Search firm led by Former Vandy AD to hire next UT AD

#27
#27
wmcovol said:
turner was the AD at Vandy who hired kevin Stallings. Turner and Stallings were very close friends. in fact they both have sons the same age as my youngest son and he often played basketball and baseball vs teams coached by Turner and Stallings while he was growing up. I tell you this cause Pitt hired Turner last spring to find a basketball coach. At the same time, Stallings was being forced out at Vandy. Guess who Pitt hired? Yep.

These colleges don't pay thousands to a search firm only to decline who the search firm brings to them....get a clue people.
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So we should be preparing for widenhofer as our AD?
 
#28
#28
Maybe, just maybe, Davenport has her reasons for not using our contracted search firm. Five minutes of Googling showed me that:

  • UT has had Parker Executive Search on a standing five year contract since April 2014
  • UT hired Donnie Tyndall on April 22, 2014 (so, having a firm on retainer clearly isn't always insulation against questionable decision making)
  • Parker has been scrutinized on multiple occasions for shortcomings in its vettings of recommended administrators (see: Parker not finding that Minnesota President Eric Kaler had had allegations of sexual harrassment before helping Minnesota make that pick, Parker not noting that Julie Hermann had been accused of verbal abuse here at Tennessee before working to place Hermann as AD at Rutgers
  • A number of people have questioned Parker's relationships with D1 athletics and administrations, calling it a "buddy system" and "good old boys' club"
Is Todd Turner’s Collegiate Sports Associates any different? Who knows? Maybe it's just another club who are more willing to make a pick Davenport wants in the first place. But I doubt anyone on this board knows whether "the fix is in" or if this deviation means avoiding a fix in the first place, or if it's as simple as wanting to go in a different direction.
 
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#29
#29
BurninOrange said:
He is speaking of the search firm the University is using. The owner of it is the ex Vandy AD
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The search firms often push their candidates to the top who pay the bigger fees, in effect a kick back. Which is why IMO administrations should not allow search firms in to the process, it gives them a third party to point the finger at if it doesn't work out. If you cant or won't make a hire and be responsible for them, don't take the %$#@ing job in the first place!!!
 
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#32
#32
Remy said:
The search firms often push their candidates to the top who pay the bigger fees, in effect a kick back. Which is why IMO administrations should not allow search firms in to the process, it gives them a third party to point the finger at if it doesn't work out. If you cant or won't make a hire and be responsible for them, don't take the %$#@ing job in the first place!!!
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100% agree. Own it, or go home.
 
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#35
#35
Remy said:
The search firms often push their candidates to the top who pay the bigger fees, in effect a kick back. Which is why IMO administrations should not allow search firms in to the process, it gives them a third party to point the finger at if it doesn't work out. If you cant or won't make a hire and be responsible for them, don't take the %$#@ing job in the first place!!!
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paid by whom, to whom?
 
#36
#36
By the way, I saw a little piece yesterday that credited the former AD at Clemson with their national championship. I forget his name--he is now retired--but he liked Swinney and wanted to hire him as Clemson's football coach--despite the fact that Swinney was only still a receiver's coach at bama (I presume), where he'd also been recruiting coordinator. He was not even a coordinator when he got the Clemson job. The AD knew he was reaching, but liked Swinney for whatever reasons, and the president of the university respected the AD's recommendation, as did the Board of Directors, though there was pushback because of his thin credentials. Pretty amazing when you think about it. A receiver's coach would not get in the door at 99 percent of the major programs in America when they are looking for a new coach. Yet somehow Swinney did. I'm sure his bama background helped--and he must have had a helluva interview! Talk about taking a flyer that worked out.
 
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#38
#38
Guys, we've got a new Chancellor who doesn't know Blackburn at all. She's not just going to sign off on a guy at UT=Chattanooga without going through a search process. She is looking at it this way, as she should: We are a big state university, we probably want an AD now at another big, or fairly university. Let the process play out.
 
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#41
#41
Volsfaninva917 said:
Although Tennessee has a five-year contract in place with Parker Executive Search, sources this weekend and into today, both on the Knoxville campus and in state government in Nashville, indicated to 247Sports that UT, under new Chancellor Beverly J. Davenport, is expected to use Todd Turner’s Collegiate Sports Associates.

A former Vanderbilt administrator, among other stops, Turner helped grow the company since he left intercollegiate athletics in 2008. Among their employees includes Dave Odom, the former ACC and SEC basketball coach.
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Like him or not Todd Turner is one sharp cookie.
 
#42
#42
barknoxbrawler said:
I'm love how the VN couch coaches know sports , sports administration/management and university overseeing better than anyone.
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Well, perhaps that's true of NegaVols. Those walking on sunshine seem content to party like it's 1999 (let that sink in for a bit).
 
#43
#43
Makes perfect sense to spend money to get recommendations, stupid process. And just to be clear, there have been alot of non UT folks running the show up there, can't there be at least on alum that is smart enough and wants the university thrive in everything? Apparently not
 
#44
#44
armchair said:
Guys, we've got a new Chancellor who doesn't know Blackburn at all. She's not just going to sign off on a guy at UT=Chattanooga without going through a search process. She is looking at it this way, as she should: We are a big state university, we probably want an AD now at another big, or fairly university. Let the process play out.
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Where is she from? And besides a paycheck why should she care
 
#45
#45
The fact that an AD abdicates, or by matter of University policy is told to abdicate his/her responsibility to make a hire and hands off said responsibility (and wastes tens of thousands of dollars to do so) to a search firm is mind-numbing to me.

Perhaps all this "theatre" around the hire is designed to be a CYA project and Blackburn winds up being hired and they can say they checked all boxes and dotted all the i's, who knows. But from the outside looking in, imho, it sure looks like it's being handled about as poor as it could possibly be handled.
 
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#46
#46
I've never been involved with a search firm in athletics but have been in the corporate world. Those search firms identified potential candidates based on our criteria, performed thorough background investigations on candidates recommended to us that we wished to interview, arranged interviews, etc. The firms did not select our hire (we did after multiple interviews) and the firm was paid based on the salary of the individual hired. If no viable candidate was presented or hired, the firm made no money.
 
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#48
#48
SmokinBob said:
I've never been involved with a search firm in athletics but have been in the corporate world. Those search firms identified potential candidates based on our criteria, performed thorough background investigations on candidates recommended to us that we wished to interview, arranged interviews, etc. The firms did not select our hire (we did after multiple interviews) and the firm was paid based on the salary of the individual hired. If no viable candidate was presented or hired, the firm made no money.
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Common practice in the business world and at other universities. One of the main functions is to do a thorough background check so that you don't get bit in the butt. For the life of me I don't understand all the negativity about it.
 
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#49
#49
Boca Vol said:
Why on God's Green Earth is a search firm needed? The obvious answer is 90 miles down I-75. This is about as dumb as hiring a consulting firm to prove the brown stuff in the toilet is, in fact, SH*T!
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Makes too much sense. I don't see this turning out well.
 
#50
#50
armchair said:
By the way, I saw a little piece yesterday that credited the former AD at Clemson with their national championship. I forget his name--he is now retired--but he liked Swinney and wanted to hire him as Clemson's football coach--despite the fact that Swinney was only still a receiver's coach at bama (I presume), where he'd also been recruiting coordinator. He was not even a coordinator when he got the Clemson job. The AD knew he was reaching, but liked Swinney for whatever reasons, and the president of the university respected the AD's recommendation, as did the Board of Directors, though there was pushback because of his thin credentials. Pretty amazing when you think about it. A receiver's coach would not get in the door at 99 percent of the major programs in America when they are looking for a new coach. Yet somehow Swinney did. I'm sure his bama background helped--and he must have had a helluva interview! Talk about taking a flyer that worked out.
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Swinney was receiver coach at Clemson & got the interim job for a few games the year before he got the full time job. I agree that they took a chance & it's paid off big time.
 
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