Ten (10) Questions With Wyoming AD, Tom Burman

[joshvanklomp]

In a previous story I wrote on http://pokesradio.com/TheDCSpin.aspx I did mention that my one criticism of Burman was in his lack of 'dynamic appeal' if you will. Having the PT Barnum personality to go out and to electrify a constituency. However, I quickly followed that thought up by mentioning that something like that can't really be a fault of Burman's...it's just who he is.

As to the rest of your note, while I respect your view-points I simply see nothing in the way of substantive alternatives to what Burman is currently doing.

It may not be his fault, but if that's part of what holds the department back from it's potential, the school needs to recognize that and make a change. Want an alternative? Hire someone who does have dynamic appeal.

Take the move from Shyatt to Edwards. One guy just seemed to accept the 'woe is us' mentality, while the other seems to want to shake things up and do something about it. We do have recruiting challenges, but a way to get around that is to take advantage of the D1 and JUCO transfers.

Get out in the community. Turn over every possible rock from a fundraising standpoint. Don't just count on the big-money donors. People probably aren't going to give if you don't ask.

Burman seems to have his head on straight when it comes to hiring coaches, at least since I've followed the program. The last two were pretty quick and decisive hires and seem to represent a clear vision for the future. The stadium infrastructure is coming along too. Let's keep building on this and not stay stagnant.

[Wyovanian]

Well, Dino, let me put it this way, if I see a heart surgeon whose patients typically die, I sure as hell can't tell him every detail of what to fix because I'm no heart surgeon. At the same time, I can sure as hell tell the heart surgeon is doing something wrong and I wouldn't let that sawbones cut on me.

Outside of 1 tournament run, the heart of athletics is dying. Bball attendance used to be upper end in the nation and then Burman killed it with his buddy hire. Sure DC was a media favorite kind of hire but Burman's job is to determine if that is true. Burman said we needed a high paced offense and utilize the spread to mask our talent deficiencies since we can't recruit to Laramie. Then he switches to the Cowboy tough rah rah stuff and hires Bohl. I like Bohl but I think his hire highlighted Burman's lack of vision and conviction.

I think he is quick to throw coaches and the state under the bus to mask his own shortfalls. He uses coaches as shields for criticism against the athletic department.

His main sales pitch is "well if you want D1athletics, then give me your tax money. He does very little on highlighting what successful programs can do. Rather than generate passion and excitement to get people to follow, he uses the chicken little approach. The overall atmosphere is that of a tomb rather than big time athletics. I would venture to guess that there a big chunk of WYO folks follow another NCAA sports program more closely than WYO. Burman hasn't captured what market he has. Hell, it might be even worse now.

We are heavily state subsidized and our position within the MWC relative to budgets has been stagnant to slightly worse despite losing the big dogs. During Burman's tenure we've largely failed to compete in revenue sports despite a weakened MWC.

So, Dino, I'm no AD, but there are damn sure some concerning symptoms of a dying department.

In a previous story I wrote on http://pokesradio.com/TheDCSpin.aspx I did mention that my one criticism of Burman was in his lack of 'dynamic appeal' if you will. Having the PT Barnum personality to go out and to electrify a constituency. However, I quickly followed that thought up by mentioning that something like that can't really be a fault of Burman's...it's just who he is.

As to the rest of your note, while I respect your view-points I simply see nothing in the way of substantive alternatives to what Burman is currently doing.

I think specifics follow attitude and vision. Burman seems more inclined to argue limitations than to share vision. There's an old saying, "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours."

We all know the realities of our obstacles and the limitations they can create, but it's like skiing trees. If you're focused on them, you're going to hit them...