Tulane Coaching Hostage Crisis: Day 48

[Show Me]

He also hid the 2003 review from RD. Something I'll never forget.

They also hid the review from the athletes. I was on the student/athlete advisory board and we started hearing rumors and Rick Dickson came into the meeting and laid it out on the table for us. It was sobering. Most meetings lasted an hour or so, this one was three. He explained to us what all the NCAA divisions were and what our options for moving down were going to be. Those were some tough times, especially for football, who was going to get the worst of it. I am glad that everyone stepped up and did what was right. Mr. Dickson deserves blame for bad coaching hires and his inability to communicate effectively with the fan base, etc., but there is no doubt that Scott Cowen is keeping athletics down more than Rick Dickson ever could.

You can't buy TRUST.

[wave to em]

Whoever we get, we better pay him 1 M$ + so when he eventually falls on his face in 2-3 years it will be easy to fire him.

[GreenieMeanie]

Prediction: Apathy will say no to ML.

Is it time to get the pitchforks and torches out of storage yet?

[WaveCan]

At the end of the day, the Arizona job is currently much better than Tulane. For all we know, we gave RR the weekend, his agent called UA and said, "he's taking the Tulane job Monday so if you have any interest, you have until then to act" and Arizona did. Nothing SC and RD can do in that situation. Time to move forward and the only acceptable way to do that is to offer Leach tonight. If there's another secret candidate out there who would be just as exciting as Leach, that's fine too. But do it tonight. The fan base is demoralized now and this search has the potential to spiral out of control quick if SC and RD don't act quickly. Not offering Leach (or someone equally as exciting) tells us all we need to know about the current leadership.

[greenphantom]

Also heard from a very reliable source who confirmed that ML is NOT their next choice.

[tpstulane]

At the end of the day, the Arizona job is currently much better than Tulane. For all we know, we gave RR the weekend, his agent called UA and said, "he's taking the Tulane job Monday so if you have any interest, you have until then to act" and Arizona did. Nothing SC and RD can do in that situation. Time to move forward and the only acceptable way to do that is to offer Leach tonight. If there's another secret candidate out there who would be just as exciting as Leach, that's fine too. But do it tonight. The fan base is demoralized now and this search has the potential to spiral out of control quick if SC and RD don't act quickly. Not offering Leach (or someone equally as exciting) tells us all we need to know about the current leadership.

BS. We could have offered RR the job the day after CBT was fired, then give him a week to decide. Instead we pay for a search firm to waste time giving us 3rd tier flops from the North. Every AD should have a top 5 list at all times in every sport in their back pocket. It's called being pro-active.
We had a chance to do this since CBT left early and we sat on our hands and waited for the better jobs to open (AZ, etc) thus more competition.

[WaveCan]

At the end of the day, the Arizona job is currently much better than Tulane. For all we know, we gave RR the weekend, his agent called UA and said, "he's taking the Tulane job Monday so if you have any interest, you have until then to act" and Arizona did. Nothing SC and RD can do in that situation. Time to move forward and the only acceptable way to do that is to offer Leach tonight. If there's another secret candidate out there who would be just as exciting as Leach, that's fine too. But do it tonight. The fan base is demoralized now and this search has the potential to spiral out of control quick if SC and RD don't act quickly. Not offering Leach (or someone equally as exciting) tells us all we need to know about the current leadership.

BS. We could have offered RR the job the day after CBT was fired, then give him a week to decide. Instead we pay for a search firm to waste time giving us 3rd tier flops from the North. Every AD should have a top 5 list at all times in every sport in their back pocket. It's called being pro-active.
We had a chance to do this since CBT left early and we sat on our hands and waited for the better jobs to open, thus more competition.

That's true, my point was if RR wanted to hold out for a BCS job he likely wouldn't have taken the job a month ago and the result would still be the same - No Rich Rod. But you're right, we could have moved alot quicker to determine whether he was willing to commit in order to move on to other choices when he said he wasn't. Drawing out the process now takes away the advantage we gained by canning Toledo mid-season.

[tpstulane]

That's true, my point was if RR wanted to hold out for a BCS job he likely wouldn't have taken the job a month ago and the result would still be the same - No Rich Rod. But you're right, we could have moved alot quicker to determine whether he was willing to commit in order to move on to other choices when he said he wasn't. Drawing out the process now takes away the advantage we gained by canning Toledo mid-season.

Hey he may have taken it too. Only he knows for sure, but the point is we wasted a big advantage by waiting until the end of the season to offer someone..

[OUG]

That's true, my point was if RR wanted to hold out for a BCS job he likely wouldn't have taken the job a month ago and the result would still be the same - No Rich Rod. But you're right, we could have moved alot quicker to determine whether he was willing to commit in order to move on to other choices when he said he wasn't. Drawing out the process now takes away the advantage we gained by canning Toledo mid-season.

Hey he may have taken it too. Only he knows for sure, but the point is we wasted a big advantage by waiting until the end of the season to offer someone..

Jesus Christ.

If RD offered RR the deal that was on the table the day after CBT was fired and imposed a deadline of a week to decide this board would have been in ****ing apocalypse mode. They would have said that he wasn't giving it a fair shot, that RR would want to test the market, that the deadline was ludicrous and the whole offer was a smokescreen to get fans off his back so that he can then turn to hire some positional coach failure from the NFL.

You're just throwing stuff out to see what sticks at this point TPS. Take a step back.

You can't honestly believe what you wrote above. You can't honestly believe that RD offering RR a job in October with a week deadline would have been a prudent course of action with a reasonable chance to get RR. A move like that would have been a catastrophe for Tulane, its fans, RD, and everyone involved.

GET USED TO IT. He was offered a better job. If RR came out and said he declined it because he wasn't interested in getting back into coaching, or whatever, i'd agree with you and be looking for ways to blame RD.

He had two offers and he chose the more glamorous, more high profile one. We all do this in our careers all the time.

[fracas]

Arizona is a BCS school that will play the likes of USC, UCLA, AZ State, Stanford, Oregon, and California. It is a better spot at least on paper.
That RR chose AZ over Tulane does not mean the Tulane offer was not a good one, or that the Admin didn't do what they could to make the best offer possible.

Not to offer the position to ML however shows extreme short sightedness on the Admin's part.

[tpstulane]

That's true, my point was if RR wanted to hold out for a BCS job he likely wouldn't have taken the job a month ago and the result would still be the same - No Rich Rod. But you're right, we could have moved alot quicker to determine whether he was willing to commit in order to move on to other choices when he said he wasn't. Drawing out the process now takes away the advantage we gained by canning Toledo mid-season.

Hey he may have taken it too. Only he knows for sure, but the point is we wasted a big advantage by waiting until the end of the season to offer someone..

Jesus Christ.

If RD offered RR the deal that was on the table the day after CBT was fired and imposed a deadline of a week to decide this board would have been in ****ing apocalypse mode. They would have said that he wasn't giving it a fair shot, that RR would want to test the market, that the deadline was ludicrous and the whole offer was a smokescreen to get fans off his back so that he can then turn to hire some positional coach failure from the NFL.

You're just throwing stuff out to see what sticks at this point TPS. Take a step back.

You can't honestly believe what you wrote above. You can't honestly believe that RD offering RR a job in October with a week deadline would have been a prudent course of action with a reasonable chance to get RR. A move like that would have been a catastrophe for Tulane, its fans, RD, and everyone involved.

GET USED TO IT. He was offered a better job. If RR came out and said he declined it because he wasn't interested in getting back into coaching, or whatever, i'd agree with you and be looking for ways to blame RD.

He had two offers and he chose the more glamorous, more high profile one. We all do this in our careers all the time.

No I'm not, We had Tim Floyd interviewed before we even fired Dave Dickerson. Believe it or not its survival of the fittest.
The catastrophe is what happens every Saturday during football season.

[austxwave]

How would you feel about Mike Belotti?

He's older than I'd like, but I bet he could give us a good run for 3-5 years.

[OUG]

He had two offers and he chose the more glamorous, more high profile one. We all do this in our careers all the time.

No I'm not, We had Tim Floyd interviewed before we even fired Dave Dickerson. Believe it or not its survival of the fittest.
The catastrophe happens every Saturday during football season.[/quote]

What you said is we should have offered RR the day after we fired Toledo and given him one week to respond. In OCTOBER.

That is not a serious offer. It would not have been treated as a serious offer by RR or the people on this forum.

And the recriminations after it was spurned would have been brutal.

It is highly disingenuous for you to use that idea as a cudgel against Dickson now.

And I'm not a Dickson defender by any means, and I've said he should be fired. But I also like to be clear in my criticisms. He did not handle this negotiation poorly. RR had a better alternative to a negotiated agreement than we did. And that is why we did not get him.

[HoustonWave]

Here's the deal. I'll give them 24 hours to come to terms with ML. If not, I'll get one of my lawyer friends and go to the media charging that Scott Cowen molested me back in 1999. Because I feel like he shoved it up my aZZ when he hired Chris Scelfo.

An absolutely classic post.

[tpstulane]

And I'm not a Dickson defender by any means, and I've said he should be fired. But I also like to be clear in my criticisms. He did not handle this negotiation poorly. RR had a better alternative to a negotiated agreement than we did. And that is why we did not get him.

Then I ask you why fire you coach mid season if you're not going to be prepared to act quickly? We had a advantage that was lost. We had more than enough time to offer RR before other jobs opened. That is a fair criticism IMO.

[Bigschtick]

Classic or classless?

[HoustonWave]

At the end of the day, the Arizona job is currently much better than Tulane. For all we know, we gave RR the weekend, his agent called UA and said, "he's taking the Tulane job Monday so if you have any interest, you have until then to act" and Arizona did. Nothing SC and RD can do in that situation. Time to move forward and the only acceptable way to do that is to offer Leach tonight. If there's another secret candidate out there who would be just as exciting as Leach, that's fine too. But do it tonight. The fan base is demoralized now and this search has the potential to spiral out of control quick if SC and RD don't act quickly. Not offering Leach (or someone equally as exciting) tells us all we need to know about the current leadership.

BS. We could have offered RR the job the day after CBT was fired, then give him a week to decide. Instead we pay for a search firm to waste time giving us 3rd tier flops from the North. Every AD should have a top 5 list at all times in every sport in their back pocket. It's called being pro-active.
We had a chance to do this since CBT left early and we sat on our hands and waited for the better jobs to open (AZ, etc) thus more competition.

The consulting firm is probably owned by Mr. and Mrs. Cowen--kind of like the Cowen Institute arrangement. Does anybody, even a Board member, know how much the Cowens take out of Tulane each year? I would not be surprised if nobody can answer that question. Maybe there should be an investigtion, as to how many ways the Cowens dip into the till, and how many outside ventures they are spending their time on. It's all about money for the Cowens.

[HoustonWave]

Classic or classless?

Definitely classic.

[OUG]

And I'm not a Dickson defender by any means, and I've said he should be fired. But I also like to be clear in my criticisms. He did not handle this negotiation poorly. RR had a better alternative to a negotiated agreement than we did. And that is why we did not get him.

Then I ask you why fire you coach mid season if you're not going to be prepared to act quickly? We had a advantage that was lost. We had more than enough time to offer RR before other jobs opened. That is a fair criticism IMO.

This is one of the most specious arguments that I've seen on these forums and I've tried countless times to refute it.

We do not pursue a guy like RR in a vacuum. By the time we fired Toledo, Rich Rodruguez had a great handle on what other jobs would be open and whether those schools would be interested in him. He was always going to wait to see what panned out with some of those better opportunities. He got the first "big" BCS-level offer this weekend (thanks in part to leverage created by our offer) and took it. Make no mistake, there was no hope of beating anyone to the punch. If we offered in October and said that we had to know in a week -- he'd have laughed in our faces.

And to answer your question -- you fire the guy early because it gives you a chance to start the hiring process in earnest and give you a decent chance at getting a guy like RR. We had a decent chance, and it didn't pan out. Now, we're already in a better position because we can be in a solid position to get an early crack at some of the other guys.

You also fire a guy in the middle of the season to show your fan base that you believe in accountability.

[tpstulane]

I know RD will probably take a lot of heat for this, but this is a strong move.

Either RR wants to come here or he doesn't. We do ourselves no favors in anyone's eyes (especially RR's) if you act like you're ready to wait until mid-december until he's heard from every BCS opening that they aren't interested.

+1

[superwavefan]

Here's the deal. I'll give them 24 hours to come to terms with ML. If not, I'll get one of my lawyer friends and go to the media charging that Scott Cowen molested me back in 1999. Because I feel like he shoved it up my aZZ when he hired Chris Scelfo.

ok, this is wrong on many levels, but it made me laugh out loud.

thanks for the chuckle. I needed something to make me laugh. (...not that Cowen and RD haven't been running joke on us in the past, ha!)

[OUG]

I know RD will probably take a lot of heat for this, but this is a strong move.

Either RR wants to come here or he doesn't. We do ourselves no favors in anyone's eyes (especially RR's) if you act like you're ready to wait until mid-december until he's heard from every BCS opening that they aren't interested.

+1

That's a strong move in late November when your reach candidate at least has a chance to see what is available to him.

It's an idiotic move in mid October and will cause you to get dismissed out of hand.

What you're essentially is saying is that ... "IF ONLY we had hired Rich Rodriguez before he realized that other, bigger schools might be interested in him?"

That's absurd.

Show me the last college team who hired a coach in mid-October.

[superwavefan]

Arkansas. Petrino. Left Atlanta literally at midnite after we beat them. Left post it note in the locker room.

Rmemeber? Got flown to Arkansas in Jerry Jones' plane.

[tpstulane]

OUG I'm done with RR. I would have offered earlier, the next day or last year before extending CBT.
Hey we disagree, that's fine. Time to move on.

[wave to em]

RR just took a pic with his family all wearing arizona hats.....not sure how to post it on here....its on the AD of arizonas twitter account