I submit that the problem with Boeh had very little to do with money. He loved to spend every dime he could lay his hands on, and some that he didn't actually have. The problem with Boeh was ego, plain and simple. He would not admit that he'd made a mistake. The guy was about as vain a man as I've ever met. Some may remember the letter I sent to the Dispatch about Knorr. I had personal conversations with Boeh about that. His reaction could be summed up as, "I'm the AD, I know much more than you do about everything athletic related. You are just a stupid fan, please shut up."

I wasn't suggesting that "the problem with Boeh was money." Others had held Boeh up as an example Cromer should aspire to; I was pointing out why I feel strongly that Cromer's approach with Albin was vastly superior to Boeh's with Knorr. Words don't mean anything without action. Cromer's negotiated a way to take action, whereas Boeh made an empty gesture to the fanbase without follow through.

There's not really any argument to be made that Cromer's not better positioned with Albin than Boeh was with Knorr, yet the criticisms of Cromer don't seem to reflect that at all.

Of course, Cromer is better positioned with Albin than Boeh was with Knorr. A few of us mentioned that there was some communication with Boeh about the status of the program. It might have helped with ticket sales at the time, but who knows? I don't think anybody has said that Boeh was a better AD.

Wrigley Field as Boeh came over from Northwestern. That 1.2 mil probably would of had to be spent regardless to put the turf in. In perspective the entire Phillips Club renovation only cost 2.2 mil if I remember correctly. Boeh said there wasn't funds to add more to the stadium at the time.

$2.2million (for the initial renovation), of which about $500k was the state of the art grass field. Then another $750K the next year to tear it up and install the turf. That's $1.2 Million. And the installers of the original grass field "low bid" contract used construction sand as the drain base of the grass field. A sand that basically did not allow the moisture to drain properly and rotted the roots of the field.

""

As someone who handles the design, and construction management, for a number of public projects, including natural and synthetic turf fields,I don't understand how this could happen.

The blame has to be with O.U.,or their consultants.

The specs I write for natural turf fields require it be installed on what is known as "Root Zone", basically sand with about 10% organic material.

The specs requires a manifest and certification for every load of material brought on site.

That gets given to,and checked by the project inspector or manager.

We also take and test random samples .

After the material is in place,and before we lay any turf,we confirm the "Root Zone's " "density, to be sure it isn't to compact and won't drain properly.

Never had a natural turf field fail,except from "over use".

Natural turf can be used, at most, every couple of days.
It doesn't get a chance to "rest and recover",it fails.

Thanks for the clarification. I understand your point, and at least partially agree with it. Cromer has done a better job than Boeh, but not as good as she could have done. I think that last part is where we continue to disagree. I think something like rpbobcat's suggestion might have worked. At his juncture we'll never know for sure, since none of us were part of the negotiations, though BTC might have an ear to the wall.

Here's rpboncat's suggestion:

Cromer: So, I've got this idea. What if instead of announcing your retirement, you pretend you're not retiring. That way, I can get away with naming Tim Albin interim coach and if things don't go well this coming season, I can fire him.

Solich: We're talking about the same Tim Albin that I've been friends and colleagues with for 20 years, right? The one I hired and who has been a key part of my staff for 15 years. That guy, right?

Cromer: Yep!

Solich: I see. So you're asking me to be publicly dishonest about my status, and in exchange, you get to ensure that my long time friend and trusted colleague doesn't end up with any job stability?

Cromer: Exactly! And here's another really good part: do you know Tim's family? I bet you do! By doing this, their lives also become really uncertain! Maybe they'll have to move soon. Maybe not! Who knows. Isn't that a cool perk?

Solich: Wait, remind me, why do I want to do this?

Cromer: Well, you see, there are a bunch of old grads on Bobcatattack.com who are trying very, very hard to find a way to justify their emotional, poorly thought out desire to retroactively blame me for the disappointing football season, and after they failed to rationally state a case as to how I could have done any better than I did, they've come up with this nonsense.

Solich: Oh, but wouldn't it just take the littlest bit of critical thought to understand that this doesn't make sense?

Cromer: Frank, you're not listening. They really, really want to blame me. Critical thought and rationality have nothing to do with it. I don't wrote letters to the fanbase!

Frank: Wait, letters? What's that have to do with shy of this?

Cromer: Exactly.

Frank: But surely they understand that I want Albin to be successful, right?

Cromer: You'd think so. There are a dozen obvious reasons why that would be the case. But no. Not anymore. A couple of months ago they did -- one of them when used to say "Frank got us into this mess, he can get us out of it" and suggest you buy out Albin's contract.

Frank:. . .

Cromer: Yeah, I know. And now he's suggesting that you would've gone along with this lie I came up with to avoid giving Albin the opportunity to get a real shot at this job.

Frank: Huh. And they're doing all of this with the benefit of hindsight, and didn't say anything about this at the time?

Cromer: Exactly. In fact, one of them predicted we'd win the MAC Championship. And that we'd have the best defense. Of the century.

Frank: None of this makes any sense at all.

Cromer: Sorry, what were you saying, I don't pay attention to Ohio Athletics and am on an NCAA committee conference call.

The selective use of present AND past tense makes this totally pointless.

The selective use of logical reasoning makes a whole lot of posts on this subject totally pointless, too.

And that a few folks here, with the benefit of hindsight, have decided that Cromer should have negotiated differently -- after themselves predicting that OU would win the Mac Championship this year -- says a lot about how much people here actually care about how the present and past relate to each other.

Again, this misses the point. Stating, "well, Cromer's an expert, I'm not" misses that nobody here can formulate a reasonable explanation as to how Cromer could have achieved a better outcome.

Heads will roll for the state of Ohio Football. It'll be the heads of Albin and others on the staff though, because ultimately they're the ones responsible. Cromer's culpability will begin when she has the opportunity to actually run a coaching search and install her choice; she didn't have that choice with Albin, and the contract she negotiated with him makes very clear that she had little confidence in him.

The attempts to argue anything but aren't based on fact, but instead just read as angry people looking for somebody to blame.

In that alternate timeline you just outlined, you're here, just as angry with Cromer, because she refused to offer the job to Tim Albin who you predicted would win the championship Solich never did.

Anyhow, I give up, man. You're working so hard to find a way to blame Cromer for this, that I'm just gonna go ahead and stop trying to convince you otherwise. I only hope the OU administration recognizes how irrational the portion of the fanbase that feels that way truly is.

And how much deferred maintenance has OU built up over the years? Is paying 2 head football coaches in 2022 the best use of that money?