What's new
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Build Rick George a Statue (was #fireRickGeorge)

So this thread (and others) got me to thinking about the relative strengths and weaknesses of all of the ADs this program has had over the last 50 years or so.
Eddie Crowder - former head football coach. Notable football hires: Chuck Fairbanks & Bill McCartney. Biggest success: hiring McCartney (although looking back, it would appear that was pure luck, but give credit where due). Biggest failure: slashing AD and eliminating several varsity sports (baseball, wrestling and swimming among them). The CU AD has never managed to recover from this. Overall grade “D”.
Bill Marolt - former head ski coach & director of US Ski team. Notable football hires: Rick Neuhisel. Biggest success: extension for McCartney, construction of Dal Ward. Biggest failure: basketball was completely ignored and might as well not have even been a varsity sport while Marolt was AD. Also wasn’t able to leverage the success under McCartney into any kind of long term sustainable program. Overall grade “B+”
Dick Tharp - former University counsel, long time supporter. Notable football hire: Gary Barnett. Biggest success: no clue. Renovation of Potts Field (maybe?). Biggest failure: turtled during “scandal” and allowed the department to be castrated. Probably not his fault, but he did nothing to help the situation, either. Totally ghosted at a time when leadership was required. Overall grade “F”
Mike Bohn: former KU quarterback. Boulder native, but no direct connections to CU. Notable football hires: Dan Hawkins, Jon Embree. Major successes: hiring Tad Boyle, resurgence of hoops program, increased student involvement, move to PAC 12. Major failures: see football hires above, inability to raise funds necessary for IPF/Champions Center. Overall grade “C+”
Rick George - former recruiting director under Bill McCartney, president of Texas Rangers baseball club. Notable football hires: Mel Tucker, Karl Dorrell. Major successes: construction of IPF/Champions Center, solid fundraising, booster/alumni relations. Major failure: contract negotiations, panic hiring of Dorrell, regression of student involvement. Overall grade “C+”

So each has had some good and some bad. If we could get the perfect AD, he’d hire like Crowder, retain and support like Marolt, engage and stabilize like Bohn, and fundraise like George.
So, who fits that description?
 
So this thread (and others) got me to thinking about the relative strengths and weaknesses of all of the ADs this program has had over the last 50 years or so.
Eddie Crowder - former head football coach. Notable football hires: Chuck Fairbanks & Bill McCartney. Biggest success: hiring McCartney (although looking back, it would appear that was pure luck, but give credit where due). Biggest failure: slashing AD and eliminating several varsity sports (baseball, wrestling and swimming among them). The CU AD has never managed to recover from this. Overall grade “D”.
Bill Marolt - former head ski coach & director of US Ski team. Notable football hires: Rick Neuhisel. Biggest success: extension for McCartney, construction of Dal Ward. Biggest failure: basketball was completely ignored and might as well not have even been a varsity sport while Marolt was AD. Also wasn’t able to leverage the success under McCartney into any kind of long term sustainable program. Overall grade “B+”
Dick Tharp - former University counsel, long time supporter. Notable football hire: Gary Barnett. Biggest success: no clue. Renovation of Potts Field (maybe?). Biggest failure: turtled during “scandal” and allowed the department to be castrated. Probably not his fault, but he did nothing to help the situation, either. Totally ghosted at a time when leadership was required. Overall grade “F”
Mike Bohn: former KU quarterback. Boulder native, but no direct connections to CU. Notable football hires: Dan Hawkins, Jon Embree. Major successes: hiring Tad Boyle, resurgence of hoops program, increased student involvement, move to PAC 12. Major failures: see football hires above, inability to raise funds necessary for IPF/Champions Center. Overall grade “C+”
Rick George - former recruiting director under Bill McCartney, president of Texas Rangers baseball club. Notable football hires: Mel Tucker, Karl Dorrell. Major successes: construction of IPF/Champions Center, solid fundraising, booster/alumni relations. Major failure: contract negotiations, panic hiring of Dorrell, regression of student involvement. Overall grade “C+”

So each has had some good and some bad. If we could get the perfect AD, he’d hire like Crowder, retain and support like Marolt, engage and stabilize like Bohn, and fundraise like George.
So, who fits that description?
I don't think it's a one person job any more.

I think you need the CEO & President type up top who does the fundraising, booster & business relations, budget & contract, and overall strategic vision.

Then you hire a former coach to manage the "competitive operations" to manage the coaches.

P.S. and with the money being paid to coaches these days, I could justify spending $3-5 million a year in order to fill these jobs.
 
I don't think it's a one person job any more.

I think you need the CEO & President type up top who does the fundraising, booster & business relations, budget & contract, and overall strategic vision.

Then you hire a former coach to manage the "competitive operations" to manage the coaches.

P.S. and with the money being paid to coaches these days, I could justify spending $3-5 million a year in order to fill these jobs.
Is there a school using that model?
 
I don't think it's a one person job any more.

I think you need the CEO & President type up top who does the fundraising, booster & business relations, budget & contract, and overall strategic vision.

Then you hire a former coach to manage the "competitive operations" to manage the coaches.

P.S. and with the money being paid to coaches these days, I could justify spending $3-5 million a year in order to fill these jobs.
Hard to disagree with this but do you then have to hire a football operations person as well as a basketball operations person? What about other varsity sports? I could see the ops role rubbing some, possibly many, coaches the wrong way (i.e backseat driver).
 
Is there a school using that model?
Not that I know of.

But most schools have a Board of Trustees that ensure support from boosters, alumni, businesses, legislators and the university at large. Since CU doesn't have that, the AD job is a big ask for any one person.
 
Hard to disagree with this but do you then have to hire a football operations person as well as a basketball operations person? What about other varsity sports? I could see the ops role rubbing some, possibly many, coaches the wrong way (i.e backseat driver).
No. One person, all sports. Frankly, it's what the AD job mostly was before cable tv & the internet. But now the business side is the more important role.
 
I don't think it's a one person job any more.

I think you need the CEO & President type up top who does the fundraising, booster & business relations, budget & contract, and overall strategic vision.

Then you hire a former coach to manage the "competitive operations" to manage the coaches.

P.S. and with the money being paid to coaches these days, I could justify spending $3-5 million a year in order to fill these jobs.
This.

when I was on campus and later in the press it was widely rumored that McCartney chaffed under Judith Albino who kept trying to cut his assistant coaching pool money. She probably precipitated his retirement. She was also apparently a driver in the Neuheisel hiring for cost reasons as Bob Simmons was making a lot more. Marolt retired shortly after. She made a lot of enemies and was driven out as President a couple years later.

For all the grief Betsy Hoffman gets she probably gave the CU AD the most latitude which allowed Tharp to first try and hire Gary Kubiak and then settle on Gary Barnett. Both were higher profile and expensive candidates than any since.


So this thread (and others) got me to thinking about the relative strengths and weaknesses of all of the ADs this program has had over the last 50 years or so.
Eddie Crowder - former head football coach. Notable football hires: Chuck Fairbanks & Bill McCartney. Biggest success: hiring McCartney (although looking back, it would appear that was pure luck, but give credit where due). Biggest failure: slashing AD and eliminating several varsity sports (baseball, wrestling and swimming among them). The CU AD has never managed to recover from this. Overall grade “D”.
Bill Marolt - former head ski coach & director of US Ski team. Notable football hires: Rick Neuhisel. Biggest success: extension for McCartney, construction of Dal Ward. Biggest failure: basketball was completely ignored and might as well not have even been a varsity sport while Marolt was AD. Also wasn’t able to leverage the success under McCartney into any kind of long term sustainable program. Overall grade “B+”
Dick Tharp - former University counsel, long time supporter. Notable football hire: Gary Barnett. Biggest success: no clue. Renovation of Potts Field (maybe?). Biggest failure: turtled during “scandal” and allowed the department to be castrated. Probably not his fault, but he did nothing to help the situation, either. Totally ghosted at a time when leadership was required. Overall grade “F”
Mike Bohn: former KU quarterback. Boulder native, but no direct connections to CU. Notable football hires: Dan Hawkins, Jon Embree. Major successes: hiring Tad Boyle, resurgence of hoops program, increased student involvement, move to PAC 12. Major failures: see football hires above, inability to raise funds necessary for IPF/Champions Center. Overall grade “C+”
Rick George - former recruiting director under Bill McCartney, president of Texas Rangers baseball club. Notable football hires: Mel Tucker, Karl Dorrell. Major successes: construction of IPF/Champions Center, solid fundraising, booster/alumni relations. Major failure: contract negotiations, panic hiring of Dorrell, regression of student involvement. Overall grade “C+”

So each has had some good and some bad. If we could get the perfect AD, he’d hire like Crowder, retain and support like Marolt, engage and stabilize like Bohn, and fundraise like George.
So, who fits that description?

Bill Marolt or Dick Tharp hired Ricardo Patton. Patton started to turn around CU Mens BB before Tad arrived by recruiting Chauncy Billups.

Dirk Tharp built the East stadium expansion. And I believe the desperately needed Basketball and Volleyball practice facility and offices at the Events Center (might have been Bohn).

Crowder was forced to cut those sports following Congress passage of Title IX. Many schools went thru that as well. The McCartney hire might have been part Gordon Gee. Crowder Also hired Ceal Barry.
 
Last edited:
Order restored.


insideout-anger.gif
 
Back
Top