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

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........???

Eddie Barrett
 
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.
 
You are wrong. Anyone who was around at the time will tell you that Mike D'Antoni was available and wanted to interview. Kayo never called him. Just as Dan Shoemaker. Duh

NO ONE was worse than Kayo Marcum. His pal Ernie Salvatore even lost respect for him. I seriously believe he tried to sabotage Marshall many times, and was behind getting Pruett fired up enough to quit. Just the scum of the earth.
 
You are wrong. Anyone who was around at the time will tell you that Mike D'Antoni was available and wanted to interview. Kayo never called him. Just as Dan Shoemaker. Duh

NO ONE was worse than Kayo Marcum. His pal Ernie Salvatore even lost respect for him. I seriously believe he tried to sabotage Marshall many times, and was behind getting Pruett fired up enough to quit. Just the scum of the earth.

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If my Intel is correct I say Kayo letting Pruitt walk was a huge blunder.Was told BP gave his resignation and changed his mind. Kayo said too late, see ya. I realize BP let some things slide at the end. I am convinced he would have righted the ship.
 
If my Intel is correct I say Kayo letting Pruitt walk was a huge blunder.Was told BP gave his resignation and changed his mind. Kayo said too late, see ya. I realize BP let some things slide at the end. I am convinced he would have righted the ship.

well your intel on the pruett situation is 100% wrong, much like your spelling of the man's last name.
 
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Definitely letting Tennessee and Miami off the hook was among the worst of Kayo's blunders; that and making backhanded comments in public about what he perceived were our "limitations". Kayo never talked up Marshall and was the worst PR person we have ever had.

Oh, and one last thing about Tennessee. I found a transcript of a radio interview with the TN AD at the time and he openly stated to the Tenseeds Faithful that he had every intention of playing in Huntington...several years back I posted a link to the transcript on HerdFans.com forum....talk about a huge fvckup on Kayo's part...

Tennessee would have showed up in Huntington if our AD woulda shown some balls. He basically let them off; yet all the while they were planning on coming here.

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well your intel on the pruett situation is 100% wrong, much like your spelling of the man's last name.
got it from a good source, I'll stick with my version. PS get a life I made a typo on the name.
 
got it from a good source, I'll stick with my version. PS get a life I made a typo on the name.

it was a power struggle, coach pruett was on the losing end. after his resignation, kayo and several members of the bog, who were close with pruett (and much more influential than kayo), encouraged him to withdraw his resignation, to come back, but he knew he'd lost his power, he stuck by his demands/requests, and knowing the bog couldn't grant them, he refused to withdraw his resignation.

do you really think if bp wanted to come back his friends on the bog like michael perry and menis (remember farrell was interim president at the time, so the 3 of them really ran marshall), etc would let kayo tell him "no"? that's comical.
 
it was a power struggle, coach pruett was on the losing end. after his resignation, kayo and several members of the bog, who were close with pruett (and much more influential than kayo), encouraged him to withdraw his resignation, to come back, but he knew he'd lost his power, he stuck by his demands/requests, and knowing the bog couldn't grant them, he refused to withdraw his resignation.

do you really think if bp wanted to come back his friends on the bog like michael perry and menis (remember farrell was interim president at the time, so the 3 of them really ran marshall), etc would let kayo tell him "no"? that's comical.
Okay herdit44, I have better things to do than argue . I was told this by someone who was in the AD dept at the time.Of course it was a power struggle. If that version is wrong I was mislead.Still crappy that if BP could have stayed he didn't. I really have a hard time with that version even if it comes from someone like yourself who is a self proclaimed expert on the subject. I have always believed BP was a hard core Marshall guy and the idea that he just walked is hard to fathom.
 
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Can we PLEASE put the quitter and the events leading up to him quitting to rest?? It's a decade later people
 
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.

You won't find any facts. The guy worked for about $80K per year. A good salary for me...not for a Division 1 athletic director. The only reason he gets such a bad rep is because we were terrible at both football and bball during his tenure. Nevermind the fact that we were bad before he got here.

And herdit's statement about Pruett is right on the money. Bob Pruett wanted money and an IPF...Dan Angel spent the money elsewhere. There was no money to spend. Coach Pruett wouldn't accept that answer and he resigned. It's pretty simple. We were left with a team with very little talent and on probation. Our woes during the 2000s had little to do with Marcum or Snyder. They were both dealt very difficult hands and did the best the could with them. They are both Marshall guys and both of them should at least get a little more respect because of that.
 
No one ever has anything good to say the work KO did here! I heard he always removed his lunch from the breakroom fridge prior to the weekend clean out.
 
You won't find any facts. The guy worked for about $80K per year. A good salary for me...not for a Division 1 athletic director. The only reason he gets such a bad rep is because we were terrible at both football and bball during his tenure. Nevermind the fact that we were bad before he got here.

And herdit's statement about Pruett is right on the money. Bob Pruett wanted money and an IPF...Dan Angel spent the money elsewhere. There was no money to spend. Coach Pruett wouldn't accept that answer and he resigned. It's pretty simple. We were left with a team with very little talent and on probation. Our woes during the 2000s had little to do with Marcum or Snyder. They were both dealt very difficult hands and did the best the could with them. They are both Marshall guys and both of them should at least get a little more respect because of that.

Pruett walked out on the program...alright...maybe bitter about rhe finances...but he stooped to a real low level bailing when he did with the situation the program was in.

Alright...I sure will show respect to a coach who often bashed Marshall and thought we didn't belong on the same field as ohio state or wvu...the saving grace for anything was Snyder not playing osu while he was HC here...I couldnt imagine the demoralizing pre-game locker room speech...followed up by Snyder asking Tressell what plays he wants to practice.
Snyder can EAD and rot in hell.
Marcum did one thing right...he got himself fired.
I sure will respect an AD who went on TV during a basketball game essentially selling our coach to anyone better and making our program remain small.

They both are long gone and the dark green we had....was during those years...Marshalls Dark Ages...glad theyre gone.
 
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Just listen to this worthless piece of shit...goodness, hope this dipshit NEVER comes back to Huntington...EVER!
 
First, you guys give Kayo way more authority than he actually had, Mark Snyder hiring being an example. Mark was not who Kayo wanted, only who he endorsed as the hiring was made by others.

Most of the rest of the "information" in this thread isn't correct, period.............not about Pruett, Mike D, or Gregg Marshall............you get timelines messed up, quote things that aren't and never were accurate (example: That Gregg Marshall had an offer from WSU, when he was trying to get an interview with MU (Donnie Jones was hired 2 days before Gregg was actually scheduled to meet with Dr. Kopp in Charlotte, he wasn't even talking to WSU at that point). Mike called Marcum and never got a returned call.............Mike was an assistant at Phoenix, not the HC (which someone finally corrected), etc, etc..............

Much has been written for years about these events, and much of it accurately........ unfortunately, very little in this thread is accurate, very little.
 
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And dshoe instead of actually correcting facts just says everyone is wrong. How about adding to the conversation

I've written about this soooooooo many times in so many forums, I really don't know where to start..................ask me any questions, and I'll be happy to answer, but you could also go back and find many missives on this and other topics related.................Just one example: The Mike D'Antoni interest in the Coaching job when Kayo hired Ron Jirsa............Mike has said in MANY forums, an interview with Keith Morehouse on WSAZ, as the speaker at the Big Green banquet, numerous newspaper interviews, etc., that he was interested, inquired about the job and even engaged a number of people (including myself) about helping him get an interview...... He and I even had the conversation with John Calipari about interceding on Mike's behalf, all to no avail..........but just go back and read this thread, posters still insist that Mike wasn't interested, that he wouldn't have taken the job, that if they had been the AD they wouldn't have called........ Mike actually called the AD and left messages, had people call the AD for him, I took Kayo to lunch and had the discussion........all to no avail, yet many MU fans, still don't believe.

So ask me any questions, and I'll answer what I can..... I have first hand information on most of what went on in those days..............I'm in Europe currently, but look at these topics most days... so ask away. I just find it frustrating that so many people post what they believe to be fact, simply because they have convinced themselves...or somebody told them something and they think they have a "source".......just go back and read this thread.......many of the timelines are even wrong.........basic assumptions are wrong.........Kayo for example had little to nothing to do with the hiring of Mark Snyder, wasn't even his choice or recommendation, but as the AD, he had to go along and put the best spin on it he could, say what you want, but he understood the professional side of being the AD.....
 
I've written about this soooooooo many times in so many forums, I really don't know where to start..................ask me any questions, and I'll be happy to answer, but you could also go back and find many missives on this and other topics related.................Just one example: The Mike D'Antoni interest in the Coaching job when Kayo hired Ron Jirsa............Mike has said in MANY forums, an interview with Keith Morehouse on WSAZ, as the speaker at the Big Green banquet, numerous newspaper interviews, etc., that he was interested, inquired about the job and even engaged a number of people (including myself) about helping him get an interview...... He and I even had the conversation with John Calipari about interceding on Mike's behalf, all to no avail..........but just go back and read this thread, posters still insist that Mike wasn't interested, that he wouldn't have taken the job, that if they had been the AD they wouldn't have called........ Mike actually called the AD and left messages, had people call the AD for him, I took Kayo to lunch and had the discussion........all to no avail, yet many MU fans, still don't believe.

So ask me any questions, and I'll answer what I can..... I have first hand information on most of what went on in those days..............I'm in Europe currently, but look at these topics most days... so ask away. I just find it frustrating that so many people post what they believe to be fact, simply because they have convinced themselves...or somebody told them something and they think they have a "source".......just go back and read this thread.......many of the timelines are even wrong.........basic assumptions are wrong.........Kayo for example had little to nothing to do with the hiring of Mark Snyder, wasn't even his choice or recommendation, but as the AD, he had to go along and put the best spin on it he could, say what you want, but he understood the professional side of being the AD.....
Dshoe, fact or not. The season after resigning at Marshall, giving the reason it was health, Bob Pruett campaigned for the University of Kentucky Head Coaching job.
 
Tell something good KO did? It would be a very short list.
MU paid him 80K more than he was worth.
To be an MU guy, you sure as hell couldn't tell it.
 
Dshoe, fact or not. The season after resigning at Marshall, giving the reason it was health, Bob Pruett campaigned for the University of Kentucky Head Coaching job.

Bob was involved with several job searches after leaving Marshall, which should come as a surprise to no one..... he was highly considered in the profession...... he had done a great job at Marshall. He probably came the closest on the job at Temple, but he was a finalist on several jobs..... It is fair to say, however that schools and hiring consultants sought him out rather than him "applying" for jobs that were open.

Bob's decision to leave MU has bee highly debated on these boards for years, and I think often unfairly considering the great things he did in his 9 years as the HC, he was extremely loyal to the school and the program, highly successful and brought much to the growth and development of the program..... he remains our most successful coach ever and one of the winningest in NCAA history for the period he coached.

Coach Pruett's departure from MU was more about using his perceived strength in the position to make changes in the way the administration over all was allocating resources and managing student athlete issues. He didn't believe MU could continue to be successful unless it was willing to keep pace in certain areas with similar programs (the visit to TCU -Bowl game- cemented his concerns). The program's sharp decline after his departure may have proven him to be right. None-the-less, he gambled that his resignation could bring about needed changes, simply put, he gambled wrong. While Kayo gave him (in my opinion) some very bad advice during this time, overall this wasn't a Kayo driven issue.
 
Tell something good KO did? It would be a very short list.
MU paid him 80K more than he was worth.
To be an MU guy, you sure as hell couldn't tell it.

Early on he brought a professionalism and experience to the job that was sorely lacking........ had Bob stayed only the year he was originally hired for, he would have - I think- been just "what the doctor ordered"
 
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.

why would you say it was pretty much common knowledge that Gregg had an offer from WSU, he hadn't even spoken to them at that point. As for Winthrop trying to keep him by stepping up, he was never going to stay if he got an opportunity to move up, he had missed on a number of jobs over the years and was concerned that he might never get an opportunity above Winthrop. He was scheduled to interview that Friday with President Kopp in Charlotte, but Dr. Kopp chose to hire Donnie instead, Donnie had been Kayo's choice all along and he was the one who told Kopp that Gregg had no interest in leaving Winthrop for MU....... could not have been further from the truth.

AND, Winthrop has NEVER thrown more resources at BBall than MU!!!
 
And dshoe instead of actually correcting facts just says everyone is wrong. How about adding to the conversation

It wouldnt do any good because many people on here have ADD or something where you give them the correct facts, they shut up for a couple of months because you gave them the facts but then they go back posting the same nonsense a couple months later totally forgetting the real facts that were explained to them.

Its tiresome to keep going around in circles on the same issues over and over when the facts have been laid out many many times in the same discussions that keep getting talked about. I cant count the number of times the last 10+ years I have gone over the Marcum, Pruett, D'Antoni, Marshall stuff I personally know about. Other posters such as dshoe are in the same boat. You give someone the facts, everything is settled but yet a couple months later the same topic is being discussed and everyone somehow has already forgot what was already explained to them.
 
why would you say it was pretty much common knowledge that Gregg had an offer from WSU, he hadn't even spoken to them at that point. As for Winthrop trying to keep him by stepping up, he was never going to stay if he got an opportunity to move up, he had missed on a number of jobs over the years and was concerned that he might never get an opportunity above Winthrop. He was scheduled to interview that Friday with President Kopp in Charlotte, but Dr. Kopp chose to hire Donnie instead, Donnie had been Kayo's choice all along and he was the one who told Kopp that Gregg had no interest in leaving Winthrop for MU....... could not have been further from the truth.

AND, Winthrop has NEVER thrown more resources at BBall than MU!!!
For goodness sakes if Winthrop spent more money on bb than Marshall we would have been in huge trouble as a program.Small school, I was going to pursue an MBA there in the 80's when I lived in Charlotte.Ended up doing grad work in another state.
 
Funny how memories change over time. I distinctly recall Shoe saying several years ago Mike D felt he shouldn't have to call about job given his stature as MU alum. Anyway I just find it ironic, doesn't really change main point that Kayo didn't reach out or act on contacts from others on MD behalf.
 
Funny how memories change over time. I distinctly recall Shoe saying several years ago Mike D felt he shouldn't have to call about job given his stature as MU alum. Anyway I just find it ironic, doesn't really change main point that Kayo didn't reach out or act on contacts from others on MD behalf.

Him feeling that way doesn't preclude anything from happening as Shoe described.
 
Funny how memories change over time. I distinctly recall Shoe saying several years ago Mike D felt he shouldn't have to call about job given his stature as MU alum. Anyway I just find it ironic, doesn't really change main point that Kayo didn't reach out or act on contacts from others on MD behalf.

I don't ever remember saying that per se, but Mike did feel that he shouldn't have had to call the AD to express his interest in the job, in fact he didn't want to make the call since he was under contract with the Suns, instead he called people he knew who he thought could convey his interest to Marcum and would carry some weight with him........ eventually though, Mike made the call/s which were never returned.
 
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I don't ever remember saying that per se, but Mike did feel that he shouldn't have had to call the AD to express his interest in the job, in fact he didn't want to make the call since he was under contract with the Suns, instead he called people he knew who he thought could convey his interest to Marcum and would carry some weight with him........ eventually though, Mike made the call/s which were never returned.

Marcum knew Mike was interested and it should have been abundantly clear to everyone. But again it is amazing how people just forget some of the stuff that went on and what has been talked about. How can anyone on here forget the newspapers contacting Mike and asking him about the possibility of him becoming head coach and his interest in the job. Mike's quote was it would be a great job and and he would be interested in listening to Marshall. Marcum's response to the D'Antoni quote was the Marshall job was not a great job. Do people seriously not remember Marcum putting the head coaching job down and completely blowing off Mike in the press? It was certainly a big topic of conversation at the time.

And yet here we are again answering the same question that has already been answered several times before. I'm sure this thread will soon die because the facts have been explained but in another 2-6 months I will guarantee you some people will forget and the same question about Mike and the head coaching job will pop up yet again as if the facts have never been explained.
 
I recall Marcum publicly ditching the Dantoni idea with talk like "he's in the NBA" and publicly ditching Higgins talk with " we have a coach"
 
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.
Hard to argue with Marcum being the worst, but the older folks would have to remember Lee Moon. He self reported BB coach Rick Huckaby to NCAA in what I would consider minor issues. That led to Huck being fired and the beginning of the decline on our BB program. (A year or two later, UK got caught with BB Coach Sutton's son helping the BB players cheat in class-they just got their hand slapped).
 
The NCAA certainly didn't think it was minor as they slapped Rick with a "show cause" penalty that kept him from ever working as a college HC again..... one of the stiffest penalties in NCAA history levied against a coach.
 
Dshoe, I should have probably said minor issues compared to UK. Huck got a bad rap, IMHO. You probably remember better than I, but I remember the worst thing as having players over to his house on Christmas and giving them gifts. I don't remember them being extravagant, although I admit illegal. And maybe a familiar area auto sales owner letting one of the athletes stay at his house. Huck got nailed and Coach Sutton ended up quitting, but was able to coach again.
I remember listening to the Thursday night Huck call in show on radio and the question was asked why the attendance was down (Moon had raised ticket prices significantly enough and long time season ticket holders were asked to pay extra to retain their seats). There was practically no notice. While I agree with the philosophy, the way it was handled was poor at best. At any rate, Huck answered that folks would have to look higher than him to pass blame and that it was not his fault. It is my belief that this caused the rift between Huck and Moon to be so bad that Moon thought if he self reported, he could not only get a light penalty, but get rid of Huck as well. This is how I remember it and Moon should have been thinking about the total picture, not his ego. If I am wrong, please set me straight.
 
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