(03-10-2021 12:12 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  Re: Football and Baseball

I'm willing to overlook Karlgaard's extension of Bailiff. I generally assume that a new AD wants to replace the football coach at the first opportunity unless they've inherited an all-time great program. If I recall, JK didn't have a normal start of tenure with respect to football. His first year at Rice was the same year that Bailiff won the conference. I don't believe that JK had much choice but to extend Bailiff. Bailiff was nearing the end of his contract, had just completed his second consecutive winning season, just completed the second season in school history with 10 wins, just won the school's first outright conference title in decades, etc. I know there's a lot of asterisks to be put on those accomplishments concerning the true worth of the competition given all the C-USA departures, but it would be an incredibly bold move for an AD in the first months of his first D1 job to do anything other than give an extension to the well-liked FB coach who appears to have the program on a nominally upward trajectory.

I have no non-public evidence to support this, but I suspect that the way that Bailiff extension backfired fed into JK's egregiously poor handling of Wayne Graham's termination. He got burned once by extending a well-liked coach he inherited who looked to be on an upward trajectory, and he wasn't going to let that happen again for a coach clearly on a downward trajectory. I agree with the sentiment on this board that JK handled that process exceptionally poorly, but I also agree with JK that a change needed to be made. I will put all the blame (or credit, if it turns around) on JK for hiring Braga.

Per the bold above, no-- the Bailiff situation had absolutely nothing to do with the handling of Wayne. First off, the Bailiff extension, while a mistake in hindsight, especially since the BOT wouldn't let Joe K. fire Bailiff in the 3rd and 4th year of his downward spiral, it was a no-brainer at the time. Not only had we just won the CUSA championship, but more importantly, Joe had far bigger issues to address (e.g., MBB, a new WBB coach and making the athletic department functional).

As for his relationship with The OG, it was not good from the get-go. I have no reason why. My guess is that Joe was envious of the position and stature that Wayne held at Rice. It was so bad that very quickly after Joe came onboard Rick Mello became the AD liaison to the baseball program on almost all matters including operating budget, RBI Club, scheduling, etc. Almost all of us-- even the most ardent Wayne supporters-- agreed it was time for a change. However, the way it was handled was a disaster and, IMO, almost all the blame rests with Joe. Yes, Wayne wanted to stay and was not prepared to retire voluntarily, but knowing that his contract was due to expire, Joe should have put on his big boy pants and told Wayne this was going to be his final season as he was about to enter his contract year. This would have allowed the fans to give Wayne a farewell tour his final season. Instead, nothing was done prior to the commencement of the season. Then, a couple weeks into the season, a group of us (and many of the biggest baseball donors) with Wayne's blessing, sent a letter to Joe, Leebron and the BOT requesting that Wayne be given one addition and final year....to which we never received a response from anybody. Finally, in April, Joe announced that this would be Wayne's final season.