We owe a debt of gratitude to Vince Tyra. He didn’t have to accept the AD job, but did, and just about everything since then has gone in our favor. Think about what would have happened if he weren’t hired. Like these scenarios.
- We wouldn’t have Chris Mack. A new AD would have had to fight to establish his position and authority at UofL. At the time, Grissom was questioning the importance of athletes. I don’t think we hire Chris Mack at the required price without Vince fighting that fight, and only he could do so from his position of trust with Grissom. If Tom were retained he would also have hired Mack. And there would have been bloody battles to make it happen.
- We wouldn’t have hired Scott Satterfield.. A new AD would have broken the bank to appease the fan base and donors by closing the deal for Brohm after an unfavorable hire (whatever coach not named Mack) at an inflated price. While we all would have liked to have CJB leading our program, he isn’t worth a price above market value, and Vince knew this value. Cost is exactly what got Vince off Brohm and onto his next candidate, Satterfield. If Tom was still our guy, BP would still be our coach. Tom would have cringed daily at fan reaction but would have stuck with Bobby out of loyalty. This would have set our football program back way more than the extra year he’d have been given.
- We got him fast. How long did it take to hire Neeli? The bball coach would have been hired by someone else we’d rather not have make that decision. Timing and time of year matters in these hires. By the time we’d have been ready to hire, the good candidates would not have been available and the good 2018 season would have otherwise been a write off.
- We’d get hammered by the NCAA. Any of us who knew Tom knew he was committed to compliance. If you didn’t know him like those in the NCAA, you only know what you see - violations. An outside AD would not be able to represent us in the same manner as a former BOT member, like VT could do. We need to represent a commitment to compliance in our past while portraying a believable vision of compliance for the future. Only VT can do this in a manner that gives us a chance for leniency.
