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(04-23-2015 07:55 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  That's not a choice that is on the table. Watts has told the AD committee that someone will be hired by May 1.

That leaves two choices: Bring in the people on their list, the best they could find who are interested, and offer the best of them, or

Don't do the job the committee is charged with, and let Watts and Fess St. John choose someone they find.



Those are the two choices available. Sure, I'd love to kick Watts out and then choose. If I knew how to get him out he'd already be gone.



So. They are going to interview the candidates, trim the list to finalists, and choose one. Y'all can act like jackasses and spam their mailboxes and crucify them before they do a thing hear, and quite possibly run off the best choice available, or you can suck it up and soldier. No, I don't much like it either.

I was talking to a member of the AD committee yesterday who was utterly appalled at the amount of completely inaccurate rumors and misinformation floating around who said this: "I am extremely excited about one particular candidate and if we don't get them because of this made up nonsense I will be livid."

It's going to be real hard to instantly fire a new AD for speaking out that UAB needs football. And a major university in the South needs football, as anyone without a malignant pumpkin on their shoulders knows very well.

I think we win either way: the committee choice becomes a new ally, or the Watts-St. John choice becomes a fresh rallying point and SACS/RICO violation.

We obviously need a fresh target for all of this excess energy.

(04-23-2015 07:55 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  That's not a choice that is on the table. Watts has told the AD committee that someone will be hired by May 1.

That leaves two choices: Bring in the people on their list, the best they could find who are interested, and offer the best of them, or

Don't do the job the committee is charged with, and let Watts and Fess St. John choose someone they find.



Those are the two choices available. Sure, I'd love to kick Watts out and then choose. If I knew how to get him out he'd already be gone.



So. They are going to interview the candidates, trim the list to finalists, and choose one. Y'all can act like jackasses and spam their mailboxes and crucify them before they do a thing hear, and quite possibly run off the best choice available, or you can suck it up and soldier. No, I don't much like it either.

I was talking to a member of the AD committee yesterday who was utterly appalled at the amount of completely inaccurate rumors and misinformation floating around who said this: "I am extremely excited about one particular candidate and if we don't get them because of this made up nonsense I will be livid."

Good post.

(04-23-2015 07:55 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  That's not a choice that is on the table. Watts has told the AD committee that someone will be hired by May 1.

That leaves two choices: Bring in the people on their list, the best they could find who are interested, and offer the best of them, or

Don't do the job the committee is charged with, and let Watts and Fess St. John choose someone they find.



Those are the two choices available. Sure, I'd love to kick Watts out and then choose. If I knew how to get him out he'd already be gone.



So. They are going to interview the candidates, trim the list to finalists, and choose one. Y'all can act like jackasses and spam their mailboxes and crucify them before they do a thing hear, and quite possibly run off the best choice available, or you can suck it up and soldier. No, I don't much like it either.

I was talking to a member of the AD committee yesterday who was utterly appalled at the amount of completely inaccurate rumors and misinformation floating around who said this: "I am extremely excited about one particular candidate and if we don't get them because of this made up nonsense I will be livid."

I agree. Nobody is happy that this hire is going to take place on this timeline, but it is. There is nothing any of us can do about it. Watts is here for the foreseeable future, and he is moving forward with his plan(we all know whose plan this really is) for the foreseeable future. Clearly, there is nothing at the moment that any of us can do to stop this. We can continue to fight for everything, but we need to do what is best for UAB while we continue that fight.

No Joe Dean Jr. Period!

------ I was talking to a member of the AD committee yesterday who was utterly appalled at the amount of completely inaccurate rumors and misinformation floating around who said this: "I am extremely excited about one particular candidate and if we don't get them because of this made up nonsense I will be livid." -------

What made up nonsense? Is this how the administration as a whole feels about disgruntled UAB fans?

When BOT cronies and their president steamroll an entire university and no one earning a check at UAB seems to have the spine to step up and say something, then they should expect reaction...and yes overreaction...to their stupid decisions.

The decision to hire now makes absolutely no sense, as everyone seems to agree. If every person 'in the know' wants to sit on their thumbs and act like everything's fine, that's their right, but it's more evident today than it's ever been that the BOT wants to cripple and kill UAB in seemingly every way possible. I don't call that made up nonsense.

Attacking candidates via email or Twitter, and spreading unfounded rumors about what is being said during the interviews, is nonsense. Running down your own University to potential candidates is nonsense.

Are you in the "Save UAB Football" Facebook group? Yesterday it was at an absolute rolling boil. People were saying all sorts of things about the interview process, the candidates, the motivation of the administration and of the AD search committee.

Someone who is *on* that committee, who knows what the *real, actual facts are read that group and said, (paraphrasing here) "This isn't true! It's not even close! They're putting out all kinds of nonsense as if it were the gospel truth and people are believing it!"

We're not talking about an administration tool here, we're talking about someone who I know for a fact has a ton of credibility. No, I can't and won't name names, but there are people on that AD search committee who have absolute shining reputations, well earned. If I see Don Hire or Frank Messina or Harold Jones resign from that committee and repudiate it, walk away, then I'll worry. I have already been assured that if the candidates that are advanced were not on the list picked by the committee in their work it will be publicly exposed. In plain English, if Finis St. John forces someone in, as was done in the Callaway hire, it will be immediately exposed as such in the press.

This is not coming from "the administration". I can't say much more without exposing a source, and I'm sorry, I won't do that for your peace of mind.

The timing on this hire is coming from Watts, yes. He played the bureaucratic game very well - stalled with the ATF, let them select OSKR, sat on that choice for ten days or so and then rejected them, sent it back to the drawing board. He's dragging his feet, he's no doubt doing what he can to stick a knife in UAB remaining in C-USA, and will do everything he can to see to it that we do not go to a conference where football is even possible. I agree with all of that.

The thing is that he said at the last Faculty Senate meeting that he wanted a new AD by May 1. There are two options at that point: Hire someone that the AD search committee has found, or let Watts hire someone.

Which would you find to be the better choice?

Is there any explanation behind his deadline, or is it just another unilateral decision?

You'd have to ask him. Jones said that he didn't want to hire an AD until after the ATF report, and that made sense.

Watts is doing everything he can to shove a stick into the spokes of getting things done properly. My personal opinion is that he's just being a richard.

(04-22-2015 11:59 PM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(04-22-2015 09:51 PM)CajunBlazer Wrote:  IMHO only two types would take that job under the circumstances: 1) Someone who is too stupid to understand what he is getting into, or 2) a washed up has been looking to pad his retirement account who would sign a big contract who doesn't care if he is ultimately fired because then he can collect his money without having to work for it.

Then we should all be happy you aren't on the search committee...because you don't know what you are talking about.

I have to chuckle at your tactics Demiveeman - You have intentionally eliminated all of the reasons that I gave for my conclusions, left only my conclusions and then posted that: "you don't know what you are talking about."

If you are are trying to convince people that I don't know what I am talking about, you need to point out either that the reasons I have given for my conclusions are inaccurate and/or or the conclusions I have drawn from that set of "facts" are invalid. That's how civilized people discuss things. For your convenience I have reprinted the reasons for my conclusions below. Feel free to tell everyone why they are wrong:

Look at this situation from the perspective of a prospective AD: The President, who will hire you and upon whom your job will depends, has suffered no confidence votes from all of the university's constituents. The students and alumni are demanding that he be fired. He can't even walk across his own campus unprotected. Candidates will know that if they become Watts' toady, they are going to be hated as well. They also know that if/when Watts is pushed out of the door, their job security will become almost non existent. Yep, I know they will like the career possibilities when they figure out there is a decent chance they could soon be fired.

If that's not enough to scare them off, the will probably also soon discover that the boosters big and small are in revolt and their athletic donations are almost non existent. They will have only one revenue sport left to support the entire program so it won't be any fun trying to run program without booster money. If they are hired now, they will also have no idea in which conference UAB will ultimately land so they also have no idea what financial situation conference wise they might find the program in someday. The will also not know what the best coaches they will inherit will do if UAB lands in the "wrong" conference.

And then there is the unknown. If the work of the task force doesn't bring football back, if it has been a sham the entire time, the rage on and off campus will take on a life of its own. Anyone too close to that fire is going to burnt badly.

If your final answer is incorrect, the path you used to get there is irrelevant. Good quality candidates have applied and are interested. Perhaps outsiders have a better opinion of UAB athletics right now than our own fans.

Serious question: Is there a real issue/problem with Joe Dean Jr?...I always liked his dad and Dean Jr is a basketball guy...very media friendly and promotes hoops like CRAZY every chance he gets...well known with a lot of contacts...why are some against the idea?

You answered your question. Some don't like him because he is a hoops guy.

With some being a "hoops guy" is not the issue. Gene Bartow was a "hoops guy" but he was smart enough to know the value of having football at your University. Yes I know BSC plays non-scholarship football. There is more too it than that.

He's a huge SEC homer. He's been on the radio a lot, and in general does not seem to have much use for UAB athletics and does not think we should be D1. He likes Haase and seems to respect UAB basketball, that's a plus. He's no doubt a basketball guy. My expectation is that if he's hired he'll pull a better paycheck for as long as he can, build basketball as well as he can, and if he fails to make UAB a major mid-major power take the whole damn thing down to DIII.

There is plenty of both good and bad about hiring him. I just don't trust him to make a legitimate attempt to build a full and vibrant UAB athletic department.

If there is a BoT plant on the list he'd be a prime suspect in my book.

And sure, I could be wrong about the guy.

Someone asked earlier for proof he doesn't think UAB should be D1. No one provided proof but it is still cited as fact.

People point out he took BSC to D3, but ignore the fact that he took them to d1.

That said he is not my choice. I don't think he will be the next AD.

Face to face by conversations by people I trust on my end who have been dead on about this whole situation the entire time plus my own issues with him. I can't speak for others on their dislike for him.

(04-23-2015 11:17 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  He's a huge SEC homer. He's been on the radio a lot, and in general does not seem to have much use for UAB athletics and does not think we should be D1. He likes Haase and seems to respect UAB basketball, that's a plus. He's no doubt a basketball guy. My expectation is that if he's hired he'll pull a better paycheck for as long as he can, build basketball as well as he can, and if he fails to make UAB a major mid-major power take the whole damn thing down to DIII.

There is plenty of both good and bad about hiring him. I just don't trust him to make a legitimate attempt to build a full and vibrant UAB athletic department.

If there is a BoT plant on the list he'd be a prime suspect in my book.

And sure, I could be wrong about the guy.

I'm not saying he would be my pick either because I have no idea who all the candidates are...I was just wondering if there was something major about him that I had missed

There are MUCH better candidates they will interview.

His name was highly rumored yesterday to be the one who will be the be the next AD. Banddad's source said rumors are flying around that are untrue. For that reason, I don't think he will be the next AD. The same was John Neal and TJ Cleveland were not the next coaches.