Anyone who watched Silicon Valley will get the reference. It seems they have a lot in common, in terms of having zero awareness, doing no work, having all the wrong ideas, and yet constantly stumbling into wild success. If you don't know the show, look up a few bighead complilations on YouTube. Builds on this hypothesis are welcome. Might be nickname potential there...
Is Gragg our Bighead?
- Thread starter HKKJB
- Start date
True. One is likeable and the other not so much, though I don't hate Gragg. Bighead also doesn't pose - never tries to claim he's contributing. Our AD PRs himself pretty hard - a true careerist.
"Bittersweet" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters is one of my favorite chill-out songs.
There's nothing sweet about Ggarg. It's all bitter.
There's nothing sweet about Ggarg. It's all bitter.
Um. I haven’t met anyone who likes him. Issue is he sucks but is relatively invisible compared to Schill, so people don’t have as a visceral reaction to him. But make no mistake—he is profoundly disliked by fans, athletes, and coaches.
To me, it’s not a question of liking him or not liking him. He was just a bad hire. One of his primary jobs is fundraising and from my experience, he does a poor job of engaging with donors. This opinion is shared by many. As to how he runs the department, I am not qualified to judge him but my guess is that the coaches are not impressed. His handling of the baseball and Fitz issues last year was poor. At the very least, I would not renew his contact when it expires. Better yet, buy out his contract and replace him with a dynamic leader who can inspire confidence and take NU athletics to the next level.
How long is his contract. NU can’t afford to wait for it to run out. Terminate him and give Dan Webb another case to prosecute. It will be money well spent. By the way what is the status of Fitz’s lawsuit. No news or rumors on it.
Gragg was out for a first half presentation to the Women’s Lacrosse team at the B ball game. I was disappointed that this was not an opportunity for me to express my displeasure. Shook a few hands of front row big donors and never saw him again. Opportunity lost.
I booed the **** out of him tonight. He shook a couple hands courtside and disappeared after standing with the women's golf team during a timeout in the first half. Looked like a dead man walking and nobody wanted to interact with him.
Agree 100% in what I have seen and heard from others on the inside. I think the only issue we have is when Gragg is gone (please be soon), who wants to work for Schill.
Yes, Schill was another bad hire. How can an institution that strives for excellence tolerate mediocrity?
I don’t think he is every visible after the first half presentation. Walks down the corridor and maybe right to the Beamer.
I know, it is crazy. These are prestigious positions and we have these two in charge. Unless Gragg has been told just don't do anything stupid and others are running the show. Which is so dumb and ineffective way of running and organization. I hope some of the big egos on the board recognize that, but methinks no.
He had to get over to Cross Rhodes before closing time.
Seriously, WTF is wrong with him?
Goodness - Cross Rhodes still exists? I haven't been to Evanston for years - nice to hear it is still there.
Getting to Cross Rhodes by closing time might be his one smart move. Either way, this dude truly embodies what it means to be a turtle. Maryland might be a better fit.
My donation to NU certainly plummeted in 2023 compared to past years.
Vote with your wallet, people. They don’t care about anything else.
I'm curious - were others booing with you? Not being snarky - I haven't been to a game in years because I live overseas and I'm just wondering the degree to which the collective displeasure with him is heard whenever he makes an appearance.
He doesn’t put himself in positions to get roundly booed. Like Schill, he has human shields. Teams getting awarded for their accomplishments right next to him. Hard to blast him good when the Women's golf team is being recognized for a strong performance. You like to cheer the athletes and booing can take away from them. Gragg hides the rest of the time so much so that I’ve never seen him after the first half ceremony. There will be better times for the Bronx Cheers.
It's Groupthink 101.
First of all, it blows my mind that NU's board is as big as it is. I don't know how they even decide what to have for dinner at those board meetings with so many people in the mix.
Beyond that, imagine you agree to be on the board. On a very condensed timeline you had to pick a president, then pick another president (after Blank didn't work out), you had to pick an AD, and then you got your pick totally sh*t on and he resigned 15 minutes later. Then your second-best pick for president wants to fire Fitz, which you don't love but also see the media firestorm about to hit. Oh, and it happens your AD is on vacation...and then you have to ask yourself, "self, it is better or worse that this potted plant of an AD is away right now?"
If I'm a board member, I'm emotionally exhausted, not only by the events up to that point but fast-forwarding to the fights that will happen in the board room over all this and how to proceed. I'd just as soon burn the campus down for the insurance money than have a third presidential search or lose another AD - ESPECIALLY if I don't have obvious homerun replacements lined up.
As my NU degree taught me, in order for change to happen, the status quo has to be more painful than the unknown, and believe it or not...we're actually not there yet.
There were some other boos, but you have to be quick because they jump right into honoring the student athletes he's standing with and you can't boo them...
So I was told there was a spot on the Chicago local news yesterday with a report from Ryan Field about the stadium rebuild. Now, this is a perfect opportunity for someone at NU to message the excitement of this huge project. No NU rep was on hand to communicate anything from NU and it seems like a lost opportunity.
We miss nearly every opportunity for positive news. Everyone keeps asking me where NU plays next year. Hard to say right now.