I live in Phoenix and am a season ticket holder to ASU baseball -- one of the numerous formerly distinguished programs Smith has managed to run into the ground. This is truly the best possible choice for ASU and the worst possible choice for OSU. Smith has exactly one redeeming characteristic -- he's Black; but after all, if it wasn't for affirmative action, Holbrook would still be teaching second grade in Georgia. Apparently there's only one criterion for selection in Holbrook's book.
Smith has created a huge athletics department deficit here; he is a truly inept fund raiser who is completely unorganized and has no clue to go about anything. The building programs have languished. The baseball, wrestling, and basketball teams have been absolutely destroyed under his tenure and may never recover. In alumni/supporter events he's detached and communes only with a small group of backers who have moved into the department like vultures. They have hacked large numbers of department employees in the past couple of years in an attempt to balance the books, which still hasn't worked. In speaking with him you wonder if he's really as dumb as he comes across, or if it's an act. The athletics department is currently under NCAA investigation for a number of football violations, including the use of autos provided by department employees, academic fraud, and other maladies, and he has no handle on any of these things whatsoever.
I was truly astounded when I read this story. This guy is much worse than Jim Jones. Say good-bye to proud athletic tradition, integrity, and fiscal soundness at OSU if he comes on board for the sake of stoking Holbrook's political correctness agenda.
