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 ****ing 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 ****ty 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 ****ty 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.
Excellent post. The place is a huge mess
