TAMUK Coaching Search Update?

[LSC Fan]

Not sure how ENMU got pulled into this discussion but I would say TAMUK has FAR MORE resources than ENMU. The Greyhounds only have 25 scholarships and the assistant coach salary pool is about 1/2 of what it is being said TAMUk is allotted. The ENMU athletic budget does not allot football enough money in their budget cover full travel costs for road games, or pay for officials for fames. The coaches have to fundraise to just keep the program operating. There is no recruiting budget to speak of. There is no real comparison between ENMU or TAMUK. However, the Hounds have beaten the hogs 7 out of the 8 times the two teams have played. The triple option has been an amazing equalizer for the Greyhounds.

[javs26]

Last I heard, some guy named Briles was the sole finalist.

This was true by the way. Not the sole finalist part but he was in the conversation last week.

[ccchhhrrriiisss]

This was true by the way. Not the sole finalist part but he was in the conversation last week.

I wonder if he would have even considered it or attended an interview.

[javs26]

I wonder if he would have even considered it or attended an interview.

Yes.

[Wonderinghog]

I wonder if he would have even considered it or attended an interview.

I read he was also being considered for the Lamar HC job and an OC job I think at Southern Miss.

My guess is he was passed over because the Baylor scandal still has some mileage on it whether it be with lawsuits or other issues and it would be a PR nightmare for an NCAA institution to have Briles as the HC or even a staff member. He's OK at a small town high school job and he's even be tossed around for jobs at larger high schools in Texas right now. The high schools don't have the target on their backs for the most part the college programs do from the media to the social activism groups who would be pit bulls if more stuff came out about Briles tenure at Baylor. And even quiet little TAMUK wouldn't be off limits for the fall out and the black eyes this program already has from lack of concern from the administration would grow darker and deeper.

But then again the situation at TAMUK with this search looks like it got to the point of desperation, so the TAMUK higher ups might have seriously considered it. Who knows?

[ccchhhrrriiisss]

How much did Texas A&M University-Kingsville pay the organization that conducted the search? I know that time is of the essence in EVERY coaching search (in order to quickly kick-start recruiting efforts). However, this seemed to have been accomplished in a matter of a few weeks. I do wish Coach Salinas the best. However, I'd feel safer with an established head coach and Coach Salinas being groomed to step up to the role. That is why I thought Briles would have been a good fit. He wouldn't have been a long-term solution. However, despite his failures at Baylor, he is a very good coach who could spend a few years grooming his replacement as they built the program.

[LSC Fan]

How much did Texas A&M University-Kingsville pay the organization that conducted the search? I know that time is of the essence in EVERY coaching search (in order to quickly kick-start recruiting efforts). However, this seemed to have been accomplished in a matter of a few weeks. I do wish Coach Salinas the best. However, I'd feel safer with an established head coach and Coach Salinas being groomed to step up to the role. That is why I thought Briles would have been a good fit. He wouldn't have been a long-term solution. However, despite his failures at Baylor, he is a very good coach who could spend a few years grooming his replacement as they built the program.

I think some schools who used this exact firm and started the process at our around the same time we did had their man sooner. Which means we probably had some early interest and then some dropped out for various reason which have been discussed on here.

Truth is we will probably really never know who applied, etc other than what has been publicly disclosed by some who did apply and second hand accounts noted here because the search firm is a good go around the public records laws. This is done with city management jobs such as City Manager and Police/Fire Chiefs so their current employers will not get wind they are applying elsewhere through media accounts. It's not until they narrow it down to a few, the cat is usually let of the bag.

Either this hire will be a spectacular success or a failure. Notice I didn't say a spectacular failure because I'm not sure how much lower we can go from the highs this program once enjoyed other than a total disbandment . Of course we all hope for option one, but until this current administration reveals it's plans to give Salinas ALL the tools he needs to rebuild and in a short period, expectations will remain very low. It might not be fair to Salinas, but that's just the situation he unfortunately inherits and really his tenure will be dictated by others more so than your ordinary coaching change.

[javs26]

I think some schools who used this exact firm and started the process at our around the same time we did had their man sooner. Which means we probably had some early interest and then some dropped out for various reason which have been discussed on here.

Truth is we will probably really never know who applied, etc other than what has been publicly disclosed by some who did apply and second hand accounts noted here because the search firm is a good go around the public records laws. This is done with city management jobs such as City Manager and Police/Fire Chiefs so their current employers will not get wind they are applying elsewhere through media accounts. It's not until they narrow it down to a few, the cat is usually let of the bag.

Either this hire will be a spectacular success or a failure. Notice I didn't say a spectacular failure because I'm not sure how much lower we can go from the highs this program once enjoyed other than a total disbandment . Of course we all hope for option one, but until this current administration reveals it's plans to give Salinas ALL the tools he needs to rebuild and in a short period, expectations will remain very low. It might not be fair to Salinas, but that's just the situation he unfortunately inherits and really his tenure will be dictated by others more so than your ordinary coaching change.

Art Briles wanted the position for a couple of months and there was backing by a lot of people (even a substantial amount of $$$ offered). I am sure the information will get out soon (most want the information to come out because they are pissed about how this was handled and the lack of interest from Hussey and Sharp in listening). The majority of the people seem to think that Sharp and Hussey have no interest in improving the school. They want to see it completely fail.

[Techster88]

Art Briles wanted the position for a couple of months and there was backing by a lot of people (even a substantial amount of $$$ offered). I am sure the information will get out soon (most want the information to come out because they are pissed about how this was handled and the lack of interest from Hussey and Sharp in listening). The majority of the people seem to think that Sharp and Hussey have no interest in improving the school. They want to see it completely fail.

First of all, no way in h3ll is Briles going to be associated with the A&M name at any level At this point and time. The blowback would be unrelenting and unbearable. Every group that ever had a cause would descend on College Station and Kingsville. Way too much bad PR no matter how you slice it.

As far as Sharp being indifferent to Kingsville, you may have a valid point. As of now, he may believe that Kingsville cronies are blocking his vision of a combined campus. Definitely appears that way to me looking on from the outside.

[javs26]

First of all, no way in h3ll is Briles going to be associated with the A&M name at any level At this point and time. The blowback would be unrelenting and unbearable. Every group that ever had a cause would descend on College Station and Kingsville. Way too much bad PR no matter how you slice it.

As far as Sharp being indifferent to Kingsville, you may have a valid point. As of now, he may believe that Kingsville cronies are blocking his vision of a combined campus. Definitely appears that way to me looking on from the outside.

what I have highlighted in bold above, you nailed it. There were a few million dollars offered to the university to make Briles the head coach.

[LSC Fan]

Well heck, I'm just going to go ahead and post what is making the rounds among alumni tonight. Like I've been saying for several years now. This program has been sabotaged and the current AD and President are only continuing the process. Just damn shaking my fricken head. Like I've noted, I'm not sure Briles would have passed the smell test from the A&M BOR or what have you. But if what this alum and former player posted on Facebook is even half correct, this is just confirmation about how messed up our administration is. This proves my point that no amount of emails or phone calls to these guys would have done one bit of good. It's kind of long, but worth the read and there is a lot of valid points Techster 88 has been leading on with. And I really do feel for Salinas. Either this current group of clown car drivers at College Hall and the AD office are going to reverse course here soon and support this program or Salinas will have the exact same fate as Wilk and Calloway before him if he doesn't say screw it one year in to the job. Merry Christmas!!!

My fellow Javelinas

Approx. 2 months ago a group of a dozen ex football players from teams in the 50's thru 90's Had a lot of overdue concern about the football program. So we set up a committee. So we set up a meeting with the AD Steve Roach and President Hussey. Well, we had the meeting with a few weeks left in the season At that time we had secured the commitment of coach Art Briles to take over the program and bring it back to the way it was if not better. We were told at the meeting, were Hussey didn't give us the respect to attend, that they could not talk about the current coaching situation. So with respect we didn't. So we discussed the decline in attendance at game and what was the short and long term cures to fix the program When you fix the football program enrollment will follow. So we talked about the money they needed to build a bigger and better stadium. Fix the stuff that needs to be fixed immediately and so on. We let him know that with the right plan we could raise the money and help get the program back to a national level. When Coach Wilkenson was fired we set up a meeting ASAP. They put us off. So we spread the word around the community and other ex alumni and p;layers Now we were representing a group of 100 + players all in favor of hiring Art Briles ASAP.

So we bombarded them with sincere emails from a lot of us explaining tradition and how Art Briles could bring the program back. Local businesses sent emails doing the same. So we passed this info to Hussey and he told us the board of regents shot it down. So knowing some regent members we reached out. They said they never heard of anything about it and they never shoot down any request form a University President.IT IS THE PRESIDENTS DECISION PERIOD. So we were lied to. Of course we called him out on it and we got our second meeting. In the meantime they got a committee together of some University men and some local business men and one ex player. It was a rubber stamped committee.So we went to our second meeting with Hussey and Roach present. Hussey asked if he could start the meeting. He said with no disrespect he didn't read anyones emails but maybe a few lines . I had to hold back. Then he said he wanted to hear our passion and he was not a football guy but he understood that with a successful program the whole college benefits so he said he was going to do what ever AD Roach suggests in hiring a coach. So we pleaded our case with much resistance and at the same time we also told them with Art Briles at the Helm we had donors willing to throw millions into the program. Art Briles made 3.9 million a year coaching at Baylor and would take the job with a guarantee of 3 years at what A&M Kingsville was willing to pay. What a bargain. Well they said they had a problem with the scandel that got him fired at Baylor and the bad publicity that it might bring in his hiring.We are already the laughing stock of the LSC I don't think it will matter.We Had the city of Kingsvilles full support . We had a letter of Reconmendation from Coach Harms fully supporting him. They probably didn't read it. I bet yall didn't even know that the football program hadn't had a budget in 7 years. Coaches would try to recruit and didn't have the money to travel. We had all the info that exhaunerated Art Briles of any wrong doing. We had a commitment from Steve Roach that he would pick up the phone and call the attorneys involved in the case and listen to them about how Briles was the scapegoat. He didn't give us the respect to do it.He said Art Briles need s to put in his application and we will consider him. That's a laugh Probably one of if not the best coach ever to come out of Texas. We reached out to Briles and he said if they would call him and tell him they were interested he would put in his application . He didn't want to waste anyones time , he wanted to know they were serious.. The bottom line is he wouldn't let the committee hear him out and make the decision themselves. So in a last ditch effort we know money talks and ,well you know the rest. we started calling people . People with big money. Some ex Baylor people that loved Briles and A&I people that are big donors. We secured 3 million dollars from a few donors and several hundreds of thousands of dollars from others with the stipulation that Art Briles was named head coach. People that was real money. One of us that was on one of the early national champion teams that is a very successful business man in Houston had a meeting in Houston with Hussey. I'm leaving individuals names out because I'm the one that decided to go public with this because I don't care anymore. In short he made the proposal to Hussey which raised a few eyebrows. Hussey said he will put some serious thought to it and let him know. Now this was money Hussey could use for anything to better the school or program and there was more to come. That's if Briles is the head coach. Well they slowed down in naming anyone for a day and then Bam Mike Salinas. Look Mike is an ex javelina he put it all out on that field like all of us so I have nothing bad to say about him. I hope him the best but I hope he knows the mess he inheritated. It's gonna take un believable recruiting and a lot of money put into the program to be able to have something to offer the kids to come play here.

The bottom line is the committee, the president, the AD and a few other higher ups did not have the universities best interests in mind. They did not pic the best coach they could've had. So I started trying to figure what Husseys ulterior motive is? Well Hussey was named as President by John Sharp chancellor of A&M and he was the one that a few years back wanted to merge Tamuk with A&M CC. It didn't go well and didn't happen. So the way I look at it Hussey is John Sharps puppet and if the school stays the way it is now, with declining enrollment it will be the only choice for the universities to join so they can survive. If they have a winning football program and an infusion of money it would be hard to get people to agree on a merge I have several people that will agree with me but I will own this theory because like I said I don't care anymore . Oh and Roach the AD, he's in a bad place He will toe the line because he is a kid with a family and a mortgage. I will not support my school financially anymore along with the majority if not all that fought to get Briles a shot at this and several businesses in town because the size of the dump Hussey took on all of us was pretty bad .The lies and deception was not right. The only way most of us will come back is if Hussey is gone and Roach with him. I hope Mike Salinas can pull this program out of the hole its in but I'm afraid he is set up to fail. So anyone reading this that like what they are doing better pull out their checkbooks to save this program.

[Techster88]

what I have highlighted in bold above, you nailed it. There were a few million dollars offered to the university to make Briles the head coach.

[javs26]

[DIIguru]

TAMUK could learn how to hire a Head Coach from Lenoir Rhyne. Their coach takes a DI FCS job and a week later they have hired a successful DII Head Coach away from a top program

[LionFan]

Wow, I was totally joking on Briles.

Just my opinion, but I've never understood the point of the search committees. Let the AD do his job.