation would involve him picking himself up, dusting off, and helping in whatever capacity he can to find/land the next guy, which would give him a vested interest in the success of the next AD.
Of course that's the ideal scenario. That was also the ideal scenario almost a month ago.
The point is, and this is what people refuse to get, the University cannot cede control of its athletic operations to one, or a few, or even all of its donors. Maintaining a safe distance there is very, very important. The Khan-George gambit would be a worthy gamble (IMO) at the appropriate time. A week before the season ends was not the appropriate time.
BZuppke
- Plainfield
Here's how SIU did it. This article was from April, 2015:
"Leon Costello, the deputy athletic director at South Dakota State since July 2014, and Richard Darnell, Jr., the senior associate athletic director for development at Illinois, are the other two finalists. All four will visit campus for meetings, interviews and an open forum later this month. SIU President Randy Dunn expects to fill the position later this spring, according to the news release.
The athletic director search committee, which was appointed by Dunn in January, reviewed 67 applicants. Doug Woolard, who has been serving as a special adviser to the athletic department, assisted the committee in identifying and recruiting candidates from a national pool and reviewing their information."
"Leon Costello, the deputy athletic director at South Dakota State since July 2014, and Richard Darnell, Jr., the senior associate athletic director for development at Illinois, are the other two finalists. All four will visit campus for meetings, interviews and an open forum later this month. SIU President Randy Dunn expects to fill the position later this spring, according to the news release.
The athletic director search committee, which was appointed by Dunn in January, reviewed 67 applicants. Doug Woolard, who has been serving as a special adviser to the athletic department, assisted the committee in identifying and recruiting candidates from a national pool and reviewing their information."
I wonder how Oregon works with Phil Knight...he seems to be funding everything there.
Dropping down to FCS isn't a terrible idea...
That situation is sui generis. And even then, it's not like Knight is leading the search for personnel. They've barely had outside searches for personnel there.
The golf pro?
ilphotog
The camera never lies
- Champaign
It would almost be worth them doing it just to hear the explanation for why we needed to pass on Dino Babers out of concern that hiring him may have compromised our ability to secure a career golf pro with a degree in hospitality management, who's name doesn't even come up on a Google search, as our new athletic director.
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Pretty sure there were rumors the other way around. Babers didn't want to come someplace without an AD in place. Heard that several places.
Heard the opposite.
Well, I guess the opposite would be that he specifically wanted to go somewhere without an AD. I didn't hear that
But Babers was very interested in Illinois, Thomas or no Thomas. No "oh gee, I'll wait for the RIGHT move" with him. He was ready to hit the big time. Understandable at his age and with his background. Time's a-wastin'
Well, (1) if this is the caliber of AD we're looking at (e.g. a golf pro with zero experience in college athletics and 500 Twitter followers) we could have hired our permanent AD well before the Northwesern game, and (2) this:
"Asked if she considered hiring a new coach now, Wilson said, 'No. That's just not the way things should unfold. We hire a permanent AD, and that permanent AD makes decisions about coaches.'" -- Champaign N-G 11/30/15
Whether you're correct or S&C, the point is, we never even tried.
Deleted member 569417
D
Guest
A golf pro with no experience in athletics is somehow a name to watch for to become an Athletic Director of an ~80M department at a Big Ten University.
I don't even know what to say anymore. There is no point anymore.
EDIT - Oh hey, I found another really amazing candidate! Jake Hanley! Head golf pro at Jeremy Ranch in Park City Utah. Golf pros are the wave of the future!
I don't even know what to say anymore. There is no point anymore.
EDIT - Oh hey, I found another really amazing candidate! Jake Hanley! Head golf pro at Jeremy Ranch in Park City Utah. Golf pros are the wave of the future!
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Soxfreak64
- Bloomington
Know Mike personally. Great guy, family man. Don't see what on earth qualifies him for this job...
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