(02-09-2016, 12:53 PM)winflop link Wrote:[quote author=Boston Card link=topic=14578.msg156067#msg156067 date=1454994315]
I understand and share some of the frustration with Muir, but if we are going to pan him for the downs of the men's and (to a lesser extent) women's basketball teams, as well as the baseball and softball teams, shouldn't he get some credit for the fact that the football team has gone to three Rose Bowls in his four years or are we going to discount that as him just coasting on Bowlsby's accomplishments (never mind that he also inherited Marquis). Teams go up, and teams go down; diverse teams have had substantial success under Muir's oversight. It seems a bit unfair to blame him when teams fail to live up to our expectations but not credit him when teams do well.
Based on very limited information, it sounds like the softball team coaching situation was poorly handled, but a) I don't have enough information to be sure that Muir messed it up and b) the situation strikes me as a classic no-win scenario.Â
BC
Well he didn't hire Shaw, and AFAIK Shaw hires all of his assistants. So in effect Muir hasn't done anything to materially help or hinder football, and I'm sorry but an AD doesn't get a lot of credit for not messing up that which is working well.Â
OTOH, he was intimately involved in the softball fiasco - won't go into details but I'm sure you can find the multiple detailed articles on what went down. He has failed the MBB program by not replacing Dawkins and allowing mediocrity to continue while the fan base becomes nearly invisible.Â
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I'm happy to indict him. For me, the softball fiasco was the first sign that Muir was shockingly bad at his job. In short, five Stanford softball parents demanded a meeting with Muir in which he was essentially blindsided. The meeting was initiated in part by Oregon softball coach, Mike White, whose daughter had been on the team and left because of a medical hardship...and lost her scholarship. The parents intentionally bypassed Coach Rittman, and Muir saw fit to exclude him from the meeting or any communications about the team. An NCAA Athletic Director who
allows parents to bypass a coach
and exclude him from a meeting involving his players
and refuses to tell the coach about it
and conducts an investigation using a not-really-independent law firm that depends heavily on Stanford University revenue
which does not interview key players? Any of those five would be awful, but all together? Indicates he doesn't know what he is doing, that he's easily intimidated, that he doesn't back his coach. there are so many better ways to handle the situation than he did. Meet with the coach. Inform the coach. Conduct a meeting with all sides. BTW, the parents at the meeting claimed they had backing from the entire team...which they didn't. Muir ran it like a scared kid.
These links are from the Stanford Daily, the SF Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News, and they tell the story:
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2015/05/28/...esignation
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Coach...325754.php
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula-spo...-its-knees
Here were the five outcomes of that fiasco:
1)Â He clearly indicated to all of the other coaches that he'll go behind their back and won't support them.
2) He reached out to coaches of the top dozen softball schools, and they just laaaaaughed. "You treat and fire John Rittman like you did and you want
me? I don't think so.
3)Â He was forced to hire
Buddy Teevens an overmatched coach from Dartmouth.
4)Â He gave all the other softball coaches superb ammunition to compete for recruits.
5)Â A number of starting players quit and a number of recruits opted to go elsewhere.
Last year's record, 17-27 overall, 2-22 in league.