Thursday May 08, 2008

AD for a Day

AD for a Day
We had some fun on the radio show this morning when I asked listeners to call in on the subject. Today’s topic was, “If you were athletic director for a day at your favorite school what would you do?”

The first phone call came from Paul who said he would ban the Woo Hoo in Tiger Rag. I think this is more feasible than some think but more on that in a future blog.

I gave my plan in the third hour and received several e-mails on my response so I thought I would share the plan with Tigernet.

If I were athletic director at Clemson for a day, I would:

Pollock
Give Bob Pollock a lifetime contract and name him director of both men’s and women’s track. Coach Pollock had the issue with the funds that he was wrongfully accused of and he has paid back that money. He was told he could do one thing and then told something else later. Pollock has been cleared of any wrong doing by SLED and it is time to move on. He has graduated his athletes, won titles and did so without any problems with compliance.

Clemson should show loyalty towards him by rewarding him and standing by him. Even if he made a mistake then they need to move on because he has years of positives built into the program. Pollock has invested years of hard work and has many rings to show for it.

The women’s track program at Clemson is broken and it needs to be restored. Most schools across the country have one director for both men’s and women’s track and have separate coaches for each. Pollock could fix the women’s program and Charles Foster could take over the men’s program with Pollock overseeing both.

If Clemson is about loyalty and family then Bob Pollock is a part of that family and we need to be loyal to him!

Dead Weight
Clemson has 18 employees with athletic director in their title. I have not seen this creativity in years but they have come up with more ways to use the words assistant, senior assistant, associate and senior associate. They should include some co-senior associate just to continue the trend. Coach Howard used to joke and say, “This morning walking around Jervey Athletic Center I said good morning AD and 10 people responded.” There is too much dead weight around the department. No one is ever fired and no one retires but new people are always hired. How is this possible? I would cut some dead weight.

Clemson has three people in charge of the Olympic sports. I think you only need a men’s director of Olympic Sports and a director of the women’s sports. There also needs to be incentive for some of the young people trying to work their way up the ladder.

The Meeting
I would call a meeting with every head coach and his/her staff to attend in one big conference room. Clemson has 19 sports so we would need a big room to accommodate the staffs but the room would not be full for long because some coaches would not hear most of the speech. Some would be excused early in the meeting.

The meeting would begin by me thanking all of them for their hard work and dedication. I would ask every head coach and assistant to let me know in individual meetings anything I needed to know about their program that they needed to share. I would ask them to let me know whatever they need and I would promise them to fight for everything they needed or at least everything in reason.

I would then explain that at Clemson we are about compliance and graduating young people but we are also about championships. The meeting would take a Steinbrenner tone at this point. I would ask the fourteen Clemson head coaches to look down at their hands. Anyone that has already won an ACC championship or NCAA championship at Clemson would then be excused from the meeting. If you had a ring that you won at Clemson then you already know the expectations and you are qualified to continue your pursuit to regain the title.

At this time, Larry Penley, Bob Pollock, Trevor Adair, Nancy Harris, Jolene Jordan Hoover and Chuck Kriese would be excused from the meeting. Kriese won titles but is also retiring.

The head coaches in football, men’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, women’s basketball, rowing, women’s soccer and women’s track and field and cross country would still be in the room.

I would excuse women’s soccer coach Hershey Strosberg from the meeting because he is brand new and has not coached a game yet at Clemson. I would excuse rowing coach Richard Ruggieri because he just completed his first season and he finished second in the ACC in his first year. I would excuse Oliver Purnell because he took over nothing and had the Tigers in the ACC championship game this past season. Obviously Purnell has made unbelievable strides. I would excuse Christopher Ip because Clemson does not have a regulation size pool and it is unfair to ask championships from him when we have not giving him a championship facility.

That would leave football, women’s basketball and women’s track and field in the room. I think all coaches understand the expectations and I know Bowden clearly understands them. However, I do think it is OK to remind them. Give a program all it needs to be successful then hold it accountable. It is not fair to not give them the full support and still ask for the results but it is OK to expect the results when given the full support.

There is a lack of communication in the athletic department that concerns several employees there and communication is the key to most relationships. The key would be to make the entire process a communication tool from both ends. The coach needs to tell the athletic director what he/she needs to be successful. But then the AD needs to explain what those expectations are. Clemson has only won three championships in the last two years. With the exception of swimming and diving, the facilities are good enough to win.

It is time to start producing more rings in Tigertown.

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