Chief376
- Memphis, TN
Lol, great stuff
The Illinois AD Search
- Status
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
I think just about every AD likes to come into a job with successful coaches in place .
I don't think any AD likes a situation where there is an unproven coach with a 5 year contract in place .
I think our situation for football is not a stumbling block at all . Most ADs have a 3-5 man short list of potential coaches at the ready, in case it's needed . MT probably didn't think he would go thru his whole list so fast last time .
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
Has the possibility of Jim Tressel being our wildcard AD candidate been discussed ?
Just askin'
Just askin'
Kramer
- Des Moines, Iowa
I do too
Yes and the answer is still no.
The Cubit extension makes sense now that we know the plan was to take 6 months to a year to find a new AD...Trust the process.
I agree with the overwhelming majority of your post, but I do have some differences and/or questions regarding these two:
The people you describe here would have very fragile egos and would therefor not be ideal for the job. Also, if said egos were that fragile they would probably have already declared no interest in the position to save face.
Having worked as a professional actor, and it may not be the best comparison, people usually don't let the fact that they were not choice #1 bother them for long. They truly believe they will prove everyone wrong when they get the job. We have seen this with athletes in the draft as well.
I would say, for example, Whitman may know all the hurdles he may have to jump to prove himself. If he is still there and interested, I have more faith in his belief he can do the job regardless of who has favored status.
Unless, of course, you think he's delusional.
I am not, however, refuting your post, just providing an alternate view.
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
For the record, Thomas was making $568k in 2015. Wise had a similar salary but had an additional title (VP). Not sure what Wilson's salary is now but it was $325k last year prior to bump to chancellor. Guessing she's around 5. Maybe that's why she canned Thomas? (just kidding)
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RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
Well, to one degree or another, that's pretty much how athletic departments work. For an extreme example, take a look at Oklahoma State and T. Boone.
I disagree. If Babers were hired before the future AD, that's basically a freebie hire for him. In the event Babers is successful, everybody is happy, and nobody cares who hired him. If he's not successful, none of it is the AD's fault, and he can shift blame to other people. And, in the 2-3 years that Babers would have gotten, facilities and just the general situation surrounding our program could be improved to better attract top candidates.
It absolutely is a stumbling block, even if it's not one that would prevent the hire of one of our top candidates. By hiring Cubit, we guaranteed we'd have 2 terrible recruiting classes in a row. Nothing can realistically change that at this point. So, whoever the AD hires is going to have one of the worst rosters in the P5, and that's obviously a tricky situation for both the coach and AD.
Hiring Babers would have been the Perfect situation for a new AD to come in to, its absoultely win-win. If we hire Babers (who was arguably the top candidate within our reach) and he succeeds? the new AD would eventually get the credit for that (look how well our program is doing under so and so!) However, if Babers were to fail, the new AD would have a free pass in 2-3 years, and nobody would blame him. "wasnt his guy"
Total win-win situation there for a new AD, however this 2 year Cubit deal is the exact opposite. It seriously hurts recruiting, which is going to set back the eventual next coach even further. And What happens if Cubit wins 7+ games next year?
We screwed this one up. We punted... On third down.
This is all pretty good stuff. I think I agree on all those points. :thumb:
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Deleted member 569417
D
Guest
I think you're missing one point here, and it's as important as any
0.5) Limit your candidates to a very very small group of people, by creating a meaningless to the job prerequisite of being either and ex employee or ex student of the school.
Yes, I agree with you that all the gaffs and screw-ups aren't going to run off a candidate like Whitman or, for that matter, Michael. The job represents such a leap for them, I'm sure they'll bear whatever indignities we subject them to as long as it keeps them in the running and they would forget it all quickly if they get the job.
My comments were more directed at the process itself, not the individual candidates. I mean, let's say I'm AD at a mid-major and I get the call from Korn Ferry today asking me if I'm interested. Maybe I am, BUT, if putting my name in the hat means ...
* it's going to leak out that I'm pursuing the job
* my name will be media and message board fodder for weeks because the university moves so slowly
* meanwhile, I'm going to have to delicately try to side-step the matter in my current job for an overly extended period of time while the U of I stumbles around trying to figure out what they're doing
* if I interview in-person, it's going to be reported in the Chicago papers, depriving me of plausible deniability going forward
* and in the end, I'm just going to get publicly passed over when the search committee determines that neither me nor any of the other candidates in my interview group are a suitable choice, and they need to reboot the whole process with a different set of people
... then maybe I'm not so interested. It's all in really bad form. We always say on here, "It shouldn't matter to us how long it takes, or how many errors we make, if in the end we get the right guy." OK, I get that. But we tend to overlook that it might matter to the right guy. Who would want to subject themselves to this kind of nonsense? And how much confidence in this administration would you have if they promised it wouldn't happen again?
Look, I get that the administration is in a tough spot. But you have to adjust to the realities of your situation. If you know there is a leadership vacuum at the top necessitating a complex committee-based decision-making approach, which brings in too many self-interested factions, some of whom like to go rogue to push their agenda, resulting in information and misinformation leaking out like a sieve in every direction, and there's little you can do to counteract all this because institutional controls have gone offline as a result of months of internal upheaval, then unfortunately, you don't have the luxury of conducting a leisurely, broadly-sweeping candidate search during which dozens of names are considered and passed on while unofficial deadlines get perpetually extended.
With the often repeated reference to Barbara's statement that UI Athletics should be the front porch of the university, it is wishful thinking at this point that the university image be transformed through the hire of the AD. Alabama is an example through Saban as college football coach as referenced by:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ban-is-cfbs-first-8-million-man-should-you-be
and
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/s...ama-crimson-tide-football-marketing.html?_r=1
It would be a dream that the search committee make easier to make the UI a more 'natural' destination for students and athletes beginning with the excellent hire of the athletic director and eventual consistently winning UI teams, including football and basketball.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ban-is-cfbs-first-8-million-man-should-you-be
and
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/s...ama-crimson-tide-football-marketing.html?_r=1
It would be a dream that the search committee make easier to make the UI a more 'natural' destination for students and athletes beginning with the excellent hire of the athletic director and eventual consistently winning UI teams, including football and basketball.
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I did not originally totally agree with this, but now that we've reached a point where our two top "Illini Guys" are not interested and/or too expensive for us, and, upon further consideration, our best fallback "Illini Guy" is not good enough for somebody with veto power, I'm rapidly coming around to this viewpoint. Seems like, at a minimum, we could have multitasked over the past three months and cultivated a few promising Plan Bs, Cs, and Ds with some external options.
Oh I get you brother, and I believe you make very salient points; just kicking around a different angle.
CIIF
- Edwardsville
Why would it not make sense for the U of I to have upper tier Big Ten athletic programs? What has happened to our once proud DIA?
I've seen a couple of posters now refer to "rebooting" the search or starting over with a new set of candidates. Where did this come from? Unless I missed something, I don't see anything that indicates we are expanding our search in any way. It seems like George is out, Tiley is a remote possibility, and Whitman and Michael (to a lesser extent) are the fallbacks.
Where did we get this idea that we are restarting the search?
Where did we get this idea that we are restarting the search?
I think we should all do a new over/under on the number of pages before a hire. I will say 168.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
I seriously think this is a myth. We had some scattered success in both Football and Men's Basketball, but the DIA hasn't been "proud" in my lifetime. And I'm 50.
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