Jen Cohen's interview with Christian Caple

TheHB

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Tequilla said:

There's some I agree with and a lot that I don't

1to392831weretaken said:

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

Not speaking for the Derek angle here, but about the bolded. Jen's had a long-standing "strategy" at this point for staying out of the public eye and having effectively limited visibility or accountability in communication to the general population of stakeholders that support the UW Athletics community. She's not going to be visible without any kind of pre-approved list of questions from which she not only can ensure that she's not having to answer any (Pat Hill) TUFF questions but also provides her time to generate her talking points in advance. That's very clearly it is what it is at this point. The part that bothers me the most about this, and you touch on the impact below, is that the UW Athletic Department has had a long term reputation across multiple ADs (and Jen continues this tradition) of really only giving a crap about the communication with the bosses on upper campus (Cauce, BOR, etc.), corporate donors (why do you think there was a large survey recently sent out by ICA asking if you could identify UW's business partners, your opinion of those business partners, etc.), and however many high net worth donors that are supporting ICA. By not seeking to having strong and strengthening relationships with the rank and file alumni and fans of the program, what Jen is effectively doing is lessening the connection that those fans/alumni have with the program. When she talks about the difficulties for attendance, etc. and the impacts that it has on the fiscal profile of ICA, while some of those items she talks about are true, you never hear her talk about the role that the mismanagement of ICA and their outreach has had on that. Add on top of that the comments that she has made in the past referencing her effective disdain about critical comments coming from the fans of the program ... it's just everything you don't want to do in her position.

1to392831weretaken said:

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

Jen Cohen makes you do the opposite of THINKING or CARING ... the indifference that her leadership has had on the overall UW program seeps into how you feel about your support of the program. Said differently, if she's not really that interested in competing at a high level across the board then why should you be invested in supporting such indifference? The challenges that UW faces in football with the way the modern world works are definitely real ones. But as an AD, it's her JOB to work at figuring out how to differentiate the product in a way that draws interest. Here's a great example - instead of effectively shutting down campus on fall Saturday afternoons and leveraging as an opportunity to build as much good will around UW as possible through the medium of a football game, UW has instead limited and made difficult the ability to tailgate and instead promoting items such as public transportation and public tailgate areas that are highly generic and do nothing to differentiate the product from the multitude of other sporting options in the area. UW football isn't a dying product ... it's a neglected product that has had YEARS of neglect behind it and will require YEARS of focused engagement to turn around.

1to392831weretaken said:

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

The stadium funding is not on her per se ... that deal was done before she took the AD job and in the grand scheme of things I think the rebuild was done rather smartly and at a price that looks like a bargain compared to what more modern builds look like. What is on Jen though is not operating in a mindset that maximizes the revenues that come from Husky Stadium and those 7 Saturday afternoons each Fall (for starters). There is very little original thinking that I see coming out of ICA. There's deflection of blame when things don't work out to expectations. There was a very poor response to the COVID pandemic and UW was one of the last to act in terms of making adjustments to the budget. Instead of getting ahead of the plan Jen's been reactionary ever since ... her inability to be a visionary and instead only be reactionary is probably my biggest criticism of her leadership.

As for NIL, the first 2 hires that she made specifically for football have been unmitigated disasters. ICA has taken an approach that their "brand" is to create NIL opportunities (for existing athletes) adjacent to the traditional mantras of college athletics tied to education, support services, training tables, etc. The gaps to this though come in 3 forms: 1) the blurring of athletics vs academics is increasingly leaning towards schools being athletic training grounds and academics being more optional as athletes are looking to maximize their earning power TODAY because nobody knows what the future looks like as a professional, 2) the strategy of taking care of your "proven" players is great for retention and minimizing attrition through the portal but is limiting when it comes to recruiting the top end players who are more concerned about maximizing their dollars up front, and 3) the bloating of the services not tied to NIL increases spend requirements and causes problems when you're facing revenue challenges (not in a B2 conference and therefore having annual media rights that are roughly 1/3 to 1/2 at best of other programs and then relying on alternative revenue sources to cover the gap that the combo of services + NIL require).

1to392831weretaken said:

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

The decision to extend Hop was defendable and she shouldn't be criticized for that. Where she does deserve to be criticized with Hop is not being able to plug the fiscal deficits in the budget (it all runs together on this) such that when it was clear he wasn't the answer that he was fired versus what she's done of allowing him to go MULTIPLE years as a dead coach walking and DESTROY interest in all material aspects of UW Hoops as a result. The Lake hire is a difficult one to unwrap. Generally speaking, and I'm sure somebody has the data somewhere on this, I think the track record of replacing a "legendary" coach with an in-house assistant tends to end poorly with some short-term success through stability and then heading south. Where Jen will never win me over with Lake is that there are the behind the scenes aspect after the Lake suspension via Caple that Jen would not have fired Lake after Year 2 without the incident occurring. Moreover, the indications were that Jen was still of the mindset of retaining Jimmy providing he showed any level of contrition behind the actions. She got 100% bailed out by Jimmy effectively looking to get that parachute out. So yeah, fair to say that she handled EVERYTHING about the Lake hiring and firing about as bad as possible.

There's more to dive into that isn't the most favorable with Jen's hiring record as well as some scandals that have been effectively swept well under the rug and largely forgotten.

1to392831weretaken said:

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Here's the thing about the role of the AD ... their job is two-fold. First, it's to make sure that they've hired the right people to produce results. Second, it's making sure that there is the funding in place to allow the right people the opportunity to be successful. Her hiring results are a mixed bag at best. It's easy to say her budget issues are all COVID driven but it's lazy. Simply put, she either needs to find more revenue OR she needs to make some budget cuts where it makes the most sense. Should she have seen USC and UCLA bolting - perhaps not. Should she have recognized that USC/UCLA making a decision to leave be one that could potentially cripple the future of UW Athletics? Absolutely. As such, there's at least some level of responsibility for not getting ahead of that one way or another. Moreover, she has every level of responsibility to have been thinking about where UW was in the big picture and the direction of where things were going. Any proof she got ahead of that and positioned UW well? Goes back to the whole visionary vs reactionary thing.

Holy hell. This is a Tequila to end all Tequila posts.

animate

Well, swinging those mammaries around might work in the beginning, get you in the front door, climb the ladder .... but when you reach the higher echelons it's too bad your boobs don't have leadership or decision-making qualities.

I guess that's where the rubber meets the road.

Baseman

1to392831weretaken said:

DerekJohnson said:

I don't like to be negative about her but this is how I see the situation.

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Except when other ADs were questioning, UW repped by JC vouched for Larry Scott as innovative, the man with the plan. Jens been blinded by "game day experience" going back to Tyrone. Purple smoke, The Zone, Jimi Hendrix, who can forgot plagerism of Michigan's Mr Brightside piped into an empty stadium. Meanwhile professed Duck Ramming waved her tatted ass on Instagram for almost two years with zero recruiting results before "a move" was made. Anyway you cut it, it's tone deaf and the mark of someone that doesn't get it...Oh, then there's the big secret she would leave in a heartbeat if Pete wanted to take Built for Life on the road and take her with him.

NEXT

Tequilla

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Tequilla said:

There's some I agree with and a lot that I don't

1to392831weretaken said:

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

Not speaking for the Derek angle here, but about the bolded. Jen's had a long-standing "strategy" at this point for staying out of the public eye and having effectively limited visibility or accountability in communication to the general population of stakeholders that support the UW Athletics community. She's not going to be visible without any kind of pre-approved list of questions from which she not only can ensure that she's not having to answer any (Pat Hill) TUFF questions but also provides her time to generate her talking points in advance. That's very clearly it is what it is at this point. The part that bothers me the most about this, and you touch on the impact below, is that the UW Athletic Department has had a long term reputation across multiple ADs (and Jen continues this tradition) of really only giving a crap about the communication with the bosses on upper campus (Cauce, BOR, etc.), corporate donors (why do you think there was a large survey recently sent out by ICA asking if you could identify UW's business partners, your opinion of those business partners, etc.), and however many high net worth donors that are supporting ICA. By not seeking to having strong and strengthening relationships with the rank and file alumni and fans of the program, what Jen is effectively doing is lessening the connection that those fans/alumni have with the program. When she talks about the difficulties for attendance, etc. and the impacts that it has on the fiscal profile of ICA, while some of those items she talks about are true, you never hear her talk about the role that the mismanagement of ICA and their outreach has had on that. Add on top of that the comments that she has made in the past referencing her effective disdain about critical comments coming from the fans of the program ... it's just everything you don't want to do in her position.

1to392831weretaken said:

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

Jen Cohen makes you do the opposite of THINKING or CARING ... the indifference that her leadership has had on the overall UW program seeps into how you feel about your support of the program. Said differently, if she's not really that interested in competing at a high level across the board then why should you be invested in supporting such indifference? The challenges that UW faces in football with the way the modern world works are definitely real ones. But as an AD, it's her JOB to work at figuring out how to differentiate the product in a way that draws interest. Here's a great example - instead of effectively shutting down campus on fall Saturday afternoons and leveraging as an opportunity to build as much good will around UW as possible through the medium of a football game, UW has instead limited and made difficult the ability to tailgate and instead promoting items such as public transportation and public tailgate areas that are highly generic and do nothing to differentiate the product from the multitude of other sporting options in the area. UW football isn't a dying product ... it's a neglected product that has had YEARS of neglect behind it and will require YEARS of focused engagement to turn around.

1to392831weretaken said:

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

The stadium funding is not on her per se ... that deal was done before she took the AD job and in the grand scheme of things I think the rebuild was done rather smartly and at a price that looks like a bargain compared to what more modern builds look like. What is on Jen though is not operating in a mindset that maximizes the revenues that come from Husky Stadium and those 7 Saturday afternoons each Fall (for starters). There is very little original thinking that I see coming out of ICA. There's deflection of blame when things don't work out to expectations. There was a very poor response to the COVID pandemic and UW was one of the last to act in terms of making adjustments to the budget. Instead of getting ahead of the plan Jen's been reactionary ever since ... her inability to be a visionary and instead only be reactionary is probably my biggest criticism of her leadership.

As for NIL, the first 2 hires that she made specifically for football have been unmitigated disasters. ICA has taken an approach that their "brand" is to create NIL opportunities (for existing athletes) adjacent to the traditional mantras of college athletics tied to education, support services, training tables, etc. The gaps to this though come in 3 forms: 1) the blurring of athletics vs academics is increasingly leaning towards schools being athletic training grounds and academics being more optional as athletes are looking to maximize their earning power TODAY because nobody knows what the future looks like as a professional, 2) the strategy of taking care of your "proven" players is great for retention and minimizing attrition through the portal but is limiting when it comes to recruiting the top end players who are more concerned about maximizing their dollars up front, and 3) the bloating of the services not tied to NIL increases spend requirements and causes problems when you're facing revenue challenges (not in a B2 conference and therefore having annual media rights that are roughly 1/3 to 1/2 at best of other programs and then relying on alternative revenue sources to cover the gap that the combo of services + NIL require).

1to392831weretaken said:

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

The decision to extend Hop was defendable and she shouldn't be criticized for that. Where she does deserve to be criticized with Hop is not being able to plug the fiscal deficits in the budget (it all runs together on this) such that when it was clear he wasn't the answer that he was fired versus what she's done of allowing him to go MULTIPLE years as a dead coach walking and DESTROY interest in all material aspects of UW Hoops as a result. The Lake hire is a difficult one to unwrap. Generally speaking, and I'm sure somebody has the data somewhere on this, I think the track record of replacing a "legendary" coach with an in-house assistant tends to end poorly with some short-term success through stability and then heading south. Where Jen will never win me over with Lake is that there are the behind the scenes aspect after the Lake suspension via Caple that Jen would not have fired Lake after Year 2 without the incident occurring. Moreover, the indications were that Jen was still of the mindset of retaining Jimmy providing he showed any level of contrition behind the actions. She got 100% bailed out by Jimmy effectively looking to get that parachute out. So yeah, fair to say that she handled EVERYTHING about the Lake hiring and firing about as bad as possible.

There's more to dive into that isn't the most favorable with Jen's hiring record as well as some scandals that have been effectively swept well under the rug and largely forgotten.

1to392831weretaken said:

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Here's the thing about the role of the AD ... their job is two-fold. First, it's to make sure that they've hired the right people to produce results. Second, it's making sure that there is the funding in place to allow the right people the opportunity to be successful. Her hiring results are a mixed bag at best. It's easy to say her budget issues are all COVID driven but it's lazy. Simply put, she either needs to find more revenue OR she needs to make some budget cuts where it makes the most sense. Should she have seen USC and UCLA bolting - perhaps not. Should she have recognized that USC/UCLA making a decision to leave be one that could potentially cripple the future of UW Athletics? Absolutely. As such, there's at least some level of responsibility for not getting ahead of that one way or another. Moreover, she has every level of responsibility to have been thinking about where UW was in the big picture and the direction of where things were going. Any proof she got ahead of that and positioned UW well? Goes back to the whole visionary vs reactionary thing.

Holy hell. This is a Tequila to end all Tequila posts.

Jen hits a special nerve with me

whatshouldicareabout

Tequilla said:

There's some I agree with and a lot that I don't

1to392831weretaken said:

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

Not speaking for the Derek angle here, but about the bolded. Jen's had a long-standing "strategy" at this point for staying out of the public eye and having effectively limited visibility or accountability in communication to the general population of stakeholders that support the UW Athletics community. She's not going to be visible without any kind of pre-approved list of questions from which she not only can ensure that she's not having to answer any (Pat Hill) TUFF questions but also provides her time to generate her talking points in advance. That's very clearly it is what it is at this point. The part that bothers me the most about this, and you touch on the impact below, is that the UW Athletic Department has had a long term reputation across multiple ADs (and Jen continues this tradition) of really only giving a crap about the communication with the bosses on upper campus (Cauce, BOR, etc.), corporate donors (why do you think there was a large survey recently sent out by ICA asking if you could identify UW's business partners, your opinion of those business partners, etc.), and however many high net worth donors that are supporting ICA. By not seeking to having strong and strengthening relationships with the rank and file alumni and fans of the program, what Jen is effectively doing is lessening the connection that those fans/alumni have with the program. When she talks about the difficulties for attendance, etc. and the impacts that it has on the fiscal profile of ICA, while some of those items she talks about are true, you never hear her talk about the role that the mismanagement of ICA and their outreach has had on that. Add on top of that the comments that she has made in the past referencing her effective disdain about critical comments coming from the fans of the program ... it's just everything you don't want to do in her position.

1to392831weretaken said:

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

Jen Cohen makes you do the opposite of THINKING or CARING ... the indifference that her leadership has had on the overall UW program seeps into how you feel about your support of the program. Said differently, if she's not really that interested in competing at a high level across the board then why should you be invested in supporting such indifference? The challenges that UW faces in football with the way the modern world works are definitely real ones. But as an AD, it's her JOB to work at figuring out how to differentiate the product in a way that draws interest. Here's a great example - instead of effectively shutting down campus on fall Saturday afternoons and leveraging as an opportunity to build as much good will around UW as possible through the medium of a football game, UW has instead limited and made difficult the ability to tailgate and instead promoting items such as public transportation and public tailgate areas that are highly generic and do nothing to differentiate the product from the multitude of other sporting options in the area. UW football isn't a dying product ... it's a neglected product that has had YEARS of neglect behind it and will require YEARS of focused engagement to turn around.

1to392831weretaken said:

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

The stadium funding is not on her per se ... that deal was done before she took the AD job and in the grand scheme of things I think the rebuild was done rather smartly and at a price that looks like a bargain compared to what more modern builds look like. What is on Jen though is not operating in a mindset that maximizes the revenues that come from Husky Stadium and those 7 Saturday afternoons each Fall (for starters). There is very little original thinking that I see coming out of ICA. There's deflection of blame when things don't work out to expectations. There was a very poor response to the COVID pandemic and UW was one of the last to act in terms of making adjustments to the budget. Instead of getting ahead of the plan Jen's been reactionary ever since ... her inability to be a visionary and instead only be reactionary is probably my biggest criticism of her leadership.

As for NIL, the first 2 hires that she made specifically for football have been unmitigated disasters. ICA has taken an approach that their "brand" is to create NIL opportunities (for existing athletes) adjacent to the traditional mantras of college athletics tied to education, support services, training tables, etc. The gaps to this though come in 3 forms: 1) the blurring of athletics vs academics is increasingly leaning towards schools being athletic training grounds and academics being more optional as athletes are looking to maximize their earning power TODAY because nobody knows what the future looks like as a professional, 2) the strategy of taking care of your "proven" players is great for retention and minimizing attrition through the portal but is limiting when it comes to recruiting the top end players who are more concerned about maximizing their dollars up front, and 3) the bloating of the services not tied to NIL increases spend requirements and causes problems when you're facing revenue challenges (not in a B2 conference and therefore having annual media rights that are roughly 1/3 to 1/2 at best of other programs and then relying on alternative revenue sources to cover the gap that the combo of services + NIL require).

1to392831weretaken said:

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

The decision to extend Hop was defendable and she shouldn't be criticized for that. Where she does deserve to be criticized with Hop is not being able to plug the fiscal deficits in the budget (it all runs together on this) such that when it was clear he wasn't the answer that he was fired versus what she's done of allowing him to go MULTIPLE years as a dead coach walking and DESTROY interest in all material aspects of UW Hoops as a result. The Lake hire is a difficult one to unwrap. Generally speaking, and I'm sure somebody has the data somewhere on this, I think the track record of replacing a "legendary" coach with an in-house assistant tends to end poorly with some short-term success through stability and then heading south. Where Jen will never win me over with Lake is that there are the behind the scenes aspect after the Lake suspension via Caple that Jen would not have fired Lake after Year 2 without the incident occurring. Moreover, the indications were that Jen was still of the mindset of retaining Jimmy providing he showed any level of contrition behind the actions. She got 100% bailed out by Jimmy effectively looking to get that parachute out. So yeah, fair to say that she handled EVERYTHING about the Lake hiring and firing about as bad as possible.

There's more to dive into that isn't the most favorable with Jen's hiring record as well as some scandals that have been effectively swept well under the rug and largely forgotten.

1to392831weretaken said:

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Here's the thing about the role of the AD ... their job is two-fold. First, it's to make sure that they've hired the right people to produce results. Second, it's making sure that there is the funding in place to allow the right people the opportunity to be successful. Her hiring results are a mixed bag at best. It's easy to say her budget issues are all COVID driven but it's lazy. Simply put, she either needs to find more revenue OR she needs to make some budget cuts where it makes the most sense. Should she have seen USC and UCLA bolting - perhaps not. Should she have recognized that USC/UCLA making a decision to leave be one that could potentially cripple the future of UW Athletics? Absolutely. As such, there's at least some level of responsibility for not getting ahead of that one way or another. Moreover, she has every level of responsibility to have been thinking about where UW was in the big picture and the direction of where things were going. Any proof she got ahead of that and positioned UW well? Goes back to the whole visionary vs reactionary thing.

New board motto?

CFetters_Nacho_Lover

Tequilla said:

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Tequilla said:

There's some I agree with and a lot that I don't

1to392831weretaken said:

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

Not speaking for the Derek angle here, but about the bolded. Jen's had a long-standing "strategy" at this point for staying out of the public eye and having effectively limited visibility or accountability in communication to the general population of stakeholders that support the UW Athletics community. She's not going to be visible without any kind of pre-approved list of questions from which she not only can ensure that she's not having to answer any (Pat Hill) TUFF questions but also provides her time to generate her talking points in advance. That's very clearly it is what it is at this point. The part that bothers me the most about this, and you touch on the impact below, is that the UW Athletic Department has had a long term reputation across multiple ADs (and Jen continues this tradition) of really only giving a crap about the communication with the bosses on upper campus (Cauce, BOR, etc.), corporate donors (why do you think there was a large survey recently sent out by ICA asking if you could identify UW's business partners, your opinion of those business partners, etc.), and however many high net worth donors that are supporting ICA. By not seeking to having strong and strengthening relationships with the rank and file alumni and fans of the program, what Jen is effectively doing is lessening the connection that those fans/alumni have with the program. When she talks about the difficulties for attendance, etc. and the impacts that it has on the fiscal profile of ICA, while some of those items she talks about are true, you never hear her talk about the role that the mismanagement of ICA and their outreach has had on that. Add on top of that the comments that she has made in the past referencing her effective disdain about critical comments coming from the fans of the program ... it's just everything you don't want to do in her position.

1to392831weretaken said:

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

Jen Cohen makes you do the opposite of THINKING or CARING ... the indifference that her leadership has had on the overall UW program seeps into how you feel about your support of the program. Said differently, if she's not really that interested in competing at a high level across the board then why should you be invested in supporting such indifference? The challenges that UW faces in football with the way the modern world works are definitely real ones. But as an AD, it's her JOB to work at figuring out how to differentiate the product in a way that draws interest. Here's a great example - instead of effectively shutting down campus on fall Saturday afternoons and leveraging as an opportunity to build as much good will around UW as possible through the medium of a football game, UW has instead limited and made difficult the ability to tailgate and instead promoting items such as public transportation and public tailgate areas that are highly generic and do nothing to differentiate the product from the multitude of other sporting options in the area. UW football isn't a dying product ... it's a neglected product that has had YEARS of neglect behind it and will require YEARS of focused engagement to turn around.

1to392831weretaken said:

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

The stadium funding is not on her per se ... that deal was done before she took the AD job and in the grand scheme of things I think the rebuild was done rather smartly and at a price that looks like a bargain compared to what more modern builds look like. What is on Jen though is not operating in a mindset that maximizes the revenues that come from Husky Stadium and those 7 Saturday afternoons each Fall (for starters). There is very little original thinking that I see coming out of ICA. There's deflection of blame when things don't work out to expectations. There was a very poor response to the COVID pandemic and UW was one of the last to act in terms of making adjustments to the budget. Instead of getting ahead of the plan Jen's been reactionary ever since ... her inability to be a visionary and instead only be reactionary is probably my biggest criticism of her leadership.

As for NIL, the first 2 hires that she made specifically for football have been unmitigated disasters. ICA has taken an approach that their "brand" is to create NIL opportunities (for existing athletes) adjacent to the traditional mantras of college athletics tied to education, support services, training tables, etc. The gaps to this though come in 3 forms: 1) the blurring of athletics vs academics is increasingly leaning towards schools being athletic training grounds and academics being more optional as athletes are looking to maximize their earning power TODAY because nobody knows what the future looks like as a professional, 2) the strategy of taking care of your "proven" players is great for retention and minimizing attrition through the portal but is limiting when it comes to recruiting the top end players who are more concerned about maximizing their dollars up front, and 3) the bloating of the services not tied to NIL increases spend requirements and causes problems when you're facing revenue challenges (not in a B2 conference and therefore having annual media rights that are roughly 1/3 to 1/2 at best of other programs and then relying on alternative revenue sources to cover the gap that the combo of services + NIL require).

1to392831weretaken said:

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

The decision to extend Hop was defendable and she shouldn't be criticized for that. Where she does deserve to be criticized with Hop is not being able to plug the fiscal deficits in the budget (it all runs together on this) such that when it was clear he wasn't the answer that he was fired versus what she's done of allowing him to go MULTIPLE years as a dead coach walking and DESTROY interest in all material aspects of UW Hoops as a result. The Lake hire is a difficult one to unwrap. Generally speaking, and I'm sure somebody has the data somewhere on this, I think the track record of replacing a "legendary" coach with an in-house assistant tends to end poorly with some short-term success through stability and then heading south. Where Jen will never win me over with Lake is that there are the behind the scenes aspect after the Lake suspension via Caple that Jen would not have fired Lake after Year 2 without the incident occurring. Moreover, the indications were that Jen was still of the mindset of retaining Jimmy providing he showed any level of contrition behind the actions. She got 100% bailed out by Jimmy effectively looking to get that parachute out. So yeah, fair to say that she handled EVERYTHING about the Lake hiring and firing about as bad as possible.

There's more to dive into that isn't the most favorable with Jen's hiring record as well as some scandals that have been effectively swept well under the rug and largely forgotten.

1to392831weretaken said:

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Here's the thing about the role of the AD ... their job is two-fold. First, it's to make sure that they've hired the right people to produce results. Second, it's making sure that there is the funding in place to allow the right people the opportunity to be successful. Her hiring results are a mixed bag at best. It's easy to say her budget issues are all COVID driven but it's lazy. Simply put, she either needs to find more revenue OR she needs to make some budget cuts where it makes the most sense. Should she have seen USC and UCLA bolting - perhaps not. Should she have recognized that USC/UCLA making a decision to leave be one that could potentially cripple the future of UW Athletics? Absolutely. As such, there's at least some level of responsibility for not getting ahead of that one way or another. Moreover, she has every level of responsibility to have been thinking about where UW was in the big picture and the direction of where things were going. Any proof she got ahead of that and positioned UW well? Goes back to the whole visionary vs reactionary thing.

Holy hell. This is a Tequila to end all Tequila posts.

Jen hits a special nerve with me

Sounds like you’re ready to roll.

haie

Tequilla said:

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Tequilla said:

There's some I agree with and a lot that I don't

1to392831weretaken said:

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

Not speaking for the Derek angle here, but about the bolded. Jen's had a long-standing "strategy" at this point for staying out of the public eye and having effectively limited visibility or accountability in communication to the general population of stakeholders that support the UW Athletics community. She's not going to be visible without any kind of pre-approved list of questions from which she not only can ensure that she's not having to answer any (Pat Hill) TUFF questions but also provides her time to generate her talking points in advance. That's very clearly it is what it is at this point. The part that bothers me the most about this, and you touch on the impact below, is that the UW Athletic Department has had a long term reputation across multiple ADs (and Jen continues this tradition) of really only giving a crap about the communication with the bosses on upper campus (Cauce, BOR, etc.), corporate donors (why do you think there was a large survey recently sent out by ICA asking if you could identify UW's business partners, your opinion of those business partners, etc.), and however many high net worth donors that are supporting ICA. By not seeking to having strong and strengthening relationships with the rank and file alumni and fans of the program, what Jen is effectively doing is lessening the connection that those fans/alumni have with the program. When she talks about the difficulties for attendance, etc. and the impacts that it has on the fiscal profile of ICA, while some of those items she talks about are true, you never hear her talk about the role that the mismanagement of ICA and their outreach has had on that. Add on top of that the comments that she has made in the past referencing her effective disdain about critical comments coming from the fans of the program ... it's just everything you don't want to do in her position.

1to392831weretaken said:

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

Jen Cohen makes you do the opposite of THINKING or CARING ... the indifference that her leadership has had on the overall UW program seeps into how you feel about your support of the program. Said differently, if she's not really that interested in competing at a high level across the board then why should you be invested in supporting such indifference? The challenges that UW faces in football with the way the modern world works are definitely real ones. But as an AD, it's her JOB to work at figuring out how to differentiate the product in a way that draws interest. Here's a great example - instead of effectively shutting down campus on fall Saturday afternoons and leveraging as an opportunity to build as much good will around UW as possible through the medium of a football game, UW has instead limited and made difficult the ability to tailgate and instead promoting items such as public transportation and public tailgate areas that are highly generic and do nothing to differentiate the product from the multitude of other sporting options in the area. UW football isn't a dying product ... it's a neglected product that has had YEARS of neglect behind it and will require YEARS of focused engagement to turn around.

1to392831weretaken said:

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

The stadium funding is not on her per se ... that deal was done before she took the AD job and in the grand scheme of things I think the rebuild was done rather smartly and at a price that looks like a bargain compared to what more modern builds look like. What is on Jen though is not operating in a mindset that maximizes the revenues that come from Husky Stadium and those 7 Saturday afternoons each Fall (for starters). There is very little original thinking that I see coming out of ICA. There's deflection of blame when things don't work out to expectations. There was a very poor response to the COVID pandemic and UW was one of the last to act in terms of making adjustments to the budget. Instead of getting ahead of the plan Jen's been reactionary ever since ... her inability to be a visionary and instead only be reactionary is probably my biggest criticism of her leadership.

As for NIL, the first 2 hires that she made specifically for football have been unmitigated disasters. ICA has taken an approach that their "brand" is to create NIL opportunities (for existing athletes) adjacent to the traditional mantras of college athletics tied to education, support services, training tables, etc. The gaps to this though come in 3 forms: 1) the blurring of athletics vs academics is increasingly leaning towards schools being athletic training grounds and academics being more optional as athletes are looking to maximize their earning power TODAY because nobody knows what the future looks like as a professional, 2) the strategy of taking care of your "proven" players is great for retention and minimizing attrition through the portal but is limiting when it comes to recruiting the top end players who are more concerned about maximizing their dollars up front, and 3) the bloating of the services not tied to NIL increases spend requirements and causes problems when you're facing revenue challenges (not in a B2 conference and therefore having annual media rights that are roughly 1/3 to 1/2 at best of other programs and then relying on alternative revenue sources to cover the gap that the combo of services + NIL require).

1to392831weretaken said:

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

The decision to extend Hop was defendable and she shouldn't be criticized for that. Where she does deserve to be criticized with Hop is not being able to plug the fiscal deficits in the budget (it all runs together on this) such that when it was clear he wasn't the answer that he was fired versus what she's done of allowing him to go MULTIPLE years as a dead coach walking and DESTROY interest in all material aspects of UW Hoops as a result. The Lake hire is a difficult one to unwrap. Generally speaking, and I'm sure somebody has the data somewhere on this, I think the track record of replacing a "legendary" coach with an in-house assistant tends to end poorly with some short-term success through stability and then heading south. Where Jen will never win me over with Lake is that there are the behind the scenes aspect after the Lake suspension via Caple that Jen would not have fired Lake after Year 2 without the incident occurring. Moreover, the indications were that Jen was still of the mindset of retaining Jimmy providing he showed any level of contrition behind the actions. She got 100% bailed out by Jimmy effectively looking to get that parachute out. So yeah, fair to say that she handled EVERYTHING about the Lake hiring and firing about as bad as possible.

There's more to dive into that isn't the most favorable with Jen's hiring record as well as some scandals that have been effectively swept well under the rug and largely forgotten.

1to392831weretaken said:

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Here's the thing about the role of the AD ... their job is two-fold. First, it's to make sure that they've hired the right people to produce results. Second, it's making sure that there is the funding in place to allow the right people the opportunity to be successful. Her hiring results are a mixed bag at best. It's easy to say her budget issues are all COVID driven but it's lazy. Simply put, she either needs to find more revenue OR she needs to make some budget cuts where it makes the most sense. Should she have seen USC and UCLA bolting - perhaps not. Should she have recognized that USC/UCLA making a decision to leave be one that could potentially cripple the future of UW Athletics? Absolutely. As such, there's at least some level of responsibility for not getting ahead of that one way or another. Moreover, she has every level of responsibility to have been thinking about where UW was in the big picture and the direction of where things were going. Any proof she got ahead of that and positioned UW well? Goes back to the whole visionary vs reactionary thing.

Holy hell. This is a Tequila to end all Tequila posts.

Jen hits a special nerve with me

Anna Marie Caucey is the one who actually gets a say on what the UW does. There's a collective vote amongst the regents obviously but she has the power to say "Fuck all of this, we're just going to go independent and cut a deal with Amazon ourselves"

haie

@devs

Just found a bug. Text box cuts off after certain text length including quotes. It should cut it off after a certain length for the response only.

chuck

Baseman said:

1to392831weretaken said:

DerekJohnson said:

I don't like to be negative about her but this is how I see the situation.

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Except when other ADs were questioning, UW Meanwhile professed Duck Ramming waved her tatted ass on Instagram for almost two years with zero recruiting results before "a move" was made.

Pics? Vids?




















Oh wait. Nevermind.

dannarc

Tequilla said:

There's some I agree with and a lot that I don't

1to392831weretaken said:

Not that I really care, but of course you do. Most here do. If you didn't like being negative about her, this softball interview would have been exactly what you'd expect instead of some kind of crisis. I doubt you were in the Tug complaining every time Fox News had Trump on to fellate him live on TV for an hour because you didn't like to be negative about him.

Not speaking for the Derek angle here, but about the bolded. Jen's had a long-standing "strategy" at this point for staying out of the public eye and having effectively limited visibility or accountability in communication to the general population of stakeholders that support the UW Athletics community. She's not going to be visible without any kind of pre-approved list of questions from which she not only can ensure that she's not having to answer any (Pat Hill) TUFF questions but also provides her time to generate her talking points in advance. That's very clearly it is what it is at this point. The part that bothers me the most about this, and you touch on the impact below, is that the UW Athletic Department has had a long term reputation across multiple ADs (and Jen continues this tradition) of really only giving a crap about the communication with the bosses on upper campus (Cauce, BOR, etc.), corporate donors (why do you think there was a large survey recently sent out by ICA asking if you could identify UW's business partners, your opinion of those business partners, etc.), and however many high net worth donors that are supporting ICA. By not seeking to having strong and strengthening relationships with the rank and file alumni and fans of the program, what Jen is effectively doing is lessening the connection that those fans/alumni have with the program. When she talks about the difficulties for attendance, etc. and the impacts that it has on the fiscal profile of ICA, while some of those items she talks about are true, you never hear her talk about the role that the mismanagement of ICA and their outreach has had on that. Add on top of that the comments that she has made in the past referencing her effective disdain about critical comments coming from the fans of the program ... it's just everything you don't want to do in her position.

1to392831weretaken said:

For me, I don't really give a shit about Jen Cohen. Mostly because I'm just not as fanatical about the Huskies as I once was. The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead. Want proof? Same AD, back to back years, change the head coach, and you go from four wins to 11. Who's more important to success?

Jen Cohen makes you do the opposite of THINKING or CARING ... the indifference that her leadership has had on the overall UW program seeps into how you feel about your support of the program. Said differently, if she's not really that interested in competing at a high level across the board then why should you be invested in supporting such indifference? The challenges that UW faces in football with the way the modern world works are definitely real ones. But as an AD, it's her JOB to work at figuring out how to differentiate the product in a way that draws interest. Here's a great example - instead of effectively shutting down campus on fall Saturday afternoons and leveraging as an opportunity to build as much good will around UW as possible through the medium of a football game, UW has instead limited and made difficult the ability to tailgate and instead promoting items such as public transportation and public tailgate areas that are highly generic and do nothing to differentiate the product from the multitude of other sporting options in the area. UW football isn't a dying product ... it's a neglected product that has had YEARS of neglect behind it and will require YEARS of focused engagement to turn around.

1to392831weretaken said:

I don't see how stadium funding is on her. I don't see how a loss of revenue due to COVID is on her when every other school was hit the same way. I don't see how her lack of psychic ability in being able to predict the LA schools' defection is a huge crisis. The NIL situation is complex, as there seems to be none for 18 year olds, yet a bunch of pro guys were retained and they picked up Bernard from MSU.

The stadium funding is not on her per se ... that deal was done before she took the AD job and in the grand scheme of things I think the rebuild was done rather smartly and at a price that looks like a bargain compared to what more modern builds look like. What is on Jen though is not operating in a mindset that maximizes the revenues that come from Husky Stadium and those 7 Saturday afternoons each Fall (for starters). There is very little original thinking that I see coming out of ICA. There's deflection of blame when things don't work out to expectations. There was a very poor response to the COVID pandemic and UW was one of the last to act in terms of making adjustments to the budget. Instead of getting ahead of the plan Jen's been reactionary ever since ... her inability to be a visionary and instead only be reactionary is probably my biggest criticism of her leadership.

As for NIL, the first 2 hires that she made specifically for football have been unmitigated disasters. ICA has taken an approach that their "brand" is to create NIL opportunities (for existing athletes) adjacent to the traditional mantras of college athletics tied to education, support services, training tables, etc. The gaps to this though come in 3 forms: 1) the blurring of athletics vs academics is increasingly leaning towards schools being athletic training grounds and academics being more optional as athletes are looking to maximize their earning power TODAY because nobody knows what the future looks like as a professional, 2) the strategy of taking care of your "proven" players is great for retention and minimizing attrition through the portal but is limiting when it comes to recruiting the top end players who are more concerned about maximizing their dollars up front, and 3) the bloating of the services not tied to NIL increases spend requirements and causes problems when you're facing revenue challenges (not in a B2 conference and therefore having annual media rights that are roughly 1/3 to 1/2 at best of other programs and then relying on alternative revenue sources to cover the gap that the combo of services + NIL require).

1to392831weretaken said:

I'd hope she has a lot more inside info than me, but I'd have made many of the same mistakes. I'd have extended Hopkins after he won back to back coach of the year and won the conference with Thybulle and [checks notes]... nobody. I'd have hired Lake if Petersen truly endorsed him. I'd have wore leopard print (I mean, come on). You guysm would fucking haaaate me. I guess that's why I'm not the AD.

The decision to extend Hop was defendable and she shouldn't be criticized for that. Where she does deserve to be criticized with Hop is not being able to plug the fiscal deficits in the budget (it all runs together on this) such that when it was clear he wasn't the answer that he was fired versus what she's done of allowing him to go MULTIPLE years as a dead coach walking and DESTROY interest in all material aspects of UW Hoops as a result. The Lake hire is a difficult one to unwrap. Generally speaking, and I'm sure somebody has the data somewhere on this, I think the track record of replacing a "legendary" coach with an in-house assistant tends to end poorly with some short-term success through stability and then heading south. Where Jen will never win me over with Lake is that there are the behind the scenes aspect after the Lake suspension via Caple that Jen would not have fired Lake after Year 2 without the incident occurring. Moreover, the indications were that Jen was still of the mindset of retaining Jimmy providing he showed any level of contrition behind the actions. She got 100% bailed out by Jimmy effectively looking to get that parachute out. So yeah, fair to say that she handled EVERYTHING about the Lake hiring and firing about as bad as possible.

There's more to dive into that isn't the most favorable with Jen's hiring record as well as some scandals that have been effectively swept well under the rug and largely forgotten.

1to392831weretaken said:

I think the only thing that's really enraged me about Cohen is hiring that fucking Duck to manage NIL, as that's something she surely had a direct hand in and was an absolute tone deaf fuckup. Other than that, it's a lot like when I get my weekly pep talk email at work from the CEO. I just picture who.gif and delete without reading. It's the coaches, players, donors, and fans that make the real difference.

Here's the thing about the role of the AD ... their job is two-fold. First, it's to make sure that they've hired the right people to produce results. Second, it's making sure that there is the funding in place to allow the right people the opportunity to be successful. Her hiring results are a mixed bag at best. It's easy to say her budget issues are all COVID driven but it's lazy. Simply put, she either needs to find more revenue OR she needs to make some budget cuts where it makes the most sense. Should she have seen USC and UCLA bolting - perhaps not. Should she have recognized that USC/UCLA making a decision to leave be one that could potentially cripple the future of UW Athletics? Absolutely. As such, there's at least some level of responsibility for not getting ahead of that one way or another. Moreover, she has every level of responsibility to have been thinking about where UW was in the big picture and the direction of where things were going. Any proof she got ahead of that and positioned UW well? Goes back to the whole visionary vs reactionary thing.

KimsCopperPenny

PurpleThrobber said:

Tequilla said:

DerekJohnson said:

When I saw this come out I was looking forward to learning something. I posted it tonight in the Wam. But... Caple lobbed softballs at her and she gave non-answers or canned, cliche'd responses. She was not challenged at all and the whole thing was just a waste of everybody's time. I came away with even less confidence in her ability to lead this athletic department.

Her only strong statements were she's excited about new LED lights in the stadium for the gameday experience, and they're halfway to getting 5,000 new ticket holders. (Net or gross?)

I don't like to be negative about her but this is how I see the situation.

You had any confidence remaining?

There’s no way she’s granting any interview that poses hard hitting questions

Being excited about seizure inducing LED boards sums Jen up in a single comment

Ditch the fucking lights and fire Mike Hopkins instead

Before he gives me a seizure.

Worthless fucking AD. Worthless.

PurpleThrobber said:

Tequilla said:

DerekJohnson said:

When I saw this come out I was looking forward to learning something. I posted it tonight in the Wam. But... Caple lobbed softballs at her and she gave non-answers or canned, cliche'd responses. She was not challenged at all and the whole thing was just a waste of everybody's time. I came away with even less confidence in her ability to lead this athletic department.

Her only strong statements were she's excited about new LED lights in the stadium for the gameday experience, and they're halfway to getting 5,000 new ticket holders. (Net or gross?)

I don't like to be negative about her but this is how I see the situation.

You had any confidence remaining?

There’s no way she’s granting any interview that poses hard hitting questions

Being excited about seizure inducing LED boards sums Jen up in a single comment

Ditch the fucking lights and fire Mike Hopkins instead

Before he gives me a seizure.

Worthless fucking AD. Worthless.

PurpleThrobber said:

Tequilla said:

DerekJohnson said:

When I saw this come out I was looking forward to learning something. I posted it tonight in the Wam. But... Caple lobbed softballs at her and she gave non-answers or canned, cliche'd responses. She was not challenged at all and the whole thing was just a waste of everybody's time. I came away with even less confidence in her ability to lead this athletic department.

Her only strong statements were she's excited about new LED lights in the stadium for the gameday experience, and they're halfway to getting 5,000 new ticket holders. (Net or gross?)

I don't like to be negative about her but this is how I see the situation.

You had any confidence remaining?

There’s no way she’s granting any interview that poses hard hitting questions

Being excited about seizure inducing LED boards sums Jen up in a single comment

Ditch the fucking lights and fire Mike Hopkins instead

Before he gives me a seizure.

Worthless fucking AD. Worthless.

How does she keep her job?

theknowledge

I seem to remember that in one of Sonics Q&A threads in 2021 that someone questioned Cohens job status with the failed Hopkins, Wynn and Lake hires all coming to a head in quick succession. His answer was that enough influential big money donors were on her side and they were plenty pleased with her performance. If Sonics was right and you take into account DeBoers first season I’d say her seat is unfortunately as cool as it probably could be right now.

Tequilla

theknowledge said:

I seem to remember that in one of Sonics Q&A threads in 2021 that someone questioned Cohens job status with the failed Hopkins, Wynn and Lake hires all coming to a head in quick succession. His answer was that enough influential big money donors were on her side and they were plenty pleased with her performance. If Sonics was right and you take into account DeBoers first season I’d say her seat is unfortunately as cool as it probably could be right now.

100% this is the case

Reality is that the UW and it’s biggest supporters want to win but aren’t obsessed with winning

Jen’s the perfect vehicle for leading the department as she’s great at the rah rah stuff that keeps the important people happy but isn’t all in to the point of demanding more than a good try good effort from her programs

godawgst

The UW AD is a large business that relies on a dying product (in this region) for a majority of its income, and people think the CEO is at fault when in reality she's just a figurehead."

Bingo. Shiniest newest typewriter is still just a typewriter.

UW football isn't a dying product ... it's a neglected product that has had YEARS of neglect behind it and will require YEARS of focused engagement to turn around.

UW has a generation (+) of potential fans that are apathetic about Husky Football and look at it as a entertainment option/casual event to attend if all the stars line up (start time, success of team, opponent, etc). What should be most alarming to UW AD is how inexpensive it is to get into the average home game via any number sources (family, friends, 2ndary Markets, scalpers, even UW itself) and even then how many thousands of empty seats there are.

dirtysouwfdawg

Tequilla said:

theknowledge said:

I seem to remember that in one of Sonics Q&A threads in 2021 that someone questioned Cohens job status with the failed Hopkins, Wynn and Lake hires all coming to a head in quick succession. His answer was that enough influential big money donors were on her side and they were plenty pleased with her performance. If Sonics was right and you take into account DeBoers first season I’d say her seat is unfortunately as cool as it probably could be right now.

100% this is the case

Reality is that the UW and it’s biggest supporters want to win but aren’t obsessed with winning

Jen’s the perfect vehicle for leading the department as she’s great at the rah rah stuff that keeps the important people happy but isn’t all in to the point of demanding more than a good try good effort from her programs

Perfect vehicle… do tell.

Tequilla

There are certain softballs right down the middle that the HH faithful never disappoint in hitting out of the park

haie

The entire interview just reads like the AD said "Well, it's been months and we need to tell our fans something to try and drum up as many last minute season ticket purchases as possible, let's just say this shit."

She admitted that there is uncertainty wrt conference realignment. That and the optimism of the team this year were the only points that sounded truthful. I guess the basketball facility too.

I don't think Paul Finebaums statements are just his opinions. He is being told to say what is likely the only probable outcome at this point. Top 6 schools in the Pac will get impatient/panic if this is truly going to go to Labor Day Weekend now.

godawgst

haie said:

The entire interview just reads like the AD said "Well, it's been months and we need to tell our fans something to try and drum up as many last minute season ticket purchases as possible, let's just say this shit."

She admitted that there is uncertainty wrt conference realignment. That and the optimism of the team this year were the only points that sounded truthful. I guess the basketball facility too.

I don't think Paul Finebaums statements are just his opinions. He is being told to say what is likely the only probable outcome at this point. Top 6 schools in the Pac will get impatient/panic if this is truly going to go to Labor Day Weekend now.

Negotiations have been going on for a year. Even if the P12 Presidents don't have every detail, by now they must have a pretty good idea what the money is from the top 2 offers.

My fear is if I'm one of the 4 corner schools is how many avail chairs there are in the B12 and how long their avail for. If the best deal is for 8-10 million less than B12 and GOR is same time frame is what the Pac is being offered, does UW/Oregon/Bay Schools look at them as a landing spot until the Big10 comes calling?

Jen learned well from Pete. Give 500 word vague answers that say nothing.

DerekJohnson

godawgst said:

haie said:

The entire interview just reads like the AD said "Well, it's been months and we need to tell our fans something to try and drum up as many last minute season ticket purchases as possible, let's just say this shit."

She admitted that there is uncertainty wrt conference realignment. That and the optimism of the team this year were the only points that sounded truthful. I guess the basketball facility too.

I don't think Paul Finebaums statements are just his opinions. He is being told to say what is likely the only probable outcome at this point. Top 6 schools in the Pac will get impatient/panic if this is truly going to go to Labor Day Weekend now.

Negotiations have been going on for a year. Even if the P12 Presidents don't have every detail, by now they must have a pretty good idea what the money is from the top 2 offers.

My fear is if I'm one of the 4 corner schools is how many avail chairs there are in the B12 and how long their avail for. If the best deal is for 8-10 million less than B12 and GOR is same time frame is what the Pac is being offered, does UW/Oregon/Bay Schools look at them as a landing spot until the Big10 comes calling?

Jen learned well from Pete. Give 500 word vague answers that say nothing.

I don't think Jen has given the media the bird during a presser yet, no?