Probably not surprisingly, but president Mitch Daniels, chairman of the BOT Mike Berghoff and AD Morgan Burke wanted to keep emphasis firmly on the $60 million upgrade to football facilities -- the whole point of a meeting -- Wednesday. But, naturally, other questions were going to be asked given the opportunity.
Burke's contract is through 2017. How are Daniels and Berghoff handling what happens from a future standpoint with the AD?
Berghoff: "That’s probably a little premature, something that Morgan and the board have not yet talked about. We’ve got a fair amount of work to do. One is this (project), getting this program back to winning championships. I’m certain Morgan is spending almost all of his waking hours and some of his sleeping hours thinking about it, and that’s the way we want it. That’s the same thing we want Darrell to be doing. We’ve got five games left and we’re going to find a way to provide all the support we can to be successful and get this program back."
Daniels: "I’ll just say that I look forward to working with Morgan right through the end of his contract, for sure. He does a really fine job. You look across the spectrum of our 20 sports, the general rule is a very good one, plus everything else that goes into the job. We’ve been lucky to have him, and I’m proud of the job he does. Beyond his contract, that’s for later, as Mike just said."
Daniels was very blunt in his assessment of the football program.
"Well, it's not in a good place," he said. "I can tell you all the reasons that we absolutely should have one and probably two more wins, if not more. But 1-6 is 1-6. I’m at every game. I know what’s been going on. ... There are other times for evaluation of personnel and so forth, but you can make all the changes you want there and if we don’t have this kind of infrastructure in place (with the new facility), I don’t think Knute Rockne goes undefeated here. ... That’s why we thought we’d go ahead and share this with you and not wait for the December board meeting to do it."
Hazell has been heavily involved in the facilities discussion, even visiting other sites that Populous has designed. But that doesn't necessarily indicate Hazell will be attached to the future of the program. All parties were given the chance to offer a vote of confidence, or the opposite, for Hazell. But they essentially decided to steer clear of any strong statements.
"There’s a lot of emotion in the air right now about the lack of success. We understand that," Burke said. "We’re trying to take a measured approach to deal with a particular deficiency that we think can be advantageous to this program in the future, and Darrell’s the guy right now who is running the ship and he and his staff have an experienced pedigree. They’ve been through tough sledding before and right now you need people who have been in that kind of issues before at other locations they’ve been at and yet have still coached championship teams, both at the college and professional level."
Berghoff underlined that the focus of any football conversations has been about how to help the staff be successful.
"We’re going to do whatever it takes to help him win," he said. "We want him to be successful. We’re confident he’ll be successful. We think this (project) is a key component of that and will be helpful. If there are other things we need to be doing, staff-wise, supporting him in any way, that’s what we’re going to do."
Burke's contract is through 2017. How are Daniels and Berghoff handling what happens from a future standpoint with the AD?
Berghoff: "That’s probably a little premature, something that Morgan and the board have not yet talked about. We’ve got a fair amount of work to do. One is this (project), getting this program back to winning championships. I’m certain Morgan is spending almost all of his waking hours and some of his sleeping hours thinking about it, and that’s the way we want it. That’s the same thing we want Darrell to be doing. We’ve got five games left and we’re going to find a way to provide all the support we can to be successful and get this program back."
Daniels: "I’ll just say that I look forward to working with Morgan right through the end of his contract, for sure. He does a really fine job. You look across the spectrum of our 20 sports, the general rule is a very good one, plus everything else that goes into the job. We’ve been lucky to have him, and I’m proud of the job he does. Beyond his contract, that’s for later, as Mike just said."
Daniels was very blunt in his assessment of the football program.
"Well, it's not in a good place," he said. "I can tell you all the reasons that we absolutely should have one and probably two more wins, if not more. But 1-6 is 1-6. I’m at every game. I know what’s been going on. ... There are other times for evaluation of personnel and so forth, but you can make all the changes you want there and if we don’t have this kind of infrastructure in place (with the new facility), I don’t think Knute Rockne goes undefeated here. ... That’s why we thought we’d go ahead and share this with you and not wait for the December board meeting to do it."
Hazell has been heavily involved in the facilities discussion, even visiting other sites that Populous has designed. But that doesn't necessarily indicate Hazell will be attached to the future of the program. All parties were given the chance to offer a vote of confidence, or the opposite, for Hazell. But they essentially decided to steer clear of any strong statements.
"There’s a lot of emotion in the air right now about the lack of success. We understand that," Burke said. "We’re trying to take a measured approach to deal with a particular deficiency that we think can be advantageous to this program in the future, and Darrell’s the guy right now who is running the ship and he and his staff have an experienced pedigree. They’ve been through tough sledding before and right now you need people who have been in that kind of issues before at other locations they’ve been at and yet have still coached championship teams, both at the college and professional level."
Berghoff underlined that the focus of any football conversations has been about how to help the staff be successful.
"We’re going to do whatever it takes to help him win," he said. "We want him to be successful. We’re confident he’ll be successful. We think this (project) is a key component of that and will be helpful. If there are other things we need to be doing, staff-wise, supporting him in any way, that’s what we’re going to do."
