(07-10-2018 01:59 PM)jthrashr Wrote: The insiders of the board should stop playing coy with information. If you don't want to post the info on the board, then create a burner account on Twitter.
Or find a journalist to write a story.
I don't see how keeping the cards close to the chest helps in the long run.
The biggest reason to be kind of closed mouthed and to speak in generalities is that putting out too much detail makes it easier for the administration to narrow the potential source down, using "Who knew about that?". Over time they can then put out red herrings, different info spins to different people, in an attempt to ID who has been talking. Saying as little as possible helps to prevent outing a source and getting them fired.
I talked to Whitmire and Archibald all through the shutdown, and fed them anything I thought was interesting or might help them in any way. I had no way to know what they had been given, and so I never knew when something might be a useful puzzle piece. A lot of people did something similar, and if they worked for UAB it was worth their job for that to become known.
What's hard about this one is that it was a limited strike, and they had a least a plausible sounding reason to cut staff. The people who have been around the longest get paid more, so hiring a newbie cuts payroll. I don't believe that it's just a happy accident that doing so allows them to continue to rid the athletic department of anyone with the taint of Gene Bartow, though.
The one that there is no plausible explanation for is Savannah St. on a Thursday night. That's going to cut attendance at our home opener in half, and there simply is no good reason for the team chosen or the Thursday night scheduling. You can bet that Clark sees that and hates it... and that frustrating him in order to encourage him to move on sooner than he otherwise would is part of the plan.
I've heard that we could have scheduled Virginia, a very beatable P5 team, making an exception and taking a second buy game. That, all by itself, would have more than paid for the salaries of the people who were recently cut. Do you seriously think that Bill Clark would rather play Savannah St. than Virginia? I don't.
A lot of people who know me used to give me crap about being the UAB conspiracy guy. Then the shutdown happened, and Whitmire published a lot of documentation that made it clear what was happening... so yes, I do believe in conspiracies. If you want me to stop, start doing the right thing by the program and quit sticking the knife in. Simple.