I don't care any more if he or she has any ties to Nebraska, and maybe one day we'll be glad Trev left. It is just unfortunate that this happened now when there are such massive changes coming and some serious headwinds that DONU is facing.
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Trev Alberts to Texas A&M
- Thread starter Mr.Bennett
- Start date
I think he stays at least as long as Dylan Raiola does
I feel Ted Carter has a lot to do with this. Alberts respected him and imagine kept in touch with him. Texas A&M president is similar to Carter (military guy). Would not surprise me if Carter recommended Alberts take the job and urged A&M to hire him. As there appears there is a leadership problem or at least difference of opinion on whom should be leading NU - it would make logical sense for Alberts to find the move appealing. While I would equate A&M as a lateral move, an argument can be made it is a better job, especially with their financial resources. Since Alberts said his head won or over his heart, I guess analytically he saw the A&M job more favorably than Nebraska, likely reinforced by Carter.
The stuff that doesn't make sense to me are:
1. if Alberts didn't have any boss, why didn't he just implement what he wanted. Even if he was getting push back, was anyone stopping him from doing what he wanted? As one of the most public figures within the university, seems he had alot of clout to do what he wanted or even force what he wanted. Who was going to stop him? If they did stop his plans, then he would have a reason to leave. At this point there is no any indication that anyone stopped Alberts from doing what he wanted.
2. He had a high approval rating amongst fans, could make 15 million minimum in the next 8 years and if things had gone right, been thought of as one of the best athletic directors in Nebraska history, along with his storied athletic career. What causes someone to throw that all away and be hated by many, in order to take a similar job at A&M? Assuming A&M has higher prestige, better leadership, higher ceiling, is it still worth ruining your relationships and legacy here at Nebraska? It would make sense to me if Alberts played football at Minnesota. But he had a storied career here, loved by many. He stated he loved NU and thought this was the best AD job. Wouldn't the program you love look more appealing than taking a slightly better position?
3. How does no one within the program or media know Alberts is thinking about leaving, or intervene before he interviews. I understand Alberts keeps a tight lip and signed an extension in November, but someone had to know he was going to interview or at the very least see he was unhappy. If I'm interim president, or work in athletic department and my athletic director is not at the women's basketball conference final game, I think an emergency meeting should have been held to get him to not interview or leave. It wasn't like he was absent like Moos - he was always at events. And no one could convince him to stay? If his heart was here than it should have been easy - just trot Osborne into the room and convince the man to stay. Why does it take so long to fill an important position like President? a coach or AD can be hired within days, why are we on day 207?
In my opinion Alberts is to blame for his lack of leadership and ambitions. It appears he wants to be led and wants to continue rising up within the industry. While the latter is not a bad quality, I'm not sure how he will rise up if he can't be a strong leader on his own. While I think Alberts is a smart guy and can be applauded for his rise in the industry, he showed a lack of leadership by not taking control and the way he has handled this exit.
NU is at fault for not being proactive in finding a new president or preventing Alberts from leaving. Embarassing to have Alberts leave for A&M
Both have fault and both look bad. While I wish the best to Alberts personally, I hope A&M athletics nosedives like Nebraska did and the Huskers get back to respectability and maintain it.
The stuff that doesn't make sense to me are:
1. if Alberts didn't have any boss, why didn't he just implement what he wanted. Even if he was getting push back, was anyone stopping him from doing what he wanted? As one of the most public figures within the university, seems he had alot of clout to do what he wanted or even force what he wanted. Who was going to stop him? If they did stop his plans, then he would have a reason to leave. At this point there is no any indication that anyone stopped Alberts from doing what he wanted.
2. He had a high approval rating amongst fans, could make 15 million minimum in the next 8 years and if things had gone right, been thought of as one of the best athletic directors in Nebraska history, along with his storied athletic career. What causes someone to throw that all away and be hated by many, in order to take a similar job at A&M? Assuming A&M has higher prestige, better leadership, higher ceiling, is it still worth ruining your relationships and legacy here at Nebraska? It would make sense to me if Alberts played football at Minnesota. But he had a storied career here, loved by many. He stated he loved NU and thought this was the best AD job. Wouldn't the program you love look more appealing than taking a slightly better position?
3. How does no one within the program or media know Alberts is thinking about leaving, or intervene before he interviews. I understand Alberts keeps a tight lip and signed an extension in November, but someone had to know he was going to interview or at the very least see he was unhappy. If I'm interim president, or work in athletic department and my athletic director is not at the women's basketball conference final game, I think an emergency meeting should have been held to get him to not interview or leave. It wasn't like he was absent like Moos - he was always at events. And no one could convince him to stay? If his heart was here than it should have been easy - just trot Osborne into the room and convince the man to stay. Why does it take so long to fill an important position like President? a coach or AD can be hired within days, why are we on day 207?
In my opinion Alberts is to blame for his lack of leadership and ambitions. It appears he wants to be led and wants to continue rising up within the industry. While the latter is not a bad quality, I'm not sure how he will rise up if he can't be a strong leader on his own. While I think Alberts is a smart guy and can be applauded for his rise in the industry, he showed a lack of leadership by not taking control and the way he has handled this exit.
NU is at fault for not being proactive in finding a new president or preventing Alberts from leaving. Embarassing to have Alberts leave for A&M
Both have fault and both look bad. While I wish the best to Alberts personally, I hope A&M athletics nosedives like Nebraska did and the Huskers get back to respectability and maintain it.
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All this gloom and doom...
The fact is today Matt Rhule stands alone as the most powerful, recognizable, and influential sports figure in the State. John Cook, Greg McDermott, and Fred Hoiberg are second tier. It is not a given that HCMR will be moving on next year, the year after, or at all.
If UNL gets the AD hire right, things could turn out much better, not much worse.
The fact is today Matt Rhule stands alone as the most powerful, recognizable, and influential sports figure in the State. John Cook, Greg McDermott, and Fred Hoiberg are second tier. It is not a given that HCMR will be moving on next year, the year after, or at all.
If UNL gets the AD hire right, things could turn out much better, not much worse.
It has definitely taken way too long. I'm not sure, however, that you can compare the timelines for hiring a President and an AD. It's like the difference between hiring a CEO and a division manager. The CEO has far more different types of responsibilities, so it requires more extensive vetting. There are also more constituencies that have a stake in the hiring of a President. Agricultural interests, for example, don't have a direct stake in an AD hire, but they definitely do in a Presidential hire. But yeah, they've had plenty of time.
Voters are to blame for a lot of the crap that we see at all levels of government in this country. If voters took the time to find out which candidates actually aligned with their own values this would be a far different country.
If the "system" failed Alberts, then as the AD (and as an executive leader) he should've demonstrated toughness & commitment by (at the very least) bringing the specific failures to the forefront/public so that he and others could fight through those "system" failures and address/resolve them... and not just for himself, but most importantly for the betterment of the program.
IMHO failing to do that actually made him complicit.
If Alberts thinks that by leaving the way he did, he is helping the program by drawing much-needed attention to those "system" failures, he is being alarmingly shortsighted. If he would've been open and transparent, it surely would have been difficult and possibly "ugly", but it would've brought just as much (if not more) attention to these failures without him leaving AND having him stay in a position to facilitate positive change for the program. Thus, further cementing his legacy and elevating his contributions to the University.
But that's just my
IMHO failing to do that actually made him complicit.
If Alberts thinks that by leaving the way he did, he is helping the program by drawing much-needed attention to those "system" failures, he is being alarmingly shortsighted. If he would've been open and transparent, it surely would have been difficult and possibly "ugly", but it would've brought just as much (if not more) attention to these failures without him leaving AND having him stay in a position to facilitate positive change for the program. Thus, further cementing his legacy and elevating his contributions to the University.
But that's just my
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The more I think about it the angrier I get at Trev. There is likely a major issue with leadership above him. But what did he do about it. Did he make it clear to everyone making the decisions how this was affecting him? Did he fight to make any changes or did he sit back feeling like a victim and bail when the opportunity presented itself?
This seems to have blind sided everyone which suggests he was silently frustrated and not actively working to resolve it. Sure it's not his job but he also knows his own value.
If it had been me, with my love for the Huskers, I would have been making it very well known that the decision makers needed to get their act together and that I was unhappy. Make them aware that if something isn't done there would be a risk that I would go. There would be no surprise or gut punch to anyone when I left because they knew there was a problem. Leaving would have been a last resort.
Maybe he did all that and we aren't privy to it. And of course Trev might not feel the same about Nebraska as I do.
I'm just speculating, venting, and frustrated that we can't seem to get out of our own way. It seemed like things were finally falling into place and then this. It feels like a betrayal.
Don't forget, we voted for the current BOR people.
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I think that’s a sound, educated guess. I would also add that I think unfortunately the BoR is light years behind what is happening right now in college athletics. As are the majority of people who elected them. (As an aside, this is always the problem with elections of high-level functionary officials such as a BoR or judges — they actually need to do their jobs, so the dude on the street is the last guy who should decide who does the job.) Either the BoR doesn’t understand a) that it’s ALL about football now and b) the lift/race that’s happening to position a program safely in the top 50 or so, in what eventually will be the FBS+ or whatever (however long that lasts). Or, they see the arms race aspect for what it is and are backing out of it by inaction. Interesting. And also sad. It’ll make for a really good ESPN 30/30 episode one day.
After reading a gazilion comments on this over the past few days, I can’t help but believe we’re over-thinking this. It was so out-of-the-blue that everyone seems to think that there has to be some systemic failing that led to Trev’s departure. After an almost 30 year career in the AF and second career in the defense industry I’ve seen my share of both good and bad leaders. That said, I find it hard to believe that Trev was motivated to leave by some sort of toxic leadership environment - leaders change and unless you’re forced into doing something that runs directly against your moral compass, you’ll likely be able to successfully navigate some relatively short term leadership challenges, particularly if you’ve found your lifelong dream job. But, if another job comes along that has the potential for far greater compensation, a boatload of benefits (who knows what perks come with the A&M job), the ability to consistently rub shoulders with hugely rich and influential people, and you are all of a sudden offered a path to a potential conference commissioner position or some other pie-in-the-sky high visibility and very lucrative role, AD at NU might suddenly seem to no longer be your dream job. Remember that TO almost made the jump to coach at Colorado, but realized that he was a Husker first (I’m simplifying this), and that coaching at DONU really was his dream job and opted to stay. I would have hoped that Trev would have seen being AD at Nebraska as the pinacle of his career, but this is obviously not the case. He wants more and had an opportunity dropped in his lap. I, like many people I’ve seen weighing in on this, would have hoped that loyalty to the school and the thought of building a legacy like Devaney and Osborne would have been the deciding factor in this decision, But it clearly wasn’t. From Trev’s perspective, only time will tell if this works out for the best. From my perspective, Trev was not as tied to being a “Nebraska guy” as I thought. I wish him well. From on outsider’s perspective, I’m not so sure that the stars will line up as he expects. But, a new chapter has started and I can’t help but believe that the next AD will be starting with an ascending athletic program. GBR
As the old saying goes "The captain always goes down with the ship". When a ship is under distress usually the rats are the first to leave as the Captain stays to ensure the safety of everyone else. Last week Trev was the Captain until things got shaky, now he's just a rat.
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decommit .....
