In most cases, change within an athletic department comes with an intricate rhythm.
Neither coaches nor athletic directors are immune to it.
It starts when the losses begin to pile up. Whoever happens to be in charge offers the dreaded “vote of confidence.” Then, when you can smell the blood in the water, the change comes down.
Sometimes it’s mutual. Most of the time it’s not. But the change is never a surprise. The writing—as they call it—is written largely and legibly on the wall.
It’s the sudden resignation you have to worry about. Like the one we got out of the blue last week.
Bobby Staub’s time is up on July 1, and we still don’t know why.
All President Bruno had to offer was a two-line statement thanking Staub for his service.
We could go through the whole thing but—oh nevermind, we just did.
I’m still not sure whether to be upset or impressed by a statement where the subject line of the email it’s sent in is almost as long as the actual statement.
The only window we’ve been offered into what happened is from Staub, who said he was told by Bruno that he wanted to go in a different direction.
That is his prerogative as university president, but what direction is that exactly?
Even Staub’s critics would be hard pressed to argue 2012 was anything but an unmitigated success.
Yes, the Orlando Early debacle that decimated the basketball program happened under Staub’s watch. You can make the argument that a change was warranted then, but he held onto his job and was part of the solution to that problem.
Do you really want to pump the brakes and bust a U-turn after what was easily the best athletic season at this university in over 20 years?
To be fair, there could be a legitimate reason to make a change. But we don’t know. And that speaks to the underlying problem at this university; the lack of any semblance of transparency by anyone residing on the sixth floor of the library.
Given the shenanigans still circling the missing 58,554 that turned up in the last university audit and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the two top cops on campus leaving the ULM PD, it’s hard not to be cynical.
Bruno and his vice presidents all possess doctorates, so it’s reasonable to assume they’re smart people. How hard is it to stage a press conference and put everything to rest?
All it takes is an hour and you’re done—90 minutes tops.
ULM is a public university. The athletic director—and the athletic department for that matter—is partially funded by public funds.
You can’t rely on public funds then close ranks when a high profile university employee suddenly resigns. It doesn’t work that way.
Especially when more student funds are available to the athletic department thanks to this spring’s referendum.
The coming days have a chance to shed some more light on the situation. Maybe there is a rhythm to this change. But so far, there’s no rhyme or reason.
