Post by aggierattler on Dec 31, 2007 21:09:35 GMT -5
dailypress.com/sports/dp-now-fairbank1231,0,4777135.column
dailypress.com
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
HU prez strikes again
Dave Fairbank
Hampton Daily Press
7:07 PM EST, December 31, 2007
Bill Harvey's list of New Year's resolutions never changes.
Shed a few pounds.
Read a good book or two.
Remind everyone exactly who calls the shots at Hampton University.
The fingerprints of Hampton U.'s president are all over the recent athletic department cyclone that saw football coach Joe Taylor depart for Florida A&M and assistant Jerry Holmes promoted to the big chair while the seat was still warm.
Unless, of course, you think that Taylor aimed for no better than a lateral move within the same league in the twilight of his career, and that athletic director Lonza Hardy wasn't interested in so much as speaking to any other candidate.
Nope, this was a taffy pull between a pair of strong-willed, successful men. At Hampton U., everybody knows who wins those battles.
Taylor was guilty of venturing outside to scope other homes and neighborhoods one too many times for Harvey's taste. Harvey finally locked the door behind him and sublet his room in the meantime.
Taylor had all but accepted the Western Carolina job before realizing that relocating to Cullowhee, N.C., at age 57 to get crunched by Appalachian State and Georgia Southern for the foreseeable future might not be a wise career move.
And yet when he came back to Hampton and asked for a little consideration, he was told: Sorry, we've already printed new business cards and sold your stuff on eBay.
If the most prominent and successful coach in the entire athletic department, a man who took on the dual role of coach and athletic director for two years as a favor to the school, can't get a little love from his boss in a weak moment, what message does that send to the rest of the troops?
One of the troops in particular, Hardy, received a lesson in the organizational flow chart and his place in the pecking order.
HU, at least in part through Taylor's efforts, fields the premier football program in the MEAC and arguably the nation's best program among historically black colleges and universities. Might the head coaching position draw an attractive field of candidates?
Instead, Hardy, whose accomplishments so far include not finding a replacement softball coach for the late Tiny Laster, was told to sit this one out. The football job went to Holmes, the Pirates' respected and well-liked defensive coordinator, and Harvey's hand-picked successor.
Even for HU, where the peculiar is typical, the Taylor/Holmes football situation is bizarre.
Recall that women's hoops coach Fred Applin was canned midseason for complaining publicly about the disparity between resources for the men's and women's programs. When questioned about the move, the school's response essentially was, "Empty chair? What empty chair?"
Women's basketball coach Pat Cage-Bibbs, who made the program the MEAC's best, decided to leave in September 2004. The school felt compelled to tell no one until her departure came to light three weeks after the fact.
HU fired men's basketball coach Bobby Collins in 2006 almost immediately after he coached the Pirates to their first NCAA tournament game in four years.
As a result of his own miscalculation and Harvey's refusal to reconsider, Taylor was briefly a coach without a program. Lucky for him, maybe, that Florida A&M had a terrible time giving away its football coaching job.
Florida A&M had all but scheduled the press conference to introduce Grambling's Rod Broadway as its new coach. But Broadway, who worked with both the school president and athletic director when all three were at North Carolina Central, couldn't agree on contract terms.
Still, Taylor decided that employment at a place with red flags beats unemployment. Yes, he gets to recruit in talent-rich Florida, but FAMU is working on its seventh athletic director since 2002.
The athletic department had almost 200 NCAA violations related to institutional control several years ago and made a disastrous and aborted attempt to move up to Division I-A despite having neither the finances or infrastructure to pull off such a move.
Finances and infrastructure aren't issues at Hampton University. There is plenty of money, and the infrastructure consists largely of William R. Harvey, who already has taken care of one of his resolutions for 2008.
Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
dailypress.com
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
HU prez strikes again
Dave Fairbank
Hampton Daily Press
7:07 PM EST, December 31, 2007
Bill Harvey's list of New Year's resolutions never changes.
Shed a few pounds.
Read a good book or two.
Remind everyone exactly who calls the shots at Hampton University.
The fingerprints of Hampton U.'s president are all over the recent athletic department cyclone that saw football coach Joe Taylor depart for Florida A&M and assistant Jerry Holmes promoted to the big chair while the seat was still warm.
Unless, of course, you think that Taylor aimed for no better than a lateral move within the same league in the twilight of his career, and that athletic director Lonza Hardy wasn't interested in so much as speaking to any other candidate.
Nope, this was a taffy pull between a pair of strong-willed, successful men. At Hampton U., everybody knows who wins those battles.
Taylor was guilty of venturing outside to scope other homes and neighborhoods one too many times for Harvey's taste. Harvey finally locked the door behind him and sublet his room in the meantime.
Taylor had all but accepted the Western Carolina job before realizing that relocating to Cullowhee, N.C., at age 57 to get crunched by Appalachian State and Georgia Southern for the foreseeable future might not be a wise career move.
And yet when he came back to Hampton and asked for a little consideration, he was told: Sorry, we've already printed new business cards and sold your stuff on eBay.
If the most prominent and successful coach in the entire athletic department, a man who took on the dual role of coach and athletic director for two years as a favor to the school, can't get a little love from his boss in a weak moment, what message does that send to the rest of the troops?
One of the troops in particular, Hardy, received a lesson in the organizational flow chart and his place in the pecking order.
HU, at least in part through Taylor's efforts, fields the premier football program in the MEAC and arguably the nation's best program among historically black colleges and universities. Might the head coaching position draw an attractive field of candidates?
Instead, Hardy, whose accomplishments so far include not finding a replacement softball coach for the late Tiny Laster, was told to sit this one out. The football job went to Holmes, the Pirates' respected and well-liked defensive coordinator, and Harvey's hand-picked successor.
Even for HU, where the peculiar is typical, the Taylor/Holmes football situation is bizarre.
Recall that women's hoops coach Fred Applin was canned midseason for complaining publicly about the disparity between resources for the men's and women's programs. When questioned about the move, the school's response essentially was, "Empty chair? What empty chair?"
Women's basketball coach Pat Cage-Bibbs, who made the program the MEAC's best, decided to leave in September 2004. The school felt compelled to tell no one until her departure came to light three weeks after the fact.
HU fired men's basketball coach Bobby Collins in 2006 almost immediately after he coached the Pirates to their first NCAA tournament game in four years.
As a result of his own miscalculation and Harvey's refusal to reconsider, Taylor was briefly a coach without a program. Lucky for him, maybe, that Florida A&M had a terrible time giving away its football coaching job.
Florida A&M had all but scheduled the press conference to introduce Grambling's Rod Broadway as its new coach. But Broadway, who worked with both the school president and athletic director when all three were at North Carolina Central, couldn't agree on contract terms.
Still, Taylor decided that employment at a place with red flags beats unemployment. Yes, he gets to recruit in talent-rich Florida, but FAMU is working on its seventh athletic director since 2002.
The athletic department had almost 200 NCAA violations related to institutional control several years ago and made a disastrous and aborted attempt to move up to Division I-A despite having neither the finances or infrastructure to pull off such a move.
Finances and infrastructure aren't issues at Hampton University. There is plenty of money, and the infrastructure consists largely of William R. Harvey, who already has taken care of one of his resolutions for 2008.
Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
? nickleberry had to replace his staff... & you had the volleyball/softball coach... coaching from his death bed & he still couldn't get any help.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
