Vote for Burman's worst decision (or lack of)!!

[McPeachy]

He fired Dave Christensen and Allen Edwards. Edwards was a pretty lazy hire with no real search.

Didn't he also fire BuckyMac, Joe Glenn, Slick Dick Schroyer, and a plethora of non-revenue coaches (Volleyball, Soccer, Rodeo, etc.)?

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Didn't he also fire BuckyMac, Joe Glenn, Slick Dick Schroyer, and a plethora of non-revenue coaches (Volleyball, Soccer, Rodeo, etc.)?

I believe you're correct. The rodeo coach firing seemed to be unrelated to performance and I never heard the real story on that one. The timing was bizarre. I don't believe Wyoming actually fired the previous volleyball coach (Callihan) rather no new contract offer was extended.

 

[rocket city poke]

Didn't he also fire BuckyMac, Joe Glenn, Slick Dick Schroyer, and a plethora of non-revenue coaches (Volleyball, Soccer, Rodeo, etc.)?

yeah, he fires lots of people that he hired often with long and big contracts. Often letting them hang around a real long time because he doesn't want to admit what a total screwup the situation is -- Sawvel fits the description perfectly.

 

[McPeachy]

I believe you're correct. The rodeo coach firing seemed to be unrelated to performance and I never heard the real story on that one. The timing was bizarre. I don't believe Wyoming actually fired the previous volleyball coach (Callihan) rather no new contract offer was extended.

The rodeo thing was quite strange with Beau Clark - I agree - and I stopped asking about it (and the why). And didn't Burman fire Pat Stangle and Carrie Yerty as well (Volleyball). The Yerty situation was also quite strange if I am remembering.

 

[Brew_Poke]

Exactly. That’s the point. The latest five-year stretch is getting all the attention, but the Rubicon was crossed long before that.

Burman’s tenure has been bad. I’m not arguing otherwise. The basketball results are indefensible, and football has mostly been a bottom-half MWC program. But that actually supports the point that this isn’t just about the last five years. The decline was already baked in well before NIL, the portal, and the Pac/MWC chaos became the dominant issues.

I said we’re over-indexing on recent misery because I don’t see some magic move available from 2021 forward that would have meaningfully changed Wyoming’s place in the current college athletics hierarchy. Even if UW had been better competitively starting in 2020, we’re still a small-market, remote, low-population, limited-alumni-base school trying to survive in an era where those things matter more than ever.

Winning still matters, but not the way it used to. College athletics now puts far more weight on eyeballs, TV value, NIL capacity, donor depth, and institutional scale. Competitive outcomes still count, but they are no longer the great equalizer they once were. To the extent this was avoidable, the window was in the early years of Burman’s tenure.....and probably in the years leading up to it. By 2021, UW wasn’t standing at a fork in the road. It was already playing catch-up in a system that was about to punish small, remote programs even more severely.

So yes, hold Burman accountable. The results justify it. But I don’t buy the idea that the critical failure point was 2021–2026. By then, UW was already behind the curve, and the curve had just gotten a hell of a lot steeper.

The point was the 1996 10-2 team, ranked #22 in the country, left at home with no bowl game. It was evident we had work to do then, but our loser culture fooled itself for 30 years that everything was okay and we were doing pretty good. After all, were just little old Wyoming. The Athletics Department are losers who just fuck around in their government jobs without engaging with their work in a meaningful, goal-oriented way, because their leadership doesn't know how to lead a team to do that. It's just sad.

 

[307bball]

The point was the 1996 10-2 team, ranked #22 in the country, left at home with no bowl game. It was evident we had work to do then, but our loser culture fooled itself for 30 years that everything was okay and we were doing pretty good. After all, were just little old Wyoming. The Athletics Department are losers who just fuck around in their government jobs without engaging with their work in a meaningful, goal-oriented way, because their leadership doesn't know how to lead a team to do that. It's just sad.

You might be right...hindsight being 20/20 and all does make it easier to see.

I remember that year soooo well.

 

[laxwyo]

anyway to do ranked choice voting on this?

 

[laxwyo]

I disagree. I believe the criticism of his pay is warranted.

Sawvel's guaranteed contract for an unproven head coach with no known suitors is a ridiculous example of this. The fact that other MWC schools pay head coaches a certain amount is absolutely irrelevant (those coaches probably earned that). To the extent a coach or AD has a market, and to the extent that coach or AD has proven themselves and to the extent a coach or AD could demand a higher salary somewhere else in the marketplace, then you reward that individual and pay them handsomely to stay here at Wyoming.

But paying someone a really high salary and simply stating "other schools pay that much" is the same exact laziness and lack of accountability that has got us in this current position of virtual irrelevancy. I really hope the new President will demand real accountability.

Sawful's contract is disgusting. Corporations have this shit nailed down. If you're being promoted, they always offer just enough money to keep you. They know that you are familiar with the system and want to stay and that you could likely get more if you went out into more unknown situations. Sawful was looking at a giant pay raise either way, giving him established coaching money was insane. No one was hiring Sawful as a headcoach and Burman should understand that. Maybe Sawvel could be lured away as a DC somewhere else but that wouldn't be a giant raise unless he went to a big boy (not happening). It's an easy deal. "We're not paying you Craig Bohl money because you're a first time head coach. You're getting a giant raise and we'd like to reward you if you're successful". Double his current salary and then build W incentives into it where if he wins 10 games, he'd be in the top of the league. Then if he wins 9 or 10 two years in a row, you give him guaranteed money near the top of the league.

 

[Douglaspoke]

Sawful's contract is disgusting. Corporations have this shit nailed down. If you're being promoted, they always offer just enough money to keep you. They know that you are familiar with the system and want to stay and that you could likely get more if you went out into more unknown situations. Sawful was looking at a giant pay raise either way, giving him established coaching money was insane. No one was hiring Sawful as a headcoach and Burman should understand that. Maybe Sawvel could be lured away as a DC somewhere else but that wouldn't be a giant raise unless he went to a big boy (not happening). It's an easy deal. "We're not paying you Craig Bohl money because you're a first time head coach. You're getting a giant raise and we'd like to reward you if you're successful". Double his current salary and then build W incentives into it where if he wins 10 games, he'd be in the top of the league. Then if he wins 9 or 10 two years in a row, you give him guaranteed money near the top of the league.

Obvious Common Sense-lacking in the public sphere, the govt hacks and those at the Wyoming AD. Throw in the new elite tier group as well from my old political party.

 

[PorkerPoke]

Sawful's contract is disgusting. Corporations have this shit nailed down. If you're being promoted, they always offer just enough money to keep you. They know that you are familiar with the system and want to stay and that you could likely get more if you went out into more unknown situations. Sawful was looking at a giant pay raise either way, giving him established coaching money was insane. No one was hiring Sawful as a headcoach and Burman should understand that. Maybe Sawvel could be lured away as a DC somewhere else but that wouldn't be a giant raise unless he went to a big boy (not happening). It's an easy deal. "We're not paying you Craig Bohl money because you're a first time head coach. You're getting a giant raise and we'd like to reward you if you're successful". Double his current salary and then build W incentives into it where if he wins 10 games, he'd be in the top of the league. Then if he wins 9 or 10 two years in a row, you give him guaranteed money near the top of the league.

It’s like an entity hemorrhaging money that keeps spending unnecessarily.

For instance, my HOA is low on capital reserves. But they spent a substantial sum putting in landscape rock patterns all over the golf course along with over 40 trees that have no impact on the play of the course but were very pricey. The sand traps were neglected again and about 25% have only an inch of loose sand along with multiple tee boxes needing to be leveled. The landscaping justification was “it was in the budget”.

It reminds me of the Sawful contract where the price invested was not reflective of the most pressing need. Burman had no clue the idea about retaining players was misguided because the areas of real need were poorly evaluated. Wyoming had no offense and instead went with the leftovers that Bohl was “developing” which was like saying it was in the budget and no need to be concerned with the long term negative impact of not addressing the most pressing issues with a priority.

When you get to the level of D1 sports there is only so much you invest on likeable personalities (which I agree have some relevance), but the primary focus has to be on getting the job done and recognizing deficiencies. If a player is not game ready and a new player beats them out and they quit - oh well so sad too bad.

To me the hiring of Sawful was the 40+ trees for decoration value when the real need was an infusion of offensive talent which has cost this program another 2 years and further diminished its value. It took the last 2 years to recognize that a lack of offense has cost the program numerous winnable games. I had a talk at the potato bowl with Burman and suggested to him that he needed to hold Bohl to a higher offensive output standard. It’s my opinion the inconsistent and often brutally inconsistent passing game cost Wyoming the chance for a MWC championship. It’s the fact that Bohl found ways to win 6 games which Burman treated like it was the equivalent of winning the conference.

If New Mexico with a decades long inferiority in the football program can make back to back hires and reload talent through the hiring of capable leadership it just shows what being afraid to set a higher standard does.

The analysis by laxwyo really addresses the problem. If Sawful proved right away he was the man, then step up the contract. Never pay the highest price for a house in a neighborhood that doesn’t offer any value over the rest of hood when the hood isn’t exactly a return on investment potential. Burman bought a fixer upper but paid the price for a glamour house in a neighborhood that doesn’t have glamour houses.