OPINION-Two athletic directors. Two scandals. Two very different results.
Meet Mike Bohn, the athletic director at CU. Bohn came to CU after a sex scandal erupted with the CU football team.
Meet Ian McCaw, the athletic director of Baylor University. McCaw came to Baylor after the murder of one Baylor basketball player by another.
Both schools were slapped with a numerous amount of NCAA infractions.
Since hired, Bohn has hired five coaches during his time. Since hired, McCaw has hired two coaches during his time.
Mike Bohn has the beautiful scenery of Boulder to help entice coaches and athletes. Ian McCaw has Waco.
Mike Bohn has seen his football team become worse than pitiful. Ian McCaw has seen his football team become better than hoped for.
Mike Bohn has one of the few football teams in the nation that has a starting quarterback and reliever quarterbacks. For the past two years, Cody Hawkins has started the season, only to be taken out in relief of one of their bullpen of quarterbacks, including Tyler Hansen.
(Personally, I say to heck with the quarterback controversy, let them both play! Bring out the kicker too. He doesn’t make very many of his kicks (15-32), but whatever, up is down, right is left; we’re all having a good time!)
Ian McCaw has one of the few football teams in the nation that has a starting quarterback who has Heisman potential. Quarterback Robert Griffin has all the intangibles to become Baylor’s first Heisman-winner ever.
Mike Bohn saw the football team have one of its worst recruiting classes in history at 65th in the nation, one below the likes of Hawaii University, who finished in the cellar of the WAC. And last in the Big 12, below the likes of… everyone.
Ian McCaw saw the football team have one of its best recruiting classes at 39th, one above BYU, who has been BCS ranked in the top 20 for the past four years, and 7th in the Big 12.
Mike Bohn saw his men’s and women’s basketball teams finish without a post-season berth. Ian McCaw saw his men’s and women’s basketball teams go deep into the NCAA tournament. Baylor’s women’s basketball team was knocked out in the Final Four by the eventual Women’s NCAA Champion Connecticut, who hasn’t lost a game in two years. Baylor’s men’s basketball team lost in the Elite Eight to the eventual Men’s NCAA Champion Duke, who is coached by USA Olympic head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Ian McCaw will try to entice basketball head coach Scott Drew to stay and not go to ACC’s Clemson. Mike Bohn will entice basketball head coach Jeff Bzdelik to stay and not go to ACC’s Wake Forest.
Ian McCaw has something to work with. Mike Bohn does not.
Ian McCaw and his Baylor Bear’s outlook is good. This fall their football team gets back their healthy Heisman-caliber quarterback and looks to be in good shape to make their first bowl game in 16 years.
The South is weaker minus Bradford and McCoy, and the North is in shambles. So while the Big 12 Conference should be as feeble as it has been in nearly a decade, Baylor should be the best they have been in 16 years.
Then you have Baylor basketball. The women’s team brings back Brittney Griner, who will be even better than the freshman who carried her team to the Final Four. The men’s team will have their core back, who went to the Elite Eight, minus Tweety Carter. And their baseball team should always be in the top 20 or so.
Mike Bohn and his Colorado Buffaloes’ outlook is not so good. Dan Hawkins couldn’t win when everyone thought he did recruit well. Now that he has a oh-sweet-God-what-did-we-do-wrong recruiting class, the plunge to how far the football team can fall is limitless.
The Buffs basketball team was going in the right direction, but now that it looks like Bzdelik is on the move, who knows where the Buffs will go from here. Does Bzdelik leaving mean Alec Burks might be on the way out too? Could be. And then, the women’s team has no coach, the volleyball team is coming off a 2-18 conference record last year, the tennis team is up-and-down and CU still has no baseball team.
But you never know what can happen from day-to-day. And maybe in a year, Bohn will have a bone to pick with me to tell me how incorrect my thinking was.
But for now…
Meet Ian McCaw, the man on whose success you can hang your hat.
Meet Mike Bohn, the man on whose success you can hang your head.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Brent Wilson at Brent.wilson@colorado.edu.
