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Evaluating Ray Tanner tenure at the helm as AD

FeatheredCock

FeatheredCock

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Evaluating Ray Tanner tenure at the helm as AD

Well we got one going for Boom. Why not Ray. First off Tanner as a baseball coach got us two World Series and excellent baseball manger. So lets keep that in mind as the thread grows. So with that said lets dig in.

I give Tanner A+ for over seeing the facilities build up,  the rest sad D-.  The future light is a little dim at this time. Basketball 1 final 4. Yes better then any other AD that has been here. Moving on to the Boom hiring, one 9 win season and a lot of losses to Clemson in Football. Not really much better across the board in all 3 major Men's sports.

It's not all Tanners fault but the buck stops with him, He oversees all sports and is accountable for the success and failures.  Would be nice to talk about are chances to win titles like SEC East etc. but instead for now have to eat and taste failure across the board. So here we are at the cross roads. Time really to evaluate talk about the future the AD's future and what you want to see going forward.  Need to talk honestly to the truth here. Will now turn it over to you folks. 

 
His career should live or die by the Muschamp hire, imo. He went out on a limb hiring a guy who had just been fired by another SECE program a year before.

And the clock is ticking.

 
Seems making him the AD was some kind of award for winning NCs. We were exceptionally grateful, but "fools rush in".

 
JimG said:
Seems making him the AD was some kind of award for winning NCs. We were exceptionally grateful, but "fools rush in".
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I remember him being billed as an AD who could relate to the coaches or something like that. I can't say I have been impressed with him since he left the diamond.

 
Ray Tanner would be great as our baseball coach

will Muschamp would be great as our defensive coordinator

 
I kind of feel that the AD is a lot like the starting quarterback. When things are going well, they get more credit than they might deserve. When things are going badly, they get more blame than they probably deserve. That said, I think Tanner has done well with having a vision for the future of our athletic programs and is doing a good job at raising the funds needed to execute that vision. When it comes to picking and managing coaches, I'm not sure he's the best person for that job. We know he can make a difficult decision as it couldn't have been easy to move on from his protege in Holbrook. I think Kingston will wind up doing a good job, but the jury really is still out on that hire. I think we all, well most of us, thought Muschamp was a questionable hire and that's looking to be true. I don't know what the answer is for him though. He's kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't with regards on keeping Muschamp.

 
Hyman started the facilities initiative. And Ray has only hired Muschamp and Kingston (and Holbrook, if you want to get technical). Seems most of his job has been to maintain what was already in motion and frankly, that doesn't seem that hard (but what do I know, really).

He's definitely a "coaches' AD" and won't be hard on any of them unless they do something stupid outside of their sport that embarrasses the University or does something to get on his bad side personally. While the coaches will eternally love him for that, none of them will ever be expected to produce at a higher level than they already are. The only reasons any one of them has to improve are contract incentives and personal drive.Personal drive will die under those conditions. And greed (the reason for contract incentives) will be eventually replaced by complacency. 

Ray Tanner has been a decent maintenance AD, but none of our programs will actually improve as a result of him being at the helm. And as soon as some of our current coaches figure out they have job security no matter what they do, then I expect to see some declines - men's soccer comes to mind as one that's  maybe already figured out the grift. It's just human nature - when you know you aren't being held accountable, how hard to you really try? Only as much as your conscience forces you to.

None of this is to complain. I'm not in tune with the AD market and have no idea who else would be better. Tanner is fine - not great and not terrible - exactly like the majority of Gamecock sports on average.

 
Let's be honest, football is the biggest sport here and that's how most of us will judge Ray.  Unfortunately, he gave CWM a ridiculous contract and we've had 1 good year with CWM in charge.  Muschamp will be here next year, and if we don't see major improvement he needs to go.  If he goes, Ray should go too.  He really hasn't done anything special that we know of.

JD

 
JDStud6 said:
Let's be honest, football is the biggest sport here and that's how most of us will judge Ray.  Unfortunately, he gave CWM a ridiculous contract and we've had 1 good year with CWM in charge.  Muschamp will be here next year, and if we don't see major improvement he needs to go.  If he goes, Ray should go too.  He really hasn't done anything special that we know of.

JD
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Totally agree with your statement. For our sake hope the Boom hire will work out. He deserves another year. If Boom can still  ink out somehow 6 wins and go bowling just would help propel him and the team heading into the next year and help maintain this years class. Basketball this is the year for Martin to put out a winning team or shut up. The expert thinking that the Gamecocks might not be their. So think that is far to say on those two programs. Baseball Ian still in wait and show me. Recruiting is better and hopefully will pay off this year but most likely year after. 

 
FeatheredCock said:
Basketball this is the year for Martin to put out a winning team or shut up. The expert thinking that the Gamecocks might not be their.
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The "experts" also said we were the worst ever 7 seed in the tournament and that we would finish 11th in the conference last year. I do think we're a tournament team this year, but even if we aren't we're not going to find a better basketball coach than Frank Martin.

 
GregoryHouse said:
Ray Tanner would be great as our baseball coach

will Muschamp would be great as our defensive coordinator
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Ha!  Good one, I actually laughed out loud.  

Nah, Ray Tanner is doing just fine.  There’s a lot more to being an AD than just looking at how the football team is doing.  

 
Muschamp is Ray's anchor or lifeline.  He's tied to him for the duration of their careers here.  I thought at the time that promoting a baseball coach to AD was a bit foolish.  Stranger things have worked out but typically small time thinking and emotional decisions rarely work, in my vast experience of running a top level college program or multi million $ business.  I've done extensive research on successful programs and their ADs (google search and wikipedia) and most have a major sports background (football, mens BB) and/or a strong business/finance history with advanced degrees.  I don't think Ray has any or much of that.  He has been learning on the job and I'm sure a better AD now than he was a few years ago.  The Muschamp hire made me question him further.  I will support the AD and the coaches but my confidence in them is very low.  Sure there is more to being AD than the results of the FB team, but not much.  Not in terms of revenue.  FB and men's bb help to fund many of the other programs don't they? If so, he shouldn't get a pass for watching the decline under Spurrier.  Managing those under him, new hires, upgrades, funds, boosters are all part of his job.  I really think all the upgrades we've seen around the FB program the past few years take place regardless of AD.  What is he really doing to help improve things?  Regardless, I hope they both get it turned around but I'm becoming more skeptical of either as time goes on.

 
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LMAO, a bunch of freshmen can't stop Tennessee's passing game, so I KNOW.....let's all blame the athletic driector.

Dumbassery at it's finest.

 
ShepCock said:
LMAO, a bunch of freshmen can't stop Tennessee's passing game, so I KNOW.....let's all blame the athletic driector.

Dumbassery at it's finest.
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I think an evaluation of RT is perfectly fair at this point.  Champ is his most prominent hire.

Now those directly blaming the AD for any team member, regardless of their status on team is a bit ridiculous.  You can fault the HBC and DC for those players and their ability to recruit, coach and field a better team to defend 2nd and 3rd string QBs a little better though.

 
Well if they were only freshmen, then they can't be held responsible. 

 
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