Funslinger
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RE: Rumor is that Jeff Hammond is out at USM as AD.....
(06-19-2013 12:52 PM)Freshy Wrote: The Lawsuit
Hammond wanted to revamp the Eagle Club and increase donations. One of the first things he did along that path was to go into the database and check out how much the office personnel were donating. Knowing roughly how much everyone got paid, he thought that their donations were inadequate. Hammond then went around to each employee urging them to upgrade their Eagle Club memberships. He got typical responses ranging from non-committal to those who upgraded immediately, but one employee (I know her name and she is still employed in the athletic department, but I am not posting it here because the internet is full of loonies who can't control themselves) flat refused to even consider it. Words were exchanged. Rather than walk away and cool down, Hammond launched into a profanity-laced tirade. Once the tirade came to be known by certain members of the old Giannini club, they offered to foot the bill for a workplace harassment lawsuit. It is known only to the employee in question whether she was planning to sue on her own or whether she was talked into it.
Tyndall's contract
Hammond secured the money needed to give Tyndall a raise shortly after the end of the season. Unfortunately, Mississippi law makes it difficult to simply sign an extension...in most cases, you would draw up a new contract. Because of the Ellis contract, both the boosters who guaranteed the funds and Hammond tried to write stronger language into the contract. It got to be too many hands involved, and the contract ended up loaded with clauses making Tyndall responsible for a whole host of things he was normally only peripherally involved in. Perhaps the most notorious example was the "personal responsibility" clause. This clause would have made Tyndall personally, financially, and publicly responsible if one of his assistant coaches or players got into any kind of trouble. The actual definition of "trouble" was so vague that it would be inevitable that the clause would kick in sometime. Tyndall flat refused to sign, and asked why he couldn't just have his old contract rewritten to include more money. The last I heard on this, Tyndall and Hammond were not at each other's throats about it and were only spending a few hours a week working on it, but Tyndall still steadfastly refused to sign anything that wasn't close to his original contract, but with more money.
The tornado
Hammond was aware of drainage problems with the football field from the start. He was already looking into ways to fund repairs when the tornado gift wrapped the opportunity for him. At the time of the tornado (February 19), a debate had been raging on campus about whether football or men's basketball should receive priority. At the time, there seemed no way that we could simultaneously make repairs and upgrades to The Rock and The Yurt at the same time. The tornado simply solved part of that problem. The end of basketball season also solved part of the problem as everyone naturally began turning to football.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was in Hammond's corner. He had managed to slow the bleeding, and was seemingly only a long-term plan and some on-the-field success away from stopping it entirely. Then issues like the Tyndall contract started cropping up and we finally hired our new university president. With the dismissal of Hammond, I started reading bios for other ADs out there. What became clear to me is that we were always going to have a relatively low ceiling with Hammond because he simply had no experience whatsoever in many of the things we expect ADs to excel at. He would try his best, but he was going to plateau relatively quickly and not go any higher. For a sample of what I am talking about, this is Brad Teague's bio from UCA's website highlights in bold):
The University of Central Arkansas announced Dr. Brad Teague as its Director of Athletics on Jan. 24, 2007, and has since undergone the most remarkable growth in the 100-plus year history of the program as the school has flourished into a creditable, successful NCAA Division I institution following its transition from Division II.
Teague, 42, assumed the helm during the school's first year of the four-year reclassification process and guided the program to full D-I status while overseeing numerous facility upgrades, strengthening fundraising efforts, and ensuring a smooth transition academically under the more stringent standards of Division I athletics.
Under Teague's guidance, Central Arkansas went through the transition period without incurring any Academic Progress Rate (APR) penalties and had an average APR of 974 for the school's 17 sports. The overall cumulative GPA for all sports also increased from 2.75 to 2.98, and the graduation rate has been raised five points. Central Arkansas has led the Southland Conference in number of student-athletes on the Commissioner's Honor Roll, putting 202 on the list in the past year. The academic advising center for student-athletes has tripled its staff size and the tutoring center has also undergone a renovation.
The most striking improvements during Teague's tenure has been in athletics facilities. With recently completed projects including a 7,500-square foot strength and conditioning center and 12 luxury skyboxes, nearly 13 million dollars worth of upgrades will have occurred since 2009. Virtually every facility has undergone upgrades, with projects ranging from locker room renovations all the way up to the construction of new stadiums.
Some of the major improvements include:
- Skyboxes at football stadium
- Purple and gray synthetic turf at football stadium
- Video boards at football and basketball facilities
- 7,500-sq. foot strength & conditioning center
- Expanded athletic training facilities
- New baseball stadium
- New track/soccer complex
- New grandstands, locker room and enclosed hitting cages at softball
- GeoSurfaces synthetic turf at baseball and softball facilities
- Floor and courtside seating in basketball arena
The Purple Circle Foundation has also seen tremendous growth under Teague, more than tripling in donations in his first year and growing another 60 percent since then.
Another way in which Teague has helped Central Arkansas' advancement is through the hiring of successful coaches to lead the school's teams. In his short time at Central Arkansas, many of the programs have flourished through the work of a talented group of coaches.
Former Sugar Bear volleyball coach Steven McRoberts, who guided Central Arkansas to three straight division titles and back-to-back conference championships, was hired to lead the program at Tulsa and has taken the Golden Hurricane to consecutive Conference USA titles and NCAA Tournaments. Former Sugar Bear basketball coach Matt Daniel, after taking the team to its first Southland Conference championship and developing the winningest program in the league from 2010-12 with 66 wins, was hired by Marshall University prior to the 2012-13 season.
Teague has drawn several other highly successful coaches to Central Arkansas during his short tenure, included among those:
Corliss Williamson (men's basketball), one of the state's most revered basketball figures after leading the Arkansas Razorbacks to the 1994 national championship, where he was the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Williamson, who also won an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons and was the league's Sixth Man of the Year in 2002, has studied under Hall of Fame coaches such as Larry Brown, Lenny Wilkens and Nolan Richardson.
Allen Gum (baseball), who was hired after a wildly successful run at Division II Southern Arkansas, where he had the Muleriders ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation for 24 weeks and compiled a 226-68 record and had five straight 40-win seasons, all the while producing several draft picks -- including a 1st round pick (No. 16 overall) in 2010 in pitcher Hayden Simpson. In his first year at UCA, Gum led the Bears to a 25-percent improvement, signed the league's freshman of the year in Jonathan Davis, and helped develop a 19th-round draft pick in Dustin Ward, then followed it up with the program's best finish ever in the Southland Conference and first conference tournament berth.
David McFatrich (women's volleyball), an assistant under Steven McRoberts who helped build thep roguided the Sugar Bears to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2012, winning the Southland Conference regular season championship and conference tournament. The team won a program-record 30 matches, and was one of just seven teams in the nation to reach that plateau in 2012 and finished among the Top 50 nationall in RPI.
Sandra Rushing (women's basketball), was one of the nation's most successful coaches at Delta State, winning nearly 82 percent of her games, making six consecutive Sweet 16 appearances and two Final Fours in the Division II national tournament, and being named Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year six times.
David Kuhn (softball), who has taken a softball program that had averaged just 14 wins per season and more than doubled that - averaging 29 over the last three seasons including a program-record 36 in 2012. Kuhn has elevated the talent level, signing and developing an All-American, four All-Region performers, a Southland Conference Hitter of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and 19 All-Conference selections.
Teague came to Central Arkansas following a four-year stint as Director of Athletics at his alma mater of Delta State in Cleveland, Miss., where he spearheaded several large fundraising projects and oversaw a successful program that won the 2005 Gulf South Conference All-Sports Trophy and had 10 of 13 teams in the national rankings during the 2005-06 season. As a student-athlete at DSU, Teague was an All-American pitcher and was awarded the GSC Commissioner's Trophy as the league's top student-athlete in 1992.
Teague began his professional career by serving four years as assistant director of the Delta State Alumni Foundation from '92-'96. He then moved to the University of Mississippi where he served as Assistant to the Athletic Director before taking over as the Associate Director of the Ole Miss Loyalty Foundation in 1998.
A native of Jackson, Miss., Teague received his Bachelor's degree in mathematics from Delta State in 1992, Master's of Education in Administration from DSU in '95 and his Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership from Ole Miss in 2000.
He and his wife Gina reside in Conway with their four children – Parker (14), Berris (12), Cooper (9) and Hutson (5).
That's way more positive experience than Hammond has, and in a guy that is significantly younger.
BTW, Vince Dooley has been hired as a consultant in the search. Quote from Dooley: "I look forward to learning more about Southern Miss, but as a coach I never looked forward to playing them."
I like Teague and wouldn't mind him becoming the AD at Southern Miss. However, I'm glad someone gave him a chance back when he had no experience. Experience is sometimes erroneously held as a positive and lack of experience erroneously as a negative. True, Hammond lacked AD experience but had experience in a similar area. His performance to date shows that his lack of experience was not a hinderance to his performance. I disagree with your statement that Hammond would plateau. He certainly never plateaued in any other job and there was nothing to indicate that he would here. But the main problem in this situation is that there was no reason to replace him except for good ole boy politics. And efficiency and politics never mix well.
(This post was last modified: 06-19-2013 06:54 PM by Funslinger.)
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Rumor is that Jeff Hammond is out at USM as AD.....
