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Who thought Ray Tanner would be a good AD anyway and why ? Winning baseball coach does not translate to effective AD!Oh, Lord A'mighty.
The honorable thing for Ray to do would be to resign. He won't though.
No, but his time working in Athletics Administration both at NCSU and USC might very well have translated. And that's why he was considered/hired.
I once worked with an exterminating company for awhile - trenching houses to receive the chemical. It didn't qualify me to run the company.
If you volunteered to take on some front/back office work to learn more about how to run the company, it could make you minimally qualified.
My wife was office manager. I had my training in the workings of the business living with me every day - but there's no substitute for experience. At the highest levels of a particular enterprise, people want that. Our next AD should be like some of our previous ADs: already an AD at significant places.
Around 2011-2012, there were"rumors" going around that RT was looking to leave the dugout. Many expected he would end up as AD at a school like CofC, Winthrop, Wofford, Furman, etc., perhaps as a steppingstone to a P5 school.
Based on his track record, I don't think any of those schools mentioned would even consider him now. Too bad we took that leap because he has taken our athletic dept. down.
I doubt anybody posting on FGF knows for certain what went on behind the closed doors which resulted in RT's hiring. Many posters can make well-educated guesses (and I do enjoy reading those thoughtful educated guesses), but at the end of the day, that's all they are.
I tend to think he would have done that as well if Hyman hadn't "suddenly resigned."
There were many other ways to reward an outstanding baseball coach, but giving him the keys to the entire athletic dept. was not one of them. Heck, we could have created a new position and made him Director of Baseball and hired a seasoned and successful AD. Our athletic reputation has taken a major hit with this one hiring mistake - which has led to other hiring mistakes! Whatever happened behind closed doors was a mistake and we are still paying for it.
I doubt that was done as a reward. IMO, it was either good or bad timing, depending on your perspective. But I do appreciate that you are separating the person from his skill sets (or lack thereof).
IMO it had more to do with his ability to raise funding from larger donors to get facilities started and his ability to go to the legislature and convince them to allow bond funding to build those athletic facilities (to my knowledge they will not approve a 100% bond funding proposal), understanding that our state has a cap on bond funding for athletic facilities and you have to have a great relationship with them to exceed that cap. He had completely handled all the dealings surrounding Founder's Park.
Agree. Taking it a step further, he’s the CEO of a $100MM corp. No way was he qualified then, and he’s still not qualified now.
Agreed re: baseball coach, and that an AD of a P5 school should have cut their teeth as AD at a mid-major or "lower" institution, but I do think that hob nobbing with wealthy donors is a good skill an AD ought to have - certainly not the only one.
