TedHendricksOffspring
Junior
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2013
- Messages
- 1,866
'Chise here is making some real valid points. I've been following The Admiral pretty closely since his name first surfaced in relation to our opening. While I've been impressed that he actually seems moderate to even slightly right-leaning for someone that has become an academic, there has been not one hint of anything coming from the guy that could lead any of us to believe that he is a proponent of big-time college sports. In fact, the only mention of anything sports related was one pro Navy football tweet and a forced joke about how someone could ask him who he was pulling for in the Super Bowl (as he was being interviewed from Boston). The timeframe of his potential exposure to Canes football is also concerning. The guy was no longer even a West Palm resident by the late 70's so there's a good chance that he missed all the Glory Days if he was even a fan to begin with.
I'm pulling for the guy to get the job because of what I've seen from him when being interviewed on world affairs and because there definitely doesn't seem to be a better name floating around. But to assume just because he is a military man from Palm Beach County and his parents may have had some football tickets that he'll be a savior to the program is taking a big leap. Then again, all we have at this point is hope so I'm down with dreaming that him and Butch regularly break down game film at an Ale House in Bonita while taking shots at Obama surrounded by empty pitchers of beer and plates of Zingers.
All fair, well-reasoned points. All I will say is that how vocally pro-sports can you be at a place like Tufts? It wouldn't serve any purpose in the long run.
And if he really is the social media guru that he appears to be, he can't be blind to the fact that athletics is what generally attracts the top tier students, especially in Florida.
I'll be honest and say that there isn't a perfect reason to believe that he will boost athletics tremendously but, unlike Donna, he's taking over a high tier academic institution that will require less leg work than she pumped into it from an early academic perspective. At that point his attention should turn to attracting better students as teachers and investors already want to be a part of the school. The way to attract those students is through athletics.
I think the real question is, is he the most pro-sports of all the potential hires? Do you know the other 3 potential hires? I mean how much did you guys expect the new president to be pro-sports? The reason you hire a president is for academics, plain and simple. The president usually hires an AD to deal with all the football stuff (UF does this well). The new president doesn't have to be someone that grew up loving Canes football, just someone that understands what it means to this school and community.
As far as I know, he does enjoy sports the most. I don't know the other three candidates yet because the list of potential suitors was just narrowed down and now that we're on Spring Break, my information well is currently on hiatus.
One thing about Stavirids is that he is an effective leader and manager. I would THINK that he would hire a strong AD who would get the jobs done that needed to be done.
@FAKE Chip Brierre: Assuming Stavridis gets the job, it stands to reason that he would hire a strong AD. During his admiralty record, he commanded a lot of high profile units that required job delegation and the record of those tenures is one of improvement. So I would think his AD would be a above par person for the position.