(04-19-2018 02:59 PM)Hambone10 Wrote: Exactly. Let's not ignore that 'whatever' has been happening, Wayne knows... and while I'm quite confident he's not happy about it, it's not as if he's not doing his job.
And the Bowden/Fisher deal is exactly how such a thing should be handled. The 'way it worked' to get a guy to hang around is that you put something like Fisher had in his contract where he gets paid $5mm (Fisher's number, I'm sure this would be far less) if he isn't named HC at a agreed upon salary range (like the average of the top 15 coaches or something) before 'date certain'. In that case I think it was a 5 year window... and Bowden was extended one more year during that period and then iirc, 'resigned' a year after that.... so 3 years into a 5 year clause or similar.
If you don't want to do that (and nothing says you have to, or that this is even the best plan) then
Let's stop acting like Wayne has to agree with the decision for it to work. It seems pretty obvious that he doesn't agree with 'what is happening', and I can't imagine that we couldn't (as most everyone else has at one time or another) 'reassign' a coach (most of whom are much younger but similarly still want to work) to a non-coaching position to fulfill the contract. USUALLY if they still want to work, they resign anyway. Wayne might or might not, I don't know.... but THAT is how I would have done it if I wanted to replace him... because he should ALWAYS have had 2-3 years remaining on his contract.
FTR, I said the same of Bailiff. A coach in the last year or two of his contract is a dead man walking.
I think that is one big reason for the decline in Rice baseball over the last few years. Wayne has been a short-timer, and that has been used against him in recruiting, and therefore we aren't getting the same level of talent that we have gotten in the past.
I think the supplemental academic scholarship issue was also a factor. When Baseball America writes articles about it on a national basis, it's a real problem. But that has certainly stirred up a storm of disagreement when broached on here, and we're being told that Pope has come up with an acceptable work-around, so we can at least assume for the sake of argument, correctly or not, that's not a major issue going forward.
I'm not sure anybody who wasn't around in 2004-5 has any true feel for just how close Rice came to losing D-1 athletics altogether, or just how big a role that baseball national championship played in not losing D-1. Based upon what I believe--and a lot of others believe--about that era, I would say Wayne earned the right to go out on his terms.
Now, what I think would be appropriate, and have said so for some time, is to give Wayne a sundown cruise with a coach-in-waiting in place. And I would not be opposed to giving Wayne the power to determine that coach-in-waiting, or at least play a major role in the selection process. There are some indications Wayne turned that deal down, possibly because the succession plan part was not included. I think Wayne would like to turn it over to Janish, that's certainly been hinted. I have also heard hints that Wayne does not want it to be Lance Berkman. Those are both unconfirmed, and I will defer to anyone who has better information. What is not clear in either of those scenarios is what will, or should, happen to Pope.
At this point we owe a huge debt to Wayne and all who played for him. At the same time, we have to do what is best for the university, going forward. Bottom line, I don't think we can recruit the players we need to get back to where we were until this situation is resolved. And that has nothing to do with Wayne, or Pope, or JK, or Janish, or Lance, or anyone.
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[split] Rice Baseball @ MTSU Sunday Game Thread new coach discussion
