Re: Maine Summer 2013 - Pizza Season
Maybe it went like this. Corkum was put in his position or applied for his position with full intention of one day replacing Whitehead. This only makes sense because why else would he suffer through 5 years of Whitehead incompetence? When Abbott came on board, it was explained to him, being a newbie at this AD stuff, that Bob was the preferred replacement for Whitehead sooner rather than later. This would have a been awhile ago, even before Jimmy starting having so much success at Dubuque. The die hard fans get more disgruntled with Whitehead while Corkum bides his time waiting. But there is a problem, a big problem. The die hards notice how good of a coaching job Jimmy is doing and see HIM as their next preferred coach, and its spread over the social media, and becomes coffee room buzz. "Hey Joe, cant wait till they chitcan Whitehead and we can get Montgomery and maybe even help from Standbrook back in Orono".
Abbott thinks he needs time to make this look proper so he says it will take weeks to get the right guy. He consults with Eric Weinrich and we dont who else on how to handle this whole thing. Shortly after Whitey is jettisoned, Montgomery gives Abbott a call out of courtesy, tells him he has had a few issues in the past, but they are behind him and he wants to move forward and is interested. Abbott now has his out. He can claim Jim has a sketchy past and use that as an excuse in the newspapers, so there now is no need to have to contact Jimmy, the fans choice as it were, and express UMaine interest. He can just let the thing take its own course, name Corkum as interim coach so he can slide into the permanent position at a later date after the smoke clears.
Jimmy is incensed though because he heard nothing from Abbott. He had talked with him earlier, but now that its time for the University to start to line up the ducks, there is nothing...at which point Montgomery throws his hat in earnest into the Denver arena knowing full well that something smells fishy in Orono, and not wanting to box himself out of a premium coaching position. He even gets help from his old boss at RPI who agrees to a late, new contract at RPI so that Jim now is the front runner at Denver and can snub his nose at his old school which totally fumbled the ball. You know, the same school that hired the guy that snubbed Standbrook, Jims part time long distance assistant.
Must not forget that Jim had reported much earlier in the paper something to the effect that "if the University was interested in him, he would certainly be interested in what they had to say". Translation, without coming right out and saying he wants the UMaine job, that is what he was saying, in spades.
