Daily reporting that VB Coach Mark Rosen signed a new contract before his termination 71 days later
really excellent reporting on the part of the Daily.
yet more weirdness from the athletic department, particularly in light of the fact that no reason has been offered for rosen's termination in the first place. but maybe i'm misreading?
https://www.michigandaily.com/volleyball/mark-rosen-signed-five-year-extension-before-firing/
January 24th, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^
Warde Warde Warde.... SMH....
January 24th, 2023 at 11:00 AM ^
That performance evaluation looms large
January 24th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
While I agree it looms large I think it will happen swiftly... I'm wondering since he is a "Michigan Man" if they aren't letting Warde look around a bit before making decisions. Writing is painted all over the walls if you ask me... I typically am not one to jump to conclusions but there is just way to much smoke here
January 24th, 2023 at 11:27 AM ^
Well Ono approved this contract so it’s going to be hard to blame this all on Warde
January 24th, 2023 at 12:25 PM ^
Ono would have only been on the job a few weeks when this was signed. I wouldn’t expect him to know the ins and outs of Michigan volleyball. I would expect that from Manuel though.
January 24th, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^
I don't necessarily agree with this... Ono runs the University. This is the volleyball coach... he is 100% delegating this decision to Warde. If there is a problem here and Warde should have been aware of it before the contract was signed, he should be removed immediately.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:01 AM ^
It does not look good, possible there was something hidden from everyone. Hard to tell without the details.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
It is, and we're looking for sticks to flail Warde with now, which might or might not be legitimate complaints. There are certainly reasons to let someone go without further public discussion. For example: they've done something stupid but somewhat forgivable, in the grand scheme, and agree not to embroil you forever in frivolous but expensive legalities in exchange for going with their last year's salary. Etcetera.
January 24th, 2023 at 12:25 PM ^
that seems pretty plausible, particularly when contrasted with the pearson breakup.
i'm not looking to bludgeon manuel, fwiw - i'm generally of the opinion that he's not been the disaster that some others here seem to think he's been. this just seems like one more oddity in a long recent list of them.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:02 AM ^
Since they likely fired him without cause, does Michigan owe Rosen his entire salary?
January 24th, 2023 at 11:05 AM ^
If that's the case, I don't see how this isn't fraud.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:21 AM ^
I suspect they 'likely fired him' with cause. There is nothing either way, but it doesn't make sense to just wake up one day and decide to fire someone. There are a thousand ways to fire someone with cause if you need to do so for whatever reason. And there's no way Rosen drifts out into the cold night without a peep if there was no reason for it..
January 24th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
Bring back WD!
We need another AD run outta town!
January 24th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
What is Jim Hackett up to these days?
January 24th, 2023 at 11:14 AM ^
Maybe he hacked into somebody's email account.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^
because "volleyball" takes too long to type
January 24th, 2023 at 12:27 PM ^
i had it in there, but the post title was already longer than i wanted so i abbreviated.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
In no way have I ever been a Grammar Nazi, but this post is going to give me a seizure.
January 24th, 2023 at 7:59 PM ^
Translation: you can’t write or spell
January 24th, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^
In defense of Warde (well there's a sentence I never thought I'd write) there are only two explanations for doing something like this
1. Warde is even more incompetent than I thought. Gives a coach an extenstion and less than three months later fires them for no reason at all (this is highly unlikely IMO)
2. Some new, previously unknown information came to light post-extention OR the individual did something post-extension that warranted immediate termination for cause.
I'm guessing #2 in a big way.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:36 AM ^
"OR the individual did something post-extension that warranted immediate termination for cause."
WOTS is that Rosen was caught comping pastrami with chopped liver at Zingerman's instead of hamburgers at the Jug, and completely blew past the food budget for the year.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^
and you know, if folks don't eat enough, well, they end up looking like skeletons. isn't that right, don?
January 24th, 2023 at 3:26 PM ^
I wish my midsection was closer to skeleton status.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^
It's hard to imagine volleyball would garner the former, like suddenly we're so unhappy with how the team is doing, you gotta fire the coach because volleyball brings in so much money. Has to be #2. The silence could be a courtesy to protect the coach's privacy.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:45 AM ^
Yeah, the second option probably was the case. It's hard to imagine they'd have given an extension if something was lingering, even with the Pearson precdent.
January 24th, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^
May or may not mean anything, but another bit in the Rosen saga is that he went out on leave for health reasons in November.
Curiouser and curiouser.
January 24th, 2023 at 12:01 PM ^
He was to be paid around $220K/annum. His W-L record was apparently on the downslope?
His payout is about a million or less if the contract has a lump sum payout provision (we're probably spending more than that to expand the tunnel entrance in the Big House). He coached for 24 years, was thanked for his faithful service, and now gets a 4.9 year payout "good-bye kiss" for his retirement. He might even have asked for this to happen? Or it might be a generous mercy termination if there are health issues? I have zero idea.
This is a nothing burger event (and JH doesnt even have to report leaving the tip for the nothingburger to the NCAA).
January 24th, 2023 at 12:13 PM ^
His win-loss record was never on the upslope. He pretty won 8-10 league matches a year and finished around 6th place every year. Sorry but that doesn't justify a million dollar pay out if that is what happened. This isn't monopoly money.
January 24th, 2023 at 12:24 PM ^
I defer to you about his record, clearly. And. Giving some very loyal employee of 24 years a 6 figure good bye kiss isn't a horrible thing to do. I can easily see myself doing something like this with "my" budget, especially if the guy was a no aggravation, sweetheart employee who might now be reporting health problems. His payout is at the barely audible noise level in our annual budget. I'm fine with this. You can feel differently, of course.
Edit/add: scenario: minor level, older guy with almost 25 years of service gets a new contract as a matter of course. You have lunch with the guy and realize early stage cognitive decline. You have coffee with his wife and she says, "yes, it's what we fear it is". Question: do you fire him for cause, shutting off his pay and medical benefits, or do you mercifully give him his kiss and some privacy. I am not saying this is what happened - but I know how I would handle it.
You?
January 24th, 2023 at 12:40 PM ^
Agree, but I would just put deferred compensation in his contract if they feel he's earned it like all other large organizations do. Operating like this looks shady for an organization asking for donations.
January 24th, 2023 at 1:03 PM ^
Deferred comp for a guy making 220K a year? It's not like there's an annual bonus pool for ROI on assets deployed, he's a regular paycheck guy. Regardless, thanks for showing me your heart is in a good place. We agree he needs to be taken care of, we just disagree about the way to do that. Thanks. 👍👍
January 24th, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^
We’re spending exactly zero dollars to expand the tunnel. The permanent tunnel structure will continue to be the width it has always been.
What we are doing is eliminating temporary seating that constricts the tunnel width. We’re losing some revenue by not installing the temporary seating for games. We’re saving some money by not paying for installing and removing temporary seating for games. I suspect the marginal revenue from 45 temporary seats was not worth the PR hassle of having to defend the tunnel.
January 24th, 2023 at 10:08 PM ^
This has been covered about the tunnel…They are just not putting the temporary seats there that reduced the width of the entrance from the field. The cost is likely nothing if not minimal
January 24th, 2023 at 12:54 PM ^
that's the key, to take 'em by surprise
January 24th, 2023 at 1:59 PM ^
Side note, but I’m reminded of the fact that there is a class of elite professionals that get guaranteed money when fired without cause, while the rest of us plebes hope our employers are kind enough to provide some form of menial severance when we get laid off and locked out of our laptops on a Monday morning.
January 24th, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
I had this happen to me before.
Got promoted and a 20% raise at 8:00 AM during performance review session.
Got RIF'd at 4:00 PM that same day.
Yeah, they laid people off at the end of the day -- so people who knew it was coming was able to sabotage some stuff