I have a story that I was told by my boss, at the time, after a mistake was made. Here you go....
The CEO of a company goes out and hires a young up and comer (call him the kid) to run a division of his company. By all accounts, the kid has the complete package, but is definitely green. As time passes in the first year of the kid's tenure there is a mistake made that cost the company a million dollars. The day that everything was resolved and closed out regarding the mistake (tension had been high at the office) the kid gets a call from the CEO's secretary to come to a meeting with the CEO in his office in 1 hour. The kid feels that the doom is coming on his brief tenure and packs his office into a box to prepare to resign before being fired. The kid goes in the CEO's office and before the CEO can speak says the following, "Listen, I know that I have made a huge mistake and I have let you, the company, and myself down. You do not need to fire me. I have already packed my stuff up and I just wanted to tell you thank you for the opportunities that you have given me before I left."
The CEO responds, "Well, I hope that you were not just going to leave without letting me say something. I did not call you in here to fire you or let you go. I called you in here, so we could discuss the lessons learned and how we will make sure that this never happens again."
"Listen, Kid", says the CEO, "Everyone has made mistakes. You are defined by what you do after that mistake happens. Do not run from it learn from it."
"What you need to do is figure out how we are going to make this back. After all, you have the most expensive education of anyone in this place. Now, let's use it."
I think about this story when I think about Capel. It is probably one of the biggest reasons that I am conflicted by what should happen. When I see the numbers, I think to myself, wow, we should let him go. We cannot stand for these records.
On the other hand, I can see the reasons for the first season and then the bad apples that did not stick around (thus cause for this season - team would look a lot different with Tiny and TMG if they were still here as he thought they would be through at least mid way of the conference schedule last year). I can buy the excuses along with a team that looked like it was well coached and overachieved to a certain extent. But is all of this his fault?
Originally, I had a problem with the hire. We hired a young coach that did not really have the experience/experiences that most Big 12 coaches have (thus why we were able to pay him so little to start). Most of the successful coaches were either assistants for big programs then had a couple of years of head coaching experience (similar to Capel's tenure at VCU) or have been a head coach for 7/8 years plus. You cannot blame Capel for the success that he had early and becoming a hot commodity thus getting a huge pay raise (Joe C was correct in giving him one - we were going to have the most McDonald's All-Americans that we had ever had on one team (even equaled the amount that we had had total through all years before Capel was here) - Optimism was high) thus being paid more than what he really had earned. He was given a huge responsibility at a young age and I thought that he would struggle (thus the disconnect in the hire itself - I thought that we were at bare minimum a Top 25 program), but I thought that Joe C knew what he was doing and was prepared for some of the bumps. Capel has been thrown a lot in his tenure here and has definitely had a lot of learning experiences. This is where the story comes in. The question is did we just pay for his education? Did we pay for the education that we will not see the benefit on the other end or can he really not handle this?
To me it is like an investment. If an investment goes down in value you do not sell it just because it goes down, you sell it because it has a fundamental flaw/condition that caused it to go down or you have reached the point were you cannot stomach any more losses. This, to me, is the conflict and question for the decision makers of Capel's fate. The question is where this investment is in their minds... I, myself, am still uncertain...
The CEO of a company goes out and hires a young up and comer (call him the kid) to run a division of his company. By all accounts, the kid has the complete package, but is definitely green. As time passes in the first year of the kid's tenure there is a mistake made that cost the company a million dollars. The day that everything was resolved and closed out regarding the mistake (tension had been high at the office) the kid gets a call from the CEO's secretary to come to a meeting with the CEO in his office in 1 hour. The kid feels that the doom is coming on his brief tenure and packs his office into a box to prepare to resign before being fired. The kid goes in the CEO's office and before the CEO can speak says the following, "Listen, I know that I have made a huge mistake and I have let you, the company, and myself down. You do not need to fire me. I have already packed my stuff up and I just wanted to tell you thank you for the opportunities that you have given me before I left."
The CEO responds, "Well, I hope that you were not just going to leave without letting me say something. I did not call you in here to fire you or let you go. I called you in here, so we could discuss the lessons learned and how we will make sure that this never happens again."
"Listen, Kid", says the CEO, "Everyone has made mistakes. You are defined by what you do after that mistake happens. Do not run from it learn from it."
"What you need to do is figure out how we are going to make this back. After all, you have the most expensive education of anyone in this place. Now, let's use it."
I think about this story when I think about Capel. It is probably one of the biggest reasons that I am conflicted by what should happen. When I see the numbers, I think to myself, wow, we should let him go. We cannot stand for these records.
On the other hand, I can see the reasons for the first season and then the bad apples that did not stick around (thus cause for this season - team would look a lot different with Tiny and TMG if they were still here as he thought they would be through at least mid way of the conference schedule last year). I can buy the excuses along with a team that looked like it was well coached and overachieved to a certain extent. But is all of this his fault?
Originally, I had a problem with the hire. We hired a young coach that did not really have the experience/experiences that most Big 12 coaches have (thus why we were able to pay him so little to start). Most of the successful coaches were either assistants for big programs then had a couple of years of head coaching experience (similar to Capel's tenure at VCU) or have been a head coach for 7/8 years plus. You cannot blame Capel for the success that he had early and becoming a hot commodity thus getting a huge pay raise (Joe C was correct in giving him one - we were going to have the most McDonald's All-Americans that we had ever had on one team (even equaled the amount that we had had total through all years before Capel was here) - Optimism was high) thus being paid more than what he really had earned. He was given a huge responsibility at a young age and I thought that he would struggle (thus the disconnect in the hire itself - I thought that we were at bare minimum a Top 25 program), but I thought that Joe C knew what he was doing and was prepared for some of the bumps. Capel has been thrown a lot in his tenure here and has definitely had a lot of learning experiences. This is where the story comes in. The question is did we just pay for his education? Did we pay for the education that we will not see the benefit on the other end or can he really not handle this?
To me it is like an investment. If an investment goes down in value you do not sell it just because it goes down, you sell it because it has a fundamental flaw/condition that caused it to go down or you have reached the point were you cannot stomach any more losses. This, to me, is the conflict and question for the decision makers of Capel's fate. The question is where this investment is in their minds... I, myself, am still uncertain...
