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Complete Lack of Human Capital in the UM Athletic Department

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UMAlum21

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I think we can all agree that the reason for the decade long decline in UM athletics clearly goes beyond guys like Coker, Shannon, Golden. Perry Clark, Frank Haith, and Jim Morris' corpse. To me, based on the resumes and experiences of many people on the administrative side of our Athletic Department, there seems to be a complete lack of competence present, littered with underqualified stooges making decisions. Again, these are the people tasked with staffing, budgeting, contractual matters, scheduling, revenue/expense forecasting, expansion, organizational strategic operational efficiencies, and recruiting top talent. For reference, we're discussing the administrative and coaching side of things, not things like our communications or academic services side of things, who I believe so a good job. Undortunately, these people dont impact financial performance or on field product. The admins like James and Tony Hernandez are the most important people in any organization, think of the as the C-Level executives of a corporation and the Department Directors/VP.


Just for reference, let's use FSU for comparisions sake. FSU has become one of the premier athletic program recently, building an elite football, baseball, women's soccer, men's soccer, and several other programs.

Both of these individuals are responsible for all weight room related purchases and video services. Let's compare resumes and qualifications.

http://m.hurricanesports.com/mobile/ViewArticle.dbml?atclid=205562009&DB_OEM_ID=28700&

http://www.seminoles.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=209573665&DB_OEM_ID=32900


Let's now compare heads of strength and conditioning. Our guy has a sociology degree and played cornerback at Baylor. Outside of being an athlete, he appears to have no formal training in the field. Their guy on the other hand has the appropriate degrees, is certified by USA Weightlifting, and studied under Tommy Moffit and Gayle Hatch, widely regarded as the top S&C guys in the country. Moffit was our S&C guy under Butch.

http://www.seminoles.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32900&ATCLID=209573009


Let's compare athletics directors. Our guy has a marketing degree from some Podunk D-3 school, never played collegiate sports, and whose primarily area of expertise was ticketing, not administration. His only prior experience was the University of Maine. Compare that to Stan Wilcox. Wilcox was the AD at Duke and Notre Dame, was an associate commissioner of the Big East for 11 years, worked for the New York Supreme Court, was a four year letterman in basketball at Notre Dame, graduated with a degree in economics, a JD, and is a member of the New York Bar. Wonder who is more qualified and why Wilcox has led FSU to department wide success since his arrival.

http://www.seminoles.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=209573695&DB_OEM_ID=32900

This doesn't even go into the disparities in qualifications between our actual ******* coaches. Jimbo, a guy who served as the offensive coordinator at LSU under the greatest coach on the modern era, and won a ring, versus Golden a guy who learned under Al Groh, and had mediocre results as a defensive coordinator and his first stint as a head guy at Temple.

And it's a big shocker our athletic programs suck, we're always complaining about lack of finances, poor facilities, and expensive contract extensions/buyouts? We have either a bunch of ****** home grown guys who've never worked at a major program and are so underqualified, or guys like Golden and Swasey who learned under other ****** programs and are underqualified for the position they are in.

Donna Shalala has completely destroyed our athletic program from the top down. Her complete incompetence in properly allocation of funds, poor hiring decisions, micromanaging, and lack of infrastructural support has put us in the situation we are in.
 
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Fsu's strength coach annoys the **** out of me when hes jumping up and down on the sidelines
 
I have been saying/asking about this for awhile now, but the last couple years makes it crystal clear. There is literally no leadership at the university of miami, atleast in regards to the athletics. You have people who say BOT members dont bother with the sports and say it as if its a positive, I hear that and it raises a big red flag. I want someone on BOT who cares, someone who treats it like their baby. Our AD situation seems like a disaster, guy with just a title with no control. PR guy, Golden is another PR guy, people like him because of hair and he speaks well, oh and he bought UM a into the 2000s with some summer camps, cant win games, cant even coach special teams.
 
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Blake James believes we were better at the end of the year than the beginning despite 4 straight losses. What more do you need to know?
 
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Athcane said:
BS post comparing a dr associate AD at FSU to a Miami admin assistant.

Give me a break
Click to expand...

Would you like to compare him to Tony Hernandez than? Hernandez appears to be strictly a "home grown" talent. As listed on his profile, it appears he's responsible for all contractual matters and financial operations. Based on this reported ludicrous buyout and unfireable contract Golden has, couple with the ongoing "we have no money for coaches or facilities" cries from Hecht, sounds like he's also doing a bang up job.
 
I've been saying this for years. We don't have many people that are actually qualified for their positions in the athletic department.
 
skyman said:
I have been saying/asking about this for awhile now, but the last couple years makes it crystal clear. There is literally no leadership at the university of miami, atleast in regards to the athletics. You have people who say BOT members dont bother with the sports and say it as if its a positive, I hear that and it raises a big red flag. I want someone on BOT who cares, someone who treats it like their baby. Our AD situation seems like a disaster, guy with just a title with no control. PR guy, Golden is another PR guy, people like him because of hair and he speaks well, oh and he bought UM a into the 2000s with some summer camps, cant win games, cant even coach special teams.
Click to expand...

Our situation reeks of awful upper management. Seems to me Shalala stocked the departments with underqualified yes men, empty suits, and cheap PR guys rather than competent, proven individuals actually able to do their jobs. Make no mistake, guys like Hocutt, James, and Eichort were her puppets, there to meet boosters and talk to the media while she made all the big decisions, whether it be hirings, extensions, moving from the Orange Bowl, granting Shapiro his access to the program, and more. She had no background in athletics, and based off tbe complete disaster the medical school is in from a financial perspective, clearly is incompetent in running a business as well.

You have a BOT who doesn't care about athletics and obviously isn't going to be versed in the nuances of running an athletic department. So we have a clueless Board who has their own issues to deal with in regards to their own companies, an athletic director with no power who lacks the knowledge or connections required to fixing a failing on field product, and nobody capable of making sound decisions.

I'd love to see a consulting firm come in and see their opinions of this cluster****.
 
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Medley posts primarily on Canestime premium but I know he posts here too. He's been trumpeting this issue for years now. UM is a mom and pop operation. In every aspect of their management, they are bush league.

Its not that they hired coker, its that they extended him when everyone paying attention knew the program was disintegrating in front of their faces. The marketplace told us he was worth about $700K, yet UM chose to pay him $2.2 million a year with a large buyout if he were terminated.

Its not that they hired Randy. Well, actually it is. How the **** could someone hire that man to run a major D1 program? Clearly they have no idea what is needed to run a football program. Can you imagine sitting with Randy Shannon alone in a room for an hour and coming away thinking this guy would be a good media face for the program and university?? I cannot.

Its not that they hired Al. Its that as soon as it looked like he was a media darling, they gave away the store to him. This had just happened to them five years earlier. How the **** could they not learn anything? The marketplace will once again show that this guy, like Coker is worth about $700K a year (that of a lower level D1 coach or D coordinator someplace where the head coach doesnt watch film of his hires. lol)
 
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OP is touching upon a very lightly discussed subject. This would be a great article for someone to write and expose. There are serious structural problems at the univetsity of Miami's athletic department. Incompetence is rampant.
 
UM prior to Shalala by all accounts under Dee was the premier program in the country. Elite football and baseball team, basketball team making waves as a Sweet 16 team, and an elite men's tennis program. Everything has gone to **** across the board. It's a joke. There's been no growth, no foresight, no nothing, just mediocrity and excuses. Larry Coker was a top 10 salaried coach upon his extension, and our salaries and facilities have stayed flat (Facilities were begrudgingly upgraded recently albeit they are still behind the curve) despite an explosion nationwide.
 
The new President can't get here fast enough. Just hope it's the guy that's being mentioned a lot on these boards. This clown show needs a military-type approach to FINALLY get this university RUN like it should. Too many incompetents have been ####ing up the works for too long.
 
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