Phil Wallace
Phil Wallace was one of the best student radio broadcasters of Columbia sports on WKCR of the last 30 years or so.
Today, the 2004 Columbia grad writes this interesting account of what happened when he tried to suggest a football head coaching candidate to Athletic Director Dianne Murphy three years ago.
It's just one more piece of evidence that the fix was in all along for the disastrous hiring Pete Mangurian, but it's also an important lesson for what happens in the coming weeks.
The football program cannot survive another unethical, under-the-table, secretive hiring process.
So, if you've made a suggestion about a coaching lead and have had any response from anyone in the administration, make sure you keep a safe record of that exchange! And, let the public know about it as soon as possible so no flimsy denials can be made at a later date.
This is serious moment for all athletics at Columbia. Either we act vigilantly now and demand that the administration keeps us informed, or we can complain about it later... again.
Here is a very short list of what all reasonable alumni/fans want right now:
1) A Weekly Public Update on the A.D. and Head Football Coaching Hiring Processes.
That includes providing the names of the people on the search committees or search firms hired, and opportunities for some kind of public forum to discuss the choices as Princeton and so many other schools routinely do.
If the administration is unable or unwilling to provide the above, it should at least explain why.
2) Publish the Relevant Parts of the Rick Taylor Report
Rick Taylor didn't do his report for free. That means university funds, provided by donors like us, paid for it. We deserve to see at least an executive summary of the report.
If the administration is unable or unwilling to provide the above, it should at least explain why.
14 comments:
Let me suggest another alternative. I am hardly an apologist for the administration, but this is one instance in which Bollinger and Schiller realize that there is no margin for error. We have never had a great AD. Murphy was given a soft landing with a heavily foamed runway, but make no mistake, the Mangurian fiasco led to her termination when she could have run out the clock until 65 had he turned out to be anything less than an unbridled disaster. So they want to make sure that they get it right. That's why they have gone radio silent. Mercifully Jake et al have smoked out the Gregory trial balloon and shot it down.
I align completely with oldlion.
While past performance does not encourage confidence, I believe the "powers" finally have gotten the message. There has never before in CU's history been such a determined and consistent uproar regarding athletics, from so many different directions. When alums from the '50s to the present, athletes, band members, and every other ilk, parents, non-CU individuals, Spectator (officially and on-record), contributors and fans in general ALL call for change and improvement, the message is sent and received.
So, I am confident they are working overtime to get this right. Their methods, such as non-communication, etc. are questionable, but the motivation is there. Why? Because now that DM and PM are gone, who else might be left as focus?????
Hate to be negative nelly but i don't think the powers that be are huddled in conference discussing this topic. I believe football is a black box to those guys despite a likely astute report from Mr. Taylor. Radical change, whether it be drawing from a remote region of Arkansas or across town, is unlikely. They will ultimately stick with what they know how to do - rely on Bill Campbell to guide their decision in all matters Columbia football as well as have the majority influence with who they hire as AD (I would not be surprised to see an AD hire and then head coach in quick succession as the decisions will have already been made by that point).
I'm not saying the consulting gig was window dressing. I just would not expect anything substantial to come of it. I'm sure those clowns are fumbling even getting their act together to interview people. Meanwhile, valuable recruiting time is being missed - no student athlete will treat an interim team of Chris Rippon and an over the hill Ray Tellier as a compelling option. All of the best recruits that CU would have a shot at will be long gone by the time whatever new staff they install.
If it does not present scheduling mayhem for opponents I would propose to the ivy league they shut down for the '15 season and somehow get it together for the following season.
Unreal story from that alum. What an idiot Dianne Murphy is. Why in god's name is she still there. Get rid of her immediately!!!!
As a former colleague of Phil's at WKCR I could not agree more with Jake's assessment of his broadcasting skills.
I think Coach Kelley would be a candidate worth considering carefully for a few reasons
1) For the foreseeable future Columbia will be at a talent disadvantage, Kelley's innovations, could help offset this, indeed it is hard to see another competitive advantage the Lions could gain so quickly. A great deal of academic literature supports Kelley's view that teams punt on fourth down way too frequently.
2) Fan support: Is there any doubt watching a Kelley coached team would be entertaining. What group of supporters has ever chanted for a coach to punt. I also think many students who ordinarily would not be interested in football might be curious to see how a data driven strategy like this would work out.
3) Player enjoyment: Likewise, what group of players other than the punter would not enjoy frequent onside kicks and 4th down gambles.
Why not give Kelley a shot, certainly he will be more successful and entertaining than PM.
Al,
Get real.
If you ever had worn a jock, you would never think of throwing in the towel, even if the losing streak goes past 44.
For those of us worried about the potential lack of new recruits, fear not.
We WILL be competitive this year even without any freshman at all. (Same as having a JV team).
With the right coaching staff we may even get a few walk-ons.
Re Joe Moglia, Ray Lewis III is transferring from Miami to Coastal Carolina so that he can play for Joe Moglia. I guess that means that Ray got some assurances from Joe that he is staying put.
Every member of the football team should be standing at the door of the President's residence demanding an Athletics Director and a Football Coach.
This Kelly idea is totally ridiculous . Has he ever recruited a college football player? Has he ever sent a player to the Ivy League? Has he worked with admissions and financial aid?
Can we get real?
Walk-ons at Columbia? I need oxygen !!
CCSC used to have a coach who always went for it on 4th down. We played his team a few years ago, during the NW era. Not sure what happened to him.
Coach,
Pretty obvious that the players are staying on the squad for the love of the game, not the adoration of fellow students or preferential treatment from the school.
If we start to get good press with the hiring of a "big name coach",
Why not a few walk-on players?
I like the out of the box thinking but also believe hiring HS coach with neither Ivy nor collegiate background would be way too risky at this point.
This hire has to look good and give people confidence
We already know the team will go 0-10 next season if they play and get beaten very badly as they did this past season. It could be worse actually.
Delusions of walkons sounds like Danny thinking.
Speaking of delusions, Joe Moglia never entertained the idea of leaving Coastal. The only carrot that would entice him to make a change would be a FBS opportunity with a good fit for him. Even after proving himself, believe it or not many ADs would not take a chance on him. I'm not seeing anything whatsoever at Columbia that would compel him to coach there.
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