DiderotsGhost
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Reading through all the texts, what actually stands out to me the most is not the "action", but the "inaction" of Currie before the Schiano fiasco. It's pretty obvious that Currie consulted with no one other than Haslam. And their plan was:
(a) hire Dan Mullen,
(b) if plan A fails, hire Greg Schiano
That was it. There was no other plan. No other research. No list. No more effort. There was a tacit assumption that Schiano would accept and they were happy with him over all other candidates with the exception of Dan Mullen.
I don't claim to know everything there is to know about being an AD, but I can tell you that that's plain stupid. Even if plan B hadn't involved a washed up mediocre coach with ethical issues that no one else wanted to hire, that's still a terrible way to prepare for a coaching search. McDonald's puts more effort into hiring its assistant managers than Currie put into a search for a guy who is the face of an entire university with a $4+ million annual salary.
Only after the Schiano backlash did Currie suddenly start conducting a real search. Naturally, given that he waited till the last minute, it was completely chaotic. The fact that he nearly hired Mike Leach (an excellent coach) seems more like a dumb-luck accident. And was probably partly the result that there was a mini-backlash to a Dave Doeren hire. While I wouldn't exactly put my faith in "message board posters", it's difficult to argue against the idea that VolNation posters tended to have more knowledge of coaches than Currie.
I'm hoping Pruitt is the right guy, but even if he's not, I think our AD is in better shape now that the Haslam faction has been ousted. Between Hamilton and Currie, it's clear that Haslam influence has been disastrous.
(a) hire Dan Mullen,
(b) if plan A fails, hire Greg Schiano
That was it. There was no other plan. No other research. No list. No more effort. There was a tacit assumption that Schiano would accept and they were happy with him over all other candidates with the exception of Dan Mullen.
I don't claim to know everything there is to know about being an AD, but I can tell you that that's plain stupid. Even if plan B hadn't involved a washed up mediocre coach with ethical issues that no one else wanted to hire, that's still a terrible way to prepare for a coaching search. McDonald's puts more effort into hiring its assistant managers than Currie put into a search for a guy who is the face of an entire university with a $4+ million annual salary.
Only after the Schiano backlash did Currie suddenly start conducting a real search. Naturally, given that he waited till the last minute, it was completely chaotic. The fact that he nearly hired Mike Leach (an excellent coach) seems more like a dumb-luck accident. And was probably partly the result that there was a mini-backlash to a Dave Doeren hire. While I wouldn't exactly put my faith in "message board posters", it's difficult to argue against the idea that VolNation posters tended to have more knowledge of coaches than Currie.
I'm hoping Pruitt is the right guy, but even if he's not, I think our AD is in better shape now that the Haslam faction has been ousted. Between Hamilton and Currie, it's clear that Haslam influence has been disastrous.