I'm excited to see where Doug McNamee takes us.

I'll be completely honest...I hadn't even thought about him as a candidate despite his history here...I'd guess just about none of you were either. But after heading to google and twitter, I got fired up.

The seasoning he's gotten in the corporate world can pay massive dividends for Baylor. I think his time with Magnolia and Field & Stream gives him the business experience that a major program AD needs these days given the new nature of the beast. Doug also has deep roots with our school, our alumni and boosters.

Mosley in brief on DM's history at Baylor:

.@Baylor has not confirmed yet, but it certainly looks like former BU senior associate AD for external relations Doug McNamee will replace Mack Rhoades as dir of athletics at BU. @SicEm365 was first to say it was headed this way. I've known Doug for years, so much more to come.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

At least some of our biggest boosters are happy, per Mosley:

If @BaylorAthletics goes with Doug McNamee as its new AD, here are a few things: He worked with both Ian McCaw & Mack Rhoades. Doug was on the search committee that brought @CoachMattRhule to BU. He was president of Magnolia. I'm hearing the big $ donors are very pleased.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

Ian McCaw's statement to Mosley on the hire:

Former BU AD Ian McCaw on Doug McNamee: "Doug's thrived in every endeavor. He modernized the Bear Foundation and was instrumental in building the record donor/season ticket base when we moved into McLane Stadium. His strong relationships at BU and in Waco will serve him well."

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

I think Coach Hall is just being honest here - in this era it takes money to build a championship roster

💰💰💰🟰 🏆

— Coach Khenon Hall (BAYLOR) (@CoachK_Hall) December 6, 2025

I think Doug is a great choice to help all of Baylor's sports grow into championship caliber teams, with his experience both in traditional booster relations here at Baylor and in mass media marketing in the corporate world. I'm of course anxious to see what impact he brings to our Football NIL efforts as we approach the January window!


EDIT(add): from cjones44 on another thread:

Quote:

---

Doug went on to make very wealthy and very successful individuals even more money. Including negotiating the Magnolia TV contract, giving him great insight into media relations and the current digital rights landscape.

---

Are you his publicist?

Realitybites said:

---

---

Replace George with Doak and I'd be howling…

Bearknuckle said:

---

I'm excited to see where Doug McNamee takes us.

I'll be completely honest...I hadn't even thought about him as a candidate despite his history here...I'd guess just about none of you were either. But after heading to google and twitter, I got fired up.

The seasoning he's gotten in the corporate world can pay massive dividends for Baylor. I think his time with Magnolia and Field & Stream gives him the business experience that a major program AD needs these days given the new nature of the beast. Doug also has deep roots with our school, our alumni and boosters.

Mosley in brief on DM's history at Baylor:

.@Baylor has not confirmed yet, but it certainly looks like former BU senior associate AD for external relations Doug McNamee will replace Mack Rhoades as dir of athletics at BU. @SicEm365 was first to say it was headed this way. I've known Doug for years, so much more to come.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

At least some of our biggest boosters are happy, per Mosley:

If @BaylorAthletics goes with Doug McNamee as its new AD, here are a few things: He worked with both Ian McCaw & Mack Rhoades. Doug was on the search committee that brought @CoachMattRhule to BU. He was president of Magnolia. I'm hearing the big $ donors are very pleased.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

Ian McCaw's statement to Mosley on the hire:

Former BU AD Ian McCaw on Doug McNamee: "Doug's thrived in every endeavor. He modernized the Bear Foundation and was instrumental in building the record donor/season ticket base when we moved into McLane Stadium. His strong relationships at BU and in Waco will serve him well."

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

I think Coach Hall is just being honest here - in this era it takes money to build a championship roster

💰💰💰🟰 🏆

— Coach Khenon Hall (BAYLOR) (@CoachK_Hall) December 6, 2025

I think Doug is a great choice to help all of Baylor's sports grow into championship caliber teams, with his experience both in traditional booster relations here at Baylor and in mass media marketing in the corporate world. I'm of course anxious to see what impact he brings to our Football NIL efforts as we approach the January window!


EDIT(add): from cjones44 on another thread:

Quote:

---

Doug went on to make very wealthy and very successful individuals even more money. Including negotiating the Magnolia TV contract, giving him great insight into media relations and the current digital rights landscape.

---

---

He had absolutely nothing to do either with season ticket sales Ian. Art sold those tickets that filled the stadium.

This thread started by Doug's parents!

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

You can hire just about anybody to do anything, assuming that the job itself doesn't have access restricted by state or federal licensure.

Typically, it's a good idea to hire someone who has been successful doing the job and has recent relevant experience.

Realitybites said:

---

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

You can hire just about anybody to do anything, assuming that the job itself doesn't have access restricted by state or federal licensure.

Typically, it's a good idea to hire someone who has been successful doing the job and has recent relevant experience.

---

We just went and hired someone with no prior AD experience. Working in an AD office and selling tickets / magazines is not the same as navigating something as extensive as running a P4 athletic program in the new world of NIL / Conference realignment / Program development / Coaching changes, etc.

If you woke up in the morning and had to place your livelihood on Dougie being successful - you really taking that chance? Bad hire when there were better options.

My take, Baylor didn't have the money to buyout Dave. Doesn't have the money to acquire an accomplished AD (or those on the list didn't want part of Baylor)......so it turns to money - - so what is Linda actually doing?

If one statement of hiring him is because he is close to Drew - - GMAFB.

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

You're not paying attention

BluesBear said:

---

We just went and hired someone with no prior AD experience. Working in an AD office and selling tickets / magazines is not the same as navigating something as extensive as running a P4 athletic program in the new world of NIL / Conference realignment / Program development / Coaching changes, etc.

If you woke up in the morning and had to place your livelihood on Dougie being successful - you really taking that chance? Bad hire when there were better options.

My take, Baylor didn't have the money to buyout Dave. Doesn't have the money to acquire an accomplished AD (or those on the list didn't want part of Baylor)......so it turns to money - - so what is Linda actually doing?

If one statement of hiring him is because he is close to Drew - - GMAFB.

---

Maybe is daddy has money??

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

Obviously, not much to be done about it now. At this point, he is the captain and we are all on the airplane. We all want a good flight that lands safely.

On the plus side, from what is known, it would seem that this will make CSD happy. Enough to stay away from the next big time job, who knows? But at it cannot hurt. And MBB and WBB are about the only thing going somewhat right in the athletic department among the higher profile sports and not hurting those programs is probably the first step of triage here.

On the negative side, the hire feels parochial. As a general rule, it is hard to believe that the answer to "who is the best national candidate" is the person that has been in your backyard the whole time. Things are different when you are trying to holdover success from a predecessor regime. That is not the case here.

The best candidates to build typically are not patient and they don't wait their turn. They job hop. Also, it is really valuable to get diversified experience if you are going to lead something: you learn how other places run things, you take best practices from your home base and combine them with what you learn away from home and mold it into your own thing (see Art Briles incorporating air raid concepts into his offense). I had high hopes for Shawn Bell: local kid of a coach, played at Baylor with a minor cult status, coached high school ball in central Texas, eventually came home to Matt Rhule's staff and initially stayed on with CDA. But I think the fact that, until recently, Bell has never really worked outside of the central Texas bubble ultimately has hurt him. If you look at the resumes of successful coaches and ADs, for the vast majority of them, you will find that they move around for a few decades, job hopping, building and earning their stripes until they are ready for the big time.

It is possible to have someone build out their experience in one place; that is basically what Scott Drew did! But your employer needs to have a patient timeline measured in decades. The lessons that most coaches learn in their 20s, 30s and early 40s in backwoods, smaller no name schools eventually come in handy once you hit the big time. Scott Drew had to learn those lessons on the job under the lights of a power conference job. It eventually paid off BIG TIME for Baylor, but it took almost 20 years to get there. Do we have that kind of time for this AD hire?

The work history raises an eyebrow Speaking from slightly tangential experience, when entrepreneurs have blockbuster success, they find themselves in a weird position: that which made them successful does not necessarily prepare them to run a major going concern. They have no idea who to trust while they are getting peppered from all sides, so they turn to a person they know who sort of seems like they are the right person for the job. And I suspect that was the case with Magnolia. But managing that type of business is difficult. Founders are very passionate and can struggle to transition from "nimble and flexible" to "big bureaucratic machine." And a lot of that job almost certainly involved baby sitting and explaining to his employers that "you cannot do X now that we are a big operation that has to follow corporate formalities." I am not sure how much of that will come in handy in the new job.

Many around here still lament losing Art Briles. I won't fight on that point. But I'll add that losing Ian McCaw is something that is still felt today. I think he was hired after CSD, but Ian was smart enough to not interfere with Drew or Mulkey and the Art Briles choice paid off. The rest of athletics seemed to at least trend well (beside baseball) under his direction. From the few times I interacted with him I found him awkward and not a particularly polished speaker or glad hander, but the results under his watch were worth a lot. Not for nothing, Liberty athletics seems to have had some good success on his watch.

As others have mentioned, this could be an indication that people with stronger resumes were not interested in the job (at what we could afford). A P4 school located within a 200-mile radius of some of the most fertile and important football recruiting territory is struggling to hire an AD: that means the game has changed and we should all be very worried.

Bearknuckle said:

---

I'm excited to see where Doug McNamee takes us.

I'll be completely honest...I hadn't even thought about him as a candidate despite his history here...I'd guess just about none of you were either. But after heading to google and twitter, I got fired up.

The seasoning he's gotten in the corporate world can pay massive dividends for Baylor. I think his time with Magnolia and Field & Stream gives him the business experience that a major program AD needs these days given the new nature of the beast. Doug also has deep roots with our school, our alumni and boosters.

Mosley in brief on DM's history at Baylor:

.@Baylor has not confirmed yet, but it certainly looks like former BU senior associate AD for external relations Doug McNamee will replace Mack Rhoades as dir of athletics at BU. @SicEm365 was first to say it was headed this way. I've known Doug for years, so much more to come.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

At least some of our biggest boosters are happy, per Mosley:

If @BaylorAthletics goes with Doug McNamee as its new AD, here are a few things: He worked with both Ian McCaw & Mack Rhoades. Doug was on the search committee that brought @CoachMattRhule to BU. He was president of Magnolia. I'm hearing the big $ donors are very pleased.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

Ian McCaw's statement to Mosley on the hire:

Former BU AD Ian McCaw on Doug McNamee: "Doug's thrived in every endeavor. He modernized the Bear Foundation and was instrumental in building the record donor/season ticket base when we moved into McLane Stadium. His strong relationships at BU and in Waco will serve him well."

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

I think Coach Hall is just being honest here - in this era it takes money to build a championship roster

💰💰💰🟰 🏆

— Coach Khenon Hall (BAYLOR) (@CoachK_Hall) December 6, 2025

I think Doug is a great choice to help all of Baylor's sports grow into championship caliber teams, with his experience both in traditional booster relations here at Baylor and in mass media marketing in the corporate world. I'm of course anxious to see what impact he brings to our Football NIL efforts as we approach the January window!


EDIT(add): from cjones44 on another thread:

Quote:

---

Doug went on to make very wealthy and very successful individuals even more money. Including negotiating the Magnolia TV contract, giving him great insight into media relations and the current digital rights landscape.

---

---

Welcome to the board , Mr Doug

He will take us the same place Stanton took us in football. Obviously no basketball problems like Stanton since CSD is in charge there.

Aliceinbubbleland said:

---

Bearknuckle said:

---

I'm excited to see where Doug McNamee takes us.

I'll be completely honest...I hadn't even thought about him as a candidate despite his history here...I'd guess just about none of you were either. But after heading to google and twitter, I got fired up.

The seasoning he's gotten in the corporate world can pay massive dividends for Baylor. I think his time with Magnolia and Field & Stream gives him the business experience that a major program AD needs these days given the new nature of the beast. Doug also has deep roots with our school, our alumni and boosters.

Mosley in brief on DM's history at Baylor:

.@Baylor has not confirmed yet, but it certainly looks like former BU senior associate AD for external relations Doug McNamee will replace Mack Rhoades as dir of athletics at BU. @SicEm365 was first to say it was headed this way. I've known Doug for years, so much more to come.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

At least some of our biggest boosters are happy, per Mosley:

If @BaylorAthletics goes with Doug McNamee as its new AD, here are a few things: He worked with both Ian McCaw & Mack Rhoades. Doug was on the search committee that brought @CoachMattRhule to BU. He was president of Magnolia. I'm hearing the big $ donors are very pleased.

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

Ian McCaw's statement to Mosley on the hire:

Former BU AD Ian McCaw on Doug McNamee: "Doug's thrived in every endeavor. He modernized the Bear Foundation and was instrumental in building the record donor/season ticket base when we moved into McLane Stadium. His strong relationships at BU and in Waco will serve him well."

— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) December 6, 2025

I think Coach Hall is just being honest here - in this era it takes money to build a championship roster

I think Doug is a great choice to help all of Baylor's sports grow into championship caliber teams, with his experience both in traditional booster relations here at Baylor and in mass media marketing in the corporate world. I'm of course anxious to see what impact he brings to our Football NIL efforts as we approach the January window!


EDIT(add): from cjones44 on another thread:

Quote:

---

Doug went on to make very wealthy and very successful individuals even more money. Including negotiating the Magnolia TV contract, giving him great insight into media relations and the current digital rights landscape.

---

---

He had absolutely nothing to do either with season ticket sales Ian. Art sold those tickets that filled the stadium.

---

Wait…. Are you saying you didn't buy season tickets because of this guy??? I mean clearly this guy was why people bought tickets. And donated for the stadium….


I'm sure it had nothing to do with winning games, going to bowls, a Heisman or anything like that.

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

AD's aren't any better at picking coaches than a highly tuned in football fan would be. Go to any active CFB site and you'll see coaching lists that are pretty much the same as what an AD can put together.

Baylor should have hired me after the Air Force loss. I was willing to work for half of what they were paying Rhoades.

My first move - I would have fired CDA.

My second move - I would have hired Cignetti.

Who are these mysterious big money donors and what are they actually saying?

jikespingleton said:

---

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

AD's aren't any better at picking coaches than a highly tuned in football fan would be. Go to any active CFB site and you'll see coaching lists that are pretty much the same as what an AD can put together.

Baylor should have hired me after the Air Force loss. I was willing to work for half of what they were paying Rhoades.

My first move - I would have fired CDA.

My second move - I would have hired Cignetti.

---

You know why that wouldn't work. Cignetti would have never given the admin the warm feelings during the interview process to hire him.

He's not going to be subservient and he's not going to do the good ole upstanding guy routine. Those are the two Bu admin archetypes.

There is already a disconnect with the interview process and who actually has "it." With Bu that is probably turned up to 11.

Robert Wilson said:

---

Who are these mysterious big money donors and what are they actually saying?

---

Collection plates at Columbus ?

Doug might very well turn out to be a sneaky great hire. He's a Baylor Bear, knows Waco and the surrounding communities, and has/had strong connections with administration within the school, alumni, donors, the BOR, and Foundation members.Then, Mack Rhoades ran him off (like Mack ran off many others in the athletic department).

Doug did special, little things for me and my family as we were on boarding to the Foundation and multi-sport season tickets many years ago. I could call, text, or email him directly, and he answered/handled every single call/text/email himself. No delegation, no distancing. For my mid-tier contributions and support, I felt directly connected to and appreciated by Baylor Athletics leaders. He got it then, and still gets it today I am sure.....

That, of course, all slowly deteriorated away over the years under Mack Rhoades. Mack ran off much of the talent in the athletic department, and turned the whole show into the Mack Rhoades circus rather than making it about students, alumni, boosters, and fans. After many years, I made the decision to walk away from all season tickets and financial support of Baylor Athletics about 4 years ago when it was clear (at least to me and most) Mack was running Baylor Athletics into the ditch of irrelevance.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what Doug does turning around Baylor Athletics. I believe this hire brings a fresh excitement from alumni, boosters, and fans having him in the seat. All of the other ex-boosters I personally know feel the same way.

The head football coach position will be his first major statement; I am looking forward to that first major move.

Sic'em

Bobby20 said:

---

Doug might very well turn out to be a sneaky great hire. He's a Baylor Bear, knows Waco and the surrounding communities, and has/had strong connections with administration within the school, alumni, donors, the BOR, and Foundation members.Then, Mack Rhoades ran him off (like Mack ran off many others in the athletic department).

Doug did special, little things for me and my family as we were on boarding to the Foundation and multi-sport season tickets many years ago. I could call, text, or email him directly, and he answered/handled every single call/text/email himself. No delegation, no distancing. For my mid-tier contributions and support, I felt directly connected to and appreciated by Baylor Athletics leaders. He got it then, and still gets it today I am sure.....

That, of course, all slowly deteriorated away over the years under Mack Rhoades. Mack ran off much of the talent in the athletic department, and turned the whole show into the Mack Rhoades circus rather than making it about students, alumni, boosters, and fans. After many years, I made the decision to walk away from all season tickets and financial support of Baylor Athletics about 4 years ago when it was clear (at least to me and most) Mack was running Baylor Athletics into the ditch of irrelevance.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what Doug does turning around Baylor Athletics. I believe this hire brings a fresh excitement from alumni, boosters, and fans having him in the seat. All of the other ex-boosters I personally know feel the same way.

The head football coach position will be his first major statement; I am looking forward to that first major move.

Sic'em

---

I'm eagerly awaiting his firing of Aranda tomorrow morning so these naysayers can stop whining.

BUGWBBear said:

---

Bobby20 said:

---

Doug might very well turn out to be a sneaky great hire. He's a Baylor Bear, knows Waco and the surrounding communities, and has/had strong connections with administration within the school, alumni, donors, the BOR, and Foundation members.Then, Mack Rhoades ran him off (like Mack ran off many others in the athletic department).

Doug did special, little things for me and my family as we were on boarding to the Foundation and multi-sport season tickets many years ago. I could call, text, or email him directly, and he answered/handled every single call/text/email himself. No delegation, no distancing. For my mid-tier contributions and support, I felt directly connected to and appreciated by Baylor Athletics leaders. He got it then, and still gets it today I am sure.....

That, of course, all slowly deteriorated away over the years under Mack Rhoades. Mack ran off much of the talent in the athletic department, and turned the whole show into the Mack Rhoades circus rather than making it about students, alumni, boosters, and fans. After many years, I made the decision to walk away from all season tickets and financial support of Baylor Athletics about 4 years ago when it was clear (at least to me and most) Mack was running Baylor Athletics into the ditch of irrelevance.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what Doug does turning around Baylor Athletics. I believe this hire brings a fresh excitement from alumni, boosters, and fans having him in the seat. All of the other ex-boosters I personally know feel the same way.

The head football coach position will be his first major statement; I am looking forward to that first major move.

Sic'em

---

I'm eagerly awaiting his firing of Aranda tomorrow morning so these naysayers can stop whining.

---

Betting Yoda is safe for most, if not all, of '26 season. Not sure Shiplap AD will buck what LL stated initially. $$$$ certainly appears to be the most major issue.

BUGWBBear said:

---

Bobby20 said:

---

Doug might very well turn out to be a sneaky great hire. He's a Baylor Bear, knows Waco and the surrounding communities, and has/had strong connections with administration within the school, alumni, donors, the BOR, and Foundation members.Then, Mack Rhoades ran him off (like Mack ran off many others in the athletic department).

Doug did special, little things for me and my family as we were on boarding to the Foundation and multi-sport season tickets many years ago. I could call, text, or email him directly, and he answered/handled every single call/text/email himself. No delegation, no distancing. For my mid-tier contributions and support, I felt directly connected to and appreciated by Baylor Athletics leaders. He got it then, and still gets it today I am sure.....

That, of course, all slowly deteriorated away over the years under Mack Rhoades. Mack ran off much of the talent in the athletic department, and turned the whole show into the Mack Rhoades circus rather than making it about students, alumni, boosters, and fans. After many years, I made the decision to walk away from all season tickets and financial support of Baylor Athletics about 4 years ago when it was clear (at least to me and most) Mack was running Baylor Athletics into the ditch of irrelevance.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what Doug does turning around Baylor Athletics. I believe this hire brings a fresh excitement from alumni, boosters, and fans having him in the seat. All of the other ex-boosters I personally know feel the same way.

The head football coach position will be his first major statement; I am looking forward to that first major move.

Sic'em

---

I'm eagerly awaiting his firing of Aranda tomorrow morning so these naysayers can stop whining.

---

I think it would be better to invest $10 to $15 million in NIL players from the portal rather than using it for a buyout, assuming donor approval of the new AD means those funds are now available. JMHO.

DallasBear9902 said:

---

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

Obviously, not much to be done about it now. At this point, he is the captain and we are all on the airplane. We all want a good flight that lands safely.

On the plus side, from what is known, it would seem that this will make CSD happy. Enough to stay away from the next big time job, who knows? But at it cannot hurt. And MBB and WBB are about the only thing going somewhat right in the athletic department among the higher profile sports and not hurting those programs is probably the first step of triage here.

On the negative side, the hire feels parochial. As a general rule, it is hard to believe that the answer to "who is the best national candidate" is the person that has been in your backyard the whole time. Things are different when you are trying to holdover success from a predecessor regime. That is not the case here.

The best candidates to build typically are not patient and they don't wait their turn. They job hop. Also, it is really valuable to get diversified experience if you are going to lead something: you learn how other places run things, you take best practices from your home base and combine them with what you learn away from home and mold it into your own thing (see Art Briles incorporating air raid concepts into his offense). I had high hopes for Shawn Bell: local kid of a coach, played at Baylor with a minor cult status, coached high school ball in central Texas, eventually came home to Matt Rhule's staff and initially stayed on with CDA. But I think the fact that, until recently, Bell has never really worked outside of the central Texas bubble ultimately has hurt him. If you look at the resumes of successful coaches and ADs, for the vast majority of them, you will find that they move around for a few decades, job hopping, building and earning their stripes until they are ready for the big time.

It is possible to have someone build out their experience in one place; that is basically what Scott Drew did! But your employer needs to have a patient timeline measured in decades. The lessons that most coaches learn in their 20s, 30s and early 40s in backwoods, smaller no name schools eventually come in handy once you hit the big time. Scott Drew had to learn those lessons on the job under the lights of a power conference job. It eventually paid off BIG TIME for Baylor, but it took almost 20 years to get there. Do we have that kind of time for this AD hire?

The work history raises an eyebrow Speaking from slightly tangential experience, when entrepreneurs have blockbuster success, they find themselves in a weird position: that which made them successful does not necessarily prepare them to run a major going concern. They have no idea who to trust while they are getting peppered from all sides, so they turn to a person they know who sort of seems like they are the right person for the job. And I suspect that was the case with Magnolia. But managing that type of business is difficult. Founders are very passionate and can struggle to transition from "nimble and flexible" to "big bureaucratic machine." And a lot of that job almost certainly involved baby sitting and explaining to his employers that "you cannot do X now that we are a big operation that has to follow corporate formalities." I am not sure how much of that will come in handy in the new job.

Many around here still lament losing Art Briles. I won't fight on that point. But I'll add that losing Ian McCaw is something that is still felt today. I think he was hired after CSD, but Ian was smart enough to not interfere with Drew or Mulkey and the Art Briles choice paid off. The rest of athletics seemed to at least trend well (beside baseball) under his direction. From the few times I interacted with him I found him awkward and not a particularly polished speaker or glad hander, but the results under his watch were worth a lot. Not for nothing, Liberty athletics seems to have had some good success on his watch.

As others have mentioned, this could be an indication that people with stronger resumes were not interested in the job (at what we could afford). A P4 school located within a 200-mile radius of some of the most fertile and important football recruiting territory is struggling to hire an AD: that means the game has changed and we should all be very worried.

---

We hire a new DA based on keeping CSD "happy"....that is not a logical reason and if it anything - stinks to high heaven making a long term decision to keep CSD happy - - - he's gonna have his own problems this year getting to .500 in conference and getting a bid to the tournament. At what point does the luster start to wear off on the Natty....

DallasBear9902 said:

---

Youre a clown said:

---

I haven't seen a single succinct argument as to why Doug is a bad hire or won't work out for us.

---

Obviously, not much to be done about it now. At this point, he is the captain and we are all on the airplane. We all want a good flight that lands safely.

On the plus side, from what is known, it would seem that this will make CSD happy. Enough to stay away from the next big time job, who knows? But at it cannot hurt. And MBB and WBB are about the only thing going somewhat right in the athletic department among the higher profile sports and not hurting those programs is probably the first step of triage here.

On the negative side, the hire feels parochial. As a general rule, it is hard to believe that the answer to "who is the best national candidate" is the person that has been in your backyard the whole time. Things are different when you are trying to holdover success from a predecessor regime. That is not the case here.

The best candidates to build typically are not patient and they don't wait their turn. They job hop. Also, it is really valuable to get diversified experience if you are going to lead something: you learn how other places run things, you take best practices from your home base and combine them with what you learn away from home and mold it into your own thing (see Art Briles incorporating air raid concepts into his offense). I had high hopes for Shawn Bell: local kid of a coach, played at Baylor with a minor cult status, coached high school ball in central Texas, eventually came home to Matt Rhule's staff and initially stayed on with CDA. But I think the fact that, until recently, Bell has never really worked outside of the central Texas bubble ultimately has hurt him. If you look at the resumes of successful coaches and ADs, for the vast majority of them, you will find that they move around for a few decades, job hopping, building and earning their stripes until they are ready for the big time.

It is possible to have someone build out their experience in one place; that is basically what Scott Drew did! But your employer needs to have a patient timeline measured in decades. The lessons that most coaches learn in their 20s, 30s and early 40s in backwoods, smaller no name schools eventually come in handy once you hit the big time. Scott Drew had to learn those lessons on the job under the lights of a power conference job. It eventually paid off BIG TIME for Baylor, but it took almost 20 years to get there. Do we have that kind of time for this AD hire?

The work history raises an eyebrow Speaking from slightly tangential experience, when entrepreneurs have blockbuster success, they find themselves in a weird position: that which made them successful does not necessarily prepare them to run a major going concern. They have no idea who to trust while they are getting peppered from all sides, so they turn to a person they know who sort of seems like they are the right person for the job. And I suspect that was the case with Magnolia. But managing that type of business is difficult. Founders are very passionate and can struggle to transition from "nimble and flexible" to "big bureaucratic machine." And a lot of that job almost certainly involved baby sitting and explaining to his employers that "you cannot do X now that we are a big operation that has to follow corporate formalities." I am not sure how much of that will come in handy in the new job.

Many around here still lament losing Art Briles. I won't fight on that point. But I'll add that losing Ian McCaw is something that is still felt today. I think he was hired after CSD, but Ian was smart enough to not interfere with Drew or Mulkey and the Art Briles choice paid off. The rest of athletics seemed to at least trend well (beside baseball) under his direction. From the few times I interacted with him I found him awkward and not a particularly polished speaker or glad hander, but the results under his watch were worth a lot. Not for nothing, Liberty athletics seems to have had some good success on his watch.

As others have mentioned, this could be an indication that people with stronger resumes were not interested in the job (at what we could afford). A P4 school located within a 200-mile radius of some of the most fertile and important football recruiting territory is struggling to hire an AD: that means the game has changed and we should all be very worried.

---

Cogent. Accurate. Scintillating. Running into genuine thinkers is such a rarity in our tmes. Thank you.