***TOTALLY UNFOUNDED THEORY TIME***
A buddy of mine (unlike me, he prefers the constant sunshine pumping of the Scout board to the severe overreaction of Allbuffs) and I have a theory on HCMM, Jim Leavitt, and HCMM's odd unwillingness to dispose of dead weight on the staff and questionable hires.
The theory is that HCMM isn't a bad coach, and that he is a good man that legitimately cares about his players, but whether it be insecurity, ego, or some combination, he wants to surround himself with yes men who will not challenge him. He hates being challenged or questioned. Here are some examples and thoughts on it...
1.) Whatever your stance on the HCMM vs Leavitt situation, they were a great duo. Every ceo, boss, leader, etc. needs a guy, asshole or no, to be the guy who is going to tell you what you don't want to hear, but need to. You may fight about it, but ultimately when he calls you out you have to address what he's calling you out on, respect his input, and not just convince yourself it's not an issue. I'm sure neither guy was always right, but they balanced each other out. An added bonus to this situation was that Leavitt was the yelling raw raw type that some kids respond to, and Mac is the positive reinforcement type that other kids respond to. I think the results from them together speak for themselves. Despite this, it was pretty well documented that HCMM wasn't a big fan of Leavitt, and you wonder if the driving factor was his dislike of being challenged. Last year there was a lot of "this defense has a long way to go still" despite playing really well, while this year there is a lot of "we're getting a lot of bad breaks" despite looking really bad.
2) What kind of coaches have been the ones Mac has hired, and/or been unwilling to get rid of? Generally they seem to be passive guys, new guys afraid to rock the boat, or coaches he's had under him for a long time that just seem to be along for the ride. Did Kent Baer call out HCMM? Does Lindgren seem like the type to question anything? Does DJ Eliot seem like a guy who is willing to rock the boat, or challenge HCMM? Is Bernardi around for any other reason than being a long time yes man? Does Jeffcoat show enough fire to argue? Chev is still making his way up the coaching ladder and probably too new to OC to feel confident in rattling cages. Leavitt is the only guy we've had around that was willing to be that guy, and from everything we've heard, they butted heads constantly. But hey, he and Mac seemed to make each other, and the rest of the staff, better.
3.) When Derek McCartney made a comment in a post game interview about the team, and it was brought up to HCMM, his immediate reaction was an agitated "Derek doesn't know what he's talking about!" Somebody said something against the rhetoric that HCMM was trying to push to the media, and he immediately was angry. Fairly innocent in itself, but with other evidence, it looks worse.
4.) Any of the rare times someone in the local media ask any hard questions of Mac, he gets pissy and confrontational. No coaches like being asked the hard questions, but HCMM certainly has a short fuse when he gets questioned by anything other than the general positive fluff material he gets from the local (and in house) media.
So in summary, this incoherent rambling is leading to that hopefully RG will force HCMM's hand in getting rid of some dead weight yes men, and hiring some experienced coaches and coordinators who are willing to challenge Mac for the betterment of the program. Someone like
@Buffnik suggestion last year of Tim DeRuyter to fill the experienced coordinator and former head coach role that Leavitt leaving left. I don't know who is/will be available this offseaon, but I think finding a guy in this mold is paramount.
