Some of you are making mountains out of molehills. Yes, ultimately the AD is responsible for the functioning of all aspects of the athletic program. And I too saw the long line at the east entrance at the UNLV game (we just walked to another entrance and despite there being only one open door there as well got in pretty quickly). When you rely on students heavily for support staff, the holidays present some challenges. So what. Haven’t seen anything like that happen before. I’m sure it will get fixed.
But the bottom line is that Burman is doing well at the most important aspects of his job. First, on hiring coaches, I still cannot believe we landed Bohl. Most people nationally can’t believe it either. And despite not working out the Christensen hire was lauded nationally at the time as well. And, given what transpired when Shyatt left his first tenure, his hire took some gumption and vision as well.
I also believe Burman’s done a pretty good job with fund raising and budgeting: more improvements, of course, are on the horizon, but even as we speak, I’d rather have our facilities than Air Forces, CSUs, and most other MWC facilities. Shortly, I believe our facilities will match well with any program in the MWC. The vision is there. Further, Burman has a role in monitoring teams and players to make sure that they are in compliance with NCCA rules, etc., which incidentally has influenced his choices in hires. Going well there too. Those are the big AD responsibilities and in my opinion he is doing pretty well at all of them.
Look, I get it. Those of you who don’t like Burman will regurgitate the same tired arguments I’ve read on here a hundred times. Bottom line though is UW sports are on an upward trajectory, whether you have the vision to see it or not. It’s been a hard ride, and so I get the pessimism. But that is when is vision is most important. The dynamics are there for an upward trajectory for UW athletics. Don’t f-it-up by switching horses midstream.
Incidentally, there are some of you who dislike Burman who have a very interesting (and biased) attributional tendency: you give Burman absolutely no credit for any of the positives that occur in UW athletics, yet are eager as hell to give him full blame for all the negatives. Hopefully, the UW president, and the next one, ignores you and rides Burman’s horse for another couple years; if he/she does, the fire Burman rants on here will slink away into the sunset as we are all enjoying UW bowl and tourney games. Go Pokes.