So let's play a quick game of make believe, and we'll leave names of programs and people out of it for a moment. This morning ... let's imagine you are the brand-new AD of a smaller NCAA D-1 school, having left the comforts of your Ivy League alma mater, in all likelihood to pad your resume, because you were stuck behind other folks at your prior stop, and if that job opens up again in the future, you want to be ready. With your Ivy League background, you have been immersed in the dogma of DEI for virtually your entire adult life. And you are arriving as the head of an Athletics Department that is sorely lacking in this quality. In your interview, time was spent acknowledging the school's written policy is "committed towards fostering an inclusive environment that promotes DEI in coaching". But on your initial review of the various head coaches
in situ working for you upon your hire, you see virtually no evidence to support that such an environment exists. Combining your Ivy background and your reputation as a compliance wonk, you want to change those optics.
And as fortune would have it, you just happen to have a head coach in a prominent Men's program - let's say Hoops for today's purposes - who is on the last year of an expiring deal as your first order of business. You also have another prominent Men's program head coach on an expiring deal the following year, but his sport is a lot less DEI friendly on the basic demographics. The tricky part - if it really is that tricky, given his program's low profile both on campus and statewide - is that the Hoops guy is the all-time winningest coach not only in school history, but also in the history of his conference. He has also managed to string together four (4) straight non-losing seasons, and avoided losing records in seven of his last nine seasons. And as modest as that all sounds, the school had never seen better days, not in that program, not by a long shot. But even all that adds up to a .500 record, even over that "hallowed" nine-year stretch.
And any .500 coach - especially one with no postseason pedigree at his school - is always going to be vulnerable to replacement. Especially for a new AD with a resume to build. So when the school's (and conference's) all-time winningest coach came to the end of his deal, he was simply not invited back. The new AD made use of this low-hanging fruit of opportunity to address an area of DEI weakness that she (and likely her school) wanted badly to boost. That they made what appeared to be a pretty solid hire at the time in the process was a happy bonus. More on that a little later ...
... fast forward a year to the "next guy up" with an expiring contract, coaching the less DEI friendly sport. He's been at the same school as the departed hoops guy for about half as long, and in that time, he too has established no postseason pedigree. He has only managed one (1) winning season, and one where his team got drubbed in the first round of the conference postseason by their main (
Maine?) rivals. But that winning season was his most recent one, and he has some apparent support in the school's donor community. Despite being clearly less credentialed than his former Hoops colleague, he gets himself extended.
So let's bring this exercise up to date and into the present day. We're halfway into the last guy's extension now, and let's just say, his team did not extend his winning streak to two seasons last season, despite high expectations to do so. Midway through his second season, he's put together probably the best streak of his HC career, with five straight wins, most over ranked programs. Will his program build on that when they resume play in a couple of weeks' time, or will it be another mirage of winning, followed by a crushing return to normal, i.e. mediocre results with mediocre play? Will a postseason pedigree begin, or will it wither and die on the vine yet again?? With another year left on his deal, having already received two dubious extensions ... does any of this really matter???
The Hoops guy is now midway into the 3rd year of his deal (I have no idea, nor do I care how many years remain) and things have begun to follow a pattern of prior accomplishments. At his prior stop, which was FAR more established in the sport than his current station ever was, we'll stop playing make believe and just point out that
Coach Nathan Davis followed a pretty accomplished predecessor at Bucknell (CHC's Dave Paulsen), and his first 4 seasons in charge were unqualified run of four winning seasons, but the next four seasons were an unqualified dumpster fire, leading to his dismissal. At UNH, he added one more season to Coach Herrion's modest non-losing season streak to five (5) seasons, but the dumpster fire began quickly last season, and looks to be continuing so far this season. Maybe he'll turn things around shortly ... or maybe he won't? But say what you will, both Coach Herrion and Coach Davis are sub-.500 guys:
Nathan Davis Coaching Record
www.sports-reference.com
Bill Herrion Coaching Record
www.sports-reference.com
Coach Davis' career has seen him succeeding two "fairly successful" predecessors, who left him a little something to work with. Neither job saw him starting at the bottom with a total program rebuild, so that's a consideration to gauge how well he's done, both at Bucknell, and now at UNH.
Bottom line: Was it fair to call Coach Davis a DEI hire? Probably not. He had a resume at the time that was slightly better than his UNH predecessor in terms of winning percentage at his time of hire, but that has subsequently slipped to a pretty even-steven comparison. Overall, he's still a work in progress. And FWIW, at the time of this writing, he has as many winning seasons (1) at UNH in two-plus seasons than the Hockey guy has in nearly a decade.
But if you look at it from UNH's standpoint ... doing the Hoops hiring, reviewing candidates, with DEI baked into your mission statement ... let's be honest and say
the day Coach Davis' resume arrived in AD Rich's inbox was a very good day for AD Rich, her UNH superiors, and all tuned in to the DEI mantra. No longer could other schools/AD's throw shade on UNH's hiring practices being "all talk, no action".
This was demonstrable action. Don't undersell that.
Looking ahead ... the UNH AD and her people will be facing another interesting hire in the coming months, with the fresh departure of Coach Santos from the Football program. Unlike Hockey (and more akin to Hoops), the Football hire can draw from more DEI friendly demographics. UNH has appointed an interim coach (Scott James) from Coach Santos' returning staff, but has indicated the proverbial "nationwide search" will follow regardless, for a full-time successor. I'm sure Coach James will get appropriate consideration ... but again, with no postseason pedigree to point to (beyond qualifying to a field of 16 (now 24, I guess), he's got nothing particularly impressive to point to, and the school and its AD may simply want to double its DEI count. Again, don't undersell that, and if you find it offensive or uncomfortable to even bring up the topic in discussion, then just tell me what part of this discussion is so far-fetched. I'll wait ...
(Sung to the tune of Rudolph...my tribute to the one and only Andrew Poturalski! )