Topic: H-D: Contracts mean MU coaches are staying

[ZackUSAF82]

CHUCK LANDON
The Herald-Dispatch

Nobody is on the hot seat at Marshall.

Not men's head basketball coach Tom Herrion.

Not head football coach Doc Holliday.

Not any coach.

More than a few Herd fans have been wondering aloud about Herrion's job security in the wake of an extremely disappointing 12-16 season.

Well, guess what?

Link: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x455064421/Contracts-mean-MU-coaches-are-staying

[miltonherdfan]

absolutely UN-believable!

extend the contract of a football coach who had a career 12-13 record when he had 3 more yrs left on his orig deal -- where did hamrick think doc was gonna go?!  was hamrick really afraid that someone was gonna come calling on a 12-13 coach at a cusa school w/~$2 million buyout?!

NIT or not, last yr's bball team UNDERachieved, just not as much as this yr's team.  & herrion gets an extension.

this is kayo-type crap, hamrick!

[mubowhunter]

Pathetic

[Greg H]

You can tell all you need to know about this by the fact that it was not announced when it was done.

[The Right Stuff]

After attending MU b-ball games since 1965 I will not be back next year.  I almost threw up my Rice Crispies when I saw this article this morning.   I will give Doc one more year to get it right. >:(

TRS
MU 71

[miltonherdfan]

You can tell all you need to know about this by the fact that it was not announced when it was done.

bingo

[goherdies]

Hamrick is just as useless as the rest

[whf]

Guys, I got to say I just lost a lot of trust in Mike Hamrick.  To my face, he indicated when he would be reviewing the contracts of the head football and basketball coaches when he said after the 3rd year for basketball due to coming in when success was somewhat going on, and 4th year for football based on the status of the program when he arrived.  And guys, if my memory is correct, this comment was stated after the bowl game for sure, and I would content (although my memory is less clear about the NIT timing) after the NIT as well. As a matter of fact, the impression was that even with both results it took longer to see what the development of the product was when the coaches started running programs with their own kids and cultures.

And as others have said, the fact neither was announced when they happened is a fact that speaks louder than the silence it was designed to provide.  I think Mike hurt himself a lot here, I know he did with me.  What will and should we believe now?

[herd2win]

This is probably the most upsetting thing that I have seen in a long time...no reason to extend either coach and the fact that no one knew about it is even more of a travesty.  This puts a an entirely new spin on what I think of Hamrick.

How in the world did this happen and no one knew about it.....it is time to flood Hamrick and Kopp with emails.

[Thundering In MD]

I'm actually laughing right now.  While it stings a little with irony that I am sitting here wearing Marshall gear and looking at a picture of the Joan in my office, if they are going to do things that are hillarious, I am going to laugh.  

Hamrick maybe a nice guy, but he has absolutely no sense of timing.

Let's see what the clowns can do for their next performance.

[2xBison]

what was the rush on the extensions?

what school was even remotely considering hiring either away from us?  nobody

[Buffalo Bop]

Herrion will be here for two to three more years, but the fanbase won't be--it will be Jirsa-like in two seasons.

But should anyone really be surprised when Marshall extends contracts to poor coaches like Snyder and Jirsa? This school hands out extensions like candy. . .And why not annouce it?

Oh boy.

[svherd]

I like some things Hamrick has done but contract extensions are not one of them - especially rewarding them for one good season. At this point in his tenure I'd give him a B-. Of course, he was following KO, so in that regard, my dog would look better in the AD's chair. ha!

[iherdya]

5 months ago most of us were sure Herrion was going to lead us to the tournament, beat Memphis for the CUSA crown, possibly a Top 25 team, and we were pretty sure an ACC or Big East school would come snatch up him in March/April 2013. At the time it looked like a smart investment, add ONE year to his deal, which would've been an extra $250k or so he'd have to pay to leave for a school like that. Looking at our results this year on the court, you can say it wasn't needed.

At the time it looked like a wise decision, hindsight it wasn't a wise decision.

When you're sitting in the AD seat, at any school, you have to make decisions on the fly, you don't get the benefit of 20/20 hindsight when making decisions.

[miltonherdfan]

what was the rush on the extensions?

what school was even remotely considering hiring either away from us?  nobody

that's what I don't understand!  aren't there only 3 reasons for giving someone an extension?

1) you've done such a good job here, that if we can't get you to agree to 1 & thereby increase your buyout, we're afraid we'll lose you to another job
2) your contract has expired, & we'd like for you to stay longer
3) you've done such a good job here, that we're gonna make a goodwill gesture & reward you w/an extension for a job well-done & peace of mind

NONE of those 3 criteria have been met by either coach!  they both would've had 2 yrs left on their deals at the conclusion of THIS academic yr.

had chuck not pressed the issue, suppose hamrick was gonna let the cat outta the bag once he secured the vision campaign funds?

[Buffalo Bop]

5 months ago most of us were sure Herrion was going to lead us to the tournament, beat Memphis for the CUSA crown, possibly a Top 25 team, and we were pretty sure an ACC or Big East school would come snatch up him in March/April 2013. At the time it looked like a smart investment, add ONE year to his deal, which would've been an extra $250k or so he'd have to pay to leave for a school like that. Looking at our results this year on the court, you can say it wasn't needed.

At the time it looked like a wise decision, hindsight it wasn't a wise decision.

When you're sitting in the AD seat, at any school, you have to make decisions on the fly, you don't get the benefit of 20/20 hindsight when making decisions.

Then why did Hamrick say one thing and do another? Why not announce it?

[Thundering In MD]

BTW, it is not going to get better.  Hamrick's contract was extended last April through 2017.

http://www.register-herald.com/todayssportsfront/x1224377420/Marshall-AD-Hamrick-receives-contract-extension

We can't keep buying out of these stupid contract extensions.  Someone in one of Hamrick's precious new Sky Boxes is going to start asking questions at some point.  I hope he has some good answers.

If I were a Skyboxer my first question would be: Why do we keep making bad hires, and giving them extensions?

My second question would be:  Did you not learn ANYTHING from the Snyder mess?

My third question would be:  Where do you think these two "Great" coaches were going to go?

But I am just a peon Chairback ticket holder.  I don't expect any answers to these questions.  Instead, Hamrick will just keep trying to squeeze me and the rest of the shrinking masses for more donations so that he can hand out more stupid contract extensions.

[miltonherdfan]

I like some things Hamrick has done but contract extensions are not one of them - especially rewarding them for one good season.

when was their "good season?"

fb . . . 6-6 reg season "good" around here now??

bball . . . last yr was not a good yr.  if you forget the miracle run in the cusa tourn -- & it was a miracle, we wouldn't even have sniffed the NIT.  we would've been payin' for playin' w/a sub-20-win season.

[iherdya]

Then why did Hamrick say one thing and do another? Why not announce it?

That I don't know, I'm kind of surprised he didn't announce them, well at least Herrion's. Herrion's name was a hot name, he came here and had back to back 20+ win seasons, NIT bid, a team that on paper was one to compete with Memphis in CUSA, be a NCAA tourney team, and a potential Top 25 team. Adding a year to his contract at the time, was a wise decision.

He added a year to both contracts, he didn't sign the guys to multi-year extensions, he didn't give them a Jirsa style rolling contract, just one year extensions after seasons in which they went to the postseason.

[Big City]

What a joke. That is all.

[Thundering In MD]

when was their "good season?"

fb . . . 6-6 reg season "good" around here now??

When Kopp got here!!!

[Dunk]

My initial reaction was just like everybody else's. We extended contracts after mediocre seasons? The seasons that we rewarded should be the bare minimum.

However, I have now decided that it is one of those things I do not have control over and being upset about it gets us nowhere. Let's all just accept the fact that our coaches are here for awhile and we need to support the programs. All coaches have up and down seasons. We may still have some good coaches on our hands if we stand behind them and allow them to work.

Lets all give these coaches as much support as we can and see what develops. Yelling and complaining is not going to do anybody any good and reading all the negativity grows old after awhile. Lets make the message boards and athletic events a happy/fun/enjoyable place to be and work on growing our fanbase. Nobody is going to stumble across our bickering and say, "Man, that looks like something I want to be a part of"

[HerdHead]

Guys, I got to say I just lost a lot of trust in Mike Hamrick.  To my face, he indicated when he would be reviewing the contracts of the head football and basketball coaches when he said after the 3rd year for basketball due to coming in when success was somewhat going on, and 4th year for football based on the status of the program when he arrived.  And guys, if my memory is correct, this comment was stated after the bowl game for sure, and I would content (although my memory is less clear about the NIT timing) after the NIT as well. As a matter of fact, the impression was that even with both results it took longer to see what the development of the product was when the coaches started running programs with their own kids and cultures.

And as others have said, the fact neither was announced when they happened is a fact that speaks louder than the silence it was designed to provide.  I think Mike hurt himself a lot here, I know he did with me.  What will and should we believe now?

You are exactly correct.  Here is the quote and other stuff I posted on this board on Feb 8 when herrion's extension rumor was first floating around.

Hamrick was asked at a QB Club meeting the process he uses to evaluate coaches.  It was October 22, two days after a convincing win at SoMiss, and the football team's record was 3-4.  The C-USA pre-season basketball rankings had recently been released, ranking the Herd #2. 

This is what he said:

"One thing I look at when I evalute a football coach is the rate of improvement a team is making.  If the program is really good, and things are already going smoothly when the new coach comes in, the new coach just has to maintain things.  So the evaluation period is smaller.  You're looking at a 2yr window.  But when things have been down for a few years like it was with us, you're looking for a drastic turnaround in Season 4."

"In basketball, you look for that drastic turnaround in Season 3.  And this is Tom Herrion's third year on campus.  And we know pre-season rankings don't mean a thing, but it's a lot better being ranked 2 than it is being ranked last." 

So, an extension after Year #2 would have been out of the ordinary, and he probably would have mentioned the contract extension at that point in time.

[luvherd]

Well I think you are going to see a major drop off in BG donations and basketball attendance. If football doesn't win 8 all hell will break loose their also.

Very disappointing. Very.

[HerdHead]

My initial reaction was just like everybody else's. We extended contracts after mediocre seasons? The seasons that we rewarded should be the bare minimum.

However, I have now decided that it is one of those things I do not have control over and being upset about it gets us nowhere. Let's all just accept the fact that our coaches are here for awhile and we need to support the programs. All coaches have up and down seasons. We may still have some good coaches on our hands if we stand behind them and allow them to work.

Lets all give these coaches as much support as we can and see what develops. Yelling and complaining is not going to do anybody any good and reading all the negativity grows old after awhile. Lets make the message boards and athletic events a happy/fun/enjoyable place to be and work on growing our fanbase. Nobody is going to stumble across our bickering and say, "Man, that looks like something I want to be a part of"

Listen, I appreciate your enthusiasm... I really do.  

But I am in a different place than you are.  I can not continue to blindly give my valuable time and support to maintain nothing but incompetence.