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Tom Wistrcill Resigns. Larry Williams hired.


zippy_ua_00

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Hey guys, lets not overthink the exodus of candidates from this job. They are doing the same thing that all of us do. Upon applying for a job and finding more about the situation, you decide you don't want to pursue it any further because of information you start to gather about the situation, the condition of the employer, etc.

I don't know why anyone finds this to be unusual or that the candidates "don't want to take on the challenge". We all wish to make a move to a better situation when changing jobs.

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I'm afraid this position is poisonous because of all the crap going on, and the sudden dumping of one of the sports. Even as a fan it's hard to be optimistic of the future.

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I'm afraid this position is poisonous because of all the crap going on, and the sudden dumping of one of the sports. Even as a fan it's hard to be optimistic of the future.

Poisonous? That's a bit excessive. We have:

  • the exhaustively-reiterated $65 million stadium, and a Bowden as the coach
  • a 20+ win, bi-annual NCAA Tourney-qualifying men's basketball team that should win the MAC again this season
  • a men's soccer program that's perennially Top 20 in the nation, playing at one of the top facilities in the nation
  • a 20+ win women's basketball program
  • Rifle team
  • MAC Champ Swimming & Diving
  • Championship Track and Field

People need to sit back and objectively review where we stand. Our situation is so far from "poisonous" it's ridiculous. We aren't exactly Coppin State.

All we need is an industriously aggressive AD who will take advantage of the huge resources we possess to get football in gear.

Our problem is a bean-counter President with seemingly zero Athletics Marketing acumen. He sees the football program strictly in dollars and cents. He can't see potential. Only what's on his 2015 spreadsheet.

I'd love to hear Scarborough make a positive, passionate statement regarding the upcoming football season. Can you support your Coach and Team for Christ's sake, instead of letting the stench of the ignorant 1-AA mongers linger? He has the power to make a lot of this hubbub go away, but he doesn't have the personality.

The dumbest thing UA could do is put Scarborough's mug up on the InfoCision Jumbotron, or have him hand out a ceremonial football to someone on Summa Field. The 3,290 fans will booo like 100,000.

The stadium CAN make money, and the team is poised to win. If Spreadsheet Scott hires the right person, and if he gives them a chance to do his job.

I don't know if that will happen. But that's what needs to happen. Quickly.

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Our problem is a bean-counter President with seemingly zero Athletics Marketing acumen. He sees the football program strictly in dollars and cents. He can't see potential. Only what's on his 2015 spreadsheet.

I have a more optimistic take on it. I think because SS is a bean-counter, he knows the necessity of increasing attendance to make ends meet and intends to do it. I believe he is already implementing new ideas to help the Zips football experience. I think I heard/read the marching band is being increased to 200 members, with money being spent (Shhhh) on new instruments and uniforms (look no further than 2 hrs down I-71 to see the importance of the band). And the cadet corps will also be marching and becoming a thing at home games...hopefully they will be a loud cheering section and develop some entertaining schtick of their own.

Although PR/communication has become a big issue, SS has created the UAtoZ radio program as a great community outreach tool so hopefully they can work some more football/soccer/etc. information into that to get people informed and interested. That's another thing that could have been done by previous administrations but wasn't. Innovation is the name of the game and I am looking forward to the rollouts this fall.

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Winning and only winning matters. All other so called marketing is really just branding. It's smoke and mirrors to give cover to the lack of winning for the last decade of football. Last season's collapse was disheartening to all of us and with the likely 0-2 start to the season this year it's not like people will be flocking to Infocision for home games.

Scarborough talks a big game on many fronts, but this search has been a massive fail. They have interviewed almost 10 people formally and informally so far and people keep falling off.

Your idea about people dropping out because they are not going to get the job only works if the announcement is made soon after everyone drops out. It's logical to believe that the target date for the announcement was today or Friday based on the Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday where this was likely discussed in executive session. No announcement means this is a failed search and that the candidate who the President and select members of the board fizzled out when they came to campus when interviews took place last week.

The only candidates that are left are Williams, Tumey and Van Horne.

Tumey has worked at UC Davis (FCS) and Dominican (D3) plus in the NFL on the player personnel side. Nothing in his past says success as he just got fired in the spring and has no marketing track record. http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/genrel/terry_tumey_816701.html He has no Ohio ties.

Williams has worked as the AD at two private schools in Portland and Marquette and got fired from the last job he had after two years of publicly feuding with the head basketball coach. http://www.jsonline.com/sports/goldeneagles/departure-of-ad-larry-williams-might-be-best-for-marquette-b99164322z1-235958751.html He has never worked with a football program as an AD. He has limited Ohio ties outside of playing for the Browns for two years and knowing a former head Zips football coach in Faust.

Read the link above and focus on this section when the reporter writes about the type of leader that Williams was at Marquette while dealing with then head men's basketball coach Buzz Williams - who had been to 3 straight Sweet 16s

So, it was easy to see where the Williams-Williams conflict came about. The AD was laying down arbitrary law to a successful coach who had never experienced administrative pressure to up the recruiting standards at a school where academic requirements already make it difficult to attract the bluest of chips.

Two very different personalities ignited friction. Weeks would go by without coach and AD speaking.

At one point, Buzz Williams wanted to know what kind of basketball program Larry Williams wanted when there was little communication from either side. Did he expect really good students who were good basketball players, or generally average students who could keep Marquette at an elite level on the national scene?

Van Horne is died in the wool Akron. He played here, he has dedicated his career here, has worked for Bobinski, Thomas, Rhodes, and Wistricil plus on the campus development side with Laguardia and Dufore. He knows everyone in town and has a pulse on the community. It's too bad that Scarborough has his head so far up his ass that he cannot see that Akron has produced some pretty good people and that Van Horne is the guy for this job. Instead we will get one of these other two jerkies who do not have any wow factor and who have no track record for success that will inspire Zip fans to give the program a new look.

I guess it could be worse, Scarface could have moved this gomer over to athletics - Larry Burns, aka, The Joker

https://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/5ec4912a-4efc-4483-b46e-bb243a41e3fb.jpg&random=13726

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Poisonous? That's a bit excessive. We have:

  • the exhaustively-reiterated $65 million stadium, and a Bowden as the coach
  • a 20+ win, bi-annual NCAA Tourney-qualifying men's basketball team that should win the MAC again this season
  • a men's soccer program that's perennially Top 20 in the nation, playing at one of the top facilities in the nation
  • a 20+ win women's basketball program
  • Rifle team
  • MAC Champ Swimming & Diving
  • Championship Track and Field

People need to sit back and objectively review where we stand. Our situation is so far from "poisonous" it's ridiculous. We aren't exactly Coppin State.

All we need is an industriously aggressive AD who will take advantage of the huge resources we possess to get football in gear.

Our problem is a bean-counter President with seemingly zero Athletics Marketing acumen. He sees the football program strictly in dollars and cents. He can't see potential. Only what's on his 2015 spreadsheet.

I'd love to hear Scarborough make a positive, passionate statement regarding the upcoming football season. Can you support your Coach and Team for Christ's sake, instead of letting the stench of the ignorant 1-AA mongers linger? He has the power to make a lot of this hubbub go away, but he doesn't have the personality.

The dumbest thing UA could do is put Scarborough's mug up on the InfoCision Jumbotron, or have him hand out a ceremonial football to someone on Summa Field. The 3,290 fans will booo like 100,000.

The stadium CAN make money, and the team is poised to win. If Spreadsheet Scott hires the right person, and if he gives them a chance to do his job.

I don't know if that will happen. But that's what needs to happen. Quickly.

You just highlighted one of the reasons why this would not be a desirable job. One of the main factors I use when considering a job is who I am working for. As skip mentioned these guys probably did some investigation on the position, the financial situation and the administration and decided to take a pass. If the reason people withdrew is because someone else got the job, why has an announcement not been made.

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bengalboardgg, I don't disagree at all with your assessment of George Van Horne. All of my direct experience with him and all I've heard about him from people I trust is positive. I believe he'd make a great UA AD. But you don't have to demean Williams to enhance Van Horne's status. Reading the article you linked to, Williams was hired at Marquette by Rev. Scott Pilarz for a very specific purpose:

... It was the perception that Buzz Williams' program had to be reeled in that caused Pilarz, a relatively new president, to hire Larry Williams in the first place two years ago.

The school embarrassed itself in 2011 for breaking the law by not reporting allegations of sexual assault by student-athletes to the Milwaukee Police Department. Heads rolled, including that of athletics director Steve Cottingham. Pilarz and Williams were on a well-intentioned mission to clean things up, but not everything needed fixing. ...

Pilarz hired Williams as AD and also appointed him a VP reporting directly to President Pilarz. Williams was told by Pilarz that one of his primary jobs was to clean up the program, and he followed the direct orders of the man who hired him and who he reported directly to. The real tension was between the directives of Pilarz executed by Larry Williams and head basketball coach Buzz Williams. The writer of the story you linked to even has high praise for Larry Williams:

... That is to take nothing away from the Rev. Scott Pilarz or Larry Williams. Williams, in fact, was a very good athletic director who was instrumental in MU getting a piece of the $500 million Fox television pie that came with the new Big East. He was the right guy for that. ...

... To the credit of Larry Williams' legacy, Marquette spends more per student-athlete on men's basketball — about $270,000 a year — than any school in the country except Duke. Larry Williams gave Buzz Williams everything he needed to be successful, but philosophically the two could not coexist. ...

Also, Larry Williams was not fired by Marquette. He resigned, as documented in this story, which also offered high praise for Williams:

The day former president Father Scott Pilarz announced his resignation and was followed by a cadre of his closest advisors, this was set in stone.

Larry Williams wasn’t just an athletic director for Marquette, he was also the vice president of the university, reporting directly under Pilarz. He was a key cog who’s boss got cut. There was no other way this would end. ...

... But that doesn’t make this any less of a mistake.

Williams was a perfect fit at Marquette, and his record speaks for itself.

He was one of the driving forces behind Marquette’s transition into the current Big East, acting as one of the leading voices in the public eye and behind the scenes during a chaotic winter one year ago. There’s no way to know for certain if the situation would be quite as favorable for the conference if it wasn’t for his decision making.

But as important as that contribution was, his tenure will be defined by the transition into elite status for Marquette’s fall sports.

Men’s soccer won its first ever Big East tournament title and first NCAA Tournament game this season, landing in the Top 10 of national polls the past two years.

Women’s volleyball won its first ever Big East regular season title and conference title this season, and won NCAA Tournament games the past two seasons.

Women’s soccer twice hosted NCAA Tournament games the past two years, winning the Big East regular season and conference titles back to back. ...
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Williams "resigned" from Marquette the same way that Wistricil "resigned" from Akron. :nono:

Having marching orders from the top and being able to have the savvy to massage those orders along with the successful coach and keep the program moving forward is called effective leadership. Regardless of what was said by the good Reverend after the fact, Williams was fired. If he had been able to do his job effectively and not be a bull in the china shop Buzz would still be at Marquette and they would still be a program that was winning at a high level. He did not, his not, they do not. Them be da factz. :chair:

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Here's a documented fact about what Larry Williams had to deal with as AD at Marquette: A Marquette assistant basketball coach who happened to be a best friend of head coach Buzz Williams was caught for an NCAA violation and repeatedly lied about it to AD Larry Williams. Fact is there was some dirt around the Marquette basketball program for Larry Williams to clean up, and those who thought he shouldn't have been so diligent in doing his job didn't appreciate him.

Marquette assistant dismissed, Buzz Williams out one game

Fortunately we don't have those kinds of problems at UA, so the next AD will not need to be tasked with cleaning things up. If I have any question about Larry Williams it's how he would adjust from the major financial resources he was given to work with at Marquette to what's currently available at UA. I have no doubt that George Van Horne is experienced at dealing with limited resources. :)

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bengalboardgg....I wish that winning games filled stadiums and arenas. However, you don't need to look any further than Northern Illinois' football program and Akron's basketball program to know that it's not that simple. Effectively marketing to your potential audience is essential, and so is plenty of other factors, including the level of people who you are beating.

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bengalboardgg....I wish that winning games filled stadiums and arenas. However, you don't need to look any further than Northern Illinois' football program and Akron's basketball program to know that it's not that simple. Effectively marketing to your potential audience is essential, and so is plenty of other factors, including the level of people who you are beating.

Look at how many Cleveland Indians fans packed Jacobs Field when they won. Look at how many "pack" Progressive when they are mediocre.

Look at how many Steelers fans are in Browns Stadium when the Browns suck. They outnumber Browns fans.

Winning, and winning consistently, does fill stadiums. And mediocrity and losing leaves them empty.

People on this board will point to the Lee Owens era as proof that winning doesn't fill stadiums. But his teams won nothing. Owens regularly pounded 1-AA teams, and the dregs of the MAC. But he could never compete for a Championship. And he was playing in the Rubber Bowl.

Dambrot does "fill" the JAR. When we play marquee teams, the place is packed. When we play run-of-the-mill teams, it is 65% full. An when we play the dregs, it's 40 - 50% full. That's all you can expect out of a fan base. If the football team did that, we'd be discussing moving to a bigger conference rather than dropping a division.

Marketing has an impact. I'm the biggest critic of Scarborough's marketing acumen. He doesn't get that his words and attitude carry weight with everyone from Coaches to alumni to fans. And lack of marketing has hurt us a bit. But on the pie chart of problems with football attendance, it's a sliver.

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What you state about Dambrot and the basketball team was exactly my point.

"Just win more games" is a total cop out answer, and doesn't even scratch the surface of solving the problem of why Akron Athletics is not a more attractive draw for Ohio sports fans.

The Indians drew when they were competing for a World Series title. The Steelers win Super Bowls. Akron competes for a chance to play in an unknown bowl game or for the chance to reach the high point of their season by winning a tournament in Cleveland to be regarded as the 64th (or 68 now?) best basketball team in the nation. And that's only one other piece of the complete puzzle.

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What you state about Dambrot and the basketball team was exactly my point.

"Just win more games" is a total cop out answer, and doesn't even scratch the surface of solving the problem of why Akron Athletics is not a more attractive draw for Ohio sports fans.

I think you confuse "fill" with sell-out.

No "normal" college football or basketball program ("normal" = the bottom 90%) sells-out their stadium/arena 100% of the time. The breakdown I gave above is what anyone should expect from a reasonably-winning program.

Our football attendance issue has ZERO to do with Ohio State. It has EVERYTHING to do with 1-11/1-11/1-11. It is no cop-out. It is reality.

Prove to me that a winning team in InfoCision will not draw fans. PLEASE prove that to me. Until then, all arguments ring hollow.

We win, we average 20k. That pays the bills and will shut everyone up. I pray it happens.

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The argument "rings" in the results that are already well-documented from top MAC football and basketball programs that don't draw.

Where's the proof that we average 20K if we win more? You're the one that's stating "hollow" speculation, while I am just stating the facts from winning programs in our own conference, one of which is our very own basketball program.

But I will agree with you that I pray that it happens also. (place praying emoticon here).

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Here is a little proof.........

We ended 2013 on a 3 game winning streak.........we opened up against Howard (which I would qualify as "dregs" in your formula but was still the home opener

Attendance 9104

We then go to Penn State and give them a scare at Happy Valley. A respectable showing. We are now 4-1 in our last 5. Marshall comes to town (which I would call a semi-marquis team) and a team that finished 13-1 last year

Attendance 13,000 (I bet majority Marshall fans)

We are now 4-2 in our last 6. We go on to upset Pitt at Pitt. Great showing, one if our biggest wins in history. We are now 5-2 in last 7. We come home to play Eastern Michigan

Attendance 8416

We beat Eastern Michigan. We are now 6-2 in our last 8. Next home game, Miami O (run of the mill?)

Attendance 8223 (wins are stacking up but attendance is getting lower ;-)

Saying that winning at Akron in Basketball or Football is the hollow argument to me.

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LZip....Northern had a 13K average last season, despite a string of contending and winning seasons and bowl bids.

It's been discussed at length in another thread, if you want to look for it. Why do you think it's being used as an example?

They hit right at 20k as their peak a few years ago, but not even close to a 20k average over the last 5 years that you presume.

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LZip....Northern had a 13K average last season, despite a string of contending and winning seasons and bowl bids.

It's been discussed at length in another thread, if you want to look for it. Why do you think it's being used as an example?

They hit right at 20k as their peak a few years ago, but not even close to a 20k average over the last 5 years that you presume.

2011, 2012, and 2013 were all above or around 20k per the article Keener just posted. I'm not going to defend them too much, but we all know weeknight games are certainly a detriment to attendance. Their sole OOC home game last season was vs Presbyterian. Not a great draw right there.

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Over many years the Zips have dug themselves into a deep attendance hole that's not easy to climb out of. Winning a few games in a row isn't enough to get people excited. Putting together a couple of winning seasons would offer a fairer assessment of just how many fans would come out to see a consistent winning Zips football team. In football no one can use the old JAR excuse that the inferior facility is keeping fans away.

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