MTU presser to introduce Muckalt this morning lasted 8 minutes. No questions and no mention of Shawhan, though the media were granted 1-on-1 interviews with Bill. Keeping the press conference short and not allowing open questions is probably due to the negative reaction to the change from some local yokels.
To me, this indicates MTU's decision was already made a year ago when they opted out of extending his contract, and this was a matter of timing. The only thing to be done was to quietly conduct the head hunting exercise for the right coach and work out the terms of his deal. Not announcing & conducting a "national search" eliminated the flood of lower tier applicants they would've gotten, because they already had 2-3 guys targeted for the backfill, it was just a matter of coming to terms.
I'm guessing AD Sanregret had a long talk with her nephew (K. Kukkonen) about Joe before he bolted for Madison. His experience, plus the Marinkevics tape (physically threatening a player), other player interviews & formal complaints, the second-half collapse this season where he'd clearly lost the room, the inability to play competitively in the NCAA tournament the last couple of times they made it, and the other off-ice stuff over the years resulting in negative press - it all added up and it was time to move on.