• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Athletic Department In Chaos

ACCOffice

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 17, 2011
Messages
1,048
Reaction score
87
I know this has been discussed in other threads but posting in a "fire the coach" thread does not do justice to the situation that Wake's athletic department finds itself. No other power 5 conference school would accept what has happened at Wake over the past 6 years. From the Gaudio contract extension/firing, through the Grobe disaster in maintaining a competitive football program and, one of the worst basketball coaching hires in the history of the NCAA the athletic department has shown absolute ineptitude. Not only that, they have shown utter contempt to the fan base who has asked for better.

Firing coaches is not where Wake is at. A new tone must be set in the entire department. Wellman not voluntarily resigning is a embarrassment to him. The school not acting is a finger to the fan base.
 
I know this has been discussed in other threads but posting in a "fire the coach" thread does not do justice to the situation that Wake's athletic department finds itself. No other power 5 conference school would accept what has happened at Wake over the past 6 years. From the Gaudio contract extension/firing, through the Grobe disaster in maintaining a competitive football program and, one of the worst basketball coaching hires in the history of the NCAA the athletic department has shown absolute ineptitude. Not only that, they have shown utter contempt to the fan base who has asked for better.

Firing coaches is not where Wake is at. A new tone must be set in the entire department. Wellman not voluntarily resigning is a embarrassment to him. The school not acting is a finger to the fan base.

Find me a coach to can sustain success coaching WF Football. Grobe was/is the best Football coach that any of us will ever witness in the Black & Gold. I agree with the rest of your post.
 
This is true. Grobe's golf game improved immensely following Skip's untimely passing.
 
Agree that no AD would have pushed Grobe out the door any earlier than 2013. WF has been to 7 bowl games in its history. Grobe took WF to 5 in 13 years, including 2011. Grobe was not going to get dumped either after taking WF to the Music City Bowl or the next year after.
 
If Grobe "re-prioritized" things because he was worried about the stress of his job affecting his health, then he should have left. If he made the decision not to perform his job to the fullest of his abilities, then he was taking advantage of his contract with Wake at the expense of the university and the football program. If he knew that he didn't want to be in the shit anymore he should have left (it's not like he needed the money) or the AD should have shown him the door earlier.

ETA: I think the "re-prioritizing" his life after Skip's death narrative is a myth. He got lazy and started phoning it in.
 
Can't help Grobe seeing his good friend die on the job and then reprioritizing his life

Reprioritizing your life is fine. But when you're earning what he earned, you can't just retire in place, getting paid for the job you've decided you no longer want to do.
 
Maybe we should all email Ron today and politely ask him to quit
 
I know this has been discussed in other threads but posting in a "fire the coach" thread does not do justice to the situation that Wake's athletic department finds itself. No other power 5 conference school would accept what has happened at Wake over the past 6 years. From the Gaudio contract extension/firing, through the Grobe disaster in maintaining a competitive football program and, two of the worst basketball coaching hires in the history of the NCAA the athletic department has shown absolute ineptitude. Not only that, they have shown utter contempt to the fan base who has asked for better.

Firing coaches is not where Wake is at. A new tone must be set in the entire department. Wellman not voluntarily resigning is a embarrassment to him. The school not acting is a finger to the fan base.

FIFY
 
Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

The same posters criticizing the Grobe 10-yr contact would have been the ones pissing and moaning the loudest if he left for Arkansas because we wouldn't pony up during the most successful period in Wake football history.
 
Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

The same posters criticizing the Grobe 10-yr contact would have been the ones pissing and moaning the loudest if he left for Arkansas because we wouldn't pony up during the most successful period in Wake football history.

This is actually true.
 
Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

The same posters criticizing the Grobe 10-yr contact would have been the ones pissing and moaning the loudest if he left for Arkansas because we wouldn't pony up during the most successful period in Wake football history.

The problem with this is that while most posters wanted to pay to keep Grobe, including me, we ended up being wrong. But we're not being paid Ron Wellman money to make those decisions. Ron wiffed, like most of us.
 
This is actually true.

Yep. Definitely true. I'm fine with the 10 year contract because we needed to make a statement that we're for real. I don't think there was enough pressure on Grobe to make the obvious changes in the program to sustain success.
 
The problem with this is that while most posters wanted to pay to keep Grobe, including me, we ended up being wrong. But we're not being paid Ron Wellman money to make those decisions. Ron wiffed, like most of us.

And most posters wanted Dino as the next coach, not as an interim coach, too. We have a sentimental fanbase.
 
Wellman should have left on his own accord years ago and Wake will never sack up and fire him - too much nepotism and the good ol' boy network at play. Really not surprising that this is the case at Wake, but nonetheless it's frustrating. Wellman has done wonders for non-revenue sports and I think that he will be judged appropriately on those merits once some time has passed by and he has moved on. That doesn't excuse what he's done to the flagship sport, but is definitely something that should be remembered. The 2006 OB under his tenure was likely one of the greatest accomplishments relative to the "normal" level of success a P5 team has ever accomplished. Again though he's been cancerous to the basketball program and that, almost alone, at Wake Forest is more than enough for a reasonable argument to get him the hell out of here.

This doesn't even get into the "let's just get by and do an okay job and if we win we win and if not then that's okay too because we're still going to get paid" culture that has permeated the AD, media relations, and sports marketing over at least the past decade, and likely the past two decades. The "culture" that has been cultivated by Wellman sucks. It's just a plain loser mentality. Wake's sports marketing/media relations is bad compared to most other schools period (power five or not) and is comically awful compared to P5 schools and other schools we should be comparable with.
 
I think Skip's passing may have played a part in it, but I think the tone from the top down had more to do with Grobe starting to coast. He said as much after he left, that after we won the ACC he thought the admin would make even more a commitment to compete and it didn't happen. Grobe was making so much money he should've been giving it all he had regardless and I fault him for that, but I think is obvious our problems don't start and stop at the coaching level, it's at the admin level.
 
Back
Top