Hilariously, NU hasn’t even updated the coaches on the official roster… …?

[NUCat320]

2024 Football Coaches - Northwestern Athletics

The official Football Coach List for the Northwestern Wildcats

nusports.com

Check that.

NU just has no offensive coordinator and no defensive coordinator.

“Hey coach, this is Zach Lujan, OC at Northwestern. Interested in your QB. Tell me about him.”
“This is…who?”
“Zach Lujan, OC at Northwestern.”
“The purple Northwestern? Big Ten Northwestern?”
“Yup. Las Vegas Bowl winners. That one.”
“I’ve got their site up. David Braun’s the head coach. And Northwestern doesn’t *have* an offensive coordinator.”

Yeesh.

Pretty two-bit stuff. Anderson, MacPherson, still listed. Bajakian is off the list. McGarigle still listed as LB only. Just lame.

(Note: This is ‘2023’. However, there is no ‘2024’ available.)

 

[CatManTrue]

2024 Football Coaches - Northwestern Athletics

The official Football Coach List for the Northwestern Wildcats

nusports.com

Check that.

NU just has no offensive coordinator and no defensive coordinator.

“Hey coach, this is Zach Lujan, OC at Northwestern. Interested in your QB. Tell me about him.”
“This is…who?”
“Zach Lujan, OC at Northwestern.”
“The purple Northwestern? Big Ten Northwestern?”
“Yup. Las Vegas Bowl winners. That one.”
“I’ve got their site up. David Braun’s the head coach. And Northwestern doesn’t *have* an offensive coordinator.”

Yeesh.

Pretty two-bit stuff. Anderson, MacPherson, still listed. Bajakian is off the list. McGarigle still listed as LB only. Just lame.

(Note: This is ‘2023’. However, there is no ‘2024’ available.)

But, according to some Rock posters, that doesn’t matter if they posted something on Twitter!

Or, wait, is it called X?

When I was researching colleges, I certainly Googled them. Deeply. even my 18YO brain would have noticed these omissions.

The athletic department needs to get their shit together.

 

[Ilvolino]

But, according to some Rock posters, that doesn’t matter if they posted something on Twitter!

Or, wait, is it called X?

When I was researching colleges, I certainly Googled them. Deeply. even my 18YO brain would have noticed these omissions.

The athletic department needs to get their shit together.

This is beyond pathetic. It is an absolute s*** show.

 

[EvanstonCat]

But, according to some Rock posters, that doesn’t matter if they posted something on Twitter!

Or, wait, is it called X?

When I was researching colleges, I certainly Googled them. Deeply. even my 18YO brain would have noticed these omissions.

The athletic department needs to get their shit together.

18 year old kids don’t bother with websites. As long as they are up to date on Instagram and X they are fine. You want them to update their listings in the phone book too? Boomers

 

[HailToPurple]

I'm not sure if this is just simply a matter of the website not being updated or if it is because the contracts with the new staff have not been fully signed yet. Announcements may have been made based on verbal agreements, but the legal formalities could still be pending.

 

[CatManTrue]

18 year old kids don’t bother with websites. As long as they are up to date on Instagram and X they are fine. You want them to update their listings in the phone book too? Boomers

I’ll try to look up who our offensive coordinator is on TikTok if that will help.

You should google “Northwestern offensive coordinator”. Or ask ChatGPT. The results are as disappointing as our old website.

 

[EvanstonCat]

Chat GPT 4.0 cutoff date is April 2023. ChatGPT thinks Fitz is still our head coach. Man, you really are a boomer

 

[CatManTrue]

Chat GPT 4.0 cutoff date is April 2023. ChatGPT thinks Fitz is still our head coach. Man, you really are a boomer

ChatGPT Plus has open access to the internet, so it can spit out all types of info about our COTY Braun.

Respect your elders!

 

[Frabjous]

That does it. I am getting me a Google Machine.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I'm not sure if this is just simply a matter of the website not being updated or if it is because the contracts with the new staff have not been fully signed yet. Announcements may have been made based on verbal agreements, but the legal formalities could still be pending.

Amazing that Fortune 500 Corporations can hire CEO’s a day after making the decision.

 

[zeek55]

I'm not sure if this is just simply a matter of the website not being updated or if it is because the contracts with the new staff have not been fully signed yet. Announcements may have been made based on verbal agreements, but the legal formalities could still be pending.

Amazing that Fortune 500 Corporations can hire CEO’s a day after making the decision.

The thing that's different here is that coaches are still getting paid by their old schools until their new contract goes into effect.

So in some cases, it may very well make sense to delay the formal signing/announcement (see Dino Babers getting Syracuse HC contract firing money so his formal signing hasn't been announced by Arizona to be OC).

It's a pretty normal thing; the coaches are all here working but if they're being paid by old schools, let them keep being paid.

 

[NUCat320]

Amazing that Fortune 500 Corporations can hire CEO’s a day after making the decision.

Right. These newly-hired coaches are out traveling on behalf of the school, using department credit cards, etc., etc.

It’s just strange that they could be doing all of this but *not* be employees.

In the case of McGarigle, he’s changing positions; he’s been on payroll.


I think it’s *probably* not just athletic communications negligence, and that there must be some policy that’s causing the change not to be made. But who knows.

It’s just strange. Hilarious even, as I initially posted. Keystone copsish.

(Pretty funny that Bajakian was scrubbed but Anderson not.)

 

[zeek55]

Right. These newly-hired coaches are out traveling on behalf of the school, using department credit cards, etc., etc.

It’s just strange that they could be doing all of this but *not* be employees.

In the case of McGarigle, he’s changing positions; he’s been on payroll.


I think it’s *probably* not just athletic communications negligence, and that there must be some policy that’s causing the change not to be made. But who knows.

It’s just strange. Hilarious even, as I initially posted. Keystone copsish.

(Pretty funny that Bajakian was scrubbed but Anderson not.)

As I mentioned above your post, a lot of the time this is to delay the start of their formal contract/payments by NU.

Not saying that's specifically what's going on here, but most schools do this kind of thing where the coaches are working before their contracts go into full effect.

A lot of the time, they're still being paid by the previous school.

Doubt that's the case for Lujan specifically since he should be getting a big upgrade in pay, but in a lot of situations this is the reason for delays to formal signings/announcements.

 

[WildcatWillie]

Mostly OT for this thread, but it's so remarkable that months after season's end there's still no head coach of NU volleyball identified -- and in a heavy recruiting period with club seasons underway, etc. (With that sport, it's entirely possible there's not yet even been a hired replacement!)

I've seen the possible explanations for new grid coaches not yet being listed -- and yes, high school prospects probably don't need to scroll through website listings of coaching staffs. But out-of-date content on an official site still seems bush-league and yet another example of Graggian incompetence in the department.

 

[HailToPurple]

Never had problems like this when Jim Phillips was in charge.

Gragg seems to be way over his head in being able to run a first rate athletic program.

 

[NUChicago]

Never had problems like this when Jim Phillips was in charge.

Gragg seems to be way over his head in being able to run a first rate athletic program.

Yet nothing changes. In this time of change strong leadership is critical, and we have Gragg and Schill. The pressure/heat needs to go to the BOT as they have enabled this mess.

 

[section235west]

The thread triggers my PTSD. Sorry. Although a website is the only public facing resource, its maintenance is usually underfunded and a low priority— even in the most successful organizations. I know, that seems crazy.

Most websites, especially for large organizations, are ridiculously out of date. There are a dozen reasons for this. Marketing, communications and IT staff change constantly. Changes in web postings go through many levels of approval and oversight. Getting current information out to the public takes a back seat to fear of screwing up by posting something that is premature or not perfectly accurate. Website readers are not a forgiving group, and the boss hears about errors 100% of the time.

Businesses move forward by meetings, phone calls, texts and emails. If you are dealing with the “public” you plan to devote a portion of your day to explaining that the website has not been updated. I don’t know, but I suspect athletic departments are not too different.

In this setting, info is cycled through a bureaucracy, ends up on the desk of an overworked assistant marketing director with ten other responsibilities, who must then repeatedly email the IT staffer with the authority to draft the website changes. Most of the time the website changes are done in Beta and go back up the food chain for approval. That IT staffer knows that more requests are coming down the pike, so they bundle their work and wait another month. The same IT staffer is usually busy fixing glitches in the inbound (revenue producing) links of the webpage or building the next super cool new interface. Every big business has their own iteration of this dance.

Even the smallest changes are a lot of work. There are exceptions to this, usually when someone gets fired. Granted, all this bureaucracy can be sidestepped if the CEO makes a phone call, but that almost never happens.

If you’ve got this far, thanks so much for reading. I feel much better now.

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

The thread triggers my PTSD. Sorry. Although a website is the only public facing resource, its maintenance is usually underfunded and a low priority— even in the most successful organizations. I know, that seems crazy.

Most websites, especially for large organizations, are ridiculously out of date. There are a dozen reasons for this. Marketing, communications and IT staff change constantly. Changes in web postings go through many levels of approval and oversight. Getting current information out to the public takes a back seat to fear of screwing up by posting something that is premature or not perfectly accurate. Website readers are not a forgiving group, and the boss hears about errors 100% of the time.

Businesses move forward by meetings, phone calls, texts and emails. If you are dealing with the “public” you plan to devote a portion of your day to explaining that the website has not been updated. I don’t know, but I suspect athletic departments are not too different.

In this setting, info is cycled through a bureaucracy, ends up on the desk of an overworked assistant marketing director with ten other responsibilities, who must then repeatedly email the IT staffer with the authority to draft the website changes. Most of the time the website changes are done in Beta and go back up the food chain for approval. That IT staffer knows that more requests are coming down the pike, so they bundle their work and wait another month. The same IT staffer is usually busy fixing glitches in the inbound (revenue producing) links of the webpage or building the next super cool new interface. Every big business has their own iteration of this dance.

Even the smallest changes are a lot of work. There are exceptions to this, usually when someone gets fired. Granted, all this bureaucracy can be sidestepped if the CEO makes a phone call, but that almost never happens.

If you’ve got this far, thanks so much for reading. I feel much better now.

Welcome to Wildcat Report?

 

[HailToPurple]

The thread triggers my PTSD. Sorry. Although a website is the only public facing resource, its maintenance is usually underfunded and a low priority— even in the most successful organizations. I know, that seems crazy.

Most websites, especially for large organizations, are ridiculously out of date. There are a dozen reasons for this. Marketing, communications and IT staff change constantly. Changes in web postings go through many levels of approval and oversight. Getting current information out to the public takes a back seat to fear of screwing up by posting something that is premature or not perfectly accurate. Website readers are not a forgiving group, and the boss hears about errors 100% of the time.

Businesses move forward by meetings, phone calls, texts and emails. If you are dealing with the “public” you plan to devote a portion of your day to explaining that the website has not been updated. I don’t know, but I suspect athletic departments are not too different.

In this setting, info is cycled through a bureaucracy, ends up on the desk of an overworked assistant marketing director with ten other responsibilities, who must then repeatedly email the IT staffer with the authority to draft the website changes. Most of the time the website changes are done in Beta and go back up the food chain for approval. That IT staffer knows that more requests are coming down the pike, so they bundle their work and wait another month. The same IT staffer is usually busy fixing glitches in the inbound (revenue producing) links of the webpage or building the next super cool new interface. Every big business has their own iteration of this dance.

Even the smallest changes are a lot of work. There are exceptions to this, usually when someone gets fired. Granted, all this bureaucracy can be sidestepped if the CEO makes a phone call, but that almost never happens.

If you’ve got this far, thanks so much for reading. I feel much better now.

Sorry, but I'm not buying the argument that this has anything at all to do with lack of resources to update the website. It has nothing to do with the website.

There still has not been the public announcement or press release by the university regarding the promotion of Tim McGarigle or the hiring of other coaches.

This is not a resource issue. It's a managment failure that falls squarely into the lap of Gragg and his boss.

 

[seavue617]

As a former lawyer, I find it hard to believe that a school's standard contractual language would not include a requirement that employees give immediate notice of their accepting a position elsewhere and/or commencing any duties or work on behalf of another employer and relieving the school of any obligation for further contractual payments thereafter.

 

[NUCat320]

The thread triggers my PTSD. Sorry. Although a website is the only public facing resource, its maintenance is usually underfunded and a low priority— even in the most successful organizations. I know, that seems crazy.

Most websites, especially for large organizations, are ridiculously out of date. There are a dozen reasons for this. Marketing, communications and IT staff change constantly. Changes in web postings go through many levels of approval and oversight. Getting current information out to the public takes a back seat to fear of screwing up by posting something that is premature or not perfectly accurate. Website readers are not a forgiving group, and the boss hears about errors 100% of the time.

Businesses move forward by meetings, phone calls, texts and emails. If you are dealing with the “public” you plan to devote a portion of your day to explaining that the website has not been updated. I don’t know, but I suspect athletic departments are not too different.

In this setting, info is cycled through a bureaucracy, ends up on the desk of an overworked assistant marketing director with ten other responsibilities, who must then repeatedly email the IT staffer with the authority to draft the website changes. Most of the time the website changes are done in Beta and go back up the food chain for approval. That IT staffer knows that more requests are coming down the pike, so they bundle their work and wait another month. The same IT staffer is usually busy fixing glitches in the inbound (revenue producing) links of the webpage or building the next super cool new interface. Every big business has their own iteration of this dance.

Even the smallest changes are a lot of work. There are exceptions to this, usually when someone gets fired. Granted, all this bureaucracy can be sidestepped if the CEO makes a phone call, but that almost never happens.

If you’ve got this far, thanks so much for reading. I feel much better now.

I know where you’re coming from, but I don’t think you’re right on the tech/effort limitations. This looks like a fairly universal CMS they’re using.

There’s a dedicated comms team devoted to NU football. For whatever reason, they’ve deemed an announcement and a site change (again, except for Bajakian) to not be necessary.

I’m more shocked by the lack of an announcement than the lack of a roster change.

 

[NUChicago]

Sorry, but I'm not buying the argument that this has anything at all to do with lack of resources to update the website. It has nothing to do with the website.

There still has not been the public announcement or press release by the university regarding the promotion of Tim McGarigle or the hiring of other coaches.

This is not a resource issue. It's a managment failure that falls squarely into the lap of Gragg and his boss.

It’s like he wants to get fired but knows he won’t.

 

[HappyNUyear]

Never had problems like this when Jim Phillips was in charge.

Gragg seems to be way over his head in being able to run a first rate athletic program.

Gragg is a first rate 🤡

 

[HailToPurple]

It’s like he wants to get fired but knows he won’t.

Yeah, that's my concern about Gragg as well. I think he has more of a personal agenda than just serving the university. Complete opposite of Jim Phillips.

 

[NUChicago]

Yeah, that's my concern about Gragg as well.

Make a million bucks a year, and don’t have to produce, it’s like winning the lottery.

 

[Hkjb]

The thread triggers my PTSD. Sorry. Although a website is the only public facing resource, its maintenance is usually underfunded and a low priority— even in the most successful organizations. I know, that seems crazy.

Most websites, especially for large organizations, are ridiculously out of date. There are a dozen reasons for this. Marketing, communications and IT staff change constantly. Changes in web postings go through many levels of approval and oversight. Getting current information out to the public takes a back seat to fear of screwing up by posting something that is premature or not perfectly accurate. Website readers are not a forgiving group, and the boss hears about errors 100% of the time.

Businesses move forward by meetings, phone calls, texts and emails. If you are dealing with the “public” you plan to devote a portion of your day to explaining that the website has not been updated. I don’t know, but I suspect athletic departments are not too different.

In this setting, info is cycled through a bureaucracy, ends up on the desk of an overworked assistant marketing director with ten other responsibilities, who must then repeatedly email the IT staffer with the authority to draft the website changes. Most of the time the website changes are done in Beta and go back up the food chain for approval. That IT staffer knows that more requests are coming down the pike, so they bundle their work and wait another month. The same IT staffer is usually busy fixing glitches in the inbound (revenue producing) links of the webpage or building the next super cool new interface. Every big business has their own iteration of this dance.

Even the smallest changes are a lot of work. There are exceptions to this, usually when someone gets fired. Granted, all this bureaucracy can be sidestepped if the CEO makes a phone call, but that almost never happens.

If you’ve got this far, thanks so much for reading. I feel much better now.

Thanks for sharing! This is very true in most cases.....Unless - competent leadership and delegation of authority...

 

[palbeans]

Thanks for sharing! This is very true in most cases.....Unless - competent leadership and delegation of authority...

Look at the Michigan site. They made several coaching changes in the last week. All are updated on their site.

 

[Catdude]

I’m a bit surprised by the people defending the Athletics Department and concocting various reasons to explain the delay in an announcement and in updating the roster. The answer is either that NU is choosing not to (strange strategy) or ineptitude.

Lujan apparently accepted the NU job on January 8th; it is now February 3rd. It is completely absurd that hasn’t been made official publicly. I just wish we knew why. He has clearly officially been hired because he’s recruiting, so it’s not a matter of some uniquely long and crazy NU HR process.

 

[Hkjb]

It's still not fixed. I wonder if replying to NU athletics posts on Twitter or Youtube - telling them to update the x%$# website - would work better than talking in our own bubble?

 

[HailToPurple]

I’m a bit surprised by the people defending the Athletics Department and concocting various reasons to explain the delay in an announcement and in updating the roster. The answer is either that NU is choosing not to (strange strategy) or ineptitude.

Lujan apparently accepted the NU job on January 8th; it is now February 3rd. It is completely absurd that hasn’t been made official publicly. I just wish we knew why. He has clearly officially been hired because he’s recruiting, so it’s not a matter of some uniquely long and crazy NU HR process.

I think ineptitude is an excellent way to describe the person who now heads up our athletics department. There is nothing else that can be pointed to for this failure.

And what is so frustrating is that positive announcements of these new coaches are a great way to enhance the image of the program which can then result in a more attractive package for prospective recruits.

I guess maybe the athletic director doesn't realize that this is the height of the spring recruiting season. He seems to be MIA on just about everything.

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

I’m a bit surprised by the people defending the Athletics Department and concocting various reasons to explain the delay in an announcement and in updating the roster. The answer is either that NU is choosing not to (strange strategy) or ineptitude.

Lujan apparently accepted the NU job on January 8th; it is now February 3rd. It is completely absurd that hasn’t been made official publicly. I just wish we knew why. He has clearly officially been hired because he’s recruiting, so it’s not a matter of some uniquely long and crazy NU HR process.

Perhaps this is something Lou or Matt can investigate? I’d imagine not that difficult to find out.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Look at the Michigan site. They made several coaching changes in the last week. All are updated on their site.

The team Michigan beat for the Natty has updated as well.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Perhaps this is something Lou or Matt can investigate? I’d imagine not that difficult to find out.

Are you good at “where’s Waldo”?

 

[Sheffielder]

For what it's worth (and for a little perspective...)

* Alabama only has Kalen DeBoer listed, no other coaches at all.
* Washington appears to have all coaching positions updated that are known.
* Michigan has Sherrone Moore listed as head coach and their DC position is updated (but in fairness, all that was already living on the website)

I would agree it is poor form to have Anderson and Mac still listed especially since Genyk and the Strength Coach (whose name momentarily escapes me as I'm writing this) have been removed...in this respect they really are taking "half-assing" it to the next level.

Sidebar: Director of Football Performance is listed on LinkedIn at $345-355K, in case you were at all curious about that like I was.

 

[No Chores]

As a former lawyer, I find it hard to believe that a school's standard contractual language would not include a requirement that employees give immediate notice of their accepting a position elsewhere and/or commencing any duties or work on behalf of another employer and relieving the school of any obligation for further contractual payments thereafter.

I agree, but you are not a "former" lawyer. Like me, you are probably retired, but you're still a lawyer. Nobody has revoked your J.D., and my guess is you were probably not disbarred.

 

[Frabjous]

I agree, but you are not a "former" lawyer. Like me, you are probably retired, but you're still a lawyer. Nobody has revoked your J.D., and my guess is you were probably not disbarred.

Practicing law and coaching football are quite similar; you must be smart enough to know how to do it, and dumb enough to care.

 

[mountaindrew]

Lujan apparently accepted the NU job on January 8th; it is now February 3rd. It is completely absurd that hasn’t been made official publicly. I just wish we knew why.

Simple. With Gragg basically absent on the job, SID now takes its orders from the Admissions (We Hate NU Football) Office.