[NU Sports] Football experiment

[Michael Vance]

At 12/2/2004 10:37 AM, Tom wrote:
>And I just think the DiNardo thing was wrong with a capital W (again,
>unless there are factors going on we don't know about). His successor
>will almost *certainly* have a better record than DiNardo, because
>DiNardo was stuck rebuilt possibly the most broken college football
>team in the country. Now someone else will benefit from his hard work.

There's really only one explanation for DiNardo: The new AD at IU, Rick 
Greenspan, just flat-out didn't like him.  Whether it extended to being 
personal or was strictly professional and philosphical, the bottom line is 
that he didn't impress his new boss.  According to the Indy Star this 
morning, the two of them had met three times since the Bucket game, 
including once for five hours (!).  Then when Greenspan called DiNardo 
Tuesday night to set up a Wednesday morning meeting, and DiNardo asked 
about the agenda, he was told that it was for him to be fired.  This was 
nothing more than an intense personality or philosophy conflict.

Among other things, DiNardo had gone to great lengths to build 
relationships with Indiana high schools.  In his first year on the job, he 
personally visited every single high school football coach in the 
state.  He figured that if he couldn't recruit in-state that no one was 
ever going to care about IU football again.

Interestingly enough, Bob Kravitz points out in his column 
(http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/199111-9466-036.html) that Mike Davis 
had better improve things this season or he probably faces a similar 
fate.  Davis claims that he has a great relationship with Greenspan, 
pointing out as evidence that he has met with him at length numerous times, 
which apparently IU's previous ADs did not do.  (No wonder their athletic 
department, or at least their revenue sports, is in a shambles; how many of 
us are in jobs where we "never" meet with our direct boss?)  Maybe Davis 
needs to read the part about DiNardo and Greenspan meeting a lot, too.  :-)


Michael, CAS '91
mailto:michael at vance.com