I'm not usually a tinfoil hat kind of guy, but we are talking about Vanderbilt. My theory is different than the one @mhdore1 has.
I've been reading all of the information yesterday about the MT resignation/firing. One thing that stood out to me was what @Chris Lee said about the big boosters NOT being happy if CSL were to be named the permanent AD.
Former ADDW supposedly wanted CSL to replace him as AD, groomed her for the job. DW may have been lazy as a fundraiser, but he wasn't stupid. He had to have known that hiring CSL wouldn't be popular among the big boosters. So, how could he and VU get her the job without ruffling the big money's feathers? By hiring someone that would be a huge failure. Someone with no AD experience (seriously, who does that?!?!) , that would make some questionable decisions (firing Drew, hiring Stack), that would come in and (gasp!) spend money (apparently very frivolously), basically, hiring MT.
You hire MT under the pretense of him being allowed to come in and spend all of the money you need to turn VU athletics around, knowing full well that will never fly at VU, and that you are basically setting him up for failure.
Then, when this hire inevitably fails, you have CSL come in as the interim AD. Then, as you supposedly "search" for the permanent AD, CSL does a good enough job as AD to warrant consideration for the permanent position without as much backlash from the big money boosters.
Then, since she's done a decent to good job (she was after all groomed for the job by DW), she's a VU grad and employee, and you've already had all of the PC fuss about CSL being the first African American female to be a sitting AD for a power 5 school (and it is a big deal, as I type this on NSD in football, the SECN was just talking about the CSL hire in the midst of all of the recruiting talk), then you've basically out-manuvered the people that were against CSL being hired as the permanent AD.
I'm in no way qualified to say whether or not CSL will be a good AD (she was trained for the job, and is obviously very intelligent, and most importantly, knows the inner workings of VU), but I have been watching how VU operates for the better part of 40 years, and I know that hiring CSL checks all of the boxes that VU wants checked, they just had to figure out a way to get past the opposition.
Enter Malcom Turner....
Hopefully, she's a good hire, because this athletic department certainly needs her to be.
I've been reading all of the information yesterday about the MT resignation/firing. One thing that stood out to me was what @Chris Lee said about the big boosters NOT being happy if CSL were to be named the permanent AD.
Former ADDW supposedly wanted CSL to replace him as AD, groomed her for the job. DW may have been lazy as a fundraiser, but he wasn't stupid. He had to have known that hiring CSL wouldn't be popular among the big boosters. So, how could he and VU get her the job without ruffling the big money's feathers? By hiring someone that would be a huge failure. Someone with no AD experience (seriously, who does that?!?!) , that would make some questionable decisions (firing Drew, hiring Stack), that would come in and (gasp!) spend money (apparently very frivolously), basically, hiring MT.
You hire MT under the pretense of him being allowed to come in and spend all of the money you need to turn VU athletics around, knowing full well that will never fly at VU, and that you are basically setting him up for failure.
Then, when this hire inevitably fails, you have CSL come in as the interim AD. Then, as you supposedly "search" for the permanent AD, CSL does a good enough job as AD to warrant consideration for the permanent position without as much backlash from the big money boosters.
Then, since she's done a decent to good job (she was after all groomed for the job by DW), she's a VU grad and employee, and you've already had all of the PC fuss about CSL being the first African American female to be a sitting AD for a power 5 school (and it is a big deal, as I type this on NSD in football, the SECN was just talking about the CSL hire in the midst of all of the recruiting talk), then you've basically out-manuvered the people that were against CSL being hired as the permanent AD.
I'm in no way qualified to say whether or not CSL will be a good AD (she was trained for the job, and is obviously very intelligent, and most importantly, knows the inner workings of VU), but I have been watching how VU operates for the better part of 40 years, and I know that hiring CSL checks all of the boxes that VU wants checked, they just had to figure out a way to get past the opposition.
Enter Malcom Turner....
Hopefully, she's a good hire, because this athletic department certainly needs her to be.
