Mack Rhoades leaving Mizzou for Baylor

UH1973 · July 14, 2016, 9:19pm

Maybe Mack will hire Tony Levine and his brilliant offensive coordinator.

HWSCoog · July 15, 2016, 12:46am

I wish we could go back to see what people were saying when we hired him from Akron to build a stadium on our campus. 75% of the posts thought he was a bad hire and he’d never get it done here.

Also, say what you want about his hires, and many were AWFUL, but Herman would NOT be here if we didn’t have a new stadium. Period. He saw the promise in Houston but a large part of that promise was that for the FIRST time in our history, we had shown true commitment to the program. He’s also going to stay for as long as we continue to move forward with the promised we made him last season to add a new practice field, an indoor facility ($18 million) and a new football only facility in the end zone ($35-40 million) that will house offices, training rooms, meeting rooms, sports medicine facilities, locker room, and recruiting room overlooking the field itself.

DallasCoog · July 15, 2016, 1:21am

“Anything”! Really? Wow!

UHoustonRocks · July 15, 2016, 2:42am

Interpret this tweet:

Joseph Duarte ‏@Joseph_Duarte Jul 13

. @UHCougarMBK coach Kelvin Sampson on Mack Rhoades: ‘I think that speaks volumes about how good an AD Mack is and the kind of person he is’

Coog2088 · July 15, 2016, 2:45am

Someone speaking well of an old colleague. Nothing more, nothing less.

UHFan79 · July 15, 2016, 7:07am

Tech does this a lot too. Both are driven by memories of the SWC when there was a more level playing field. In their boasts both conveniently leave out any references to the loot they have received both from thier BCS days as well as their current arrangements. That’s easily $400,000,000 a piece. Aren’t all thise zeros impressive. Just think what UH COULD HAVE DONE WITH HALF THAT MUCH MONEY.

But wait. There’s more. Both Tech and Baylor fans act as though they are somehow innately superior to UH. But can you imagine what both those programs would look like playing a C-USA schedule? Let that sink in for a minute. How many of those loyal Baylor (or Tech) fans would have gone to the trouble of driving to Waco to see the Bears play East Carolina or Tulane. Of course they will lie like dogs but we know the truth.

I could go on, but the point’s been made. They are both just in denial and operate under some delusion of inherent superiority.

pray10 · July 15, 2016, 7:36am

5 thoughts on Mack Rhoades’ Missouri departure

The last year, however, was one giant “straying from the script” experience. And that’s when generic talk and cliches can fall flat.

Nobody thought Rhoades was a long-term fit at Mizzou, and he did very little in his 15 months on the job to endear himself to the university or its sports fans.

He earned a reputation as a poor communicator, both internally and externally, which limited his ability to solve or at times even identify problems. He was hired as a fundraising savant, but while alumni pride can be seen with the academic side setting an annual donations record, Rhoades has frustrated many by essentially stalling the renovation project at the south end of Faurot Field.

In my opinion, this was Rhoades’ problem at UH as he seemed inaccessible. Compare him to Yurachek who posts regularly on social media, responds to alums, and at least tries to spread the word. It’s a striking difference to what occurred under Rhoades.

BradFromHouston · July 15, 2016, 12:02pm

For you praising Maggard, and he does deserve praising, let’s not forget that he stuck with his Penders hire a couple of years longer than he should have.

pray10 · July 16, 2016, 7:21am

Rhoades owes Mizzou more money than university paid him

Rhoades, who earlier this week accepted the athletics director job at Baylor, must pay MU $800,000 for leaving before the end of his five-year contract. Rhoades’ contract calls for a $1 million buyout if he leaves before the final six months of the deal, though that amount is reduced by $200,000 on each of the first four anniversary dates of his first day in office, which was April 27, 2015.

MU paid Rhoades $600,000 in base salary from his first day on the job through June 30, 2016. After June 30, any salary increase was subject for review by chancellor Hank Foley and interim system president Mike Middleton.

WoodMarkCos · July 16, 2016, 8:45am

This is article is misleading. As a part of this hiring, Baylor will undoubtedly be paying any buy-out required by MR’s prior employment contract at Misery.

pray10 · July 19, 2016, 9:34am

New Baylor AD Rhoades is no stranger to difficult situations

“I’m proud of what we accomplished over the 15 months, and I think that the University of Missouri, the athletics program is in a much better place than it was 15 months ago,” Rhoades said.

“I think certainly the culture has changed. We’ve created a culture within that (Missouri) athletic department of we’re going to care about people. People come first. We’ll never do anything at the expense of people and we will create that same type of Christian culture here at Baylor University.”

pray10 · July 19, 2016, 10:33am

You were right:

https://twitter.com/dennisdoddcbs/status/755161463329853441

rich2351 · July 20, 2016, 1:32am

Not sure how misery(MIZZOU) is any better after MR…

coachv · July 20, 2016, 2:00pm

I spoke to one of the Baylor Board of Regents just before the hiring was announced. He asked me about Mack. I told him he was good at raising money for facilities and will have a good relationship with the major donors. I said I question his ability to select coaches and he didn’t seem to have much impact in improving sales/marketing or ticketing although that could have been more due to budget constraints. He said he heard he was a religious man and I replied “yep”. Since Mack isn’t Baptist and attended my church I thought it was better to answer 'yep".

If Baylor is better than Mizzou right now then it’s a damning indictment against Mizzou. I wonder what the SEC is thinking regarding admitting Mizzou.

PAWRFUL · July 20, 2016, 2:11pm

Missou … schmassou …

This debacle seems to be quieting down now … even with “Al” Grobe’s death rattle recently at the Big12 meetings

AND …

The cubbies are FINALLY realizing they have been taken in … hook line and sinker …

Guess which one they picked as their new AD …

Yepp MR was no doubt desperate to leave Columbia ahead of those rails …

HOWEVER …

Now he has to do his best acting performance surpassing those legendary academy awards winners from the past … to convince those baptist in Waco.

The3Amigos · July 20, 2016, 2:36pm

I was a student athlete from 08-11 and was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with Mack, and the rest of the Sr. AD’s.

Mack Rhodes was everything, at the time he was hired, that Houston needed. He came in and immediately changed the culture of the department. Every student-athlete felt important and that their sport mattered, versus under Maggard, the only two that mattered were football and basketball - outside of that, he didn’t know who anyone was, nor did he really care.

He was originally brought in because the man knows how to raise money. We needed facilities at the time of his original hire, badly. That being said, he also lucked in to Case Keenum, and we all know how much #7 did for the University as a whole. He increased the level of play athletically, but more so, we began have much more success in academics within the department after his arrival.

Mack made some great hires, and also some bonehead hires, but in any business, you’ll have those. He did walk in to a great situation with Kevin Sumlin having been hired, and was fortunate enough to see Penders win the CUSA in 2010. He hired Dismuke who resurrected the golf program, and also hired Todd Whitting who took baseball back to being a national player.

I do agree with previous posters that Renu has been, and still is, the catalyst for our success in raising money and competing on national levels in academics and athletics.

For all the bad things people say about Mack, the man did a lot of good. I firmly believe had we not had Mack Rhodes, we would not be in the situation where we are today. Period.