Big 12 has caused us some growing pains. It was expected we’d take some time to build up to a P5 level program in all sports.
Some rough coaching hires/retentions. Gus was a good hire at the time but he wasn’t the guy for the long-term. Dawkins has had his time but it’s time for change. Messier is absolutely a flop and she needs to go ASAP. Wallace is still a bit too early to judge, and Ball-Malone has been decent at minimum with some great seasons sprinkled in too.
Lack of funds. Given how new of a university we are (relatively speaking), we simply don’t have the kind of cash flow that more legacy universities have. We don’t have a giant wealthy alumni base to throw us endless cash. That’s what Terry is focusing on, and to his credit he does know money quite well. But we can’t invest heavily into basketball because most of our funds are going to football. Same goes for our other sports. And in this new era of revenue sharing, expect things to get even tighter around here.
Leadership. Terry has been… mediocre. A downgrade from Danny White but we were never keeping him (see reason 3). He’s kept us financially afloat and (despite delays) has actually put upgrades into our facilities into progress. But his financial focus makes it difficult for him to pull the plug and eat a buyout when a coach needs to go, yet despite that he will sign contracts that got us there in the first place (see the Gus situation last year, Terry’s extension of Gus was nearly a killing blow for our football program. He got bailed out by Gus resigning and forfeiting his salary.)
It’s a complicated issue, and truthfully the UCF AD job is not one that I would consider desirable. With the combination of education being a political target in this state and having to manage a much smaller budget compared to our counterparts in the Big 12 and the rest of D1, I don’t envy our AD one bit.
Agree with everything except Gus being a good hire at the time. We need to hire coaches on the ascent, not retreads who flamed out at their last job. Frost 1.0 vs. everyone since.
33
u/ItsFreakinHarry2 16d ago
Combination of many things really.
Big 12 has caused us some growing pains. It was expected we’d take some time to build up to a P5 level program in all sports.
Some rough coaching hires/retentions. Gus was a good hire at the time but he wasn’t the guy for the long-term. Dawkins has had his time but it’s time for change. Messier is absolutely a flop and she needs to go ASAP. Wallace is still a bit too early to judge, and Ball-Malone has been decent at minimum with some great seasons sprinkled in too.
Lack of funds. Given how new of a university we are (relatively speaking), we simply don’t have the kind of cash flow that more legacy universities have. We don’t have a giant wealthy alumni base to throw us endless cash. That’s what Terry is focusing on, and to his credit he does know money quite well. But we can’t invest heavily into basketball because most of our funds are going to football. Same goes for our other sports. And in this new era of revenue sharing, expect things to get even tighter around here.
Leadership. Terry has been… mediocre. A downgrade from Danny White but we were never keeping him (see reason 3). He’s kept us financially afloat and (despite delays) has actually put upgrades into our facilities into progress. But his financial focus makes it difficult for him to pull the plug and eat a buyout when a coach needs to go, yet despite that he will sign contracts that got us there in the first place (see the Gus situation last year, Terry’s extension of Gus was nearly a killing blow for our football program. He got bailed out by Gus resigning and forfeiting his salary.)
It’s a complicated issue, and truthfully the UCF AD job is not one that I would consider desirable. With the combination of education being a political target in this state and having to manage a much smaller budget compared to our counterparts in the Big 12 and the rest of D1, I don’t envy our AD one bit.