Poll:. Best AD Ever

[RUaMoose]

Pernetti was responsible for hiring two scandalous coaches that brought shame to the university

Mike Rice was actually a very good BB coach and had the program moving in the right direction. Not sure what he did to warrant termination. Did anyone get hurt or die ? Seems a suspension may have been commensurate to the "crime". As for Flood what choice did TP have ? Flood was not his first or second choice iirc.and he was gone before given the chance to correct his error. I'll say this though as someone else mentioned. KF should have been an interim solution. He clearly did not have the pedigree of a Big Ten HC

 

[R1776U]

jury is still out on hobbs... therefore mulchahy

 

[rubaseball78]

I voted for Hobbs although I recognize he is a work in progress versus a finished career with the others. While I recognize the pluses regarding Mulcahy for football, I'm not convinced he needed to let bball fall to the level it did which is why I can't put him first.

 

[LC-88]

Why isn't Grunninger in the list? And Hermann?

Grunninger turned down the invitation to be on the list.

 

[LC-88]

Thankfully Tim was gone by then too. Pernett’s two hires were mike rice and Kyle flood. How does that get any worse?

Craig Littlepage and Terry Shea. Two more reasons why FG was left off the list.

 

[Plum Street]

Craig Littlepage and Terry Shea. Two more reasons why FG was left off the list.

Littlepage and Shea were worse on the court and field. Rice and flood embarrassed the university.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Mulcahy for football and it is not even remotely close. The most important AD for football in Rutgers history, but he mostly acted like the other sports at Rutgers didn't exist. He also spent a ton of money without raising a lot. Rutgers is still paying off his debt.

Hobbs has raised maybe the most money of any AD ever. He appears to want all sports to be get a lot better. He has a lot of big plans, if he is able to do them, then he will go down as the greatest AD Rutgers has ever had.

 

[bigmatt718]

Mulcahy for football and it is not even remotely close. The most important AD for football in Rutgers history, but he mostly acted like the other sports at Rutgers didn't exist. He also spent a ton of money without raising a lot. Rutgers is still paying off his debt.

Hobbs has raised maybe the most money of any AD ever. He appears to want all sports to be get a lot better. He has a lot of big plans, if he is able to do them, then he will go down as the greatest AD Rutgers has ever had.

Agree 100% on your post. Mulcahy only cared about football. Hobbs cares about every sport. If Ash doesn't pan out, RU and Hobbs will have full B1G money to land a HR hire. Pike I feel will get the job done.

 

[Plum Street]

Mulcahy for football and it is not even remotely close. The most important AD for football in Rutgers history, but he mostly acted like the other sports at Rutgers didn't exist. He also spent a ton of money without raising a lot. Rutgers is still paying off his debt.

Hobbs has raised maybe the most money of any AD ever. He appears to want all sports to be get a lot better. He has a lot of big plans, if he is able to do them, then he will go down as the greatest AD Rutgers has ever had.

Hobbs will be judged by how his major hires - football and men’s basketball- turn out.

 

[Jim_from_RU]

Hobbs will be judged by how his major hires - football and men’s basketball- turn out.

Pike will get the job done. I have no doubts about that.

 

[newwavedave1]

For now, it has to be Mulcahy, but hopefully Hobbs becomes #1 very soon.

We think alike.

 

[Quix0te]

While I am in the 99% who love Pat Hobbs as both the face and future of RU athletics and truly hope that 5 years from now he is a clear cut top choice, he has yet to have any type of on field success in our over matched B10 but has made great progress fund raising and kept us relatively scandal free

The best thing that has happened to RU in the last 30 years was getting our invite into the B10 and I believe that credit can almost be equally split between Mulcahy ( who set the table) and Pernetti (who served the food)

Our best success in major sports occurred with Mulcahy and/or Pernetti both of whom got majorly screwed by NJ media and politics but also had success with much weaker competition. I truly believe that we will never have an AD who loves Rutgers more than Tim Pernetti but as a Villanova grad, Mulcagy had a lot of Jersey in him as well

Mulcahy navigated the NJ political field quite well and did more in his 11 years than the progress we made 30 years prior and really set the stage for us to go big time

In the end, both Mulcahy and Pernetti were fired due to an over zealous NJ media that loves to devour it's own, but history will show how lucky we were to not be stuck like UConn or even BC/Syracuse who are both shadows of their former selves

So, please stray away from the Out of Sight - Out of Mind and give your objective reasons on who is the best AT THIS POINT IN TIME

Hey, why wasn't Julie Hermann included in the poll? :D

 

[NotInRHouse]

Mulcahy is the reason we're in the B1G with Schiano and McCormick

Hobbs jury still out

Pernetti gave us Rice and Flood and if not for so many failures before Mulcahy would easily be worst.

 

[50 yd line RR]

While I am in the 99% who love Pat Hobbs as both the face and future of RU athletics and truly hope that 5 years from now he is a clear cut top choice, he has yet to have any type of on field success in our over matched B10 but has made great progress fund raising and kept us relatively scandal free

The best thing that has happened to RU in the last 30 years was getting our invite into the B10 and I believe that credit can almost be equally split between Mulcahy ( who set the table) and Pernetti (who served the food)

Our best success in major sports occurred with Mulcahy and/or Pernetti both of whom got majorly screwed by NJ media and politics but also had success with much weaker competition. I truly believe that we will never have an AD who loves Rutgers more than Tim Pernetti but as a Villanova grad, Mulcagy had a lot of Jersey in him as well

Mulcahy navigated the NJ political field quite well and did more in his 11 years than the progress we made 30 years prior and really set the stage for us to go big time

In the end, both Mulcahy and Pernetti were fired due to an over zealous NJ media that loves to devour it's own, but history will show how lucky we were to not be stuck like UConn or even BC/Syracuse who are both shadows of their former selves

So, please stray away from the Out of Sight - Out of Mind and give your objective reasons on who is the best AT THIS POINT IN TIME

Very tough to call. All three served at different junctures of RU Athletics.Mulcahy led a massive undertaking to upgrade with very little resources. His task was to get us away from Bigger Time Athletics and into BigTime Athletics. It really cost him his job.
When Pernetti took over the Big East was imploding and he had even less money and was under a lot more scrutiny than Mulcahy.
He had to hang on til the BIG invite was extended.
Hobbs has a lot more resources and even more money to come ,but his task is even more daunting than the other two.(Trying to level the playing field in the BIG).
All in all, two of them did a great job here and one is doing a great job.
Bottom line is they had unique challenges and hurldles to get through to make Rutgers a more competitive athletics program.
To compare them is like comparing three great racehorses or three great fighters from different eras.
Just the fact that so many posters here hold these guys in this high esteem is a sign to me that this program is really getting it done.

 

[Upstream]

Let's also not forget that Pernetti originally wanted to fire Rice, but was advised by RU counsel not to do that.

He wasn't advised to not fire Rice. He was advised that if he fired Rice he would need to pay him his contract buy-out. Pernetti chose to keep Rice. Maybe he chose to keep Rice to save the cost of the buy out. Maybe he thought he could reform Rice and the issue would go away. Maybe he was just looking for reasons to keep a coach he hired and he liked. But he always had the option to fire Rice.

 

[Upstream]

jury is still out on hobbs... therefore mulchahy

That's probably the case. Hobbs seems to be on the right trajectory, but is not there yet. So Mulcahy is best on that list by default.

 

[ashokan]

The scarlet triangle of Mulchay, Schiano and McCormick was key to Rutgers rise, expansion and ultimate move to B1G. For one brief interlude Rutgers mimicked other big football schools and had everyone on the same page and reaching. Then the 2008 media bushwhack that saw the sports guys alienated from the academic. Flood/Hermann were the eventual cherries on top of that extra large poo custard

 

[Quix0te]

DJ Spanky said: ↑
Let's also not forget that Pernetti originally wanted to fire Rice, but was advised by RU counsel not to do that

" (Julie) Hermann and her partner, Leslie Danehy, have one son" How did that happen?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Hermann

 

[MorrisAsh]

This will be a clickbait article on NJ.com tomorrow.

 

[Caliknight]

Hobbs. Easily.

 

[RUHoopsguard]

I agree w/ 50 yd line's point---even though I voted for Hobbs because I judge AD's by how much $$$ they raise.
But this quote of his/her rings true
"To compare them is like comparing three great racehorses or three great fighters from different eras.
Just the fact that so many posters here hold these guys in this high esteem is a sign to me that this program is really getting it done."

 

[Plum Street]

I agree w/ 50 yd line's point---even though I voted for Hobbs because I judge AD's by how much $$$ they raise.
But this quote of his/her rings true
"To compare them is like comparing three great racehorses or three great fighters from different eras.
Just the fact that so many posters here hold these guys in this high esteem is a sign to me that this program is really getting it done."

I don’t think anyone is comparing any of these choices to three greats of anything.

 

[RURahh]

He wasn't advised to not fire Rice. He was advised that if he fired Rice he would need to pay him his contract buy-out. Pernetti chose to keep Rice. Maybe he chose to keep Rice to save the cost of the buy out. Maybe he thought he could reform Rice and the issue would go away. Maybe he was just looking for reasons to keep a coach he hired and he liked. But he always had the option to fire Rice.

Fake News. Pernetti is on record saying he wanted Rice fired right after seeing the tape but when the BOG was told Rutgers would have to eat the cost, Tim was told to take the next most aggressive route . To his credit, it actually worked, the team gelled but then the media frenzy took over

 

[Upstream]

Fake News. Pernetti is on record saying he wanted Rice fired right after seeing the tape but when the BOG was told Rutgers would have to eat the cost, Tim was told to take the next most aggressive route . To his credit, it actually worked, the team gelled but then the media frenzy took over

Not correct. Pernetti reviewed options with the lawyers and when reviewing the option to fire Rice, he was told that he'd have to pay Rice's buyout. But the decision to suspend Rice was Pernetti's decision, and that was the only recommendation he brought to the BOG. (As it should be. An executive at that level should be making these decisions and presenting coherent rationale to his management board.)

 

[DJ Spanky]

What RURahh posts is exactly what I heard from a pretty connected source at the time. The money it would have cost to fire Rice was why Pernetti was not given that option. And the legalese was part of the supporting argument.

 

[RU#1fan]

Muclhahy and it’s not even close. Pernetti, Herman and Fred were all bad. Jury still out on Hobbs, he will probably wind up number 2 by default.

Spot on.

 

[BigEastPhil]

Pernetti? Lol

 

[50 yd line RR]

Grunninger turned down the invitation to be on the list.

"Big Red is Dead with Fred at the Head"
Big banner at one of the football games. Was up for all of five minutes( til the campus police took it). Prolific.

 

[rubaseball78]

Hobbs will be judged by how his major hires - football and men’s basketball- turn out.

If you believe that is the only thing he will be judge by then you are naive.

 

[Upstream]

If you believe that is the only thing he will be judge by then you are naive.

Let's be honest. How football and basketball do under his tenure will be the primary metrics on which Hobbs is judged. Sure, there will be other measures, but all of them combined would not be enough to overcome FB and BB performance.

Fred Gruninger moved Rutgers from D1AA to D1A, got the football stadium expanded, built the Hale Center, and built the RAC. Although he failed to recognize that Rutgers should have joined the BB-only Big East (and later had Rutgers join the FB+BB Big East), that is only a failure because our basketball program languished. Gruninger is considered a failure because football and basketball declined and were unsuccessful in the later part of his tenure.

On the other hand, Mulcahy pretty much accomplished nothing other than hire Schiano to lead resurgence of the football program. Any other good stuff that occurred in Mulcahy's tenure is directly linked to Schiano elevating the football program. And because of Mulcahy's hire of Schiano, this thread is putting him in contention as "best AD ever".

 

[DJ Spanky]

On the other hand, Mulcahy pretty much accomplished nothing other than hire Schiano to lead resurgence of the football program. Any other good stuff that occurred in Mulcahy's tenure is directly linked to Schiano elevating the football program. And because of Mulcahy's hire of Schiano, this thread is putting him in contention as "best AD ever".

I disagree. Mulcahy got the money necessary for what Schiano wanted in order to elevate the program. Without Mulcahy's political (and other) connections, much of what was accomplished under Schiano wouldn't have happened.

And concerning Grunninger, I believe he was dictated to by Bloustein to move RU up to 1A. Of course, it was Bloustein and the BOG who refused to find sports properly.

Although he failed to recognize that Rutgers should have joined the BB-only Big East (and later had Rutgers join the FB+BB Big East), that is only a failure because our basketball program languished.

Completely disagree that it affected only our b-ball program. I think the publicity RU would have gotten being a founding member of the Big East when the Big East was the big dog in town would have been immeasurable. We missed the boat badly on that.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Let's be honest. How football and basketball do under his tenure will be the primary metrics on which Hobbs is judged. Sure, there will be other measures, but all of them combined would not be enough to overcome FB and BB performance.

Fred Gruninger moved Rutgers from D1AA to D1A, got the football stadium expanded, built the Hale Center, and built the RAC. Although he failed to recognize that Rutgers should have joined the BB-only Big East (and later had Rutgers join the FB+BB Big East), that is only a failure because our basketball program languished. Gruninger is considered a failure because football and basketball declined and were unsuccessful in the later part of his tenure.

On the other hand, Mulcahy pretty much accomplished nothing other than hire Schiano to lead resurgence of the football program. Any other good stuff that occurred in Mulcahy's tenure is directly linked to Schiano elevating the football program. And because of Mulcahy's hire of Schiano, this thread is putting him in contention as "best AD ever".

About the Big East thing...

1st invite:

When the Big East was 1st getting created in the 1970's they wanted Rutgers to be in it. Rutgers helped create and founded the conference that is today known as the A10. So they didn't want to leave them so quickly after creating it just to join a new conference, so they turn them down. The Big East ended up inviting SHU instead to rep NJ.

2nd Invite: Penn State, Rutgers, Pitt, Temple, UWV and a few others schools were talks about creating an all sports conference. Penn State wanted Pitt to join to act as the two big anchors. The Big East were scared that their two football playing members Cuse and Boston College would leave to join this new conference if it was ever created. So they tried to break it up before it got started. They offered membership to Rutgers to join, but Rutgers turned them down again, since they were trying to get this new conference going. The Big East then offered Pitt and Pitt, who at the time sucked at Basketball, said yes. The whole Eastern Conference fell apart. Rutgers got nothing while Pitt became a power house in basketball.

3rd invite:

With the eastern independents were making plans to form a super conference and rumors of the Big Ten expanding to 12 floating around. The Big East was once again were scared that they would lose Cuse, Boston College and now Pitt and maybe Nova and Uconn later on if they ever went to FBS. So they decided to sponsor football in order to keep Cuse, Boston College and Pitt happy and in the Big East. The Big East only wanted to invite more schools for football ONLY. Rutgers tried to get into the Big Ten, but it seem that it wasn't going to happen. So when the Big East invited them for football only, they accepted. The Big East only invited other schools that were suppose to be in that super conference, which killed that idea as well.

Of course, the Big East would later give these schools full membership, regret it, tried ship the football part to the ACC... TWICE. Got raided by the ACC later, twice. Under minded Rutgers and the football schools every chance they got. the whole thing broke up and became two different conferences. Rutgers ended up in the Big Ten anyway with Penn State, so it all worked out in the end.

 

[beaced]

While I am in the 99% who love Pat Hobbs as both the face and future of RU athletics and truly hope that 5 years from now he is a clear cut top choice, he has yet to have any type of on field success in our over matched B10 but has made great progress fund raising and kept us relatively scandal free

The best thing that has happened to RU in the last 30 years was getting our invite into the B10 and I believe that credit can almost be equally split between Mulcahy ( who set the table) and Pernetti (who served the food)

Our best success in major sports occurred with Mulcahy and/or Pernetti both of whom got majorly screwed by NJ media and politics but also had success with much weaker competition. I truly believe that we will never have an AD who loves Rutgers more than Tim Pernetti but as a Villanova grad, Mulcagy had a lot of Jersey in him as well

Mulcahy navigated the NJ political field quite well and did more in his 11 years than the progress we made 30 years prior and really set the stage for us to go big time

In the end, both Mulcahy and Pernetti were fired due to an over zealous NJ media that loves to devour it's own, but history will show how lucky we were to not be stuck like UConn or even BC/Syracuse who are both shadows of their former selves

So, please stray away from the Out of Sight - Out of Mind and give your objective reasons on who is the best AT THIS POINT IN TIME

Not a Fair poll. I don't
see Fred G. on the list.

 

[Source]

About the Big East thing...

1st invite:

2nd Invite: Penn State, Rutgers, Pitt, Temple, UWV and a few others schools were talks about creating an all sports conference. Penn State wanted Pitt to join to act as the two big anchors. The Big East were scared that their two football playing members Cuse and Boston College would leave to join this new conference if it was ever created. So they tried to break it up before it got started. They offered membership to Rutgers to join, but Rutgers turned them down again, since they were trying to get this new conference going. The Big East then offered Pitt and Pitt, who at the time sucked at Basketball, said yes. The whole Eastern Conference fell apart. Rutgers got nothing while Pitt became a power house in basketball.

3rd invite:

The thing is, the Big East was an unknown quantity when they knocked on Rutgers door the first time. But the second time it was becoming obvious the Big East was a big deal. It's not that Rutgers simply turned down a conference bid, but turned down many millions of dollars that the Big East Conference would enjoy when they became a premier men's basketball conference in the 80's and 90's.

As a friend of mine once put it, "Who gets to make a decision that results in not realizing millions of dollars AND gets to keep their job?"

The Rutgers folks who lived through that era know the answer.

 

[RUBand]

I disagree. Mulcahy got the money necessary for what Schiano wanted in order to elevate the program. Without Mulcahy's political (and other) connections, much of what was accomplished under Schiano wouldn't have happened.

And concerning Grunninger, I believe he was dictated to by Bloustein to move RU up to 1A. Of course, it was Bloustein and the BOG who refused to find sports properly.

Completely disagree that it affected only our b-ball program. I think the publicity RU would have gotten being a founding member of the Big East when the Big East was the big dog in town would have been immeasurable. We missed the boat badly on that.

When GS was hired BM secured the $ to immediately double the football budget

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

The thing is, the Big East was an unknown quantity when they knocked on Rutgers door the first time. But the second time it was becoming obvious the Big East was a big deal. It's not that Rutgers simply turned down a conference bid, but turned down many millions of dollars that the Big East Conference would enjoy when they became a premier men's basketball conference in the 80's and 90's.

As a friend of mine once put it, "Who gets to make a decision that results in not realizing millions of dollars AND gets to keep their job?"

The Rutgers folks who lived through that era know the answer.

It was a huge mistake, but that is why they made it.

They really thought the Eastern Conference was going to happen and then it didn't and so were screwed.

Oops....

 

[BoroKnight]

Fred Gruninger was a perfect AD for a school playing Lafayette and Lehigh. The fact we didn't go after a big-time AD and a big-time coach when we decided to play bigger-time football is something to debate. And that's nothing against Burns, but it would have been a signal to the state we were serious.

Gruninger had very little power. He was the face of the program, but back then the AD didn't have the kind of control the AD has had in recent years. Everything had to go through a committee. And we didn't "move" to IA. Division I split and we chose to go IA when we could have gone IAA, but we never were IAA because it didn't exist before. As for basketball, when the Big East was formed we had Penn State, Pittsburgh, Villanova and West Virginia with us. Like many decisions, it only seems like a no-brainer after it plays out. Now, would I have gone to the original Big East meetings, even if just out of curiosity, rather than automatically say no? Yeah, I would have. But to have five football-playing schools together while only Syracuse and Boston College (UConn chose IAA when the split happened, and Villanova chose IA until it dropped football a few years later, only to come back as IAA) played football in the original BE could not have seemed to be a doomed path. Of course, we all know how that turned out, but at the time, not so much.

You know what's funny? From the outside, Gruninger did a great job. We moved from the Barn to the RAC -- and we were ahead of our time among Eastern schools in doing that. Swimming moved from the Barn to the Werblin Center, which when it was built was considered a great facility. We went from playing Colgate to playing Penn State and eventually got into the Big East. Hell, he was even up for the Florida AD job when it opened up in 1986. Until, as a friend of mine said, "he went down there and opened his mouth."

Anyway, the answer right now, despite the obvious flaws, is Mulcahy. Hands down. But I would be shocked if it's not Hobbs, unless he decides to leave early. Basketball is headed in the right direction, the non-revenue sports are getting more attention (and coaches being held accountable) and I can't give up on Ash this early. And we know about the fund-raising and the facilities. Very excited about our future with Hobbs in charge.

 

[DJ Spanky]

The thing is, the Big East was an unknown quantity when they knocked on Rutgers door the first time. But the second time it was becoming obvious the Big East was a big deal. It's not that Rutgers simply turned down a conference bid, but turned down many millions of dollars that the Big East Conference would enjoy when they became a premier men's basketball conference in the 80's and 90's.

Yep. That pretty much nails it. As Scotty would say: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

 

[Upstream]

I disagree. Mulcahy got the money necessary for what Schiano wanted in order to elevate the program. Without Mulcahy's political (and other) connections, much of what was accomplished under Schiano wouldn't have happened.

And concerning Grunninger, I believe he was dictated to by Bloustein to move RU up to 1A. Of course, it was Bloustein and the BOG who refused to find sports properly.

Completely disagree that it affected only our b-ball program. I think the publicity RU would have gotten being a founding member of the Big East when the Big East was the big dog in town would have been immeasurable. We missed the boat badly on that.

About the Big East thing...

1st invite:

When the Big East was 1st getting created in the 1970's they wanted Rutgers to be in it. Rutgers helped create and founded the conference that is today known as the A10. So they didn't want to leave them so quickly after creating it just to join a new conference, so they turn them down. The Big East ended up inviting SHU instead to rep NJ.

2nd Invite: Penn State, Rutgers, Pitt, Temple, UWV and a few others schools were talks about creating an all sports conference. Penn State wanted Pitt to join to act as the two big anchors. The Big East were scared that their two football playing members Cuse and Boston College would leave to join this new conference if it was ever created. So they tried to break it up before it got started. They offered membership to Rutgers to join, but Rutgers turned them down again, since they were trying to get this new conference going. The Big East then offered Pitt and Pitt, who at the time sucked at Basketball, said yes. The whole Eastern Conference fell apart. Rutgers got nothing while Pitt became a power house in basketball.

3rd invite:

With the eastern independents were making plans to form a super conference and rumors of the Big Ten expanding to 12 floating around. The Big East was once again were scared that they would lose Cuse, Boston College and now Pitt and maybe Nova and Uconn later on if they ever went to FBS. So they decided to sponsor football in order to keep Cuse, Boston College and Pitt happy and in the Big East. The Big East only wanted to invite more schools for football ONLY. Rutgers tried to get into the Big Ten, but it seem that it wasn't going to happen. So when the Big East invited them for football only, they accepted. The Big East only invited other schools that were suppose to be in that super conference, which killed that idea as well.

Of course, the Big East would later give these schools full membership, regret it, tried ship the football part to the ACC... TWICE. Got raided by the ACC later, twice. Under minded Rutgers and the football schools every chance they got. the whole thing broke up and became two different conferences. Rutgers ended up in the Big Ten anyway with Penn State, so it all worked out in the end.

You guys are really just arguing my point that ADs are evaluated on the performance of the FB and BB programs. Mulcahy was a good AD because he enabled FB to do well. Gruninger was a bad AD, despite the other positive stuff he did, because FB and BB did poorly.

And this gets back to the point on Hobbs, that ultimately he will be judged on the performance of the FB and BB programs. If FB and BB suck under his tenure, all the fund-raising and capital improvements won't change the verdict that he's a bad AD. And if FB and/or BB excel under his tenure, then he will be considered a great AD. While Hobbs seems to be on the right trajectory, the jury is still out, because we don't know what will happen with the FB and BB programs.

 

[Plum Street]

If you believe that is the only thing he will be judge by then you are naive.

Winning isn’t everything - it’s the ONLY thing.

I think someone said that