UW Reportedly hiring Shawn Eichorst as new AD

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Barf!  This guy was a complete jag at UW-Whitewater.  I had friends working on the sports information team in the athletics department during his tenure and it was universally celebrated when he left.

not sure it was possible to do worse than MAC, but this clueless hire may qualify. 

[Samurai Bucky]

Apparently, the Dallas Stars CEO was also in the running?
 

 

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Alberts would have been a much better choice.  Eichorst had the reputation at UWW of going through the motions, being disrespectful (and did not value) colleagues, and someone who was not invested in the organization.

Paul Plinske (who followed) oversaw the emergence of the UWW powerhouse football, baseball, and women’s basketball programs.  Probably not coincidence this happened after Eichorst left

 

[yourout]

1 hour ago, TwinsBrewersWorldSeries said:

Alberts would have been a much better choice.  Eichorst had the reputation at UWW of going through the motions, being disrespectful (and did not value) colleagues, and someone who was not invested in the organization.

Paul Plinske (who followed) oversaw the emergence of the UWW powerhouse football, baseball, and women’s basketball programs.  Probably not coincidence this happened after Eichorst left

 

Great..... Just the guy we want replacing Fickell.

[patrickgpe]

I'm not a badger guy but how is this not a carbon copy of Chris McIntosh?

[LouisEly]

17 hours ago, TwinsBrewersWorldSeries said:

Barf!  This guy was a complete jag at UW-Whitewater.

That was also 20 years ago.  Things, and people, can change.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

3 hours ago, patrickgpe said:

I'm not a badger guy but how is this not a carbon copy of Chris McIntosh?

It’s an exact carbon copy, only this guy never attended UW nor was a UW star.

double barf

[JosephC]

Not sure where all you guys are at, but as a Dane County resident who works with/knows many Badger grads and supporters of the football program (not major donors, but donors nonetheless), I can tell you that this hire has gone over like a lead balloon.

One hire is obviously not a big enough sample to draw any definitive conclusion.  It's just so interesting how, at the one AD job he had at a big school where he hired a football coach. he got rid of a guy that was good for 9 to 10 wins pretty much every year, and after making the change the program dropped to a 4 win team.  He literally took the program to a low that they had not seen for 50 years.  Hmmm, this sounds familiar.  7 straight losing season, and only now are they at the point where they have kind of clawed back to average.

Hopefully, if Eichorst is really a dud, maybe we'll be incredibly lucky and he'll hit on his "blind squirrel" coaching find right off the bat.  One thing is for sure, Fickell is a dead duck.  I'm not even sure 8 wins will save him.  I'm just looking at the Texas coaching staff, and if Eichorst hires someone like Will Muschamp, I think I will puke.  And that's saying something, since I've stopped watching the games.

[LouisEly]

42 minutes ago, JosephC said:

It's just so interesting how, at the one AD job he had at a big school where he hired a football coach. he got rid of a guy that was good for 9 to 10 wins pretty much every year, and after making the change the program dropped to a 4 win team.  He literally took the program to a low that they had not seen for 50 years.  Hmmm, this sounds familiar.  7 straight losing season, and only now are they at the point where they have kind of clawed back to average.

This is a function of a delusional fan and booster base that thought it was still 1997.  That program was slipping before Eichorst got there.  Recruiting was already slipping and top athletes from outside of Nebraska no longer wanted to live in Lincoln.  

70-31 happened before Eichorst got there.  They got hung for 63 by Ohio State before Eichorst got there.

You are correct in that there are a lot of parallels to WI and Chryst.  Yes, Pellini had a winning record, but like Chryst it was padded by a weak schedule and a poor record against ranked teams.  In Pellini's last three seasons they played a total of six non-bowl games against teams ranked at the time.  He went 1-5 in those games (2-7 in his 4 years in the Big Ten).  (In Chryst's last three seasons they played 9 games against ranked teams and were 2-7.)  Everything I've read and heard about Pellini is that he was a top notch horse's rear end.  And for all we know, it may have been their delusional boosters who still thought it was 1997 and got tired of Pellini's antics.

They are on their 3rd coach since Pellini.  None have turned it around.  Yes, Mike Reilly was 19-19.  Matt Ruhle is 19-19.  Scott Frost was 13-0 in 2017 at UCF.  He never had a winning season at Nebraska.  The failure at Nebraska is not related to the hiring of Reilly (he was 9-4 his second season), it is something systemic that hasn't changed with the changing of the coach or the AD.

[JosephC]

This won't really surprise anyone, but word in Madison is that Alvarez "highly recommended/told the administration" to hire Eichorst and that is why he got the job.

The link below is just one article, but I think it pretty much sums up the reaction in Madison.  Lots being made of the Pelini firing and Eichorst's canned comments about learning and striving to be better.  This is not a popular hire in Dane County.

https://www.channel3000.com/news/im-looking-in-the-mirror-wisconsins-new-ad-shawn-eichorst-grew-from-shortcomings-at-nebraska/article_66dba940-5be5-4a49-ac0d-efbb8e04a11c.html

 

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, JosephC said:

This won't really surprise anyone, but word in Madison is that Alvarez "highly recommended/told the administration" to hire Eichorst and that is why he got the job.

The link below is just one article, but I think it pretty much sums up the reaction in Madison.  Lots being made of the Pelini firing and Eichorst's canned comments about learning and striving to be better.  This is not a popular hire in Dane County.

https://www.channel3000.com/news/im-looking-in-the-mirror-wisconsins-new-ad-shawn-eichorst-grew-from-shortcomings-at-nebraska/article_66dba940-5be5-4a49-ac0d-efbb8e04a11c.html

 

I don’t want the guy to croak and die but I do wish they would move on from Alvarez. He clearly has way too much influence still and I don’t believe he’s in touch with the modern reality of being an AD in this era of college sports 

[yourout]

Certainly nothing in his resume that screams "must hire" 

Quite a bit that screams "is this the best we can do?" 

[LouisEly]

16 hours ago, yourout said:

Certainly nothing in his resume that screams "must hire" 

Being the Deputy AD at a school that was in the CFP semi-finals and finished top-3 two of the last three years?

Curious, what would be a better qualification than that, and if that qualification exists, why would that person leave to come to UW?

[homer]

I can't say I'm inspired by this hire. Meh. On the other hand, I don't know who would have inspired me.