It doesn't have to be. I just think Braine thought we could win and was cheap. Drad didn't care about basketball. Mboob didn't fit in with GT alumni and it seems like he figured that out quickly.
1. First, your profile picture is excellent after all this time.
2. This short post got me to think about the ADs that I remember as a Tech fan.
Homer Rice had a strategic plan for Tech athletics. It wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t perfect. He started in 1980, the same year as Curry, so I’m not sure if he hired Curry or not. He did hire Cremins. The athletic program was a hot mess when he started, and when he retired he had a program where athletes graduated at a high rate, had a national football championship, and final fours. He lucked into some very good hires, and made one horrible hire in Lewis. I wouldn’t say it was all luck on his hires, but he did have some good fortune. His focus on having a strategic plan for the athletic department worked out very well.
Then, we hired Dave Braine. At the time, Virginia Tech was a powerhouse in football at the time, and from a Tech fan’s perspective we hired him to bring that success here. In retrospect, what he did that worked out well was not firing Frank Beamer when any other AD would have—that eventually made the program explode, but until 1993 his record was horrible. We thought we were hiring a mastermind who knew how to build a football powerhouse, but I think we were hiring an AD who wanted to be semi-retired and not rock the boat. He thought Tech fans should be happy with 7 or 8 wins in a football season, and I think that was all he was aiming for. I wonder if he even told Chan Gailey to win 7 games a year and then he’d have an easy coaching tenure here with no big expectations. I think he was surprised that we really wanted to win, and Gailey probably was, too. Braine lucked out with Hewitt, and I think he set up the minimum possible disruptive plan of setting the basketball program on autopilot with a perpetual contract, and he wouldn’t worry about it.
After being surprised that our fans wanted to win, Braine retired. We hired DRad as an AD. He was on a meteoric rise from LSU. Looking back, I’m not sure what he was good at. He seemed very interested in building buildings. He didn’t pay attention to basketball. His Wikipedia entry lists his achievements as adding chairbacks, hiring Paul Johnson, building an indoor practice facility, remodeling the basketball arena, and fixing up the tennis courts. He fired Paul Hewitt, made an uninspired hire in Brian Gregory, then left for Clemson.
It’s fair to say DRad did not have a mind for basketball. He seemed to do OK for football.
Neither Braine nor Radakovich seemed to have a long term plan or execute one. Braine seemed to be getting ready to go fishing, and DRad seemed to be angling for another job more than leaving a legacy here. DRad also was much more effective in spending money than in raising cash, though he did start the TECH fund.
The program was in bad shape, especially the basketball program. We hired Mike Bobinski from Xavier, who seemed to know basketball, but not much about football. He damaged our football program, hired Pastner and some good assistants in basketball, and did not seem interested in working here at all.
Stansbury had a history of being an effective AD, but the things he seemed to be effective at were building good fundraising programs. He did a good job building capital improvement projects and fundraising for them, but in the other aspects of being an AD he didn’t put together an effective plan. He didn’t seem to know or care what to do with basketball. I think he just completely lucked out with Fortner after having to fire Machele Joseph.
I’m not sure how Batt is going to turn out. He’s been given a mission to build first class athletic programs here, and there’s an emphasis on getting the business side of the house straightened out. I think Cabrera expects a strategic plan that includes staffing, NIL, and other areas.
Anyway, short version:
Rice: Great overall
Braine: Wanted a job with low expectations and no pressure. Not the AD we thought we were hiring. Was lazy.
DRad: Bad for basketball, had a lot of ideas that were probably good for LSU, but not what we needed here. Ignored important things.
MBob: Bad for football, and most other things. Not sure why we hired him.
TStan: Good at capital programs, bad at the rest, lacked planning at everything but capital programs
Batt: At least showing some sense. Huge hill to climb.
