NMSU Athletics Director McKinley Boston has taken some heat in recent months for his handling of the Hal Mumme situation.
Granted, Mumme's status in his final weeks at NMSU was tenuous at best and it was obvious he was a lame duck coach for the stretch run of the team's schedule.
A good deal of the burden fell on Boston, as it should. He is the AD of the school and hired Mumme to be the face of the football program. This is a bottom line and pressure packed business and pressure is felt on everyone when the standards of the fan base and community are not met.
Lets look at some of the things Boston has done in his tenure at NMSU, which started four years ago:
- He hired Mumme
- He hired Reggie Theus
- He hired Marvin Menzies
- He oversaw massive expansion of facilities on the NMSU campus.
- He brought in a handful of WAC tournaments, including the basketball tournament the last two years. The Aggies went to the NCAA tourney one of those seasons and went to the tournament finals the other.
- He has been the guiding hand as the school has transitioned to the WAC
These are just some of his accomplishments and I'm sure I'm leaving out some as well. The bottom line is that the Mumme situation did not work out. Hal didn't win enough games and alienated the community in the process.
Theus was gold but then he bolted. I was very hard on Menzies upon the coach's arrival at the school last year but have been pleased with what I've seen/heard about regarding the hoops team this season. Still, I believe the jury is still out on Marvin as the year is young.
Can't fault Boston for the expansion of the facilities, nor the oversight of the WAC tournaments.
And while Mumme didn't work out, not everyone is perfect. Boston said today during the press conference announcing the coach's dismissal that hiring coaches, recruiting players and winning ballgames is not an exact science. Sometimes, these things don't work out.
I would have to say that Boston will need to hire a good football coach because Las Cruces needs a winner on the field. It's time for the bowl drought/laughing stock program talk comes to an end, or at least subsides. As for his job, of course he needs to find a good coach to relieve some of the pressure. He wouldn't be the AD at a Division-I school if that weren't the case. But the coach will get some years to pan out. Keep an eye on the hoops team under Menzies. He's truly Boston's guy and the program seems to be off on the right foot early on this year. If they do flounder and the football team does not turn it around, the complaints about the AD become increasingly legitimate. Until then, give it a chance and let things unfold in a timely manner.
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7 comments:
Dr.Boston has done a phenomenal job as our AD.
It's too bad the Mumme experiment failed but, nobodys perfect, right? I'm sure he will redeem himself in his next hire.
Karl Dorrell, Charlie Strong, Ron English are tree people we should be talking too. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks.
The names I've been hearing that the Sun News haven't mentioned are: 1)Ken Norton Jr. from USC 2)Sylvester Croom 3)Tyrone Willingham. Are these just rumors based on speculation?
The next hire will define his legacy at NMSU so, its got to be a good one!
We need to go into debt and get someone that can bring excitement and wins to Las Cruces!
Yes, Karl Dorrell, Charlie Strong and Ron English are good candidates.
Completely agree with the post.
As for the comment from Anon 4:07, I dont follow what you mean by tree people. Can somone please elaborate? I like Dorrell and strong, Dont know anything about English.
What about a Bob Davie, Sylvester Croom or Coach Fran who used to be at UNM. We need someone with a name, a brand we can tie into. Like UCLA did with Neuheisel. Someone else, might be Rocky Long who others have mentioned in previous posts.
Unlike the hoops team who has had success, I don't think the football team can gamble on a inexperienced head coach. The AD needs to raise some serious cash if the football team is going to be viable. We need a SPLASH to bring the program back from the brink. The only way to do that is to bring in someone with the experience to pull it off.
Ken Norton Jr. FTW.
First off the majority of the facilities expansion was procurred prior to his arrival. Much of that was due to Faison tenure. Specifically the Pan AM renovation and Fulton Center, tennis complex and football locker room complex.
Dr. Boston has done a great job at bidding for Wac events. But at what cost, the annual deficit is huge under his tenure.
He has had the unbridled support of Dr. Martin and regent gallagher but that is gone.
I am positive that Coach Menzies is going to pan out at the Pan AM.
But, right now it is 50/50.
I hope that Dr. B can pull one out of his hat on the football side. But, his track record does not show that much promise. So I will bank on the fact the "he's due" to have a good one.
Too big. Dr. Boston should have been fired along with Mumme. Like the last poster pointed out much of what Boston has been given credit for was on the table long before he arrived. Also some have said that Boston didn't fire Tony Samule? That's not entirely true, while he wasn't offically the AD at the time he was pretty much it, he was spotted in Las Cruces early on, so I suspect Boston had allot to say about firing Samuel, which now seems like a bad move.
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