[EPICS FAIL] FAIL State: The web of lies around Hoke’s departure
December 15th, 2008 by Will O'Hargan
BS Photo | Derick Brattain
It can now be considered official. Brady Hoke has left Ball State University for San Diego State University. Jo Ann Gora, via e-mail, confirmed as much earlier today, and The Star Press has Tom Collins on the record saying that Hoke has resigned as head football coach.
Today alumni from across the nation e-mailed Jo Ann Gora to ask her a question that she couldn’t possibly answer: ‘What went wrong?’
OverThePylon, a Ball State sports blog, has a response they received from President Gora. In it, she blames a number of factors in Hoke’s departure.
Recognizing his achievements this season, the university offered him a new deal that would have made Brady Ball State’s highest paid employee. We willingly discussed and resolved issues he raised. Upon learning of his decision, I asked Brady directly if there was any more we could have done to keep him, and he said, simply, “no.” When Brady told me that San Diego State had offered him a guaranteed package of $3.5 million over five years, I knew we had done all we could to keep him, especially in these challenging economic times.
Ball State did offer to make him the highest paid employee, that is true. However, what the response doesn’t address is the fact that many people know: There is plenty Ball State could have done to keep Brady Hoke here. Some are immediate, such as offering his assistants (many of whom already have their résumé prepared weeks ago) more than a 3% cost of living wage raise after a 12-1 season of which they were a key factor, putting offices near the football stadium or improving one of the worst college football stadiums in Division I.
Maybe we don’t have the money for it in the athletic budget. We did pay Ronny Thompson somewhere around $200,000 to go away and stop causing us problems. A reminder that no one was fired for that incident. However, Gora pretending that the difference was the $300,000 between Ball State and San Diego is foolish. Hoke wanted to stay at Ball State and that difference after calculating cost of living is actually closer to $100,000 by most estimates.
In these trying economic times, Brady Hoke has given the University a valueless gift: national exposure. These, of course, are all short term issues, and there are long term issues after the jump.
- Ball State athletic director Tom Collins
Of course, there is the longterm issues that also could have helped Hoke stay. Jo Ann Gora and Tom Collins have never made an effort to develop a relationship with Brady Hoke and could be seen clearly during halftime of Saturday’s basketball game when Hoke was being honored and Gora chose that moment to leave the stadium (as the picture at the start of this article shows, she’s not exactly the most involved spectator anyway).
Jason Whitlock, a national sports columnist and Ball State alum, posted a response from Gora that was not only awful, but also contained several lies which Whitlock took the time on WNDE’s show JMV to dismantle. Whitlock had a meeting with Gora and Collins at the President’s house where they discussed these coming issues. Whitlock knew what we all knew: this season was going to be special.
This is a mistake in a long line of mistakes made by Ball State’s administration in respect to athletics. Whitlock stated in plain words on JMV that this was a longterm plan to get Hoke to leave and promote Stan Parrish. We’ll see if that happens, or of Stan decides he doesn’t want to be replaced after he becomes successful.
Ball State has become a reactive University. Rather than be proactive and thinking about the future, Ball State is caught perpetually in the present and the past, always playing catch up. I have no problem with Ball State being a stepping stone. Any school of our size and stature will be viewed that way. But Brady Hoke didn’t want to leave, he was left with no choice. He could either leave and see his assistant coaches cupboard go completely dry or leave and try and have success elsewhere.
Also, anyone who complains about athletics taking money away from academics: the two are run on totally different budgets and have no effect on one another.
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December 16th, 2008