Requirement for the Next AD and Head Football Coach
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I am reading an often stellar history called “Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America” by Richard White, a Stanford professor trying to put a pre-emptive spin on the next wave of revisionist histories of the 19th Century construction of the transcontinentals that keeps people’s eyes off of part of the whole corrupt and often vicious spectacle that was the building of the transcontinental railroad network spanning Canada, USA and Mexico.
Despite some of the holes, this is an absolute must read for anyone that wants to understand the political economy of states, and how leaving implementation of new infrastructure to private oligarchy sets in motion the subordination of states to private oligarchy. Marvelous to read a conservative historian’s take on a phenomenon that liberal historians and muck rakers exposed a century ago, but which has largely gone down the memory hole the last century or so. This is the kind of history that gets written, published and awarded a Pulitzer runner up, when someone new wants to get their hands on the enduring rail infrastructure and renew calls for subsidy via the claim of reform. But again, all history has warts and unstated “beholden to’s”. The key here is this is a good book in spite of all the caveats.
So 'bate 1.0, just how the flip does this relate to hiring Zenger’s replacement when the time comes?
Glad you asked.
Writing of the Big Four of Sacramento fame, White notes:
“Collis P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins were often more opportunistic than calculating. Their greatest gift was recognizing the opportunities that their failures and miscalculations created.” –White, Richard; “Railroaded,” W.W. Norton and Company, 2011, p.28.
Think about and savor the pithy, irreverent elegance of that remark a moment.
In a time when KUAD is laboring against considerably more powerful opponents in football, and apparently bungling right and left, amidst complexity and change it can barely foresee on a clear day, one cannot realistically hope for an AD, or a coach for that matter,that is calculating enough to fit the pieces together and outsmart everyone.
What KUAD desperately needs now is bungler with a gift for recognizing his own mistakes and the opportunities his bungling creates.
Bungling seems almost a given in the KU athletic director job, and the head coaching job, too.
KU needs to focus on hiring and AD and a head coach capable of recognizing their own bungling and the unexpected opportunities it creates.
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@jaybate-1.0 and… Not a ksu grad!
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You’re probably right when it comes to the AD position…it appears Zenger isn’t the answer we all want.
I’m indifferent to KU Football now but I used to be indifferent to the Royals until last October!
I have a picture in my mind of a refurbished (basically entirely new) Memorial Stadium in the same exact location but with a couple hundred million dollars worth of improvements and a killer football team competing for a big 12 title and a chance to make the four team playoff.
It could happen.
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@Crimsonorblue22 A Kansas native, and ex KSU guy worked out pretty well for Texas a while back.
I don’t think we’re going to have the same luck with our K-Stater.
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Let’s hire Bill Self as our AD and then Gregg Marshall as our head football coach and solve all our problems at once! Self stay hoops coach as long as he wants.
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Yes, let’s just make statue of Gale Sayers and Mangino’s Orange Bowl QB and John Riggins and Bobby Douglas in front of old Memorial and boom it down right now. Forfeit this season and next. Just recruit two years and have Hudy develop them, then field a team three seasons from now in a 120,000 seat stadium and watch KU OVERWHELM D1 football!!!
Rock Chalk!
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@jaybate-1.0 I’m happy to see that my local library has a copy of ‘Railroaded’ on the shelf and I’ll be picking it up this week. It looks like a great read, too! Thanks
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Check it out and tell me what you think. I think it’s kind of special. But take note of there being only three index references of E.O. Harriman in 600+ pages, so you get the idea of the part of the story still being left out.
