(09-09-2019 11:24 PM)JimJoyce Wrote: (09-09-2019 09:44 PM)GFlash68 Wrote: Am I missing something here?
Just the truth. Joel took the high road and issued an apology today just to appease the faceless mob. But the facts are, Maine and Temple - two GUESTS in our facility - were told well BEFORE the start of their game they had a 10:30 AM deadline. They were also told the reasons for the deadline. They were encouraged to start an hour earlier (they declined) and they were offered the chance to play later (Temple declined due to travel).
The two teams rolled the dice assuming someone would score and a multiple overtime marathon wouldn’t happen.
The dice came up snake eyes and one overreacting coach’s tweet went national and KSU was convicted before the defense team was even seated in the court room.
Jim,
I agree with you on several points. One is that Kent State was convicted before the defense team was even seated in the court room.
And that's the problem. That is why an athletic director like Nielsen is dangerous to a university. It's also why he has been disastrous for Kent State Football.
Nielsen's inability to recognize or handle the public relations crisis every step of the way is what gave Kent State this black eye.
First, he failed in his job as an administrator through careless scheduling. He approved the schedule. Questions of a potential conflict were raised months ago by a staff member during a planning meeting, and the question was ignored. Contracts were signed without the hard stop in place. It's not appropriate to inform teams traveling many miles for games of a potential problem via email and to then try to offer time changes on the day of the game. That's poor management.
Also, the neutral site game was not scheduled out of the kindness of KSU's heart, as some have claimed. KSU uses the offer of the extra game in an attempt to convince good teams to make the trip to Kent. It's part of their scheduling strategy.
More importantly, Nielsen and his staff completely bungled the public relations crisis in real time. In reality, to use your example, the jury was seated, reading its social media, feeding its outrage, and the jury kept growing without KSU's attorney even entering the courtroom.
As someone who has a master's degree in public relations from Kent State, that is inexcusable. It's one thing to not recognize the potential for a crisis, but to fail to even attempt to take control the narrative for 50 hours before issuing a press release is pathetic. It is a failure to manage the trust he has been given as athletic director. Everything Nielsen and his staff did, or failed to do, is the basis for writing a handbook on how not to handle a public relations crisis.
It wasn't until the communications professionals in Kent State's University Communications and Marketing department took over on Monday morning that some real problem solving began. But by then it was too late.
Again, this kind of mismanagement is why an athletic director like Nielsen is dangerous to a university.
In this case, the mismanagement has given KSU a black eye that was unnecessary.
It isn't the first black eye KSU has received due to Nielsen, and it won't be the last.
Sadly, Kent State Football's 39-68 record (that's a .362 winning percentage) in Nielsen's nine-plus years is one of those black eyes. Instead of giving good coaches the tools they need to succeed, he solves problems with a lipstick-on-a-pig solution like fireworks. Or, maybe that should be mascara on the black eye of a pig.
Pretty much anyone who has worked under Nielsen will tell you in private what kind of a person he is and how ineffective and unsupportive he is as an athletic director. But forget about all of that. Look only at his record as he approaches a decade at KSU. That alone is reason to at least consider that KSU Athletics needs new leadership.
Is 39-68 really okay? Is that what we will accept for Kent State Football. Don't forget, that record includes a 10-win season with a team built behind four future NFL players and a roster that was mostly in place before Nielsen's arrival in Kent. That's pretty sad.