The Search for the Athletic Director
- Thread starter bbneutralfan
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Why? He’s been on staff for what 15-20 years and what do we have to show for it? What’s he been responsible for improving? What fresh ideas does the man that’s been here 20 years truly have
We really have no way of knowing what Mr. O'Malley has done. He may have been the one who scheduled the Power Five schools and someone else took credit or he may have been the one who put the shirt in the Dollar General bag.
This is my issue/concern as well. By all accounts he is a great guy. But did KO and Hamrick have such a heavy hand that none of O'Malley's ideas were ever considered? On the surface he's done a solid job as the interim. I'd like to know his thoughts on scheduling, how does he plan to build the fan base and get more people to attend games? What kind of fundraiser is he?
I still prefer someone from the outside with fresh ideas and O'Malley staying on a second in command. If Jeff gets the job, I wish him well, and hope he can lead us to better days with new and innovative ideas.
We need a new fresh face with fresh ideas to come in and make some major changes inside the athletic department.
Good question. Clean house.
Because Marshall fans always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. The obvious solution is to always bench, release, fire, etc...
If Pennington is in charge of the search, I will trust his work and the outcome. He has demonstrated his commitment to Marshall. If O' Malley is selected it will be because he was determined to be the best candidate. He seems to have done a great job negotiating our move to the Sun Belt. If he is not selected, it will be because Chad and the committee believed someone else to be the better choice.
On this board there is no winning...
If it ends up being O'Malley, a guy who has paid his dues and worked his way up, but comes from the current administrative tree -- The hire will be panned as "just promoting the next 'yes man' in the Shewey."
If we go hire someone from another school, no matter their qualifications, there will be in-house nut huggers saying -- "We passed up a great candidate for someone that is just going to use us as a stepping stone."
If it ends up being O'Malley, a guy who has paid his dues and worked his way up, but comes from the current administrative tree -- The hire will be panned as "just promoting the next 'yes man' in the Shewey."
If we go hire someone from another school, no matter their qualifications, there will be in-house nut huggers saying -- "We passed up a great candidate for someone that is just going to use us as a stepping stone."
Or continue as we have been and fall further behind other G5's.
Let me start by saying that I do not know Mr. O-Malley nor have I ever met him. However, I know for a fact that he is VERY open to ANY thoughts, ideas, or suggestions you might have. He has freely given out his phone number and email address so that anyone can call him on the phone and talk to him or email him. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he would welcome your suggestions. Is he the best guy for the job...I have no idea. But I do know that he loves Marshall and is very open and approachable. So, those of you that have the answers to our woes, give him a call or drop him an email. You have no excuse not to.
Good to know. But I think most of us would like to hear HIS ideas on how to improve our AD and move us forward.
Point well taken but the fact remains that he is open and ready to hear from the fan base. He gave his info out on one of the Runnin w/ The Herd broadcasts.
He seems well liked by many. I wish him well, however it turns out.
Everyone would want to know this. It would be presumptuous of Jeff to talk about these things as an interim AD. Fairly confident that will be a question asked by the search committee.
No way!!! He gives his publicly available contact information to people?
HE DOES!!!! Imagine that! I realize that his e-mail address is on the MU website....,.,
with a new President, I would expect the new AD with come outside the current AD staff. I like the idea of a young, aggressive FCS AD or an assistant AD at a P5 school that is up & coming
I have no problem with O’Malley if we go through the process and he is determined to be the best. My problem is just anointing him the ad with out going through the process
The basketball program is currently doing it’s part to ensure the AD is someone new.
Serious question. How do you know this is fact? I have met him and he didn't do any of that. In fact, he looked bothered by speaking to anyone that wasn't in the club planning group. Southerland did the same thing. He ignored our new people.
This is the issue Marshall needs to address and correct. They need to realize their are a ton of fans who would likely be more involved if they would reach out and try to make a connection. Sure, it's easier said than done, but what isn't. If we want to grow the fan base, those in the Schewey and Old Main are gonna have to bust their asses to sell the product and create the "want' to be involved. jmho.
Serious answer....He gave his phone number and e-mail address out on one of the "Runnin w/ the Herd" broadcasts and said that he would be happy to hear. from ANYBODY about ideas, suggestions, or thoughts that had. I called him right afterward and also sent him a few ideas via email.
lol young and aggressive scares the old people who are comfortable with the crap they have now.
Hell, just the hiring of a DJ ticked off the old farts because "gawd damn, we don't need more of that rap music!!!"
Black uniforms? "Bawh gawd, our colors are green and white! We old people hate the color black!!"
Alcohol at the stadium? "Mah Christian beliefs are throttled at the idea of drunks everywhere and the smell of alcohol makes me ill" (actually spoken by someone opposed to MU's alcohol sales idea).
Sadly, what is needed is someone very smart who just pushes good ideas past the old idiots who constantly oppose change and end up falling into line.
Well, I'm old (75, was there when the plane crashed and have probably going to games before you were even a thought) so I guess that makes me an idiot. However, young and aggressive doesn't scare me. In fact, I'm hoping for just that, the idiot that I am....
I will say...
This thread has O'Malley as both a good and bad candidate.
Hope you're taking a sh*t because this isn't a brief read.
We couldn't possibly know how much of the good moves the AD has done, were his ideas or not.
I will start with the potential red flags:
He hasn't already been hired as AD. He's been here for 20 years. Yes, Hamrick was hired as AD, but O'Malley held the same title of Associate AD since he's been here (if the Herdzone job info on he, is correct). Why is that? Perhaps he wasn't ready, alright, I can buy that, but also it shows he didn't have ambition to try the job himself when he would be filling in for a horrendous job by Marcum...seriously a chimpanzee with a sports Almanac would've done a better job.
He also doesn't communicate well with the fans. At a major crossroads for the program, he was largely silent when it came to the SBC talk. He did tweet some updates that were basically just re-quotes of what had already been known.
This is something that the AD has historically been bad at and something that would just naturally get the fans interested.
It's great he is open to ideas from the fans (time for people like Redsfan to finally get that red spot in the obscure area of the Cam bleachers, removed), but as it was stated, where are HIS ideas?
Even on Twitter or just some platform where people can read, just start saying what you think needs to be done, what ideas to re-grow the fanbase and improve support.
Brad Smith, before being hired, kept sharing his ideas for WV and made some of them happen. As president, he's telling me what he's doing daily on social media and how he's starting to configure positive changes for MU.
I doubt O'Malley is hindered from sharing ideas based on his position, if thats the case then the MU BoG sucks (and they do, more on that in a moment) in terms of publicly expressing ideas.
The fact the BoG narrowly voted for Chris Miller within their own body for AD as opposed to actually searching, makes me question if he's just an Old Main stooge or actually has the balls for independent thought. Don't know, but that near disaster makes me wonder.
He graduated from Miami, OH, lol.
Now for the good things...and many are just opposite perceptions of the red flags.
He's as loyal to MU as a Golden Retriever which says if given the position, he wouldn't be looking elsewhere and he would want to stay here. Being in the same position for 20 years says a lot about someone's willingness to stay as he easily could have left for a better position or location.
His experience is through observation. He's witnessed both good and bad aspects of the AD itself, what works with fans, and what does not.
Following the last point, he's rational in terms of what can be done, how soon, and what's in too far into the stratosphere of attainment. Some folks from bigger schools with ambition, forget MU isn't a bigger school and the economics range from "awful" to "terrible."
He would be appointed by people he's worked with. Brad Smith and Chad Pennington would have confidence in him and hold him to his ideas.
He could make MU go further than the SBC, in the sense of knowing the legalities of our TV contract and how it all works (he has a Juris Doctor), could benefit us more than we know. Plenty of academics have law backgrounds and that could serve to be a huge factor down the road.
He would have beat out the search committee's own list. By being annointed AD, I presume the search group did a solid job with candidates, and he still came out as the best qualified.
On a side note, has there been any press in regards to Chad Pennington actually being at the head of this committee as stated? This was news to me.
This thread has O'Malley as both a good and bad candidate.
Hope you're taking a sh*t because this isn't a brief read.
We couldn't possibly know how much of the good moves the AD has done, were his ideas or not.
I will start with the potential red flags:
He hasn't already been hired as AD. He's been here for 20 years. Yes, Hamrick was hired as AD, but O'Malley held the same title of Associate AD since he's been here (if the Herdzone job info on he, is correct). Why is that? Perhaps he wasn't ready, alright, I can buy that, but also it shows he didn't have ambition to try the job himself when he would be filling in for a horrendous job by Marcum...seriously a chimpanzee with a sports Almanac would've done a better job.
He also doesn't communicate well with the fans. At a major crossroads for the program, he was largely silent when it came to the SBC talk. He did tweet some updates that were basically just re-quotes of what had already been known.
This is something that the AD has historically been bad at and something that would just naturally get the fans interested.
It's great he is open to ideas from the fans (time for people like Redsfan to finally get that red spot in the obscure area of the Cam bleachers, removed), but as it was stated, where are HIS ideas?
Even on Twitter or just some platform where people can read, just start saying what you think needs to be done, what ideas to re-grow the fanbase and improve support.
Brad Smith, before being hired, kept sharing his ideas for WV and made some of them happen. As president, he's telling me what he's doing daily on social media and how he's starting to configure positive changes for MU.
I doubt O'Malley is hindered from sharing ideas based on his position, if thats the case then the MU BoG sucks (and they do, more on that in a moment) in terms of publicly expressing ideas.
The fact the BoG narrowly voted for Chris Miller within their own body for AD as opposed to actually searching, makes me question if he's just an Old Main stooge or actually has the balls for independent thought. Don't know, but that near disaster makes me wonder.
He graduated from Miami, OH, lol.
Now for the good things...and many are just opposite perceptions of the red flags.
He's as loyal to MU as a Golden Retriever which says if given the position, he wouldn't be looking elsewhere and he would want to stay here. Being in the same position for 20 years says a lot about someone's willingness to stay as he easily could have left for a better position or location.
His experience is through observation. He's witnessed both good and bad aspects of the AD itself, what works with fans, and what does not.
Following the last point, he's rational in terms of what can be done, how soon, and what's in too far into the stratosphere of attainment. Some folks from bigger schools with ambition, forget MU isn't a bigger school and the economics range from "awful" to "terrible."
He would be appointed by people he's worked with. Brad Smith and Chad Pennington would have confidence in him and hold him to his ideas.
He could make MU go further than the SBC, in the sense of knowing the legalities of our TV contract and how it all works (he has a Juris Doctor), could benefit us more than we know. Plenty of academics have law backgrounds and that could serve to be a huge factor down the road.
He would have beat out the search committee's own list. By being annointed AD, I presume the search group did a solid job with candidates, and he still came out as the best qualified.
On a side note, has there been any press in regards to Chad Pennington actually being at the head of this committee as stated? This was news to me.
Good. Plenty (at least on the other board and on social media) would disagree.
Given the nature of the area in general, you may be in the minority.
Kudos to you for that.
I'm hoping for wide open, pedal to the metal, all gas no brakes football. Play until the whistle blows. I like Huff and his philosophy (about life and football) and what he's trying to accomplish here. And, being an old idiot, I think the future is bright for Marshall football. Patience folks, patience.
As a side note. You harp on the old idiots but I don’t see many young families, students attending games. I would guess those under 40 who donate or buy season tickets may make up 20% of those groups. That may be a generous percentage.
I too want young and fresh ideas. I don’t think the old farts are the ones holding us back. It’s complacency and too many people being comfortable in their jobs at Marshall. Jmho
Every person in youth thinks they know it all. As you get older you realize you didn't know squat. Especially the significance of not being a disrespectful little jerk.
Yeah, they bitch and moan about the old farts but don’t offer any ideas on how to move the school and program forward.
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