Unionfan is roused from 5+ years of LLPP slumber by the absurdity of the Audino situation, and heartily endorses bigdvs, dlip and Utes' recent comments. When Unionfan starts to get upset with the school and AD, he tried to remind himself of Hanlon's Razor- "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
A couple of other unvarnished thoughts:
1. Even if one agreed that Audino should be fired (which Unionfan does not, per below), the way the administration and AD McLaughlin handled this was incompetent and embarrassing to the college. If you are going to terminate someone, you do it decisively, swiftly and fairly. You have a plan, you take action, and you take responsibility for that action. You don't twist in the wind with your panties in a bunch for 30 days before finally releasing an awkward press release that makes pretty clear you're making things up as you go along. Of course, Union's mishandling of this does not surprise me, as McLaughlin is a weak and ineffective AD.
2. The debate around how much winning should matter in D3 is a good one. Unionfan's view is that matters -- it's not the single most important thing (see below), but it is important, mostly because student-athletes deserve to be put in a position where they can achieve success on the field. But winning requires two essential elements - an administration that gives the team the resources and support needed to be successful, and a coach who can deploy those resources to win games. If either is missing, you won't see much winning.
3. Over the past 24 years of Union football, you see 20 very successful years and four poor ones. You know the coach is a consistent variable across those years, so which is more likely - (i) the coach suddenly become ineffective or (ii) the resources/support needed suddenly changed? None of us knows the true details about relative level of resources/support, because the Union AD is wholly nontransparent on this stuff, but it seems to me pretty obvious that firing Audino is changing the wrong variable. Now it may well be the Union has made an institutional choice not to provide real resources/support to its football program, and Audino is the wrong guy to coach a team not well-supported by its AD -- Unionfan legitimately thinks they are coaches out there who specialize in making the mediocre most of an unresourced program, like the old Union men's hockey approach, and the current women's hockey approach. But that's a very different story than Union is telling - and also a story the alumni would freak out over.
4. As Unionfan said, winning is important, but there is a higher priority in D3 athletics - educating young men and women and giving the skills and wisdom to succeed in life. Ask anyone close to Union athletics, and they'll tell you the same thing - Audino does this as well as anyone out there. Ten years ago, Union said this about Audino when it awarded him its Meritorious Service Award: "Throughout Audino's 14 years at the helm of Union football, he has been a true educator, teaching his players that there is also much fulfillment outside of football. Through leadership by example, Audino and his coaching staff have instilled in hundreds of players a strong commitment to school, community and family."
5. As an alum, Unionfan can no longer tell if Union has any discernible mission or plan when it comes to student athletics. You look at women's ice hockey, the approach seems to be "we simply don't care - we won't support but don't worry about winning." You look at football, and the approach seems to be "molding and educating kids is nice, but you gotta win games with limited support if you want to stick around. And you look at men's hockey, and the approach "as long as you win big it's totally cool if you occasionally punch another coach." As an alum, not a lot to be proud of here.
A couple of other unvarnished thoughts:
1. Even if one agreed that Audino should be fired (which Unionfan does not, per below), the way the administration and AD McLaughlin handled this was incompetent and embarrassing to the college. If you are going to terminate someone, you do it decisively, swiftly and fairly. You have a plan, you take action, and you take responsibility for that action. You don't twist in the wind with your panties in a bunch for 30 days before finally releasing an awkward press release that makes pretty clear you're making things up as you go along. Of course, Union's mishandling of this does not surprise me, as McLaughlin is a weak and ineffective AD.
2. The debate around how much winning should matter in D3 is a good one. Unionfan's view is that matters -- it's not the single most important thing (see below), but it is important, mostly because student-athletes deserve to be put in a position where they can achieve success on the field. But winning requires two essential elements - an administration that gives the team the resources and support needed to be successful, and a coach who can deploy those resources to win games. If either is missing, you won't see much winning.
3. Over the past 24 years of Union football, you see 20 very successful years and four poor ones. You know the coach is a consistent variable across those years, so which is more likely - (i) the coach suddenly become ineffective or (ii) the resources/support needed suddenly changed? None of us knows the true details about relative level of resources/support, because the Union AD is wholly nontransparent on this stuff, but it seems to me pretty obvious that firing Audino is changing the wrong variable. Now it may well be the Union has made an institutional choice not to provide real resources/support to its football program, and Audino is the wrong guy to coach a team not well-supported by its AD -- Unionfan legitimately thinks they are coaches out there who specialize in making the mediocre most of an unresourced program, like the old Union men's hockey approach, and the current women's hockey approach. But that's a very different story than Union is telling - and also a story the alumni would freak out over.
4. As Unionfan said, winning is important, but there is a higher priority in D3 athletics - educating young men and women and giving the skills and wisdom to succeed in life. Ask anyone close to Union athletics, and they'll tell you the same thing - Audino does this as well as anyone out there. Ten years ago, Union said this about Audino when it awarded him its Meritorious Service Award: "Throughout Audino's 14 years at the helm of Union football, he has been a true educator, teaching his players that there is also much fulfillment outside of football. Through leadership by example, Audino and his coaching staff have instilled in hundreds of players a strong commitment to school, community and family."
5. As an alum, Unionfan can no longer tell if Union has any discernible mission or plan when it comes to student athletics. You look at women's ice hockey, the approach seems to be "we simply don't care - we won't support but don't worry about winning." You look at football, and the approach seems to be "molding and educating kids is nice, but you gotta win games with limited support if you want to stick around. And you look at men's hockey, and the approach "as long as you win big it's totally cool if you occasionally punch another coach." As an alum, not a lot to be proud of here.
