[teejers1]

"Montgomery, in interviews at the time, said he asked Bob Bowlsby before taking the job if he shouldn't. This is why I've never believed for a moment that Bowlsby was deliberately pushing Trent Johnson out."

I don't pretend to know what really happened; however, reputable people close to Coach Johnson relayed to me at the time that Trent truly felt that Bowlsby didn't want him around.  So I have little doubt that Johnson felt that way, and his camp pointed to the lack of a contract extension as proof positive that Bowlsby was pushing Trent out.  Maybe.  But the fact that undermines this assertion, at least to me, is the painfully obvious cluster bomb that was "the successor search."  It was so clear to me that Bowlsby had no "short list" of replacements and that the whole process was an inartful scramble, resulting from Bowlsby being caught off guard by Trent taking the $$/job at LSU. If Bowlsby really was planning on pushing Trent out, you'd think he'd have a replacement or two in mind.

Nope.  Instead, we had a prolonged, semi-secret cluster search which supposedly almost resulted in the hiring of Larry Brown.  And there is NO WAY on God's green earth that Larry Brown was on any short list of Bowlsby! 

So in retrospect, I come down on the classic "failure to communicate" between coach and AD that was pretty much "lose/lose."  Yeah, Trent got paid, and I hope he (by all accounts a good man and loyal friend) and his family are happy.  But from a coaching standpoint, his post-Farm career hasn't exactly been stellar.

[teejers1]

"Montgomery, in interviews at the time, said he asked Bob Bowlsby before taking the job if he shouldn't. This is why I've never believed for a moment that Bowlsby was deliberately pushing Trent Johnson out."

I don't pretend to know what really happened; however, reputable people close to Coach Johnson relayed to me at the time that Trent truly felt that Bowlsby didn't want him around.  So I have little doubt that Johnson felt that way, and his camp pointed to the lack of a contract extension as proof positive that Bowlsby was pushing Trent out.  Maybe.  But the fact that undermines this assertion, at least to me, is the painfully obvious cluster bomb that was "the successor search."  It was so clear to me that Bowlsby had no "short list" of replacements and that the whole process was an inartful scramble, resulting from Bowlsby being caught off guard by Trent taking the $$/job at LSU. If Bowlsby really was planning on pushing Trent out, you'd think he'd have a replacement or two in mind.

Nope.  Instead, we had a prolonged, semi-secret cluster search which supposedly almost resulted in the hiring of Larry Brown.  And there is NO WAY on God's green earth that Larry Brown was on any short list of Bowlsby! 

So in retrospect, I come down on the classic "failure to communicate" between coach and AD that was pretty much "lose/lose."  Yeah, Trent got paid, and I hope he (by all accounts a good man and loyal friend) and his family are happy.  But from a coaching standpoint, his post-Farm career hasn't exactly been stellar.