David Harris Leaving for Tulane

['70 Grad]

So, it is always easier to see what is wrong than what is right. DH's strength was supposed to be in "the student-athlete experience." Do you think that the view of him by our players was more positive than we are acknowledging here? Does he get any credit for low numbers in the portals? (Of course, great facilities might be another way to keep people here!)

[sevelev711]

So, it is always easier to see what is wrong than what is right. DH's strength was supposed to be in "the student-athlete experience." Do you think that the view of him by our players was more positive than we are acknowledging here? Does he get any credit for low numbers in the portals? (Of course, great facilities might be another way to keep people here!)

Obviously it was a much different era, but we had much lower portal numbers than average for a very long time. I credit that primarily to the "good team, better Team" environment that many of our coaches helped foster.

[pnthr53]

Any rumblings on who is being looked at? Gotta have a good hire…..we are in a troublesome spot that isn’t trending well the last few years.

[BCPanther]

Any rumblings on who is being looked at? Gotta have a good hire…..we are in a troublesome spot that isn’t trending well the last few years.

David is technically here for the rest of the year and there hasn't been an interim named yet. This is a long process that will most likely be pretty quiet.

I'm encouraged that Nook was the chairman of the committee that hired Jeff Jackson and he's been a home run so hopefully he nails our hire too.

Remember, David was a parting gift from Bill Ruud before Nook got here.

[Trapped in California]

So, it is always easier to see what is wrong than what is right. DH's strength was supposed to be in "the student-athlete experience." Do you think that the view of him by our players was more positive than we are acknowledging here? Does he get any credit for low numbers in the portals? (Of course, great facilities might be another way to keep people here!)

I will say that we did not have any athletes caught up in online betting issues. By good leadership, luck, or all the athletes are using their spare cash for facility improvements, who knows.

[clenz]

So, it is always easier to see what is wrong than what is right. DH's strength was supposed to be in "the student-athlete experience." Do you think that the view of him by our players was more positive than we are acknowledging here? Does he get any credit for low numbers in the portals? (Of course, great facilities might be another way to keep people here!)

David is/was good at the student services side of things. He deserves credit on that front.

The collective GPAs of the teams, the volunteerism the teams do, etc. are all helped through things he put in place. Granted the students still have to do the work and all of the other stuff to make sure those things happened, but he had a vision on that side of things and those are the only goals that were ever accomplished as part of his 5 year plan. None of the facilities, donations, ticket sales, naming, etc. happened. However, he absolutely killed every single "student" side of things that he laid out. He absolutely deserves credit/praise/whatever you want for that side of it

Does that translate directly to a lack of transfer issues, the gambling stuff being avoided, etc.? Hard to say, but you can't say it had no impact. I know things have changed, but it's not like any of our programs have ever had mass exodus issues - or even mild - in the last 25 years and that's largely been on the coaches, though support from the AD certainly helps. People who come play for Bobbi, Farley, Jake, Tanya, Schwab, Jacobs, etc. all know exactly what kind of program they are getting. They all know exactly what they are stepping into and their roles from the start of their careers. There is no bait and switch with them. There is no lying and smoke and mirrors. It's 2 decades of proving themselves here at UNI. I know the #Family thing is a Nike slogan, but you'll notice UNI is the only program that still uses it years later. It's been embraced by the programs. Every school calls their teams "family" but it feels like most don't believe it, whereas the coaches and department (including David) has fully embraced that here.

Some of it was luck on the gambling side that our 18-23-year-old college students didn't do 18-23-year-old college student things - and if they did they were trained far better in how to do it and not get caught

But, like every school, UNI has signs all over, has social media teams sending reminders, had staff telling players, etc. not to do dumb ****.


I do like the joke by Trapped where our athletes don't have the funds to bet because they have to pay for their own facilities and team snacks and whatnot.

[clenz]

David is technically here for the rest of the year and there hasn't been an interim named yet. This is a long process that will most likely be pretty quiet.

I'm encouraged that Nook was the chairman of the committee that hired Jeff Jackson and he's been a home run so hopefully he nails our hire too.

Remember, David was a parting gift from Bill Ruud before Nook got here.

Yeah, I doubt we hear anything until the announcement, or right before.

No one we are targeting is going to be a big enough name for any real leaks to actually happen, nor do we have the national media to dig in because this is some sort of major AD roll needing to be filled. Any leak we get is because someon just so happens to be the cousin of a neighbor of a friend who knows the cousin of the AD we are targeting.

Hell, look at the big time searches and how many times the people for those jobs are never leaked or known. Most ADs are overly well-known. Washington had near zero leaks, and any they had did not involve Troy. When Washington lost their AD to Southern Cal it caught everyone of guard, it just sort of popped up on the news tracker that "USC STEALING WASHINGTON AD". I looked through whatever leaks/names I could find with Tulane and not a single time was David Harris mentioned, or even hinted at, anywhere until the tweet from Thamel saying "Tulane is targeting", which is reporter lingo for "it's a done deal but not officially announced yet so I have to say it that way".

There are jobs out there it is known that David interviewed for, and of those jobs no one that was leaked for it ended up getting it. That's kind of how these games are played for AD like rolls. There are also others that David interviewed for that he didn't get that aren't as well known, but the fact that a few of us were able to source it out made it pretty clear it wasn't an "interview to get the job" it was an "interview to get the name out there and show interest in moving". To the point, a few of us played a game of "Ope, David is interviewing somewhere again. Wonder where?" because of how he uses social media. His pattern became abundantly clear about a year, maybe just over, ago. He was never consistent on social media anyway, but a very specific pattern emerged every time, and often one of us would be able to confirm that is exactly what happened through a public leak or just having a source.

We "missed" it with Tulane as it was happening live, but I can tell you fairly certainty the general time frame David was interviewing - Sometime between Sept 29 and October 4th and I would lean very heavily that first week of October - probably the 2nd-4th including travel times. Obviously, it would have been more than one interview, but that being the main time frame.

Since he's technically employed through 12/31, I'd be that's his final day "on the job" we likely won't hear of an interim for a bit. Use December to sort out that tag and hit the ground running with the new search committee forming, planning, etc. after the new year, and hope to have one in place by March-ish give or take a week either way. Schedules for the spring are done and/or can be handled by an interim at this point. Football schedule for next year only has one open date left and I'm sure that will be heavily weighted on what Farley wants at this point.


For comparison let's look at a few other recent AD searches.

Dannen to Tulane was public on 12/2/2015.
David Harris to UNI was made public on 2/24/2016
85 days from public to public

Dannen to Washington public on 10/7/2023
Harris to Tulane public on 11/20/2023
45 days

Jen Cohen leaves Washington for USC public 8/21/23
Dannen to Washington public 10/7/23
48 days

Beth Goertz has been interim AD at Iowa for 6 months - named interim 6/1 and then in August was reaffirmed as full-time interim of some kind. Barta stepped down 5/28. They still dont' technically have a full-time AD, but anyone with a brain knows Goetz should get it.

Notre Dame had Swabrick step down the same time as Barta and they had a new one in place within 2 weeks - but that was because of their connections with NBC so the NBC Sports chairman slid into the AD roll, because as we all have learned, being an AD isn't about being an administrator it is being a fund raiser and relationship builder.

Larger schools move much more quickly out of pure necessity in many ways - also larger pool of known/qualified candidates - Iowa is the exception there.

The average FBS/power replacement is about 30-60 days
The average FCS replacement tends to be 60-90 days

Though truly tracking down a good list of AD changes is harder than it *should* be, largely because ADs aren't the splashy moves that get a ton of attention like FB/BB HCs since most fans largely don't know/pay attention to the ADs.

[pnthr53]

I'm sure that most don't think an AD matters but it absolutely does in our situation. An extra 5mil in our yearly budget would go a long way. Maybe it's not out there but if we are operating on 15 or so million....20 million would be huge.

[clenz]

I'm sure that most don't think an AD matters but it absolutely does in our situation. An extra 5mil in our yearly budget would go a long way. Maybe it's not out there but if we are operating on 15 or so million....20 million would be huge.

For sure. I wasn't trying to say it doesn't matter but to the vast majority of fans - UNI or even massive schools - ADs are paid no attention to. They are a lot like officials or offensive linemen. You only know of them when they are either generationally great or biblically bad. Otherwise, they are out of sight, out of mind, and most just assume they are running only the administrative side of things like they did 30, 40, 50+ years ago. When teams are losing 80-90% of fans (especailly over the age of 40-45) don't give a damn if the programs are being hamstrung by a lack of facilities or resources because they AD can't make it happen like peers. They grew up in an era where lifting weights at 6am 3 or 4 days a week is all that was needed. Days when the idea of recovery, nutrition, etc. weren't taken as seriously as they are now so the idea of having a nice locker room and good snacks and lounging is just dumb. Days when AC didn't exist in the home so you had no expectation of **** at your football program. That is the world we live in anymore. That does matter.

ADs need to be the driving force behind that. Your staff can handle the day-to-day. The AD needs to lead the macro/big vision and be the face of it. But because so many don't understand that they just go "Well, the AD is doing what ADs do so we are fine, the coaches need to figure it out." - just read this forum for more than a few.

As I've pointed out with research - it's not a coincidence the programs in the MVC/MVFC/FCS that dominate year after year after year have the facilities, budgets, "niceties", etc. Is there a point of negative ROI? Yes, absolutely. I think if the DSUs spend much more than they are they are throwing money away at the FCS level. They've "peaked" for FCS growth potential. They both need to shift towards growing MBB/WBB/Volleyball but NDSU sure as hell isn't going to do that, and we've seen that over the last decade with what they've done for facilities and their fan's general attitudes. SDSU is more of a basketball school and are diving into that basketball facility world, though we will see how far they are willing to go before it starts to nip at the football budget.

[clenz]

My god the comments from Tulane fans during his press conference are a weird mix of PTSD and schadenfreude

"Felt very underwhelming and lacking any energy. I wanted to hear our stated goals without the media (Ed Daniels) having to ask."

"This guy is a terrible speaker and will not excite potential large $$$ donors or the average Joe and Jane ."

"Sounded detached , uninterested and comatose . Not a drop of excitement ."

"Sounded like Status Quo. I would have liked to hear him say our goal is to compete on the highest level of D1 Athletics."

"Yeah, basically status quo is fine. Not impressed."

"Even if you don't believe it, or you know it won't or can't happen, you rally the troops, you inspire, and you make everyone listening believe you when you speak. He did none of that."

"Very underwhelming presser. I really hate to say it, but Dannen had more enthusiasm (even if it was fake)."

"Dullsville."

"If Harris "knew" the first question would be about retaining and extending Coach Fritz why the hell did he not address the issue himself before being asked ? Weak ."

"Rick Dickson had more charm when speaking than this guy. I sure hope actions are louder than words,"

"You know when your kids asked you to take them some place and your response is “we’ll see?” That’s where i am right now."

"My take was that he gave canned safe comments on everything. I was hoping he would show some personality and fire. No promises but put up some lofty goals. Sorry but he sounded like a politician trying not to make a mistake or antagonize or offend anyone. Pure PC. Hopeful but not impressed"

"I like the Student Athlete Welfare piece a lot and I think he is genuine about it. We got to support those that take a chance on coming here and representing our University in uniform. I just wish he addressed baseball taking three west coast trips last year. However, that might have been a bit much for Press Conference #1."
--Boy do we have news for you with all of those sentences - especially travel

"he will split time between New Orleans and Northern Iowa until his official start date of Jan. 3 here. He said he owes it to his former employer to wrap up certain items back there."
---Nah, we good up here. You don't owe us ****. But we all know you want that photo up with volleyball on Thursday and Friday just like Troy did with the Big 4 even where he wore a Tulane watch

Apparently the only time he seemed to care was talking about how he thinks Tulane can be the "standard" for academics with student-athletes and student welfare ideas.


I know some here think my statements on Troy are some just personal vendetta, but Tulane fans feel the same way about Troy as the vast majority of anyone in the state of Iowa that ever dealt with him.

[BCPanther]

Ol' Davey didn't win the press conference today. Good luck, or not, whatever.

[pnthr53]

I just hope this is a done deal so they don’t send him back.

[CincyPanther88]

I just hope this is a done deal so they don’t send him back.

Yes. No takebacks.

[Wxcpanther]

So, how we feeling about the Bowlsby news???

[UNIAlum95]

Well it certainly gives us time to consider our long term solution here. I guess maybe we are serious about righting the ship.