So, I read Adam Wodon's commentary and I have spent far too long on a reply, which I just posted and I am posting here as well. Please post any critical (or supportive) feedback
I’m not sure why you are going after Athletic Director Drew Marrochello and the BU administration so hard for hiring Albie O’Connell. You certainly didn’t go after Denver for their hiring of David Carle, despite at least one top candidate, UMass Lowell head coach Norm Bazin, applying for the job. I also don’t recall you saying anything when North Dakota hired Brad Berry within 48 hours of Dave Hakstol resigning in 2015. You complain about BU not considering several candidates seriously, yet North Dakota didn’t even bother to have a national search, let alone consider any other candidates seriously and no comment from you
As for BU, you imply that any candidate that has had professional coaching or general manager experience should automatically be seriously considered. Why? Professional coaching is quite a bit different than college coaching, with which you agree, but then dismiss. And while a number of NHL general managers and assistant GM’s have had coaching experience I would think that years away from the bench would be a negative, not a positive.
You specifically mention former Terriers Joe Sacco, Jay Pandolfo, Clark Donatelli, Steve Greely and John Hynes. I have heard that Sacco and Pandolfo applied from other sources, but not that Donatelli or Greeley applied. Do you have sources that can confirm that both applied for the job? And as for Hynes, he “put word through back channels that he would be at least willing to talk about the job,” yet he was unwilling to call Drew directly. I have no problem with Drew not getting back to Hynes since he probably had enough actual applications, as well as dozens and dozens of direct phone calls about the job. If Hynes wanted the job that badly I would have expected him to call Drew directly.
As for outsiders, it has been reported that Coach Bennett was a finalist for the job, so he was considered seriously yet you still question that. Furthermore, you have made it seem that BU has so much money lying around that paying Union half a million dollars to buyout his contract could be paid out of petty cash. I’m sorry, but according to EADA data for 2016-17 the men’s team’s total expenses were $3,438,964, so half a million would be 14.5% of that, quite a significant amount, despite your attempts to make it otherwise.
Also, Coach Bennett was promoted by Union with no head coaching experience (as was David Carle and Brad Berry). I don’t know why it was OK for Union (and Denver and North Dakota) to do so, but not BU.
As for you trying to dismiss BU requiring a degree, that has come under much discussion on the BU thread over of USCHO. Several posters have stated that it is an NCAA requirement, although I haven’t found anything that states it is. If so, your attacking BU and President Brown is disingenuous. If not, I’m still not sure why you are acting like BU should overlook a standard requirement of all, or almost all schools. You mention Wisconsin making an exception for Coach Granato, but how many other schools have made such an exception for hockey head and assistant coaches? Why should BU make an exception that is so rare it is almost unheard of?
You further state that the applicants not selected have paid their dues, implying Coach O’Connell has not paid his dues. You also make it seem that to be a head coach you must already have been a head coach, but if that was the case I once again refer to Coaches Bennett, Carle and Berry.
And what is wrong with Drew wanting a coach that will stay for the long term? If you look the most successful head coaches in college hockey almost all of them stayed at one school for over a decade and many for longer. And why do you imply that the best coaches will leave while those that stay the longest are not the best? Why can’t a coach be both the best and stay the longest?
As for your comment that if Coach O’Connell wins a NCAA title the NHL will come calling, I find it highly unlikely. Otherwise I would have already expected Minnesota-Duluth’s Scott Sandelin, North Dakota’s Brad Berry, Providence’s Nate Leaman, Yale’s Keith Allain and Union’s Rick Bennett to all have already been courted by NHL teams, if not hired by them.
And as for Coach O’Connell’s past infractions at Northeastern, if you had paid attention to the NCAA report it was not just Albie and the other hockey coaches, but also the track and field head coach and the men’s basketball team that had violations. I have not read the complete report on the basketball violations, but overall it appears reminiscent of Maine’s violations in the early nineties. And like Coach Walsh, Coach O’Connell paid for his mistake and has moved on.
Sean Pickett