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It's time for our weekly Pac twelve conversation with San Jose Mercury News reporter and

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John Wilner, brought to you by Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle

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dot com had the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear, UW

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hats of the largest selection of Sonics gear anywhere in the world. Learn more

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at simply Seattle dot com. All right, Lord Jamie and company, guys

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at simply Seattle, it's gonna cost him bonus segment with John Wilner. Why

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couldn't this have happened yesterday when John was on the air with HUS for his

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weekly Tuesday segment. For God's sakes, here he is fresh office kids baseball

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game. We appreciate that. Johnny Wilner from the San Jose Mercury News and

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John Troy Dannon no longer the Ada Washington. How surprised were you buy that

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news today? Fairly surprised. Gotta admit, just pretty much out of nowhere,

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right. And the thing is Nebraska. Trev Alberts accepted the Texas A

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and M job. I think it was last It was either last Tuesday or

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Wednesday. So Nebraska, you know that was not a month's long search that

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ended up with Troy Dannon. It had been just a few days. So

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look, it's easy to connect the dots here. Washington used Parker Executive Search

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to when they were looking for an ad to hire and hire Danon. Yep,

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Nebraska used Parker Executive Search right now to hire a new ad. Obviously,

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Dannen knows the folks there pretty well and clearly made it apparent to them

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clear to them, you know what, I'm not real happy. If there's

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another option, I would be willing to listen. And that's how it happened

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so quick. Well shouldn't Parker Executive Search take a little bit of the blame

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in this and putting Troy Dannen in a position that he didn't want to have

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five months later? They must have known the family situation. Well. What

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Parker Executive Search and firms do is they will you know, they will talk

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to the university president. They will get a sense for what what are the

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type of people you're looking for, what is the background you're looking for, and then they will present the president with a few candidates. Ultimately, they're

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not saying pick Troy Dannon. I don't know the extent at Anna Marie Calsay

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asked for their advice for a particular candidate versus just wanted them to give her

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a short list. She's ultimately responsible for this. Did Parker do the best

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job making sure that Dannin's personal situation was gonna be okay? Maybe not,

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but it ultimately falls on Calsay And the other piece I'd add is I spoke

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to somebody this afternoon who knows dan and well and talks to danon regularly,

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and that person told me that as soon as Troy got to Seattle, he

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was like, oh boy, this is different. And you know what,

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for a guy who's growing up in the Midwest and then with an ad in the South, You're darn right it's going to be different when you cross the

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Rockies. Somewhere there was a breakdown in the vetting process about the fit personally

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and culturally. No, it's balls on man nails right there, because once

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the minute he got here, he was like a fish out of water.

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I think a lot of people here, including me, by the way,

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we're a little shocked by that. We were kind of shocked by how standoffish

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he was. He kind of had a bit of a syndrome, if you

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will, really did not seem to be willing and able and even desiring to

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get along with people and get to know people here on a very personal level.

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From a media perspective, he was not like what anybody here has been

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used to, even going back to Scott Woodward, Jen Cohen, Todd Turner,

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and Barbara Hedges. So I think you're right that there was a bit

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of a culture shock for him. How much of that do you think is

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why he left? And how much do you think this was just personal with him and his family not wanting to be here. I think it was both.

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I think those two things are intertwined as well. I mean, he spent I was told he spent most of December in New Orleans. Right now,

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you can understand, and from a family standpoint, it's the holidays,

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but the entire month, that's a crucial month. Washington's getting ready for the

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playoffs, It's an important month for meet with donors, right and he's not

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there. And I think that contributed to the fact that he felt a disconnect

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and that the folks at Washington didn't feel a connection with him. And you

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wrap it all to you put it all in a cauldron and the end result

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is it just didn't work and the ball was dropped in the process. And

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let's see first two things. One how much did Washington pay Parker Executive Search

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for the process that led to Dannon? And two is Ano Marie Kause going

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to use Parker Executive Search again for the next hire? How do you compare

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the jobs Nebraska versus Washington. Let's put all the family stuff behind and just

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Nebraska's athletic department versus Washington's athletic department. So if you're taking out the fact

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that he's a Midwestern guy and you're just a school versus school, Yes,

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what's the getting versus what he's turning down? Well, here's well, here's

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one of the big things he's getting. That's a full share of Big ten

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revenue for six years, and that I don't know if that played a role,

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but you know, Washington is gonna be thirty million behind and Big ten

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media revenue for six years, one hundred and eighty million behind. Maybe maybe

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he thought, you know what that's going, that's gonna make it hard for

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us to compete. Nebraska is a full full share member. But you know

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he knew that when he took the job. I think Washington is a great place. He knew that when he took the job. Did he wake up?

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He did? Indeed? Did he? Oh? I forgot about that

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part of it. No, not necessarily. But if you if you layer

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onto that any kind of promises of commitment to athletics that may have been made,

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and that he didn't feel like we're gonna be come to fruition, then

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maybe you know a lot of this. I get back to it. It's

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on the president. Right. The success of any athletic department ultimately starts with

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the president. Right. It's a triangle. So president at the top is

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the eighty and it's the football coach. If you've got those three spots in

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alignment, all working together for the same goals, you've got a much better

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chance to succeed. If your president is not all in with football, and

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if she talks talks and talk doesn't walk the walk, then you got problems.

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Yeah. I do know this, guys, that one of Troy's biggest

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priorities, if not his biggest priority, was convincing Upper Campus to give him

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more help financially. I do know that that was something he was focused in

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on and It's certainly possible that he got a little frustrated and maybe even disenfranchised

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with that process and just said, I can't do what I want to do

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here. I'm going to a place where maybe I can do what I want

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to do. So now the question is what does UDB do. Do they

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turn to somebody who they maybe have a little more faith in, would stick

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around for a while. Do you still look for the best candidate available?

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How much will this experience kind of influence you think what annamarracoalse does next.

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I don't she should learn from it. If it's up to me. If

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she's paying me, say thirty seven fifty thirty seven dollars, not thirty seven

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grands. She's paid me thirty seven dollars to offer her advice, it would

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be to hire someone who either has worked at U dub or understands the Pacific

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Northwest, where at the very least is familiar with the West coast culture,

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has worked out here. I think there's some very good candidates that have worked

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in the pac twelve. It's just different. You cross the Rockies and it's

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different, especially if your background is entirely in the eastern half of the country.

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I mean Deboor, he did have what a couple of years at Fresno,

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But you know, Deboor was also a little bit of an odd fit

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to me too. And we've seen that over and over with Pac twelve schools,

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with eighties football coaches and men's basketball coaches. You hire somebody who doesn't

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have roots out here, and they take the first chance they can to get

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home. Oregon football has learned that lesson the hard way. Well, there's

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one three hundred miles east, Pat chun Washington State University. If we called

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him, if Anna Marik Casse called him tomorrow and so will you come,

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what do you think he says? And do you think that would be the

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right fit here? Well, I don't know what Pat would say. And

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the fit piece. What I can't answer on that is how the u of

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athletic department would would feel about hiring Cougar right now. The last nine months

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haven't been great for obvious reasons. I'm not aware of a situation where Pat

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has been publicly critical of Jen Cohen or the way Washingt runs it athletic department.

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Yeah, but I don't know how that would go over. If you're just talking about is he qualified the answer is one hundred percent. He's a

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phenomenal ad. He checks every single box fundraising track record for hiring unders in

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the NCAA landscape, understanding the big ten. I mean he went to a

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house state and worked at OHIOSK. He knows the big ten. He knows

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he is a strategic thinker. He can raise money. I mean, the

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guy is incredibly qualified. I just don't know about the rivalry piece, and

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I don't know if he would go Yeah. Well, I can tell you

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this that Jen Conen and Pat John have a fantastic relationship. Fantastic relationship,

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so yes they do. They have spent Thanksgivings together their family have I know

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they did. Now I don't know how much they have talked since August fourth,

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because I know that you know, it's impossible to avoid hurt feelings.

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But there's no question if if Honomire called Jen and said, what do you

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think of Pat John, I have to believe the recommendation would be stellar.

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Yeah, no, no, no question John. I do wonder because Nebraska

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just moved very fast, going from trev Alberts to Troy Dannen, should we

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expect that annamar Akause could do the same thing? Because she literally six months

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ago just had a list right of athletic directors that she wanted to talk to

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about the job. That that list is still very fresh, It's only five

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and a half months old. So given that she just went through this process,

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is a fair to expect that this time around won't take nearly as long?

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No, I would think that's true. But what did it take six

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weeks? Eight weeks to get dan and hired once Jen left? I want

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to darn was hired in October of last year and Jen Cohen was hired at

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USC in Cowich over the summer, mid to late August. I think,

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boy, it was August correct, August? Yeah, it was two months,

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babe, too much? Too much? It could be it could be

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a couple of weeks. What I don't you guys may have a better idea

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about this. I've been in a little league game. Are they going to

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hire a basketball coach first? Or they going to hire an AD and then

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have Hill hire the basketball Well? I think I mean there are ways down

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the road and Aaron O'Connell, the interim now AD has been involved in the

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hiring process. So don't you think it makes sense to just pass the Baton

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and let them continue that process play out, kind of like I mean,

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Jen Cohen was very involved in the hiring process of Chris Peterson, even though

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she wasn't the AD at the time. Yeah, No, it does make

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sense. The question is, are you gonna are the people who would take

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the job gonna you know, if if Gannon has still been there, are

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they gonna be willing to take the job when they don't know who their boss

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is gonna be? Because the basketball coach's boss is the A D and you're

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you know, you have no idea what they're gonna do. You know,

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maybe Washington can make some promises on that front, like it's gonna be either

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X, Y or Z. But I do wonder if the kimsaypool will be

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affected by the fact that there is no AD. Yeah, I think.

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I think for certain people it might, no doubt. Uh. I think

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if it's a Danny Sprinkle type situation, it may not matter. Uh,

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if it's a Will Wade or an Eric Musselman type situation, it may matter.

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But for other guys that you know, desperate, desperately but really have

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a desire for this job. Danny Sprinkle's dad played football that you dub by

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the way, So if this has been a job that he's been targeting for

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a while, it may not matter who the new AD is. But I

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just guess the other thing is I'm sorry to interrupts, but the other thing

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that we need to keep in mind is it is both jobs men's basketball and

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AD. They are big ten jobs, and there's a lot of appeal even

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with the revenue discount that they're getting. We see it every day, right

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And the CFP situation is more evidence the big ten in the SEC are the

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places to be and there are coaches and ads that would take the job,

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a big ten job, even if they don't do their bosses. Well. We talked about the Chun situation. He certainly got good news today. I

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don't know if that changes his you know, his approach to the future and

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what he does. But what did Wazoo and os you expect in the first

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place to get from that CFP contract And why did it balloon from three hundred

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k to three million point six million or whatever. Well, because what they

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have expected was about three three point six million. Right they they were at

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the CFP had said everybody's going to get an increase and everybody did get an

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increase except Washington State and Oregan State got ninety percent decreases. Now, I

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don't know exactly what has happened in those discussions since Friday, but I would

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hazard a guess that there was the threat of a lawsuit, some kind of

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anti trust, some kind of collusion lawsuits that Washington State and Horkin State made

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known to the CFP. You got every other school, one hundred and thirty

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schools are getting increases and the two of us are getting huge haircuts. And

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the thing is they were being treated as independents when they're not independents. They're

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in a conference. There's going to be a conference. They're going to be

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in a conference in twenty twenty six. So my guess is that there was

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some legal action threatened. And good they've got Now they've got the money they

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expected and it's going to help them all right. I want to go back

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to the up thing for a second, because we got to talk about these

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candidates, man John. By the way, I just heard back from somebody

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who said the typical Parker search firm is either low six figures or a percentage

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of the first year salary of the person that was hired. So we're talking,

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you know, around one hundred grand is what they paid for them to find a guy that was there for five months. But I just got a

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text from a former Husky, big time legend. I want to tell you

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who it is, who says I hope Chris Pesman from Houston is strongly considered.

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And his name was on the list as well the first time around.

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I know ed Scott from Virginia. Jeremiah Donatti, who went to college here

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in the area, is the ad at TCU. Stephanie Rempi's name, and

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Nevada had been brought up again. Chrissy Rawalk from Delaware. Is there a

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hot candidate out there that Anamari Cassay should be keeping an eye on? You

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think, well, if we're taking if we're excluding Chun from this discussion right

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now here. I mean, I published a column today and Chris Peesman is

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on my list. I think the guy is very sharp. He was a

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finalist in the fall. He played football Houston. He's the ad at Houston.

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Would he leave, I don't know, but again it's a big ten

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job and he was the deputy ad at cal for a number of years.

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He understands the West coast. He understands the academic athletic yin Yang that Washington

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has. I think that the Huskies would, in my opinion, they'd be

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dumb to not give Pezman serious serious consideration. I also would say Terry Toomey

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was on my list in the fall. He's the ade at president of State

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who hired Kaylon de Boor in twenty twenty. He made a lot of sens

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in the fall when Dbor was there. I think he still makes sense. The guy's got a master's degree from UCLA. He was an All Pack ten

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defensive lineman at UCLA. He's worked in the NFL. Well, he had

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enough sense to hire Deboor. He should be strongly considered as well. John.

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If you're a school president and I gave you the choice, you had

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to pick one of these two candidates. One is an ad that's beloved by

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everybody, beloved by the coaches, his staff runs a clean ship, but

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maybe is a little, you know, stuck in two thousands college athletics instead

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of going forward twenty twenties twenty thirties college athletics. Or a guy that appears

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to be more like Dannin who maybe isn't beloved by the people he works with,

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but is definitely a forward thinker and understands what it takes to run an

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athletic department in the twenty thirties. I mean, I would probably take the

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latter. I think the most important thing is setting your athletic department up for

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success in a college athletic industry that is going to change. Not only has

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it changed an immensa amount in the last two or three years with NIL in

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the poor and all that, it's gonna change that much more in the next

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two or three years. So to me, you gotta have a strategic thinker.

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I don't think your AD has to be beloved. I mean, if

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if the AD is despised and the culture in the department is rotten, now

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you're losing good people. Yeah, that's not good. But I don't think

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you have to be beloved. I think you have to just be a strategic

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thinker who understands what works at the school and also is very into NIL and

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football against football has got to be the priority. Yeah, totally agree.

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All right, man, crazy crazy day in a crazy couple of months for

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you. Dub Dick and I were talking twenty twenty one, it was Jen

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Cone and Jimmy Lake, then it was Jen and Kaylen, then it was

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Troy and Kaalen, and now it's god knows who and Jed fish Man.

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So is the is the turnstile about to slow down? Tell me it's slowing

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down at you? Dub uh No? I won't why And here's why.

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I don't want I don't want to. I don't want to create all kinds

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of issues with your listeners. But I mean, Florida football. There's the

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hot seat at Florida Football next season. And if anybody has looked at the

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last eight weeks of Florida schedule, you can there's no way you can sketch

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out a winning season for the Gators. And Jedfish is a Florida alum.

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Wow, that's what my last question was going to be. Do you think

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this this goes a long way into changing Jedfish's mind on staying past the three

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years that we thought he was gonna stay. We'll sing who I mean,

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that's another piece, right, you never know if he's not gonna like the

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ad, will that prompt him to be more interested in taking the Florida job

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if it opens next next ball? I mean, I didn't think Dann did

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the greatest job in the world with either the Boor Dealings or the Fish contract.

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Right. The buy out on the Fish contract is not very high.

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And uh, you know, the given that guy's track record for jumping from

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job to job and the fact that his his alma mater might be open and

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it's in the sec right, I'm not gonna say. I'm not saying it's

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gonna slow down on Mott Lake, not yet. Well, and that brings

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up a good point. And we got a break here, but we keep thinking of good stuff to ask you. You keep giving us nuggets. We

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got to follow up on the buyout for Dan and the buyout for Fish are

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minuscule. I mean, the buyout for Dan in his first year in Nebraska

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is twelve million dollars John six times more than was here, right, I

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mean, is it time to maybe ask Anna Mara to start getting a little

19:26

more greedy with these buyout numbers? It is h The success or failure of

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any organization starts at the top, and she is the top, and that

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there's just no other way around it. She's in charge. This is on

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her. It's all on her. I'm of the belief that they blew it

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with Deboor. Now, I'm probably in the minority, but my view is,

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you got a guy that you are absolutely want to keep, you do everything you can to keep him. And that means the day after the Oregon

19:57

win, in October's contract offer on his desk, they didn't do that.

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They didn't in my opinion, they didn't do everything they could have to keep the bore I don't know that it would have mattered, but you want to

20:07

at least give it one hundred percent. The buyout for Dannon, the buyout

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for Fish, it starts with HER's. If you're a Husky fan who's upset,

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that's where you need to be asking questions. Gotcha, John, great

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stuff. Appreciate the bonus segment, and I'm sure we'll have more to talk

20:22

about by Tuesday at five o'clock of next week. Buddy, enjoy it,

20:26

man, Thank you, John, can't wait. Thanks guys. All right,

20:29

John Wilner, all right, there's a lot to unpack their Dickie. We'll do that next on ninety three to three KJRFM.