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Gene Smith (Former AD, ‘10 AD of the Year, '13 NAAC Organizational Leadership Award)

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Buckeye86 said:
Again, Day is currently making great culture/NIL decisions. The AD is now going to be in charge of that?
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I don't think anything Texas A&M is doing or has done in the recent past is a good gauge on how things should be done, not just when it comes to NIL. We don't want to turn into America's favorite 7 win team like them.
 
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buckeyemania11 said:
I don't think anything Texas A&M is doing or has done in the recent past is a good gauge on how things should be done, not just when it comes to NIL. We don't want to turn into America's favorite 7 win team like them.
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I think we are seriously overestimating the impact an AD has on the success of teams.

Raise money to invest in facilities. Bjork seems top of the line at that.

Organize and raise money for NIL efforts. Bjork seems fully capable of proactively leading in that area.

Hire quality, successful coaches. Bjork is getting hammered for the Fisher extension and the Hugh Freeze debacle. It seems to me Gene Smith oversaw two fairly massive football coaching scandals as well. Sometimes you can’t control what your subordinates do. I don’t know enough about any of his other hires to form an opinion on Bjork’s overall competence here, but given the starting place for the cultures at Ole Miss and Texas A&M, I’m willing to bet that Ohio State elevates Bjork more than Bjork drags down Ohio State.

And can I say thank goodness Ryan Day is our head coach right now. I can see the two of them being a great team together, if things work out as we’d all like to see, with Day maintaining an outstanding team culture that includes investing NIL money in smart, sustainable ways, and Bjork raising a ton of money to support the effort.
 
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Buckeye86 said:
Can you elaborate?
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He handled the Hugh Freeze NCAA investigation poorly (in his defense, he inherited that situation). In particular, he lied about the specifics of the allegations to the press in an attempt to keep recruiting classes together and avoid bowl bans. In doing so, he technically defamed Houston Nutt by claiming that the majority of level 1 violations dated to Nutt’s tenure.

This resulted in a lawsuit where Houston Nutt claimed that Bjork’s defamation contributed to his inability to find a job, despite him going 6-18 overall and 1-15 in conference his last two years at Ole Piss.

And then, to top it off, he promoted Matt Luke to replace Hugh Freeze as HC.
 
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www.elevenwarriors.com

Thamel: New AD Target is Ross Bjork from TAMU

Wild! Pretty far off the board of expected candidates imo: Sources: Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork has emerged as the target in Ohio State's athletic director search. Search is expected to be finalized in upcoming days. — Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 15, 2024
www.elevenwarriors.com www.elevenwarriors.com

Rivals poster that I greatly respect has this to say.

This is a very rare instance where I actually know the person in question: Ross's reputation behind closed doors among university leadership is markedly different than the crazy, petulant, ridiculousness that you're going to hear from the TexAgs frequent poster crowd. Holding Ross accountable for the peccadillos of Hugh Freeze is analogous to holding Gene responsible for Zach Smith. Sure, the buck stops at his desk - but these are professional people and their tasking does not extend to managing personal lives. (IMO). His problem at A&M is the shadow regime of donors that serve as de facto player personnel directors and would be ADs. It's an impossible job. The donors forced that Jimbo extension out of desperation and panic - that wasn't Ross's sole decision. In the AD world, most people will tell you that Ross inherited a disaster wrapped in a catastrophe of mismanagement from Scott Woodward. I'm not saying that Ross is great - I am saying that he is at least good.
We're at a moment of inflection when we need to decide what we want to be. We're heading toward the Premier League model. Do we want to retain standing as a King? Or are we OK playing the role of the Prince? To me, this is a sign that we're committing to unapologetically retaining excellence at football. Ross knows that this is a serious upgrade for him in every sense of the opportunity. And, while the playing field is his focus, look at the A&M when it comes to APR and GSR during his tenure. If you're going to consider his A&M experience, then also consider his UCLA and Miami experience. He was very well thought of by the administrations at both of those previous stops - and they both have strong, highly-competitive academic programs.
We bitch and moan about Gene (who I love, but who is also very conservative and deliberate) and his ability to evolve amidst revolution. So, now we're going to complain about a guy with a world of experience and very strong reputation among administrators who is absolutely going to ensure that we have every resource at our disposal? I think we need to decide who we want to be and move forward with a bias toward support.
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osuvictory1 said:
Texas A&M has/had a good grasp of NIL. OSU needs that.
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It basically amounts to this:

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Now - credit where credit is due.
CRD and staff seem to have a much more demure approach to NIL disclosure and aren't wildly throwing about trashcan bags of money. Most of TAMU's prized recruiting class has transferred and there seems to be a bit more stickiness in Columbus.

The qualifications of Bjork seem to be:


REALLY Big State School....Check
Large, dedicated fanbase....Check
Ample pocketbook....Check

That's about it.
 
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