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Showing results for tags 'forest through the trees'.
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Threads often shift topics wildly, so I'd like to make one with a high level focus rather than a detail like baseball, uniforms, sushi etc. WB came in and "evaluated" the situation. In talking to him and looking at his public comments a major theme is being overlooked. It is very difficult to evalutate employees and programs when they haven't been given the tools to perform. Look at what WB said about Benford: essentially I am going to see if we can fix up a few things and give him some help then make a decision. They tried, it didn't work and they made a move. Grant is a tremendous hire. He has experience across multiple levels, winning at every stop and he has a great coaching staff around him. The team will take a huge step forward, some @ UNT I have spoken with think 18+ wins is the year 1 expectation. I think WB views everyone in AD department in this way, give them the tools and see what they can actually do once they have them. That is not a shortcoming it is the sign of a good leader. Ben and UNT90 are spot on that there were people underperforming in the department under RV, this is difficult to dispute. But were they underperforming more than our facilities, fundraising, AD leadership etc? Why were they underperforming? As some have pointed out that is a much more difficult question to answer. WB takes heat for "evaluating" and moving slowly, but if you look at things closely a big shift is already happening. The AD department has over 100 employees when coaching staffs are added in, but for simplicity let's call it 100. Already there has been a fairly large turnover over 20 people and probably closer to 30. There have also been multiple hires to senior roles. To me this sends a clear signal that everyone needs to step up their game or be replaced or be demoted. I like this type of management. Here is more money, more support, go hustle and win - if you don't someone is going to take your place. College athletics is a small world. You don't gain a lot by publicly announcing that all of your employees are a dumpster fire and then canning them before setting foot on campus. You not only look like a jerk, you lose respect of others in the atheltics landscape and it hurts your ability to recruite future talent. WB is taking actions, just because they are not incredibly public doesn't mean they aren't happening. A similar thing happened with the Denton campus as a whole. There are a lot of parralels: new leadership came in, fixed large fiscal and structural problems, started raising more money then began replacing people that needed to go with ones who were better fits. Most top positions in the school have been turned over. This did not happen instantly but just a few years later 8 of the 10 cabinet positions have been turned over. Finally, yes not everyone will always support all decisions but the negativity towards WB pisses me off a bit. His major hires (Mosley and Grant) look like home runs, and he has articulated a clear plan to his adminstration to secure more funding. The old AD never did this as simple as it sounds. The adminstration has in turn supported him, working collaborativley with athletics. He has negotiated better deals with vendors and contracts to fix merchandising shortcomings and to save money... the list goes on and on. Look if he flubs something up then by all means be critical of him, but aside from not instantly firing people that are generally disliked by some on this board I don't understand where the criticism is coming from. Building major facilites takes a bit of time, it is not an instant process. We finally have a solid AD, he is calculating and if there is a problem he will commit resources to step in and resolve it. He is building a deep team, gathering more resources, and hiring coaches who will win. He is also unifying major donors. Guys like CDS who were firm RV supporters are now supporting him publicly in the paper and folks like EK who lobbied hard to hire another AD candidate are behind him as well. I see the signs of leadership from WB and I am supporting the department for these reasons, both finanically and on this board.