An AD’s job is more than just hiring coaches. He has helped facilitate improvements around the athletics department, some he spearheaded, others he just continued with an existing plan. They are measured by the overall success of the major athletics programs- 3 consecutive bowl seasons (prior to this year obviously) in FB is pretty strong compared to our long term history TBH. Now, we are all frustrated with the current state of the FB team, but just looking at it through the Perspective of the past three years, ignoring the two year negative trend that had obviously developed.. Not so bad.. MBB- Final Four run, looks to be one of our most talented teams we have had in years this year... Some really good accomplishments... WBB- on perhaps the most dominant run of any sports team in the history of our school short of Tanner’s own baseball team. And Baseball- well... compared to our history baseball has been by far the biggest disappointment of all the major programs under Tanner’s AD stint thus far. We will see what happens with the current staff, I hope he turns things around in a hurry. You can point to some big success in secondary/ non-revenue sports as well... Didn’t Women’s soccer just win the SEC this week?
A lot of their responsibilities are focused on policy and compliance as well. Mediocre from a policy perspective IMO- seems to move slow on making decisions that could boost revenue and fan interest- BEER at the games being the current example... But I like the $25/month Gamecock pass we implemented. I think that is pretty cutting edge and smart to jump on it so early...
From a compliance standpoint I do not think you can say a negative word about him. He is a stand up guy who has a focus on doing things the right way and represents our University in a positive light... We do not find any of our programs in trouble with the NCAA under him in any major way at all and that is something he should get some credit for.
certainly there are frustrations- THE BUY OUT for instance. But beyond WM’s buy out being astonishingly high, I see nothing glaring that tells me he deserves to be fired. Not giving him any credit for what Martin and Dawn have/are doing in basketball just because he did not hire them is kind of... unfair. They work for him, he keeps them here and keeps them happy, provides support and advice when they need it... and we all know every school in the nation that gives a rip about WBB would love to have Dawn Staley!
I personally do not think he will or should be fired but I know how frustrated fans tend to want to fire EVERYONE. I just read a thread on here where people want to go after the board of trustees too... The grass is not always greener and we could do worse than Ray Tanner... Sure, maybe we could do better too.. But with an AD it is generally YEARS down the road before you can tell how well they are even doing. Do we want to take the chance of someone coming in and not getting along with the coaches we DO want to keep? If we continue to see negative momentum in FB next year and he does nothing about it... We will see the pressure grow for sure.