Buffenuf
massive tool
Nik, I have seen your comments here and on Rivals regarding the knee jerk reaction of fans to assume RG and HCMM are inept or have the same failings as our prior staff and administration.
I do agree with you, of course. BUT, there is one point here that to me hasn't been discussed enough as a justification for concern that HCMM may be too loyal.
Many lower-tier HC when they move to a B5 conference and get a salary pool competitive at that level, realize they need to surround themselves more with B5 level coaches. I saw Sparkles is certainly doing that in FL as opposed to bringing all his staff from CSU.
When HCMM did not do that, and instead brought 90% of his staff from SJSU, many of us expressed at that time, concern (I feel was legitimate on the surface anyway) that HCMM was not upgrading his staff to P12 level, where only a few had prior B5 experience (and one of those, Baer, had appeared to be kicked out of the B5 club a few years earlier and was on his way down).
This left an impression on some of us that perhaps he is too loyal b/c with those salaries he could have, and I think should have, upgraded his staff immediately, especially Baer, and PAC-level recruiters. But, at least now we can all feel happy that he is not too loyal that when performance is not there, he creates a soft landing and moves on and is going after top tier replacements.
It is possible he wanted to give everyone a legit shot to prove themselves before getting rid of them and maybe he told them that when they made the move to CU. The only really questionable thing to me now is Neinas since there has not been any whispers yet that he is on his way out. We all know we need some bad ass recruiters on this staff and we just lost one that showed lots of promise.
The "concern" was misplaced. Most of those brought over had P5 experience (Baer among them); its not as if by coaching at a non-P5 level school you forget entirely everything you learned, but that's how posters here foolishly reacted. If anything bringing an entire staff with whom each other were all familiar, was warranted under the circumstances of the depth to which the squad morale, talent and development had sunk under WB. (WB brought in or retained what he thought was an "All-Star group and we all saw how well that worked out, with coaches screaming at each other in practices!) The most important thing for HCMM's staff was to re-build confidence, morale and re-institute development and competence, e.g. lay the foundation; tasks best served by a group familiar with each other. Now that this has been accomplished, the actual results of a second year were measured and found badly wanting. One year completely rebuilding, the next to prove your mettle and earn your keep made a lot of sense in the OVERALL scheme of things.
That said, MM wasn't going to publically embarrass these failed coaches, (unlike many other schools who make a big deal about firing assistants, such WAZZU and aTm) so they were nudged toward other jobs, likely with a plan already in place for replacements to be brought in on a timely basis. To me, it seems there is a very competent method to MM's "madness, which incorporates both technical recognition of competency and a bit of compassion for those guys who don't meet the standards---something the bloodthirsty "win-at -any-cost" SEC-types here won't recognize, ever.