After a year on the job, UH athletics director Mack Rhoades can only be said to have earned an 'incomplete' grade. Here's what we've learned so far, and the questions we still have.
Jul 1, 2010 - Just over a year ago, on June 11, 2009, Mack Rhoades accepted the position of Athletics Director at the University of Houston. He had previously held the same position at the University of Akron. He replaced Dave Maggard, who had just retired. For better or for worse, one thing became immediately clear: Rhoades was no Maggard.
Maggard was endearingly known as "Uncle Dave" to the Cougar faithful, a down-to-earth guy who was just too darn friendly not to be a native Texan (he was actually born and raised in northern California, of all places). On the numerous occasions when I interacted with Uncle Dave, it felt as though he truly was a member of the family. He patted backs, harmlessly flirted with girls a fraction of his age, winked a lot and cracked jokes as though he had known me forever. When Maggard announced his retirement following the 2008-09 academic year, my reaction fell somewhere between "disappointed" and "genuinely heartbroken".
The seeds of the paradigm shift within the UH athletics department could be seen even before Maggard left. After Art Briles ditched the Coogs for a larger paycheck at Baylor and took his folksy nature with him, Maggard brought in Kevin Sumlin, a young, no-nonsense, results-driven assistant from the University of Oklahoma.
Suddenly, reports started springing up. "Sumlin is letting the players hit each other during practice" (leading Cougars fans everywhere to wonder aloud, "Wait, Briles wasn't letting the players hit each other?"). No longer would the Cougars abide by Briles' recruiting philosophy of targeting the kids who had flown under the radar due to being from small towns, small schools, or what have you. UH was now officially recruiting with the big boys, for the big-school Houston kids.
In no small way, this was a harbinger of the impending departure of Maggard-- and entrance of Rhoades. The 180-degree turn had commenced, taking UH from one approach -- "Well, gosh darn it, we're going to give it our best shot!" -- to a new approach -- "We're going to get results now, or heads are going to roll." The Houston athletics department was finally embracing the 21st century's now-or-never philosophy of sports management.
The earliest indications of this change under Rhoades' watch could be seen in the minor sports. The UH golf program, which has won 16 national titles in its history only to fall into complete disarray in recent years, promptly got itself a new coach - an exciting, young assistant at a major program in Jonathan Dismuke. After the Cougars volleyball season ended, head coach Bill Walton, one of the longest-tenured coaches in UH history at any sport, suddenly resigned. Rhoades brought in Molly Alvey, an exciting, young assistant at a major program.
When a post-season meeting between Rhoades and men's basketball head coach Tom Penders led to Penders' unexpected resignation following a roller-coaster season -- which featured an overwhelmingly disappointing regular season capped off by a miracle run to the NCAA tournament -- Rhoades was looking something like the Bobs from Office Space, leaving a trail of pink slips wherever he went.
"Naga.. Naga.. Not gonna coach here any more!"
When it came time for Rhoades to choose Penders' replacement, he threw his first curveball. Rather than following the Sumlin-Dismuke-Alvey script and hiring an exciting, young assistant from a major program (a la the extremely available Rodney Terry from Texas-Austin or Chris Walker from Villanova), Rhoades chose James Dickey, who was seen by many Cougars fans (myself included) as a has-been. He was fired from the head coaching job at Texas Tech in 2001 and hadn't been offered a head job since. Sure, he spent seven years as an assistant for a major program in Oklahoma State, but nobody was throwing around words like "exciting" or "young" to describe the hire.
That's when another disconnect between the Maggard era and the Rhoades era became apparent. Maggard would have been working the sports talk circuit, eager to win the fans over to the hire. If Rhoades was aware of the immediate outcry against the move (which has since somewhat died down and turned into acceptance) he did not show it. All of his public comments about the hiring were honest, straightforward and unapologetic.
We wanted somebody that's a hard worker. We know our flaws, and we've had some flaws. We wanted somebody that understood those, someone who could come in and roll up his sleeves, get in the trenches with us and be a part of it, and again, build this brick by brick, piece by piece. We've accomplished that.
If Rhoades was sending any sort of message to the skeptics, it seemed to be: "Just trust me."
While the jury is still out on Dickey, Houston's fans are also showing some necessary faith in Rhoades in an area exponentially more important than any one coaching hire -- facilities.
The bottom line is that Rhoades was brought in to improve Houston's stone-age facilities. In three and a half years at Akron, he got a $61.6 million on-campus football stadium built for the Zips. Recently, he announced plans for a brand new football stadium for UH, as well as sweeping upgrades to the basketball arena, expected to come out to $160 million. The great question now is whether Rhoades can get all of these improvements paid for, or if it will all turn out to have been posturing for the apocalyptic conference realignment that wasn't.
The University of Houston has been this close to upgrading its facilities for far too long, and if Rhoades doesn't get ground broken soon, his fan base will start to lose their faith. Did I mention that Rhoades is trying to get all of this accomplished while paying buyouts to Penders and recently-fired baseball coach Rayner Noble?
Rhoades does not tolerate mediocrity. That much is certain. Can Rhoades cash all of these checks he is writing? That is the question.
Don't worry. Just trust the man.
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Mr. MR
I am still hurting from the Dickey. The Dickey thing, that sticky dickey. Anyway, MR and his hiring JD. I know the recruits he brought in got some press, but were they any better than what TP brought in?
If football does great, meets expectations this year, it lifts all boats, and MR is a genius. If they loose 2 games, we play AF in Ft. Worth AGAIN, then nothing changes, we are stuck at allmost.
AustinCoog
by SA Coog on Jul 1, 2010 11:18 AM CDT reply actions
Better than Penders' recruits...
…depends on what scope you’re using. Better than what Penders brought in on average during his stint here? Maybe. Better than what Penders had lined up for next year before he left? Yes. If Joe Young drops into Dickey’s lap, all of the sudden he looks like a recruiting genius. At least we’re getting looks from Yates kids. It sure would be nice to tap into that pipeline a bit.
To sum it up, I’ve certainly warmed up to Dickey compared to my initial reaction. But I’d still trade him for Rodney Terry in a heartbeat.
by Dustin Rensink on Jul 1, 2010 4:41 PM CDT up reply actions
balls
I’ll also be interested to see if he can keep Sumlin around after this season. To be honest, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the fact that a sizable chunk of these new facilities is planned to be paid for by “naming rights” – but I can’t exactly criticize, given the circumstances of the announcement.
by aocoog on Jul 1, 2010 6:50 PM CDT reply actions
I don't care if we give everything a corporate nametag
I just think their estimations for how much $$ we’re going to get from naming rights are a bit optimistic.
As long as it gets built…
by Dustin Rensink on Jul 1, 2010 11:40 PM CDT up reply actions
To be honest
You look at the hirings MR has made, he has a plan.
You can argue about JD, but you can see a pattern in the hires that he has made. Hopefully, the revolving door that has become the men’s BB program with JC players will be closing. You can’t build a successful program players that are only going to be here for one or two years. With the report coming out recently about the graduation rate of the men’s team, I’ll bet you see the players in the classroom more than under the TP regime.
MR has been hiring coaches that are young and upcoming. You see the pattern.
Noble was fired because of this year alone. The team has been in a steady decline for a number of years. Todd Whitting is another cog in the machine of the new Houston Cougars.
Penders was fired because of an extended period of failing to get close to the NCAA’s. Two weeks of success wasn’t enough to keep his job, nor should it have been. When reaching the CBI is something to be proud of, you have a problem
The golf team? When was the last time we were relevant? Yes, we have some problems, like no home course near the campus, but, we should be able to do better.
The volleyball team has dropped noticeably in the last few years, hence the change.
One bad year is not going to get a coach fired. However, if a downward pattern starts to develop, you better start packing.
Dave Maggard was a godsend. He took an athletics program that was bordering on irrelevance and put us back on the map. He did what he had to do. He put all of his eggs in the football basket to detriment of the other programs. The football program is standing on its own now, and it’s time to start focusing on the other programs as well.
Given what MR has accomplished in the 13 months he’s been on campus, I think he has made some amazing strides. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -- George Santayana (1863-1952)
by cubfred on Jul 3, 2010 12:17 PM CDT reply actions
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