Poll:. Best AD Ever

[Upstream]

Winning isn’t everything - it’s the ONLY thing.

I think someone said that

Of course, that's not true either. That's why Tom Jurich is no longer AD at Louisville.

 

[50 yd line RR]

Let's be honest. How football and basketball do under his tenure will be the primary metrics on which Hobbs is judged. Sure, there will be other measures, but all of them combined would not be enough to overcome FB and BB performance.

Fred Gruninger moved Rutgers from D1AA to D1A, got the football stadium expanded, built the Hale Center, and built the RAC. Although he failed to recognize that Rutgers should have joined the BB-only Big East (and later had Rutgers join the FB+BB Big East), that is only a failure because our basketball program languished. Gruninger is considered a failure because football and basketball declined and were unsuccessful in the later part of his tenure.

On the other hand, Mulcahy pretty much accomplished nothing other than hire Schiano to lead resurgence of the football program. Any other good stuff that occurred in Mulcahy's tenure is directly linked to Schiano elevating the football program. And because of Mulcahy's hire of Schiano, this thread is putting him in contention as "best AD ever".

Personally I usually try to refrain from commenting on Fast Freddie but when your talking past AD's he has to be in the conversation.
Let's put it this way, if you reworded this poll
and asked who the worst AD in Rutgers history is/was? Your boy would win hands down. Don't want to be to harsh the guy is retired, but in his tenure that whole athletic department was the laughing stock of college sports.The only thing that you could possibly say in his defense is that some of the decisions concerning athletics were made by higher ups.
I find it comical you want to knock Bob Mulcahy, but if you recall when he took the job ,We had to self report NCAA violations (from the previous regime) and put ourselves on probation.

 

[BigLou]

Pernetti definitely deserves consideration though I did not vote for him. His critics say he hired 2 coaches that embarrassed the University but from my viewpoint 1) Flood's problems were under Herman's tenure. He was pretty much squeaky clean while he worked under Pernetti, and 2) Pernetti handled the Mike Rice situation the way an executive should - he started an investigation and hired an outside firm to run it, he acted on their recommendations and dealt out what should have been sufficient penalties - namely an in season suspension without pay, counselling and monitoring. While no one knew what the suspension was for, it was stated in several places that Rice's behavior on the sideline did improve after the penalties were doled out. Then ESPN got the tape and Barchi had to find a scapegoat for the fact that he did not get involved at the beginning. The fact that Tim was in charge when we got the conference invite definitely outweighs the negatives from Rice and certainly from Flood, who had his best season under Tim.

I voted for Mulcahy as he had the least to work with and the deepest hole to get out of. He put us in position for the Big Ten invite.

I would probably place Pernetti and Hobbs even but expect that a year from now, Hobbs will be challenging Mulcahy for the top spot.

 

[Plum Street]

Of course, that's not true either. That's why Tom Jurich is no longer AD at Louisville.

Yeah because the AD’s we fired were way better than anything jurich ever did !

 

[Upstream]

Personally I usually try to refrain from commenting on Fast Freddie but when your talking past AD's he has to be in the conversation.
Let's put it this way, if you reworded this poll
and asked who the worst AD in Rutgers history is/was? Your boy would win hands down. Don't want to be to harsh the guy is retired, but in his tenure that whole athletic department was the laughing stock of college sports.The only thing that you could possibly say in his defense is that some of the decisions concerning athletics were made by higher ups.
I find it comical you want to knock Bob Mulcahy, but if you recall when he took the job ,We had to self report NCAA violations (from the previous regime) and put ourselves on probation.

Ummm.... Gruninger isn't "my boy"; I said he was a failure. And I'm not knocking Mulcahy; I said he was a success.

 

[Quix0te]

Yeah because the AD’s we fired were way better than anything jurich ever did !

Julie Hermann came from Louisville. What a classy school that is.

 

[Plum Street]

Julie Hermann came from Louisville. What a classy school that is.

Please. We are not holier than thou. If we won in football or basketball, people wouldn’t care why or who. These are dirty businesses and the dirtiest usually win. Save for a penn state type scandal, that’s where most normal folk draw the line.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

Mulcahy and it's not even close. We are not a dead program today because of Bob

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

Al Downing.

 

[RuBird]

Anthony Davis

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

Downing gave up Aaron's 715 . Davis quit in the middle of his career . Both from Jersey. It's a tie..

 

[17Q66]

I can't believe 61 people voted for Mulcahy. His accomplishments are undeniable, but all 61 people who voted for him could've done just as good a job as he did -- look at his predecessor.

Anyone could turn around Rutgers Athletics to the extent Mulcahy did simply by asking WWFGD and do the opposite.

 

[MADHAT1]

We can disagree about who was the best and who was the worst.
But I think we all can agree the person who wanted the AD position when Mulcahy was hired would have been a disaster and failing to get the position did his best to obstruct Mulcahy from reaching the goals he set for RU's FB Program.
George Zoffinger made Mulcahy's vision for how to make RU into a name brand so much harder to do and many of us forget the obsticles Zoffinger put in front of Mulcahy in an effort to see him fail.

 

[50 yd line RR]

We can disagree about who was the best and who was the worst.
But I think we all can agree the person who wanted the AD position when Mulcahy was hired would have been a disaster and failing to get the position did his best to obstruct Mulcahy from reaching the goals he set for RU's FB Program.
George Zoffinger made Mulcahy's vision for how to make RU into a name brand so much harder to do and many of us forget the obsticles Zoffinger put in front of Mulcahy in an effort to see him fail.

I never knew that.

 

[50 yd line RR]

Ummm.... Gruninger isn't "my boy"; I said he was a failure. And I'm not knocking Mulcahy; I said he was a success.

Upstream totally misread your post. Time for a new eyeglass prescription.

 

[MADHAT1]

I never knew that.

Here’s a hatchet job on Rutgers Athletics when Mulcahy was forced out.
In praising Zoffinger it shows he wanted the job
>Dissenting voices like the Rutgers 1000 were ignored or curtly dismissed. One of the few prominent official voices who sounded a warning was board member George Zoffinger, whose concerns -- it's now clear -- should have been heeded. But Zoffinger's cogent and reasonable objections were scoffed at, chalked up to sour grapes over not having gotten the sports director's job himself.<
http://blog.nj.com/njv_fran_wood/2008/12/robert_mulcahy_shouldnt_be_the.html
I remember the person that wrote this blog, at one time she used an anonymous source to show prove stadium expansion wasn't needed.
The problem with that source was the source was a poster on NJO.com's Rutgers football board that went by the name anonymous. I'm not joking because I posted that info in comment section of her blog and was promptly banned for posting it in comment section .

 

[Source]

I remember the person that wrote this blog, at one time she used an anonymous source to show prove stadium expansion wasn't needed.
The problem with that source was the source was a poster on NJO.com's Rutgers football board that went by the name anonymous. I'm not joking because I posted that info in comment section of her blog and was promptly banned for posting it in comment section .

How ironic. I go by the name Source and I happen to be anonymous.

 

[bac2therac]

Pernetti definitely deserves consideration though I did not vote for him. His critics say he hired 2 coaches that embarrassed the University but from my viewpoint 1) Flood's problems were under Herman's tenure. He was pretty much squeaky clean while he worked under Pernetti, and 2) Pernetti handled the Mike Rice situation the way an executive should - he started an investigation and hired an outside firm to run it, he acted on their recommendations and dealt out what should have been sufficient penalties - namely an in season suspension without pay, counselling and monitoring. While no one knew what the suspension was for, it was stated in several places that Rice's behavior on the sideline did improve after the penalties were doled out. Then ESPN got the tape and Barchi had to find a scapegoat for the fact that he did not get involved at the beginning. The fact that Tim was in charge when we got the conference invite definitely outweighs the negatives from Rice and certainly from Flood, who had his best season under Tim.

I voted for Mulcahy as he had the least to work with and the deepest hole to get out of. He put us in position for the Big Ten invite.

I would probably place Pernetti and Hobbs even but expect that a year from now, Hobbs will be challenging Mulcahy for the top spot.

Floods pattern of activity began under Pernetti..thats not on her..I liked Mike Rice but his handling of it was atrocious and incompetant, that alone should keep him anywhere from receiving any credit for anything.

 

[RURahh]

Floods pattern of activity began under Pernetti..thats not on her..I liked Mike Rice but his handling of it was atrocious and incompetant, that alone should keep him anywhere from receiving any credit for anything.

 

[RURahh]

I know you are a big fan and I respect that, bit Tim's hands were tied every step of the way on the Mike Rice situation. He is ON THE RECORD as saying he wanted to fire him immediately but when Barchi and the BOG found out that they could not fire him for cause, TP was forced to do the next best thing. As for Flood, 2012 was arguably our best or second best year and he looked like a phenomenal hire given the budget constraints

I love Hobbs but wake me up when he gets nominated for AD of the year - I believe that Tim was the first and may be the only Rutgers AD who ever gets nominated for that prestigious honor

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

Because of the jobs they did.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

Tim P???? cmon, be serious

 

[Upstream]

I know you are a big fan and I respect that, bit Tim's hands were tied every step of the way on the Mike Rice situation. He is ON THE RECORD as saying he wanted to fire him immediately but when Barchi and the BOG found out that they could not fire him for cause, TP was forced to do the next best thing.

That really sounds like revisionist history. I'd be interested in the record that you say indicates your version of events.

Meanwhile, here is a link to the Skadden Report ( https://middlestates.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Skadden Report 7-22-2013 (00009072xDE114).PDF ). This is the record that shows that shows that the lawyers never told Pernetti that he couldn't fire Rice, and that contrary to what you claim neither Barchi nor the BOG overturned what you claim was Pernetti's decision to fire Rice. The record shows that Pernetti was concerned that if Rice were fired that he would need to be paid the value of his contract, and that the only recommendation that Pernetti developed and proposed to Barchi and the BOG was to discipline Rice.

The Pernetti sycophants on this board act like Pernetti was a low-level clerk whose only responsibility was to execute the directions of his manager. In fact, Pernetti was a high-level executive whose responsibility was to assess the situation and develop a well thought-out plan. That is what Pernetti did, but unfortunately it was the wrong plan. (And the fact that Barchi and the BOG did not overturn Pernetti's recommendation does not clear Pernetti of responsibility for his plan. The fact that they did not overturn him is just representative of their trust at the time that Pernetti was a competent executive who had formulated the appropriate plan.)

 

[DJ Spanky]

Of course the lawyers "never told him" or the administrators "never overturned" his decision - do you really think those entities would put anything like that on record? Geeze!

 

[Upstream]

Of course the lawyers "never told him" or the administrators "never overturned" his decision - do you really think those entities would put anything like that on record? Geeze!

The record is from the independent investigator.

Maybe you should become a Penn State fan so you can blame the Freeh report for Paterno's failings.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

That really sounds like revisionist history. I'd be interested in the record that you say indicates your version of events.

Meanwhile, here is a link to the Skadden Report ( https://middlestates.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Skadden Report 7-22-2013 (00009072xDE114).PDF ). This is the record that shows that shows that the lawyers never told Pernetti that he couldn't fire Rice, and that contrary to what you claim neither Barchi nor the BOG overturned what you claim was Pernetti's decision to fire Rice. The record shows that Pernetti was concerned that if Rice were fired that he would need to be paid the value of his contract, and that the only recommendation that Pernetti developed and proposed to Barchi and the BOG was to discipline Rice.

The Pernetti sycophants on this board act like Pernetti was a low-level clerk whose only responsibility was to execute the directions of his manager. In fact, Pernetti was a high-level executive whose responsibility was to assess the situation and develop a well thought-out plan. That is what Pernetti did, but unfortunately it was the wrong plan. (And the fact that Barchi and the BOG did not overturn Pernetti's recommendation does not clear Pernetti of responsibility for his plan. The fact that they did not overturn him is just representative of their trust at the time that Pernetti was a competent executive who had formulated the appropriate plan.)

this is correct, he was told that he could fire rice but money was an issue

 

[RU82]

Right now it’s Mulcahy without a close second.

 

[RUinFla]

Mulcahy was deeply flawed. And that is being far more charitable then he deserves.
TL

 

[RU848789]

While I am in the 99% who love Pat Hobbs as both the face and future of RU athletics and truly hope that 5 years from now he is a clear cut top choice, he has yet to have any type of on field success in our over matched B10 but has made great progress fund raising and kept us relatively scandal free

The best thing that has happened to RU in the last 30 years was getting our invite into the B10 and I believe that credit can almost be equally split between Mulcahy ( who set the table) and Pernetti (who served the food)

Our best success in major sports occurred with Mulcahy and/or Pernetti both of whom got majorly screwed by NJ media and politics but also had success with much weaker competition. I truly believe that we will never have an AD who loves Rutgers more than Tim Pernetti but as a Villanova grad, Mulcagy had a lot of Jersey in him as well

Mulcahy navigated the NJ political field quite well and did more in his 11 years than the progress we made 30 years prior and really set the stage for us to go big time

In the end, both Mulcahy and Pernetti were fired due to an over zealous NJ media that loves to devour it's own, but history will show how lucky we were to not be stuck like UConn or even BC/Syracuse who are both shadows of their former selves

So, please stray away from the Out of Sight - Out of Mind and give your objective reasons on who is the best AT THIS POINT IN TIME

Is this post a joke? Pernetti was probably our worst AD ever, hiring both Mike Rice and Kyle Flood, both of whom embarrassed Rutgers beyond belief, especially Rice. And the worst part was it was known he was a loose cannon, yet Pernetti still hired him, plus he horribly mismanaged the Rice scandal, as Rice should've been fired the moment he saw the video. His only positive contribution was not screwing up getting us into the B1G, which would've never happened without the groundwork that Bob laid or the success that Schiano showed was possible in big time sports at Rutgers.

 

[HeavenUniv.]

It used to sicken me to see Fred Gruninger collect a paycheck year after year,decade after decade.

 

[sunsetregret]

That really sounds like revisionist history. I'd be interested in the record that you say indicates your version of events.

Meanwhile, here is a link to the Skadden Report ( https://middlestates.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Skadden Report 7-22-2013 (00009072xDE114).PDF ). This is the record that shows that shows that the lawyers never told Pernetti that he couldn't fire Rice, and that contrary to what you claim neither Barchi nor the BOG overturned what you claim was Pernetti's decision to fire Rice. The record shows that Pernetti was concerned that if Rice were fired that he would need to be paid the value of his contract, and that the only recommendation that Pernetti developed and proposed to Barchi and the BOG was to discipline Rice.

The Pernetti sycophants on this board act like Pernetti was a low-level clerk whose only responsibility was to execute the directions of his manager. In fact, Pernetti was a high-level executive whose responsibility was to assess the situation and develop a well thought-out plan. That is what Pernetti did, but unfortunately it was the wrong plan. (And the fact that Barchi and the BOG did not overturn Pernetti's recommendation does not clear Pernetti of responsibility for his plan. The fact that they did not overturn him is just representative of their trust at the time that Pernetti was a competent executive who had formulated the appropriate plan.)

Read between the lines ... the lawyers told Pernetti he couldn't fire Rice for cause (which means he would get paid in full if he fired him) and then Barchi told Pernetti he couldn't have additional money to hire a replacement. No supervisor asks their legal counsel if they can fire someone unless they want to fire that person. Pernetti gave Barchi a video tape of the questionable behavior, assumed Barchi watched it (like any normal responsible person in his position would do) and only found out later in the press that Barchi never watched it (plausible deniability; of course he watched it).

Practically speaking, all of the above means Pernetti was told he could either fire Rice (and promote only from within - all of whom where there daily and witnessed the behavior themselves) or keep Rice and counsel him on his behavior (that apparently Barchi was A-okay with because the assumption was he had watched the tape, as requested, and he never came back with "Oh man, I watched the tape. You're right, that behavior is unacceptable, I want you to fire him.")

Pernetti was railroaded because Bozo the President was handling the billion-dollar medical school transition and they needed someone else to be the fall guy. What happened to him was not right.

 

[RURahh]

That really sounds like revisionist history. I'd be interested in the record that you say indicates your version of events.

Meanwhile, here is a link to the Skadden Report ( https://middlestates.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Skadden Report 7-22-2013 (00009072xDE114).PDF ). This is the record that shows that shows that the lawyers never told Pernetti that he couldn't fire Rice, and that contrary to what you claim neither Barchi nor the BOG overturned what you claim was Pernetti's decision to fire Rice. The record shows that Pernetti was concerned that if Rice were fired that he would need to be paid the value of his contract, and that the only recommendation that Pernetti developed and proposed to Barchi and the BOG was to discipline Rice.

The Pernetti sycophants on this board act like Pernetti was a low-level clerk whose only responsibility was to execute the directions of his manager. In fact, Pernetti was a high-level executive whose responsibility was to assess the situation and develop a well thought-out plan. That is what Pernetti did, but unfortunately it was the wrong plan. (And the fact that Barchi and the BOG did not overturn Pernetti's recommendation does not clear Pernetti of responsibility for his plan. The fact that they did not overturn him is just representative of their trust at the time that Pernetti was a competent executive who had formulated the appropriate plan.)

 

[RURahh]

If you are curious to know what On the Record means, perhaps you should look at his letter of resignation . Keep in mind, that no one loved Rutgers more than Tim and his . resignation letter was a public document, so he was being VERY kind to Barchi who either railroaddr him to save his own job or outright lied about never seeing the tape that TP gave him. And if you get nominated for AD of the year but you are " the worst AD that Rutgers ever had" our other AD's must be on a level with Barry Alvarez or even better



https://articles.nj.com/rutgersbasketball/index.ssf/2013/04/tim_pernetti_i_wanted_to_fire.amp

 

[Block R]

And if you get nominated for AD of the year but you are " the worst AD that Rutgers ever had" our other AD's must be on a level with Barry Alvarez or even better

Let's be honest: Tim was nominated for AD of the year because Rutgers got the Big Ten invite. Whoever was AD at the time of our invite would have received the same honor as Delany was the driving force behind the invite. While Tim didn't screw up our invite, he did screw up football and basketball with terrible hires. I don't necessarily agree he was "the worst AD that Rutgers ever had" but he's far from the best. And it pains me to say that because I know how much he bleeds Scarlet and I really wanted him to succeed.

 

[DJ Spanky]

If you are curious to know what On the Record means, perhaps you should look at his letter of resignation . Keep in mind, that no one loved Rutgers more than Tim and his . resignation letter was a public document, so he was being VERY kind to Barchi who either railroaddr him to save his own job or outright lied about never seeing the tape that TP gave him. And if you get nominated for AD of the year but you are " the worst AD that Rutgers ever had" our other AD's must be on a level with Barry Alvarez or even better
https://articles.nj.com/rutgersbasketball/index.ssf/2013/04/tim_pernetti_i_wanted_to_fire.amp

Pesky facts are not allowed in discussions like this!

 

[RURahh]

How do people not understand that Tim bought fundraising into the 21st Century and is chiefly responsible for the marketing and branding of the R.

And it wasn't like he took over as AD in 2008 and we got the B10 invite in 2009 - it was 4 years of strategic relationship building and an environment where EVERYONE was begging the B10 and ACC for an invite . TP was able to somehow convince Delany that Rutgers bought the NY market with it, which many of our own fans would beg to differ

So yes, Bob set the table with an out of the box hire and stadium expansion, Hobbs is leveraging the B10 relationship for everything it's worth and is a GREAT administrator, but the bridge to get there was built by only one man, who did it with 2 hands tied behind his back by Robert Barchi

If Tim could operate under the current environment, with B10 money coming in and a more athletic friendly Barchi, I have no doubt that his level of success would be on par if not superior to Hobbs

Sincerely

Mrs Pernetti ( just saving a few posters some extra keysrokes - lol)

 

[Upstream]

Necro bump ... in response to MadHat's thread on Hobbs

 

[JQRU91]

Thankfully Tim was gone by then too. Pernett’s two hires were mike rice and Kyle flood. How does that get any worse?

Those guys were followed by Eddie Jordan and Chris Ash. Yeah, they were hired by different ADs, but you can make the argument that they were worse.

 

[anon_ivydyf0amkzay]

What really sucks is that those are our choices...

Yikes! No wonder our AD has sucked as bad as it has...for as long as it has!

W O W!!!

 

[newell138]

Why isn't Grunninger in the list? And Hermann?

Now that he’s dead I can say it My uncle who was AD at Georgetown for some 30+ years could never understand how Gruninger kept his job all those years. He always said he was one of the most incompetent people he had ever met