RE: Wanted
I am not as hard on JK as some of you are, primarily because I don't know the range of options open to him.
As far as the big donors calling the shots, JK is the AD, not the football coach. Keeping the heavy hitters happy is far closer to his job description than winning football games. If he were going to fire Bailiff, he would have needed to fund the buyout. His options would seem to have been the BOT or the big donors. If the big donors were in DB's camp, as they seem to be, and also represented on the BOT, as again they seem to be, then he had no way to do it. This year, IIRC, DB's contract has run its course. Now he's in a different position. He's going to need to hire someone to coach Rice football next year, regardless. If he decides to rehire DB, then he needs to go. But if he decides to go another direction, I'm going to withhold judgement until we see where that leads us.
I'm not going to criticize him for not taking an action that was not his to take. But this year he should not have those restrictions, so what he does with this mess now is fair game.
He has disappointed me in one area. To this point he has been far more manager than leader. Coming from Stanford, I expected someone who was more of a visionary leader. Stanford clearly has a vision, and they execute it well. I would like for Rice to have the same vision. I am struck by the irony that the man whom many believe led Rice astray in athletics, Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer, left the presidency of Rice to take the same position at Stanford, where a vastly different decision was taken. I really wish I understood more about that whole process. I was here when it happened, and certainly very critical of the hiring of Bo Hagan as football coach and AD. But how Stanford reached such a different decision under the same man as president would be something I wish I knew more about. One thing I do know is that he served only two years as president of Stanford, and was preceded by Wallace Sterling and succeeded by Richard Lyman, both of whom seem to have been fairly friendly to athletics, so maybe that factored into his short tenure there. I really don't know the dynamics, but would be interested. Almaden Mike or anyone else who has any insight, I'd really be interested.
ETA: By the way, just to be clear, if we were to win out, including a bowl win, I would still feel the same way. I'm not worried, because with Bailiff coaching we are not going to. But even if we did, it wouldn't change 2007 or 2009-2011 or 2015-2016. And enough is more than enough.
(This post was last modified: 10-08-2017 02:02 PM by Owl 69/70/75.)
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