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/r/cfb: What did your worst AD do to your program?

RedParallax

Bronze Buffalo
Nov 12, 2008
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This topic was posted on /r/cfb recently and it got me to thinking and attempting to research all of Marcum's flaws, but I can't find a lot online about it. I'm sure that's because a lot of the failings were never made public or announced, of course, but it got me to thinking. What, specifically, did Kayo do that were considered such major setbacks?

I've read that he made little to no effort on fundraising, which in 1) being behind in athletic facilities construction/renovation, 2) not making any effort to hire Greg Marshall for our basketball coach (who was a Marshall assistant HC from 1996-98 and was rumored to express interest in our HC job that was open before the 2007-08 season), and possibly other effects.

I remember he switched our colors from kelly green to hunter green. I thought I recalled that he did that in order to save money on the merchandising deal with Nike, but I can't understand how that would ever be the case?

Does anyone else remember or have any other examples of Marcum's failings?
 
This topic was posted on /r/cfb recently and it got me to thinking and attempting to research all of Marcum's flaws, but I can't find a lot online about it. I'm sure that's because a lot of the failings were never made public or announced, of course, but it got me to thinking. What, specifically, did Kayo do that were considered such major setbacks?

I've read that he made little to no effort on fundraising, which in 1) being behind in athletic facilities construction/renovation, 2) not making any effort to hire Greg Marshall for our basketball coach (who was a Marshall assistant HC from 1996-98 and was rumored to express interest in our HC job that was open before the 2007-08 season), and possibly other effects.

I remember he switched our colors from kelly green to hunter green. I thought I recalled that he did that in order to save money on the merchandising deal with Nike, but I can't understand how that would ever be the case?

Does anyone else remember or have any other examples of Marcum's failings?

kayo didn't change the color, that was above his pay grade. that comes from the president's office and then has to have bog approval.

some would say letting Tennessee off the hook would be a blunder too.
 
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Letting Tennessee and Miami off the hook is a start.

Not implimenting an Athlete drug policy was another blunder.

Hiring Ron Jirsa over Mike D'Antoni

Rushing and hiring Mark Snyder instead of just name Coach Darlington Intern Head coach for the 2005 season and doing a national Head coach search at the end of the 2005 season is another blunder
 
Letting Tennessee and Miami off the hook is a start.

Not implimenting an Athlete drug policy was another blunder.

Hiring Ron Jirsa over Mike D'Antoni

Rushing and hiring Mark Snyder instead of just name Coach Darlington Intern Head coach for the 2005 season and doing a national Head coach search at the end of the 2005 season is another blunder

Two things:

1. What is a "intern head coach"?
2. You really wanted Kayo to name someone interim head coach, who was so bad that his fellow defensive staff members the year before took away his headset during the games, and had him just charting plays like the graduate assistants?
 
Letting Tennessee and Miami off the hook is a start.

Not implimenting an Athlete drug policy was another blunder.

Hiring Ron Jirsa over Mike D'Antoni

Rushing and hiring Mark Snyder instead of just name Coach Darlington Intern Head coach for the 2005 season and doing a national Head coach search at the end of the 2005 season is another blunder

I don't really blame anyone for the Tennessee or Miami games, unless we didn't get paid for them. I assume those were signed as home-and-home series' and then each program bought us out of the Huntington game. If we got paid for them, that's fine, and I don't see us in any negotiating stance to have kept them anyway.

Also, wasn't D'Antoni head coach of the Phoenix Suns whenever Greg White left? I know he was hired halfway through the 2003 NBA season for the Suns, so I may be wrong on this one.

EDIT: D'Antoni was hired by the Suns on 11/12/02. Didn't Greg White leave after the 2002-2003 season? D'Antoni would've already been in the NBA and zero incentive to leave that job with the Suns to come coach Marshall.
 
If thats the Case, not only did Pruett left us high and dry with no talent and depth. He left us a crappy staff we couldnt fire
 
He was not proactive. He didn't fund raise. Alienated big donors like JJ and Cline. Bad hiring. Let the Gibsons essentially hire Snyder. Almost killed some of the minor sports. Wasn't well liked by many AD's. Talked down about Marshall and our program. Frankly, he may have been the worst hire in MU athletic history, all things considered. jmo.
 
He was not proactive. He didn't fund raise. Alienated big donors like JJ and Cline. Bad hiring. Let the Gibsons essentially hire Snyder. Almost killed some of the minor sports. Wasn't well liked by many AD's. Talked down about Marshall and our program. Frankly, he may have been the worst hire in MU athletic history, all things considered. jmo.

I'd heard he was the worst AD but I'm hoping this thread will compile some facts to justify that. So far, the argument of 'missing out' on the Mike D'Antoni (post-Greg White) and Gregg Marshall (post-Jirsa) hires have been debunked, IMO. No chance D'Antoni was going to leave the Suns and Gregg Marshall was having negotiations with Wichita State at the time. I'm sure Wichita State had a much better offer than we did, given their history of basketball success.
 
I don't really blame anyone for the Tennessee or Miami games, unless we didn't get paid for them. I assume those were signed as home-and-home series' and then each program bought us out of the Huntington game. If we got paid for them, that's fine, and I don't see us in any negotiating stance to have kept them anyway.

Also, wasn't D'Antoni head coach of the Phoenix Suns whenever Greg White left? I know he was hired halfway through the 2003 NBA season for the Suns, so I may be wrong on this one.

EDIT: D'Antoni was hired by the Suns on 11/12/02. Didn't Greg White leave after the 2002-2003 season? D'Antoni would've already been in the NBA and zero incentive to leave that job with the Suns to come coach Marshall.

All I have ever heard was Mike was interested in the job and he didnt even give him a call. Same thing like Gregg Marshall.

Als Tennessee and Miami didnt pay us anything, he let them go scotch-free
 
All I have ever heard was Mike was interested in the job and he didnt even give him a call. Same thing like Gregg Marshall.

Als Tennessee and Miami didnt pay us anything, he let them go scotch-free

I wouldn't have given D'Antoni a call, either. He was making NBA money. Not calling Marshall was a huge mistake, given that we would've had no clue he was entertaining a solid offer from Wichita State.

If we didn't get any money from Tennessee or Miami, then that would also go under the category of "huge AD blunders".
 
All I have ever heard was Mike was interested in the job and he didnt even give him a call. Same thing like Gregg Marshall.

Als Tennessee and Miami didnt pay us anything, he let them go scotch-free


I heard this was true on both accounts. Mike expressed interest to many big donors who in turn told KO, but KO ignored them as usual.
 
If thats the Case, not only did Pruett left us high and dry with no talent and depth. He left us a crappy staff we couldnt fire

it's absolutely true, and while i know most of the guys on the 2004 staff, and like them all personally, part of the reason for our slide in the latter years of pruett's tenure was our coaching staff wasn't up to par. we lost a lot of good coaches and replaced them with mediocre coaches.

don't think so? look at where the 2004 staff is today.

kueck - just retired. left here and was coaching hs in texas for several years, spent the last two years as OC at lamar.
purnley - left here to go be ad at his old high school
nunez - left here and was coaching high school in texas
miles - coached 1 year with snyder before leaving to become a chickfila franchisee
mchale - went on to coach at florida state for a couple years, then disappeared before joining up 1 year to help jay hopson at alcorn

gale - moved to football ops
darlington - 1 year at la tech, 2 years at semo, a year at usd, and a side job doing sales
wilt - left to coach a year at USM before hanging it up
collins - went back to duke to finish out his career

it was a pretty bad staff by and large.
 
I wouldn't have given D'Antoni a call, either. He was making NBA money. Not calling Marshall was a huge mistake, given that we would've had no clue he was entertaining a solid offer from Wichita State.

I think it was pretty common knowledge he had an offer from WSU, and also a pretty big offer to stay at Winthrop ($400k/year for 10 years). I'm not saying GM wouldn't have come here, he very well may have come here, but Winthrop was willing to break the bank for him, and so was Wichita. There are something those two schools have in common that differs from us, you can figure it out, and it leads to them being able to throw more resources at basketball.
 
Dantoni's interest was when White was hired, not when White left. That one was on Lance.
 
Rumors and "I heard" stories get repeated on this board so many times that many posters actually believe they are true statements when in fact they are either rumor, gossip or just repeated because they fit certain preconceived notions. :(
 
Letting Tennessee and Miami off the hook is a start.

Not implimenting an Athlete drug policy was another blunder.

Hiring Ron Jirsa over Mike D'Antoni

Rushing and hiring Mark Snyder instead of just name Coach Darlington Intern Head coach for the 2005 season and doing a national Head coach search at the end of the 2005 season is another blunder

Darlington? No....
 
Rumors and "I heard" stories get repeated on this board so many times that many posters actually believe they are true statements when in fact they are either rumor, gossip or just repeated because they fit certain preconceived notions. :(

Or maybe you actually hear it from people that was working in the AD at the time.
 
Was it poor communication or a breakdown in their relationship over time? Hard to imagine Angel would've hired someone he didnt' like as AD.

What exactly does "Angel was the problem with Marcum" mean? Did Angel not allow Marcum to make certain decisions?

Angel was a pretty poor/unethical President, I believe.
 
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Angel wanted someone who would rely on him to make all the decisions. He wanted to be the hero. Most of the things that get attributed to Marcum were calls made from the top.

You won't find many people in administration throughout the university who feel positive about his time with Marshall.
 
For info on KO you need to ask the one guy he brought with him from UMass - O'Malley - who never bites the hand that brought him here.
 
Angel and KO may be the worst combo we have ever had. Both were extremely poor hires at a time when we needed a Kopp and Hamrick. I firml;y believe if we had those two at that time, we'd be in the AAC or at least in a much better situation as an institution - academically and athletically. Jusst too many bad decisions by Angel and KO or both.

I spoke with a school VP in his office at Old Main in January of 2013 about the Vision Campaign and a few other things regarding the new PT school. He opened my eyes to the incompetence of both those two men. He said KO basically alienated almost every big donor we had and that Hamrick had to clean up his messes.
 
Speaking of Kopp, I'm not hearing anything on a new prez. Did they say something at the Marshall event in DC this week?
 
Speaking of Kopp, I'm not hearing anything on a new prez. Did they say something at the Marshall event in DC this week?


Sounds to me like they didn't get the quality of candidates they wanted or thought they could get and are re-opening the process. jmo.
 
Sounds to me like they didn't get the quality of candidates they wanted or thought they could get and are re-opening the process. jmo.

Figured. We need a former VP for Student Affairs or a Provost on the rise. Needs to understand building a student body.
 
Dantoni's interest was when White was hired, not when White left. That one was on Lance.

Mike was def. interested when White left in 2003. I was told this personally by a relative of Mike's who is much closer to him than Gary's Weeney.

Also, to whoever posted about Mike's hiring date with the Suns, he was an ASSISTANT then, NOT the head coach. He wasn't promoted to head coach until after KO passed him over for Jirsa.
 
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The worst AD ever? I stopped an instate football series that cost the state of wv millions in taxable revenue. I openly slandered another in state school for my own benifit as an attorney so I could keep the threat of a loss to them off my resume whilst I climbed the ladder. I left my school on NCAA probation as I left, all the while still spewing my rhetoric hoping the state residents of wv are naive enough to continue buying into while I search and move to greener pastures. I hire a compete crotch grabbing idiot psychopath from some where in the land of red clay while I overlook again an instate resident and alum of the school I'm AD for because I know how popular he would become if he was successful and that might usurp my plans. I have had one goal in mind the entire time, make more money, improve my resume and laugh at a state behind their backs that theyre naive enough to buy into my self awarding plans. I never want to hire a WVan if I can find anyone else because really you prove to me, by following my actions,you aren't smart enough to be hired by me. The millions I've cost the state mean nothing to me, my career is on its correct path. I am........???
 
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And Kueck was St Bobby's choice to follow him

Honestly though, look at what we ended up with. I know nothing of Kueck, other than he was quite bitter after not getting the head coach position, but I'm not sure anyone else would have been any worse than Snyder.
 
Honestly though, look at what we ended up with. I know nothing of Kueck, other than he was quite bitter after not getting the head coach position, but I'm not sure anyone else would have been any worse than Snyder.

Snyder wasn't too bad, he just tends to lose his players
 
Snyder was bad, probably not as bad as most say. He didn't have discipline in the program. the 2008 and 2009 teams were decent just underachieving, we should have competed for CUSA title in 09 and blew several games. That said, he played FAR tougher in and out of conference schedules than Doc or Pruett. Pruett played a few pretty tough out of conference schedules later in his tenure.

And Pruett left the program a mess in my opinion and acknowledged it needed fixed. His weaker recruiting in the later years and probation coupled with Snyders late hire left our talent pool bottoming out in 2007.
 
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