Apparently Barry didn't follow proper procedure in naming Bielema the next head coach, since the job wasn't posted for a 2-week period. These are the kind of mistakes he won't make when he only has the AD job to worry about.
si.com
Report: Wisc. didn't follow procedure
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The University of Wisconsin didn't follow school procedure when athletic director and football coach Barry Alvarez picked his coaching successor, a newspaper reported.
School regulations require the university to post such a vacancy for two weeks before filling the job, the
Wisconsin State Journal reported. Alvarez didn't do that, and UW chancellor John Wiley's special assistant blamed himself.
"It was my responsibility to advise coach Alvarez of the need to formally post a recruitment vacancy for the position of head football coach," Casey Nagy wrote Friday in an e-mail the
State Journal reviewed.
"I failed to do this, operating on the mistaken belief that this step was not necessary under the university's policy regarding open recruitment."
He wrote the e-mail a day after Alvarez announced he would retire as football coach after the 2005 season so he could focus on his job as athletic director. Alvarez picked UW defensive coordinator Bret Bielema to replace him.
Nagy told the
State Journal he spoke with Alvarez about the issue Friday. Alvarez declined comment to the newspaper. Nagy evaluates Alvarez's coaching performance on Wiley's behalf.
"My sense was, when you're recruiting head coaches, it's such a competitive environment that it weakens your program for people to know that you're looking," Nagy said. "It gives people an advantage with recruits, either in [the fold] or considering committing. For that reason, I didn't think it applied and my sense of past searches was simply inaccurate."
The paper asked Nagy whether his error jeopardized Bielema's hiring.
"I think the appointment's appropriate and the commitment's been made," Nagy said. "I think Barry considered the talent that was available to him and made his choice, which is what he would have done in a search. I don't believe it jeopardizes anything, but I also don't want -- particularly in this climate -- people to start niggling away at what they believe to be some scandalous event. And I don't want it to reflect on Barry or Bret because they had nothing to do with it."
Nagy said he hopes any sanctions that might come down because of the error would fall on him.
"But I certainly wouldn't hope anybody else would experience any impact whatsoever," he said.
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