In Reply to: Jarmond answering the phone when the B1G called is the most... posted by Born2BBruin on November 14, 2024 at 23:35:31
Moving to the Big-10 was something any competent A.D. would have done if offered. USC initiated the move and Jarmond rode in on their coattails. What else has he done to balance the budget? The deal with Jordan Brand wasn't that great, roughly $7.7 million per year in apparel and cash, with the majority of the value coming in gear. He also had little to do with the Under Armour settlement. UCLA's NIL programs have lagged behind many schools. Four of the five national championships won under his watch were in programs that were well established powers long before he got here.
Do you even know the story of how Wooden and Sanders got hired by Johns? Both were available by a stroke of luck. Wooden was ready to take the Minnesota job but a snowstorm prevented them from calling before UCLA. Sanders was set to attend the national coaches convention in San Francisco but got stranded in Chicago due to a blizzard. With no trains running, he was about to return home when he caught a flight at the last minute to San Francisco where he met Johns.
Jarmond is not even close to J.D. Morgan, who turned UCLA into a national power in all sports and upgraded many of the facilities. Morgan hired Tommy Prothro as football coach, who took over a program which had three consecutive losing seasons and went 24-5-2 his first three seasons with one Rose Bowl and should have a second but they got cheated out of it. Jarmond hired one of the least qualified football coaches since 1945 when they hired Bert LaBrucherie, a high school coach. If he had any influence at all, he could have convinced Block that firing Chip would be better in the long run or at least demanded that Chip commit to stay or leave in a timely manner.
Block most likely extended Jarmond (who claimed to be a DI basketball player "who led his team to the NCAA tournament" but in reality was a walkon who made three baskets in four years) because he knew Frenk would probably get rid of him.