Griz til I die said:
Soldier you keep saying that, but in Haslam’s defense he hasn’t exactly had a fair shake when it comes to coaching searches in Football. Engstrom basically handcuffed him to Stitt and the boosters handcuffed him to Bobby. This would be the first time that he genuinely would be able to conduct a national search without any restrictions or anyone breathing down his neck. You’re being a little too critical of Haslam
This is a complete load of manure…..Kent botched the 2014 search/hire that brought Stitt to Missoula. For the sake of people’s memories; we should not forget that Kent’s first real choice was Beau Baldwin who was HC at EWU at the time. Kent made multiple trips to Spokane attempting to secure Baldwin, who used the Montana interest to secure a better contract at EWU (and frankly had zero interest in coming to Missoula)….when that didn’t work Haslam would not leave campus/Missoula to visit other candidates. As a result a couple top notch candidates left the search; including one whose P5 team is in the Top 25….and he is making over $5MM/yr.
Stitt came out of the forest very late in the search being championed by Pryor Orser (who somehow was a football coaching source)….had a career record of 108-62 (63.5% WP) with 1 career outright league title, one shared and one career playoff win in 17 seasons….won 1 playoff game at Montana. How could anyone be shocked that he wouldn’t/couldn’t succeed at Montana?
Keep in mind that Haslam was selected to be AD after a search that Engstrom put together that included a Big Sky conference retread that had been AD at two other schools and two candidates that were from schools that didn’t have football teams…..not exactly the most robust, football focused group of candidates ever assembled.