SJU AD rankings

1

19854ever

Well-known member
The following is a list of SJU AD’s/Acting AD’s I am going to rank in order from best to worst IMHO.

1 . Jack Kaiser - AD from early 1972 till 1995 responsible for SJU being a founding member of the BE. Basketball and Baseball flourished under his tenure.

2. Ed Manetta 1995-2001 - fired Mahoney hited Frashilla a good hire, then fired him. Hired Jarvis then left before the end of the Jarvis era and the Kevin Clark dibacle issues with Father Harrington and left the AD world to focus on sports marketing. 1996 soccer championships under just watch, did a solid job.

3.Chris Monasch - 2005-2015 - inherited the disaster that was Norm Roberts, took bullets for him on WFAN and kept old Norm around a season or two more than he should have. Credited for hiring Lavin who turned the program around. He was undermined by Joe Olivia and when Mullin was hired was fired shortly after.

4. Mike Cragg -2016- present - on the clock as we speak, handled the Mullin departure poorly and hired CMA which did not work out, but he will rank better in the future ?

5. Dave Wegzyrn - 2001-2005 God awful, never stepped in to suspend Grady Reynolds after he assaulted a female student. The Pitt fiasco happened under his watch , never hired asst coaches to fill the void after Jarvis and his son were let go. Really awful.

6 . Anton Goff 2015- 2016 No real power , a professional cheerleader. Was involved with some off duty behavior that got him fired.

Maybe it’s time SJU brings Ed Kull back., He maybe the perfect fit, He can be the transformational 20 year AD that can completely turn around SJU and keep it relevant for years to come.
 
What happened with Anton Goff?

One day he was here, and the next he was mysteriously gone.
 
In reading this board from 2005-2015, I'm not sure I ever heard one good thing said about Monasch.

The dates above are a little incorrect. Cragg was hired in late 2018. I always felt it was tough that he was brought on and was quickly tasked with firing the programs greatest player from his coaching position.
 
19854ever said:
The following is a list of SJU AD’s/Acting AD’s I am going to rank in order from best to worst IMHO.

1 . Jack Kaiser - AD from early 1972 till 1995 responsible for SJU being a founding member of the BE. Basketball and Baseball flourished under his tenure.

2. Ed Manetta 1995-2001 - fired Mahoney hited Frashilla a good hire, then fired him. Hired Jarvis then left before the end of the Jarvis era and the Kevin Clark dibacle issues with Father Harrington and left the AD world to focus on sports marketing. 1996 soccer championships under just watch, did a solid job.

3.Chris Monasch - 2005-2015 - inherited the disaster that was Norm Roberts, took bullets for him on WFAN and kept old Norm around a season or two more than he should have. Credited for hiring Lavin who turned the program around. He was undermined by Joe Olivia and when Mullin was hired was fired shortly after.

4. Mike Cragg -2016- present - on the clock as we speak, handled the Mullin departure poorly and hired CMA which did not work out, but he will rank better in the future ?

5. Dave Wegzyrn - 2001-2005 God awful, never stepped in to suspend Grady Reynolds after he assaulted a female student. The Pitt fiasco happened under his watch , never hired asst coaches to fill the void after Jarvis and his son were let go. Really awful.

6 . Anton Goff 2015- 2016 No real power , a professional cheerleader. Was involved with some off duty behavior that got him fired.

Maybe it’s time SJU brings Ed Kull back., He maybe the perfect fit, He can be the transformational 20 year AD that can completely turn around SJU and keep it relevant for years to come.
Click to expand...
Kaiser- excellence. Beloved by staff, coaches and athletes alike! Athletic teams, for the most part, competed on a national level.
Manetta- continued the outstanding tradition set by Kaiser. Left SJU as Harrington tried to hijack the athletic department from him and dropped many programs against Manetta’s desire.
Monasch-OK, did his research on the future landscape of the Conference. Athletic teams were all going to conference tourney and NCAA’s. was Not as visible to athletes as previous AD’s. I think he was respected by his Big East peers. The Brian Colleary incident also hurts his reputation.

the rest you can place in the poor hire category.
Wegzen was a Harrington sidekick who was not respected by most coaches or peers. Did nothing to enhance the athlete experience when in charge. Was the complete opposite of what the athletic department needed at that time. Instead of fundraising, he slashed budgets and staff. No facility improvements during his tenure. Treated basketball very poorly, every thing was confrontational often clashing with hoops staff. Never took responsibility for the many incidents during his time there. He killed the money making program, basketball by falling so far behind our Big East foes in facilities, travel, academic laptops for players etc.

Goff, during his short time there, at least, was a former athlete who understood the importance of support areas in the success of the athletic teams. Dramatically increased spending and staff size of academic support area, sports medicine for health care, nutrition stations for teams and strength & conditioning of teams Through a huge NCAA one time grant. When he traveled on basketball trips, he personally arranged site visits of athletic facilities and saw how far behind we were and started the master plan of facility improvements at SJU.
Supported all the athletic teams in person. Too bad he imploded in such a short time.

Cragg, well the hiring and extension of Anderson will forever tarnish him IMO. In his 4-5 years at SJU, his strive for excellence mantra has not happened. Look at how fast and far the soccer, basketball, baseball, track, softball and lacrosse teams have fallen and continue to languish in the bottom half of the Big East. Facilities are still the worst in the Conference. Porta potties still dot all of our outdoor venues for athletes and fans alike. He was hired from Duke because of his supposed Iron Duke fundraising capabilities as well as facility enhancement. 5 years in and no major fundraising announcements. If there was still a Big East Commissioner's trophy for athletic teams results, we’d be in last place.
 
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Alumni Hall excellent post,well written and a great analysis. I did a quick overview on my iPhone happy to see you take this post to the next level. Great intel on Dave Wegzyrn, the crisis management after the Pitt scandal was awful and the hiring of Norm was very questionable. I was one of the few Monasch fans on here, maybe because he was such a major upgrade over Wegzyrn.
 
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