I don't get the lovefest with Hobbs.
- Thread starter Blitz8RUCrazy
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No one here said he is the best a.d. Hire ever.... Some are excited because he comes off very well in front of people.....and yes, we can say that a few of our other a.d's did also
The one thing you cannot say is that he is a bad hire at this point, because he will have to prove he is a screw up first.... Let's wait for a misstep
Do we count his year and change as a.d. For the hall as experience?.... I think we should, even if his hires there might not have worked out..... We have others working with him now that will probably be a huge influence on the coach hire, despite who is a.d.
Well, and Gruninger - but that was all internal to RU prior to taking the AD position. We haven't hired any ADs with prior AD experience dating back more than 40 years (I don't know who preceded Gruninger).
Some comparisons:
Big Ten teams that hired ADs with prior AD experience:
Ohio State - Gene Smith. 20 years prior Athletic Director experience at Arizona State, Iowa State, and E. Michigan
TTFP - Sandy Barbour. 17 years prior Athletic Director experience at Cal and Tulane
Maryland - Kevin Anderson. 6 years prior Athletic Director experience at Army.
Nebraska - Shawn Eichorst. 6 years prior Athletic Director experience at Miami and Wisconsin-Whitewater
Northwestern - James Phillips. 4 years prior Athletic Director experience at Northern Illinois.
Iowa - Gary Barta. 3 years prior Athletic Director experience with Wyoming.
Big Ten teams that hired ADs with more than decade experience within their own program:
Michigan State - Mark Hollis. 13 years as MSU's associate Athletic Director
Wisconsin - Barry Alvarez. 15 years as head coach at Wisconsin
Big Ten schools with interim ADs while AD search is conducted:
Michigan - Jim Hackett, interim
Minnesota - Beth Goetz, interim
Illinois - Paul Kowalcy, interim
Big Ten teams that hired ADs with no prior AD experience:
Purdue - Morgan Burke. No prior athletic experience. VP at steel company.
Indiana - Fred Glass. No prior athletic experience. Lawyer and civic leader.
Rutgers - Patrick Hobbs. Interim AD at SHU for 18 months. Law school dean.
This isn't a knock on Hobbs - just an acknowledgement that Big Ten schools traditionally have hired ADs with prior experience as AD at other schools. His political savvy and connections in Trenton may be enough to trump anything else while he learns the specifics of running an athletic department, and our state government challenges are unique among other conference schools (I believe).
His first job should be to remove the factional bullshit that went into the AD - half the people were ringing it in & the Pro-Julie & Pro-Flood sides leaked the other camp's shit to the media at every chance. Factor in Kirschner and you've got a huge shitshow of an athletic department right now.
say what you want but as of today he's been received tremendously while hermann was a public relations nightmare before her first day and regardless of what some of her admirers like to sell us about her effectiveness her biggest supporter fired her and a huge majority feel it was overdue.
Grunniger was the golf coach, he had practically no relevant experience, and it showed.
Thanks for the fact filled post.
BTW the AD prior to Gruninger was Al Twitchell 1961-1973. Very much an inside candidate.
"Albert W. Twitchell was involved in athletics in many ways. A native of Dedham, Massachusetts, he was captain of the football team and was an All-American in lacrosse prior to graduating in 1935. In 1947 he returned to his alma mater to join the lacrosse and football coaching staffs, becoming the lacrosse head coach in 1950. Additionally, he became the assistant athletic director in 1952. In 1961 he was named to replace Harry J. Rockafeller as Rutgers' Director of Athletics. He preserved the school's undefeated football season that year, by curiously rejecting at least two informal Bowl bids. Another eventful year was 1967, when Twitchell was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, but then had to deal with Rutgers athletics being placed on probation while under his watch. An academic violation prohibited Rutgers from participating in championship sports events for a period of eight months. The year 1969 marked the 100th anniversary of the first collegiate football game, and for the occasion Twitchell arranged home games against Navy and original foe Princeton. Twitchell would remain as athletic director until 1973. After refusing to resign, he was dismissed and replaced by longtime assistant Frederick E. Gruninger. After his dismissal, he became a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and directed the sports administration program at Miami's Biscayne College."
Gruninger was the golf coach from 1963-71, but he was also an Assistant AD from 1966-70 and the Associate AD in 1971-72 before becoming the AD in 1973.
If we really get into the way-back machine, the AD before Gruninger was Al Twitchell (1961-72), who had been an assistant to the prior AD Harry Rockafeller (who also didn't have prior AD experience, but did serve as an RU HC for two stints).
Edit: srru beat me to it.
And if I cared enough, I could list you tens of thousands--in business, academia, intelligence, military--who were tabbed as leaders and are routinely moved around and they succeed.
We hear about Ron Johnson and other top flight CEOs who "fail" because it is newsworthy. Why is it newsworthy? Because people are surprised when great leaders fail.
Looking for 100% certainty in an example is intellectually dishonest.
Everybody needs to read this...alot of factions at rutgers hopefully chops some more ememployees and unifies the dept
I already said it can happen, all I said is you can't take it for granted which a lot of people seem to be doing. I didn't say he's bad all I've said is I'm skeptical and am taking a wait and see attitude and have given even an avenue to make me feel better about it. But so many are saying great hire etc..without really much there there and with a little bit of a bad track record at SHU to make you at least take a pause.
I know many SHU law school grads. The ones who have offered an opinion of Hobbs thinks he's a slick dirtbag. Apparently, there are accepted stories of him sleeping with students, which evidently led to two divorces during his tenure at SHU.
And the reason we're going round and round is encapsulated in your first sentence. It's not "it can happen." That makes it happening somehow unexpected and an outlier.
The fact is, in every aspect of professional life, it happens every single day. The outlier is when it doesn't happen--presuming the candidate has top flight managerial chops.
If he gets Richt, then he can bang my daughter who is a senior at RU.
Well I can't go around looking up all the failures of people taking jobs across lines anymore than you can look up all the successes. Someone above was posting the ADs in the B10 and the ones who now have an AD without experience working in any capacity in an athletic department. IU/Purdue were the 2. Pat Haden ex football player like Brandon and very successful in business I believe and he's made a few missteps as well.
I'm not going to tell you which one is the exception and which one is the rule. Every failure isn't glorified just like every success isn't. It goes both ways. It's also not as if we're going into it blind there's a little bit of track record at SHU, how is that reconciled as well or is it just dismissed as eh no big deal.
Wait and see attitude to me seems much more appropriate than singing praises at the outset. Like I said his football hire can go a long way to making a great first impression and then later the performance of that hire will really help cement an opinion.
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And we're off To the races...... Here we go!..... Cue the star ledger
Hobbs is a bright and competent leader. Unfortunately he blew the hiring of SHU's Mens and Womens BB coaches big time. He also may responsible for Willard's ridiculous buyout provision that makes his firing near impossible fiscally speaking. .
Rutgers Athletics has been hurt big time by Jersey politicians and their back door maneuverings. Now, Christie has forced Hobbs on Barchi which is not a good thing per se, but might eventually work out for you. Time will tell. BM's involvement in RU athletics helped paved the way for it's admission into the Big 10 so Hobbs may work out.
I once questioned JH's hiring because she was hired for what she was rather than for her credentials. It's ironic that Hobbs is hired for what he is (political ally of Christie) and not for his credentials.
Rutgers Athletics has been hurt big time by Jersey politicians and their back door maneuverings. Now, Christie has forced Hobbs on Barchi which is not a good thing per se, but might eventually work out for you. Time will tell. BM's involvement in RU athletics helped paved the way for it's admission into the Big 10 so Hobbs may work out.
I once questioned JH's hiring because she was hired for what she was rather than for her credentials. It's ironic that Hobbs is hired for what he is (political ally of Christie) and not for his credentials.
I don't buy that, either. All we have is anecdotes to go on - and even then, any given individual can buck any trend.
In my corporate career I have seen plenty of new managers/supervisors/AVPs/VPs/EVPs come from other industries or departments, and both succeed and fail. Success in one area is no guarantee of success in another, nor is having no direct experience a guarantee of failure.
In a general sense, though, people who have had success at Job A are expected to have continued success at Job A if they were to move to another company or a higher level. People coming from Job B must have both strong Job B skills/abilities and the ability to adapt/pivot what they know to Job A.
We know Hobbs has success as a Law School Dean, political connections, some fundraising successes, and some verbal savvy. We also know that he had a stint as an interim AD that "righted the ship" from the Gonzo situation but also brought in two mediocre/poor coaches. We don't know if he'll be successful at Rutgers, and I wouldn't call him a "home run" hire.
I'm skeptical based on his past athletic hires, but willing to give him plenty of rope. I'm hoping he proves to be in practice the home run hire he doesn't appear to be on paper.
I am not saying he is a bad hire, and maybe I was being hyperbolic but it is clear to me to a double standard that exist when you compare how the dobbs hire is welcomed and how the hermann hire was welcomed.
People gunned for her from day 1, we heard she had no experience with football, only did olympic sports, was a PC hire etc....let alone she was under one of the most successful AD in the country. Maybe her criticisms were all true, but everyone here was for her head from day 1. At the end of the day she actually hired two winning coaches and improved our fundraising. But I am not saying we should have kept her, I am ok with her firing especially if she was complicit in the report. I just don't see her as the awful AD than everyone makes her out to be.
Now we cut to Hobbs, who has NO football experience, no P5 D1 division athletics experience, ran Seton Hall AD for like a year, and is most likely a political hire but yet there is no criticism (or very little) compared to the hermann hire. What concerns me are his political ties to NJ (What is this all about? ) and that his hires at Seton Hall were failures, but yet somehow he is a much better hire than Hermann.
I don't know much about him, I want him to succeed because I want RU to do well, so time well tell. But there is a definitely a double standard. It reminds me of the TP lovefest after he got fired, when in actuality he did a lot more damage to RU athletics than any good. Other than him being a cool looking guy, I don't see what was so great about him.
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Considering he's 17 years older than Fulop, that's either an outright lie or really creepy.
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We just have to get the football hire right and I think the rest will work itself out....and the next coach picked is going to be a collaboration effort of a least three minds, not just his.....
They say he has been an excellent fund raiser and is smart..... We have to trust that those two qualities are true...
Just because he only had one year as an a.d. Does not mean he cannot do a good job
We can complain here, but the deed is done.....
Well I'll say this much if any of what is said in the other thread comes to fruition, he'll have made the biggest and best of first impressions and any skepticism will be pushed aside.
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We NEED a GOOD FB HC!! The department can take a flying you know what to the moon.
First, we self reported. Second, the NCAA ain't 911. It's not like you hand over the report and they sanction you that day. Also, JT because someone was screwing stuff up it doesn't mean NCAA is going to sanction. flood totally screwed RU's policy but NCAA couldn't care bc it's not their policy. Same thing can be said about school drug policies.
Normally when schools self-report to the NCAA, they make it public. Was there an announcement that I didn't see?
I think many have it wrong--unless they can hide it ,and the press will have a field day if they could, I believe no second report results were released --leaks reported that barchi just got it and that prompted him to want to fire Hermann--which he obviously did
He doesn't have Christie in his back pocket, more like he has Christie in his ear........"ok", "yes sir", "absolutely", "it's a done deal", "I'll take care of that right away"
That would be a huge risk for Barchi. When you read his statement, he says nothing at all about any problems involving Hermann. To take the chance that the report or what was in it would come out later would be pretty dangerous for him and the university. I think that if there were those kinds of problems, he would have mentioned them, at least in general terms, as he did with Flood.
I have felt all along that the second report was essentially to show the world we had no drug issues but honestly nothing has been released about this report and what was reported in the Asbury Park paper chain did not seem definitive at all--hope all is well but why not say so and yell it to the rafters by releasing report--I kind of think the report may have certainly convinced Barchi that Hermann was a poor administrator and her due diligence was bad--hopefully not bad enough for ncaa sanctions
Wow, if the last part's true, this is just another hire that's going to blow up on us. He'll be like our Bobby Petrino.
Actually, Grunninger had a ton of relevant experience, was a Jersey guy, a Rutgers man and had fundraising experience but somehow still managed to be a horrible AD. We have never fully recovered from the lack of foresight, lack of skill and lack of common sense of the Twitchell/Grunninger experience. Uncle Bob was an upgrade, but the media went after him on athletic spending.. Tim alienated the SL (but we all loved it) when he blew his nose into the paper in Birmingham. From that time forward they were out to get him until the day he was ousted. Julie most eggregios sin was the classroom comment and they were gunning for her ever since. So the worst AD's in my lifetime were the only ones the media spared. Their vision was to put us in the Ivy League. Anyone remember the fundraising thermometer on the Heights to track contributions to support building the College Football Hall of Fame on our campus. Truly an epic failure: one the dwarfs every misstep we have taken since. I was maybe 8 or 10 years old when it was there and I have been pissed ever since that we could not get it done.
Maybe Hobbs will get the job done. Maybe not. He has the skill set to do it IMO. As someone said we all know the safe candidates to hire. Will we get one? Or will we get an under the radar type like Uncle Bob did when he hired GS? It really does not matter so long as he goes 1-0 a lot more than 0-1.
"A graduate of Scotch Plains High School, Gruninger started at Rutgers in 1959 as an alumni relations officer and director of the Rutgers Fund, before moving to the athletics department in 1966. Gruninger, who holds both bachelors and Master's degrees from Rutgers, was appointed Assistant Athletic Director in 1966, was named Associate Athletic Director in 1971, and became Director of Athletics at his alma mater in 1973. As an undergraduate, Gruninger was a member of the Rutgers baseball team. Gruninger also served as the Scarlet Knights' golf coach from 1963-71."
Rather just avoid those sorts altogether. I want RU to win, but I want to be able to feel good about the guys I'm rooting for.
I don't want to start any scurrilous rumors, but Hobbs outbid me for some of the sexier sheep at the last sheep auction I attended. I'm just saying.
There is no "perfect" AD candidate. Fundamentally, all that matters is if the new coach is a success. At Michigan, Dave Brandon was a "perfect" candidate. He was a former Regent (politically-savvy), CEO (businessman with good PR skills), former football player under Bo and had donated large amounts of money to the University. Even until the end he had the support of the athletes and Stephen Ross, the biggest Michigan booster.
Yet he is hated by all of Michigan's fans. However, if Hoke was winning he'd probably still be the AD. The current (interim) AD was also a former player under Bo and former CEO. That should have put up red flags everywhere, yet now he could run the AD into the ground and he'd still be beloved because he got Harbaugh.
Yet he is hated by all of Michigan's fans. However, if Hoke was winning he'd probably still be the AD. The current (interim) AD was also a former player under Bo and former CEO. That should have put up red flags everywhere, yet now he could run the AD into the ground and he'd still be beloved because he got Harbaugh.
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