David Cox officially let go by URI (formerly, "Fire Cox")

[steveystuds06]

Top A10 programs can, without question, keep players like Tyrese and Toppin. It’s not impossible under the right coach…It’s impossible under Cox

Except the best program in the A10 this year also lost a player to Kentucky.

Facts don’t matter though huh? Would rather make things up to fit your narrative?

Because Davidson doesn’t have a graduate school he had to leave no matter what lol

Facts don’t matter though huh?

[RIFan]

I was able to listen to the end of the game and the post game on the ride home and I was hoping that the long delay for Cox coming to the podium meant Thorr was going show up and say it was time for a change and Cox was out.

[KingstonLane]

As an Alum, it hurts to see the season and program unwind like this

But better to rip off the band aid if this recipe of coaches and players isn’t going to get it done. Don’t get stuck in limbo.

Short term pain for longer term gain

[reef]

Let’s make the next hire the right hire !!

[phipsiGD'11]

I know I am still in the minority on this, but I DO NOT want Thorr back either. I have ZERO faith he will be able to hire the next coach that will lead us back to the NCAAs.

This new logo debacle is just another example of how Thorr does not know how to transform a program/athletic department. Has he kept the Athletic Department from collapsing? Sure. Has he allowed our school's best/most historic program (basketball) flounder in mediocrity? Absolutely. None of us on this board are marketing directors, yet we can see what a catastrophic disaster this unveiling was; and who is the person that should have been running this unveiling? Thorr.

There have been ZERO program developments during his tenure. And I swear if anyone mentions partial chartered flights or that sad excuse for a media room I will lose my mind more than I already have. He is failing at his most critical position, being an advocate for URI MBB. We all already know that MBB is the straw that stirs the drink that is URI Athletics, yet he is failing at keeping our program competitive with other A10 schools.

I admit I am biased because I have no been a Thorr fan since Hurley's first year, but I hope others are starting to see what I see. The more he waits to let Cox go, the worse off we are going to be for our next coach hire. I will be the first one to eat crow if he get an experienced coach who has a proven track record, but I see us once again taking a chance on someone with minimal head coaching experience.

[section(105)]

I would like to see a change made tomorrow but I doubt Thorr pulls the trigger , definitely Cox is out end of year I would think

……I think the gun has been cocked…….in a state school these ugly dismissals take some time to grind through the mill stone, HR, contracts, separation agreements, etc etc…….I will speculate the Thorr conversation at the end of the game could have been the ground work for the parties to begin the separation process…..ya know part of the process on the ugly side…….

[section(105)]

I know I am still in the minority on this, but I DO NOT want Thorr back either. I have ZERO faith he will be able to hire the next coach that will lead us back to the NCAAs.

This new logo debacle is just another example of how Thorr does not know how to transform a program/athletic department. Has he kept the Athletic Department from collapsing? Sure. Has he allowed our school's best/most historic program (basketball) flounder in mediocrity? Absolutely. None of us on this board are marketing directors, yet we can see what a catastrophic disaster this unveiling was; and who is the person that should have been running this unveiling? Thorr.

There have been ZERO program developments during his tenure. And I swear if anyone mentions partial chartered flights or that sad excuse for a media room I will lose my mind more than I already have. He is failing at his most critical position, being an advocate for URI MBB. We all already know that MBB is the straw that stirs the drink that is URI Athletics, yet he is failing at keeping our program competitive with other A10 schools.

I admit I am biased because I have no been a Thorr fan since Hurley's first year, but I hope others are starting to see what I see. The more he waits to let Cox go, the worse off we are going to be for our next coach hire. I will be the first one to eat crow if he get an experienced coach who has a proven track record, but I see us once again taking a chance on someone with minimal head coaching experience.

…….not a crazy post…….run this post over your cheek and gums…….

[ElmCityRhody]

Hear hear !

[Sweep The Leg]

I know I am still in the minority on this, but I DO NOT want Thorr back either. I have ZERO faith he will be able to hire the next coach that will lead us back to the NCAAs.

This new logo debacle is just another example of how Thorr does not know how to transform a program/athletic department. Has he kept the Athletic Department from collapsing? Sure. Has he allowed our school's best/most historic program (basketball) flounder in mediocrity? Absolutely. None of us on this board are marketing directors, yet we can see what a catastrophic disaster this unveiling was; and who is the person that should have been running this unveiling? Thorr.

There have been ZERO program developments during his tenure. And I swear if anyone mentions partial chartered flights or that sad excuse for a media room I will lose my mind more than I already have. He is failing at his most critical position, being an advocate for URI MBB. We all already know that MBB is the straw that stirs the drink that is URI Athletics, yet he is failing at keeping our program competitive with other A10 schools.

I admit I am biased because I have no been a Thorr fan since Hurley's first year, but I hope others are starting to see what I see. The more he waits to let Cox go, the worse off we are going to be for our next coach hire. I will be the first one to eat crow if he get an experienced coach who has a proven track record, but I see us once again taking a chance on someone with minimal head coaching experience.

…….not a crazy post…….run this post over your cheek and gums…….

That's a tough call. The other men's programs like baseball, soccer, golf and even football (compared to what it was) have been pretty successful. And even the women's basketball team is headed in the right direction.

[section(105)]

……..OK fine, not being a numbers guy, but those programs bring what revenue to the table?…….anyone?…….when the money maker in a state school with no bigly football to raise up sinking boats, the basketball program W/O sufficient state funding has to be that revenue driver……no?

[Sweep The Leg]

……..OK fine, not being a numbers guy, but those programs bring what revenue to the table?…….anyone?…….when the money maker in a state school with no bigly football to raise up sinking boats, the basketball program W/O sufficient state funding has to be that revenue driver……no?

Agreed. Basketball is the face of our school sports. But, it's more the coach than the AD. If his next hire for the men's team is awful, then I'm on board.

[CamsRams]

Thorr should go too.

[Taylor Swift]

The new ram logo is one of the whackest things I've ever seen. It hits lower than "Cooler Warmer"

I also heard that Jerrell Coleman has left the coaching staff. He was a team manager ever since Hurley's first season (maybe second?). Complete class act this guy is. I sincerely wish the best for him.

[SGreenwell]

I know I am still in the minority on this, but I DO NOT want Thorr back either. I have ZERO faith he will be able to hire the next coach that will lead us back to the NCAAs.

This new logo debacle is just another example of how Thorr does not know how to transform a program/athletic department. Has he kept the Athletic Department from collapsing? Sure. Has he allowed our school's best/most historic program (basketball) flounder in mediocrity? Absolutely. None of us on this board are marketing directors, yet we can see what a catastrophic disaster this unveiling was; and who is the person that should have been running this unveiling? Thorr.

There have been ZERO program developments during his tenure. And I swear if anyone mentions partial chartered flights or that sad excuse for a media room I will lose my mind more than I already have. He is failing at his most critical position, being an advocate for URI MBB. We all already know that MBB is the straw that stirs the drink that is URI Athletics, yet he is failing at keeping our program competitive with other A10 schools.

I admit I am biased because I have no been a Thorr fan since Hurley's first year, but I hope others are starting to see what I see. The more he waits to let Cox go, the worse off we are going to be for our next coach hire. I will be the first one to eat crow if he get an experienced coach who has a proven track record, but I see us once again taking a chance on someone with minimal head coaching experience.

I mean, he nailed one coaching decision, and while this one isn't panning out, it also wasn't some weird, wild, inexcusable swing. It wasn't hiring Jerry D., who pretty much had zero qualifications to be a head coach, except that he knew Lamar Odom. During Thorr's time here, various teams have had degrees of success, and I think he's done a solid job with not-always-great resources.

Thorr isn't the marketing director or the university's fundraising coordinator. Both of those things are highly dependent on teams winning, but I imagine that the latter especially is badly in need of revamping, given how many complaints there are about how the URI Foundation seems to operate, or not. (At least from my secondhand experience, the Cigar was trying to start an alumni fundraising group for years, got no support from them, and the effort fizzled until someone said "fuck it" and just did things independently.)

[phipsiGD'11]

I know I am still in the minority on this, but I DO NOT want Thorr back either. I have ZERO faith he will be able to hire the next coach that will lead us back to the NCAAs.

This new logo debacle is just another example of how Thorr does not know how to transform a program/athletic department. Has he kept the Athletic Department from collapsing? Sure. Has he allowed our school's best/most historic program (basketball) flounder in mediocrity? Absolutely. None of us on this board are marketing directors, yet we can see what a catastrophic disaster this unveiling was; and who is the person that should have been running this unveiling? Thorr.

There have been ZERO program developments during his tenure. And I swear if anyone mentions partial chartered flights or that sad excuse for a media room I will lose my mind more than I already have. He is failing at his most critical position, being an advocate for URI MBB. We all already know that MBB is the straw that stirs the drink that is URI Athletics, yet he is failing at keeping our program competitive with other A10 schools.

I admit I am biased because I have no been a Thorr fan since Hurley's first year, but I hope others are starting to see what I see. The more he waits to let Cox go, the worse off we are going to be for our next coach hire. I will be the first one to eat crow if he get an experienced coach who has a proven track record, but I see us once again taking a chance on someone with minimal head coaching experience.

…….not a crazy post…….run this post over your cheek and gums…….

That's a tough call. The other men's programs like baseball, soccer, golf and even football (compared to what it was) have been pretty successful. And even the women's basketball team is headed in the right direction.

I am putting all of this together now by searching the internet for results, so by no means am I saying that these are 100% factual but I just want to give some quick context. If I am wrong, please correct me (and call me an idiot):

Football - since Fleming took over in 2014, URI has had 2 winning seasons (not including 2020) for an overall record of 24-58. We will see if 2021 was an outlier, it certainly seems to be thus far but maybe it just took Fleming 6 years to build a winning program. (source is WIkipedia).

Baseball - 2008 (Thorr's first season as AD) to 2014 coach was Jim Foster and had already been in place since 2006 season. The team finished 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, T-1st, 12th.
*(prior to Thorr, the team was Division Regular season champion in 2003 & 04, Conference regular season and conference tournament champion in 2005, and conference regular season champion in 2006)
2015 Thorr brought in Cerrato. Team has finished T-2nd, 1st (conference regular season and tournament champion), 2nd, 8th, 6th, NO 2020, 3rd (1st in North Division but 3rd overall).

Soccer (assuming you mean Men's, but if that makes me sexist let me know. Maybe the Lady Rams kick ass in soccer and I am completely unaware of it) - can only find info on gorhody and some on Wikipedia, Elliott took over in 2013:
2008 (8-8-3), 2009 (9-9-2), 2010 (3-13-12), 2011 (7-10-1), 2012 (4-11-3), 2013 (2-14), 2014 (13-5-3), 2015 (10-8-2), 2016 (8-11-1), 2017 (10-6-3), 2018 (15-5), 2019 (14-4-3), *2020 (2-3-1), 2021 (10-5-2)
2018 #4 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss
2019 #1 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss

I am completely ignoring the golf comment because 1) Golf has ZERO impact on URI, 2) I did not even know we had a golf program, and 3) I am envious of them. Hope they're great and get to play beautiful courses.

So tell me again, where has he excelled any of our programs. I literally know nothing about any of them. Football looks like we have had 1 year you could call good, Baseball seems to be on the same trajectory it was (if not worse), so I guess you could say we are now a soccer school since they have had the most recent success (which coincidentally looks a lot like our MBB 2017 and 2018 seasons).

[phipsiGD'11]

I mean, he nailed one coaching decision, and while this one isn't panning out, it also wasn't some weird, wild, inexcusable swing. It wasn't hiring Jerry D., who pretty much had zero qualifications to be a head coach, except that he knew Lamar Odom. During Thorr's time here, various teams have had degrees of success, and I think he's done a solid job with not-always-great resources.

Thorr isn't the marketing director or the university's fundraising coordinator. Both of those things are highly dependent on teams winning, but I imagine that the latter especially is badly in need of revamping, given how many complaints there are about how the URI Foundation seems to operate, or not. (At least from my secondhand experience, the Cigar was trying to start an alumni fundraising group for years, got no support from them, and the effort fizzled until someone said "fuck it" and just did things independently.)

With all due respect, your second paragraph is hits the nail on the head with exactly why we are in the middle of the pack and not leading the A10. Thorr as the AD should be working hand in hand with both the Marketing Director and the Fundraising Coordinator. These are positions that rely HEAVILY on each other. Do you think the Marketing DIrector tells Thorr "hey, just so you know, we are gonna unveil a brand new logo and brand guide on saturday. See you there!". Who is leading that effort if not Thorr? You are telling me that in the campaign to update the URI logo that will be on every sports merchandise, the AD isn't either coordinating the effort or so deeply involved in it that he cant help determine when and how it will be unveiled? HE IS CLUELESS if that is the case, and HE IS CLUELESS if he was involved and gave his okay for it to go the way it did. EITHER WAY HE IS CLUELESS!

If the AD of a State University in the A10 Conference doesnt have his hand so far up the fundraising coordinators @$$ that he can use the person as a puppet, then HE IS FAILING! Is there a concerted effort to increase funding through the university and alumni donations? Because I have yet to see one besides the emails I get since I used to donate. Granted my small time money is making a difference but guess what, we are in the every penny counts territory. Not even cold calls any more. Hell I would probably donate if a student gave my phone a call (it may come with the caveat that a note attached with "Thorr is failing").
Here's an idea for the CLUELESS AD and the Fundraiser Coordinator PUPPET - URI is a 3 hour drive from NYC, how many students do you think that came from the NYC metro area moved back into NYC and the metro area? lets call it conservatively 15-20% HOW ABOUT MARKETING YOURSELVES TO THESE YOUNG ALUMNI. I've been to all different unofficial school bars in NYC and yet have never been to a URI one. Maybe one day when we have a winning program this will happen. I remember I went with a couple buddies to watch the A10 championship in 2017 at an "official" URI viewing party. There was barely anyone there so we left at half time and went to watch the rest at the unofficial one in Midtown.
You know how I know Thorr and the Fundraising Coordinator are CLUELESS? They combined parents weekend and Alumni weekend! but then again maybe that was smart, one game of 500 fans is better than 2 games of 250... How many hands does the Fundraising Coordinator shake at the Pub during every home game?

We need someone who will make a difference from the top down, someone who will take charge, a real leader who will not accept mediocrity from anyone associated with the school. That person has not been THorr, and something tells me he is not changing anytime soon. if we continue to think small time, we will continue to be small time.

(I am not trying to make this an attack on you SGreenwell so I am trying to choose my words wisely, I am just extremely frustrated at this point with the continued disappointment)

[Blue Man]

I know I am still in the minority on this, but I DO NOT want Thorr back either. I have ZERO faith he will be able to hire the next coach that will lead us back to the NCAAs.

This new logo debacle is just another example of how Thorr does not know how to transform a program/athletic department. Has he kept the Athletic Department from collapsing? Sure. Has he allowed our school's best/most historic program (basketball) flounder in mediocrity? Absolutely. None of us on this board are marketing directors, yet we can see what a catastrophic disaster this unveiling was; and who is the person that should have been running this unveiling? Thorr.

There have been ZERO program developments during his tenure. And I swear if anyone mentions partial chartered flights or that sad excuse for a media room I will lose my mind more than I already have. He is failing at his most critical position, being an advocate for URI MBB. We all already know that MBB is the straw that stirs the drink that is URI Athletics, yet he is failing at keeping our program competitive with other A10 schools.

I admit I am biased because I have no been a Thorr fan since Hurley's first year, but I hope others are starting to see what I see. The more he waits to let Cox go, the worse off we are going to be for our next coach hire. I will be the first one to eat crow if he get an experienced coach who has a proven track record, but I see us once again taking a chance on someone with minimal head coaching experience.

Shit post.

I’ve drank too much wine to go into detail on how terrible a post this is and how wrong you are.

I’ll eviscerating you in the morning.

[RhowdyRam02]

I know I am still in the minority on this, but I DO NOT want Thorr back either. I have ZERO faith he will be able to hire the next coach that will lead us back to the NCAAs.

This new logo debacle is just another example of how Thorr does not know how to transform a program/athletic department. Has he kept the Athletic Department from collapsing? Sure. Has he allowed our school's best/most historic program (basketball) flounder in mediocrity? Absolutely. None of us on this board are marketing directors, yet we can see what a catastrophic disaster this unveiling was; and who is the person that should have been running this unveiling? Thorr.

There have been ZERO program developments during his tenure. And I swear if anyone mentions partial chartered flights or that sad excuse for a media room I will lose my mind more than I already have. He is failing at his most critical position, being an advocate for URI MBB. We all already know that MBB is the straw that stirs the drink that is URI Athletics, yet he is failing at keeping our program competitive with other A10 schools.

I admit I am biased because I have no been a Thorr fan since Hurley's first year, but I hope others are starting to see what I see. The more he waits to let Cox go, the worse off we are going to be for our next coach hire. I will be the first one to eat crow if he get an experienced coach who has a proven track record, but I see us once again taking a chance on someone with minimal head coaching experience.

Shit post.

I’ve drank too much wine to go into detail on how terrible a post this is and how wrong you are.

I’ll eviscerating you in the morning.

I for one am here for the Dread Pirate Roberts "sleep well, I'll most likely kill you in the morning" energy of this post

[daytonflyerfan]

Just curious what Cox's buyout amount is? How many years are left on his contract? Feel bad for you guys.

Below says a 5 year deal.

https://www.boston.com/sports/college-s ... an-hurley/

[Taylor Swift]

Just curious what Cox's buyout amount is? How many years are left on his contract? Feel bad for you guys.

Below says a 5 year deal.

https://www.boston.com/sports/college-s ... an-hurley/

I don’t know the buyout amount total value, but he would be owed his base salary. Cutting him at the end of the season wouldn’t be the worst thing being that it seems like serious donors are OUT if he’s in another year.

[ATPTourFan]

[daytonflyerfan]

Just curious what Cox's buyout amount is? How many years are left on his contract? Feel bad for you guys.

Below says a 5 year deal.

https://www.boston.com/sports/college-s ... an-hurley/

I don’t know the buyout amount total value, but he would be owed his base salary. Cutting him at the end of the season wouldn’t be the worst thing being that it seems like serious donors are OUT if he’s in another year.

OK, my link said $700k, I assume that is his base, so maybe $700k.

[rhodyfan3]

[LoveThoseRams]

Cox salary last year:
Regular 315,188.12
OT 257,000
Other. 159,000
Total. 722,688

Cox 2022 to date
Regular. 157,594
OT. 112,500
Other 87,500


Not certain if the 1000 per month car allowance or the Country Club dues are represented anywhere in these figures, as OT is not the appropriate category.

[RoadyJay]

I was already firmly in the camp of firing Cox before yesterday’s game, but losing to UMass really disgusted me. I’m not completely sure why, since there have been plenty of ugly losses to be disgusted about. Maybe it’s because of my strong dislike for UMass. If Kellogg was still coach I imagine I’d be in even worse shape right now.

Thorr should have fired Cox yesterday. I don’t see any reason to wait. He’s not going to figure this out.

[RhowdyRam02]

I hate the source, but this is the best breakdown of Cox' contract I could find so far, but no definitive number for what the buy out would be:

https://www.golocalprov.com/sports/16-t ... s-contract

Here's slightly different information, this time from a URI spokeswoman:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/04/ ... she%20said.

Golocal has the base salary at $300,000, URI says $315,188. One concern with the different numbers is I'm wondering if behind the scenes URI reworked Cox' contract and now next year isn't his final season. Also, like I said, there's no definitive answer I could find about buy out number. He would obviously be owed the $300,000 or so that's the base salary, the question is how much of the other $450,000 or so would he be entitled to, assuming next year is the last year on his contract

[RF1]

The David Cox contract termination information was posted several months ago in this very same thread:

The David Cox contract 2018

Term: April 9, 2018 to April 8, 2023
Annual Base: $300,000
Annual Bonus: $225,000 guaranteed base of home gate receipts and more if goals exceeded
Annual Bonus: $125,000 appearances fee
Annual Radio Bonus: 25,000
Annual TV Bonus: $25,000
Annual Various Bonuses: varies for exceeding fundraising goal, player GPA average, player APR
Annual Club Membership: not to exceed $8,000
Annual Auto Expense: $12,000
Annual Postseason Bonus: various bonuses for A-10, NCAA & NIT team play/success and A-10 COY awards (Cox is yet to be eligible)
Termination: Years 1-3 - base plus more exit $ associated with bonuses would have been guaranteed. After year 3, only the annual base ($300k) of the contract is guaranteed

It is my understanding that Cox has not been extended since his hiring in April 2018. If so, his contract would have one year remaining at the conclusion of this season. Per the pdf copy of the contract that I had saved when it was made public, URI may only be on the hook to pay his base salary ($300k) for the remaining length of the contract. This would equate to one year at $300,000. That is not a large sum of money these days for terminating a men's basketball coach.

It should also be worth noting as a point of reference that Dan Hurley had to pay URI $1.2M back in 2018 to get out of his contract to go to UConn.

[PeteRI]

From the Independent article:

“Our preparation over these last three games has been top notch. Our energy at practice has been top notch. Figuring out what exactly is happening once we get on the floor in the game - it’s up to me to figure that out,” URI head coach David Cox said.

I feel so much better after reading that.

[Rhody Sody]

From the Independent article:

“Our preparation over these last three games has been top notch. Our energy at practice has been top notch. Figuring out what exactly is happening once we get on the floor in the game - it’s up to me to figure that out,” URI head coach David Cox said.

I feel so much better after reading that.

Not too hopeful that he can solve the puzzle

[RhowdyRam02]

I find it hard to believe the preparation and energy has been top notch in practice and none of it is translating into game situations

[Billyboy78]

Cox was a little late to his post game PC. He was talking to Thorr. In his PC, Cox said it was up to himself to figure things out and fix them. Since this came right after he spoke with Thorr and it was still freshly on his mind, my guess is that Thorr's message was, 'Fix it or else'.

[CamsRams]

To be a fly on the wall for that conversation...simply unreal to me that we couldn't take 3 of the last 5 games.

[ram1980]

Cox was a little late to his post game PC. He was talking to Thorr. In his PC, Cox said it was up to himself to figure things out and fix them. Since this came right after he spoke with Thorr and it was still freshly on his mind, my guess is that Thorr's message was, 'Fix it or else'.

I hope that's not the message. Means we may still be stuck in this abyss for at least another year. Although it doesn't appear Cox can fix this. That should have been the strong message going into the season..

[rambone 78]

Have to think that Thorr has largely made up his mind by now.

For him to still be on the fence would be very troubling.

Most of the biggest boosters, from what I've heard, want Cox out.

Money talks. If enough tell Thorr that their wallets will shut if Cox stays, that should do it.

[reef]

Definitely would suck if Cox is back next season

[Rhody15]

Definitely would suck if Cox is back next season

Oh you think?

I feel like everyone wants him back, trajectory of the program seems great.

[Billyboy78]

Cox was a little late to his post game PC. He was talking to Thorr. In his PC, Cox said it was up to himself to figure things out and fix them. Since this came right after he spoke with Thorr and it was still freshly on his mind, my guess is that Thorr's message was, 'Fix it or else'.

I hope that's not the message. Means we may still be stuck in this abyss for at least another year. Although it doesn't appear Cox can fix this. That should have been the strong message going into the season..

[Billyboy78]

The key words being 'or else', because we already know he can't fix it.

[Blue Man]

…….not a crazy post…….run this post over your cheek and gums…….

That's a tough call. The other men's programs like baseball, soccer, golf and even football (compared to what it was) have been pretty successful. And even the women's basketball team is headed in the right direction.

I am putting all of this together now by searching the internet for results, so by no means am I saying that these are 100% factual but I just want to give some quick context. If I am wrong, please correct me (and call me an idiot):

Football - since Fleming took over in 2014, URI has had 2 winning seasons (not including 2020) for an overall record of 24-58. We will see if 2021 was an outlier, it certainly seems to be thus far but maybe it just took Fleming 6 years to build a winning program. (source is WIkipedia).

Baseball - 2008 (Thorr's first season as AD) to 2014 coach was Jim Foster and had already been in place since 2006 season. The team finished 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, T-1st, 12th.
*(prior to Thorr, the team was Division Regular season champion in 2003 & 04, Conference regular season and conference tournament champion in 2005, and conference regular season champion in 2006)
2015 Thorr brought in Cerrato. Team has finished T-2nd, 1st (conference regular season and tournament champion), 2nd, 8th, 6th, NO 2020, 3rd (1st in North Division but 3rd overall).

Soccer (assuming you mean Men's, but if that makes me sexist let me know. Maybe the Lady Rams kick ass in soccer and I am completely unaware of it) - can only find info on gorhody and some on Wikipedia, Elliott took over in 2013:
2008 (8-8-3), 2009 (9-9-2), 2010 (3-13-12), 2011 (7-10-1), 2012 (4-11-3), 2013 (2-14), 2014 (13-5-3), 2015 (10-8-2), 2016 (8-11-1), 2017 (10-6-3), 2018 (15-5), 2019 (14-4-3), *2020 (2-3-1), 2021 (10-5-2)
2018 #4 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss
2019 #1 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss

I am completely ignoring the golf comment because 1) Golf has ZERO impact on URI, 2) I did not even know we had a golf program, and 3) I am envious of them. Hope they're great and get to play beautiful courses.

So tell me again, where has he excelled any of our programs. I literally know nothing about any of them. Football looks like we have had 1 year you could call good, Baseball seems to be on the same trajectory it was (if not worse), so I guess you could say we are now a soccer school since they have had the most recent success (which coincidentally looks a lot like our MBB 2017 and 2018 seasons).

Like - the moronicism (I like the word) of this post, the idea behind it, and the lack of any realistic contextual knowledge of URI athletics before Thorr got here is as astonishing as it is appalling.

I mean, are you insinuating that URI was Duke in basketball, Alabama in football, USC in baseball, UConn in WBB, etc before he arrived?

Like I was in school before he arrived, and when he arrived. I was a die hard fan 2 AD's before he arrived.

You have absolutely no idea how hard it is to get ANYTHING accomplished at the university of Rhode Island - you literally can't fire any of your tenured staff. You have next to zero funding from your school or state. And to your comments about how he should be out there fundraising and getting big donors engaged - you literally have zero idea about how non-existent those donors were before Thorr. Tom Ryan made a big splash in 2000. What else did URI have before Thorr came in?

The upgrades to the Ryan Center, locker rooms, offices, baseball field, training facility, football field, soon-to-be practice facility, etc, etc, etc all came under his watch. Do you even remember what URI athletics looked like before him? Do you remember the Ryan Center before video boards?

We might complain about coverage and media outreach now - do you remember what it was like before Nelligan Sports came into the picture? Soon to be acquired by Learfield? Do you know who was responsible for that?

If you want to talk about major sports at URI (football and basketball) - things have been significantly better with Thorr than without. He nailed the Rizzi hire so well that Rizzi got poached by the NFL. He had to hire a retread coach on short notice and then after recognizing Trainer wasn't the guy, he grabbed Fleming from UCF. Fleming has been the most successful football coach at URI in 25 years. He's been within 1 game of the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years, had covid take away a season that could've wound up in the playoffs as well. URI has spent weeks ranked in the top 25. URI has produced NFL talent.

Men's basketball - I mean really, shit sucks right now because Cox is the wrong guy - but he fired Jim Baron and brought in Dan Hurley. And to keep Dan happy you needed to keep Cox, so Hurley negotiated in his contract a contingency for Cox to become coach if he left - because we didn't have the capital to pay an assistant HC at the level it would've taken to keep Dave Cox without it.

The Cox hire was the right hire for a team trying to build itself into a program. It was a sound, logical, and smart decision based on the shape of the program at the time. It didn't work out. That's not on Thorr. That's on Cox.

Thorr hits far more than he misses. He is yet to repeat a mistake. The athletic department overall has been carried through more tumultuous situations than someone posting something this uninformed could possible fathom. Thorr is fighting a war against an archaic state education system that refuses to support it's flagship university's athletic programs.

I mean besides having a NACDA award for Athletic Director of the year in 2016, and being on the NCAA 1AA football championship committee - who knows maybe we're all wrong and you're the one that's right?

Doubtful, but hey stranger things have happened.

[steveystuds06]

That's a tough call. The other men's programs like baseball, soccer, golf and even football (compared to what it was) have been pretty successful. And even the women's basketball team is headed in the right direction.

I am putting all of this together now by searching the internet for results, so by no means am I saying that these are 100% factual but I just want to give some quick context. If I am wrong, please correct me (and call me an idiot):

Football - since Fleming took over in 2014, URI has had 2 winning seasons (not including 2020) for an overall record of 24-58. We will see if 2021 was an outlier, it certainly seems to be thus far but maybe it just took Fleming 6 years to build a winning program. (source is WIkipedia).

Baseball - 2008 (Thorr's first season as AD) to 2014 coach was Jim Foster and had already been in place since 2006 season. The team finished 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, T-1st, 12th.
*(prior to Thorr, the team was Division Regular season champion in 2003 & 04, Conference regular season and conference tournament champion in 2005, and conference regular season champion in 2006)
2015 Thorr brought in Cerrato. Team has finished T-2nd, 1st (conference regular season and tournament champion), 2nd, 8th, 6th, NO 2020, 3rd (1st in North Division but 3rd overall).

Soccer (assuming you mean Men's, but if that makes me sexist let me know. Maybe the Lady Rams kick ass in soccer and I am completely unaware of it) - can only find info on gorhody and some on Wikipedia, Elliott took over in 2013:
2008 (8-8-3), 2009 (9-9-2), 2010 (3-13-12), 2011 (7-10-1), 2012 (4-11-3), 2013 (2-14), 2014 (13-5-3), 2015 (10-8-2), 2016 (8-11-1), 2017 (10-6-3), 2018 (15-5), 2019 (14-4-3), *2020 (2-3-1), 2021 (10-5-2)
2018 #4 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss
2019 #1 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss

I am completely ignoring the golf comment because 1) Golf has ZERO impact on URI, 2) I did not even know we had a golf program, and 3) I am envious of them. Hope they're great and get to play beautiful courses.

So tell me again, where has he excelled any of our programs. I literally know nothing about any of them. Football looks like we have had 1 year you could call good, Baseball seems to be on the same trajectory it was (if not worse), so I guess you could say we are now a soccer school since they have had the most recent success (which coincidentally looks a lot like our MBB 2017 and 2018 seasons).

Like - the moronicism (I like the word) of this post, the idea behind it, and the lack of any realistic contextual knowledge of URI athletics before Thorr got here is as astonishing as it is appalling.

I mean, are you insinuating that URI was Duke in basketball, Alabama in football, USC in baseball, UConn in WBB, etc before he arrived?

Like I was in school before he arrived, and when he arrived. I was a die hard fan 2 AD's before he arrived.

You have absolutely no idea how hard it is to get ANYTHING accomplished at the university of Rhode Island - you literally can't fire any of your tenured staff. You have next to zero funding from your school or state. And to your comments about how he should be out there fundraising and getting big donors engaged - you literally have zero idea about how non-existent those donors were before Thorr. Tom Ryan made a big splash in 2000. What else did URI have before Thorr came in?

The upgrades to the Ryan Center, locker rooms, offices, baseball field, training facility, football field, soon-to-be practice facility, etc, etc, etc all came under his watch. Do you even remember what URI athletics looked like before him? Do you remember the Ryan Center before video boards?

We might complain about coverage and media outreach now - do you remember what it was like before Nelligan Sports came into the picture? Soon to be acquired by Learfield? Do you know who was responsible for that?

If you want to talk about major sports at URI (football and basketball) - things have been significantly better with Thorr than without. He nailed the Rizzi hire so well that Rizzi got poached by the NFL. He had to hire a retread coach on short notice and then after recognizing Trainer wasn't the guy, he grabbed Fleming from UCF. Fleming has been the most successful football coach at URI in 25 years. He's been within 1 game of the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years, had covid take away a season that could've wound up in the playoffs as well. URI has spent weeks ranked in the top 25. URI has produced NFL talent.

Men's basketball - I mean really, shit sucks right now because Cox is the wrong guy - but he fired Jim Baron and brought in Dan Hurley. And to keep Dan happy you needed to keep Cox, so Hurley negotiated in his contract a contingency for Cox to become coach if he left - because we didn't have the capital to pay an assistant HC at the level it would've taken to keep Dave Cox without it.

The Cox hire was the right hire for a team trying to build itself into a program. It was a sound, logical, and smart decision based on the shape of the program at the time. It didn't work out. That's not on Thorr. That's on Cox.

Thorr hits far more than he misses. He is yet to repeat a mistake. The athletic department overall has been carried through more tumultuous situations than someone posting something this uninformed could possible fathom. Thorr is fighting a war against an archaic state education system that refuses to support it's flagship university's athletic programs.

I mean besides having a NACDA award for Athletic Director of the year in 2016, and being on the NCAA 1AA football championship committee - who knows maybe we're all wrong and you're the one that's right?

Doubtful, but hey stranger things have happened.

YES!! I've been waiting all day for this. Great post Blueman

[daytonflyerfan]

Per the pdf copy of the contract that I had saved when it was made public, URI may only be on the hook to pay his base salary ($300k) for the remaining length of the contract. This would equate to one year at $300,000. That is not a large sum of money these days for terminating a men's basketball coach.

Agree, honestly, $300k seems very small these days for a program like URI, that is very manageable IMO. Maybe they feel like they owe him a 5th year out of a sense of loyalty or fairness. If it is only $300k, they could pull the trigger now due to this current losing streak and let an interim coach finish the year and hope the interim coach can catch lightning in a bottle. I would have to think that they are at least thinking about pulling the trigger now.

[Blue Man]

I am putting all of this together now by searching the internet for results, so by no means am I saying that these are 100% factual but I just want to give some quick context. If I am wrong, please correct me (and call me an idiot):

Football - since Fleming took over in 2014, URI has had 2 winning seasons (not including 2020) for an overall record of 24-58. We will see if 2021 was an outlier, it certainly seems to be thus far but maybe it just took Fleming 6 years to build a winning program. (source is WIkipedia).

Baseball - 2008 (Thorr's first season as AD) to 2014 coach was Jim Foster and had already been in place since 2006 season. The team finished 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, T-1st, 12th.
*(prior to Thorr, the team was Division Regular season champion in 2003 & 04, Conference regular season and conference tournament champion in 2005, and conference regular season champion in 2006)
2015 Thorr brought in Cerrato. Team has finished T-2nd, 1st (conference regular season and tournament champion), 2nd, 8th, 6th, NO 2020, 3rd (1st in North Division but 3rd overall).

Soccer (assuming you mean Men's, but if that makes me sexist let me know. Maybe the Lady Rams kick ass in soccer and I am completely unaware of it) - can only find info on gorhody and some on Wikipedia, Elliott took over in 2013:
2008 (8-8-3), 2009 (9-9-2), 2010 (3-13-12), 2011 (7-10-1), 2012 (4-11-3), 2013 (2-14), 2014 (13-5-3), 2015 (10-8-2), 2016 (8-11-1), 2017 (10-6-3), 2018 (15-5), 2019 (14-4-3), *2020 (2-3-1), 2021 (10-5-2)
2018 #4 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss
2019 #1 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss

I am completely ignoring the golf comment because 1) Golf has ZERO impact on URI, 2) I did not even know we had a golf program, and 3) I am envious of them. Hope they're great and get to play beautiful courses.

So tell me again, where has he excelled any of our programs. I literally know nothing about any of them. Football looks like we have had 1 year you could call good, Baseball seems to be on the same trajectory it was (if not worse), so I guess you could say we are now a soccer school since they have had the most recent success (which coincidentally looks a lot like our MBB 2017 and 2018 seasons).

Like - the moronicism (I like the word) of this post, the idea behind it, and the lack of any realistic contextual knowledge of URI athletics before Thorr got here is as astonishing as it is appalling.

I mean, are you insinuating that URI was Duke in basketball, Alabama in football, USC in baseball, UConn in WBB, etc before he arrived?

Like I was in school before he arrived, and when he arrived. I was a die hard fan 2 AD's before he arrived.

You have absolutely no idea how hard it is to get ANYTHING accomplished at the university of Rhode Island - you literally can't fire any of your tenured staff. You have next to zero funding from your school or state. And to your comments about how he should be out there fundraising and getting big donors engaged - you literally have zero idea about how non-existent those donors were before Thorr. Tom Ryan made a big splash in 2000. What else did URI have before Thorr came in?

The upgrades to the Ryan Center, locker rooms, offices, baseball field, training facility, football field, soon-to-be practice facility, etc, etc, etc all came under his watch. Do you even remember what URI athletics looked like before him? Do you remember the Ryan Center before video boards?

We might complain about coverage and media outreach now - do you remember what it was like before Nelligan Sports came into the picture? Soon to be acquired by Learfield? Do you know who was responsible for that?

If you want to talk about major sports at URI (football and basketball) - things have been significantly better with Thorr than without. He nailed the Rizzi hire so well that Rizzi got poached by the NFL. He had to hire a retread coach on short notice and then after recognizing Trainer wasn't the guy, he grabbed Fleming from UCF. Fleming has been the most successful football coach at URI in 25 years. He's been within 1 game of the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years, had covid take away a season that could've wound up in the playoffs as well. URI has spent weeks ranked in the top 25. URI has produced NFL talent.

Men's basketball - I mean really, shit sucks right now because Cox is the wrong guy - but he fired Jim Baron and brought in Dan Hurley. And to keep Dan happy you needed to keep Cox, so Hurley negotiated in his contract a contingency for Cox to become coach if he left - because we didn't have the capital to pay an assistant HC at the level it would've taken to keep Dave Cox without it.

The Cox hire was the right hire for a team trying to build itself into a program. It was a sound, logical, and smart decision based on the shape of the program at the time. It didn't work out. That's not on Thorr. That's on Cox.

Thorr hits far more than he misses. He is yet to repeat a mistake. The athletic department overall has been carried through more tumultuous situations than someone posting something this uninformed could possible fathom. Thorr is fighting a war against an archaic state education system that refuses to support it's flagship university's athletic programs.

I mean besides having a NACDA award for Athletic Director of the year in 2016, and being on the NCAA 1AA football championship committee - who knows maybe we're all wrong and you're the one that's right?

Doubtful, but hey stranger things have happened.

YES!! I've been waiting all day for this. Great post Blueman

Might I also point out that in this era of immediate impact transfers, Thorr has it set to be able to buy out a coach for $300k, which is a joke of a pricetag in this day and age.

He didn't extend Dave Cox, hasn't doubled down, and has given this enough of a run to be able to unequivocally say that Cox was given every chance - so he can market that to the next head coach he pitches URI to.

We all (myself included) didn't think Cox was the guy after year 1. That's what a fan can say. A professional athletic program can't fire a coach without a clear, established, or obvious issue. It would torpedo your program's chances of ever hiring a proper head coach (see Boston College).

Now, if Thorr extends Cox at the end of this year on the path we're on? Then I'll have some questions. But I have no reason to believe that there is anyone in the country better at making the decisions for us than Thorr.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Definitely would suck if Cox is back next season

Oh you think?

I feel like everyone wants him back, trajectory of the program seems great.

Funniest thing I've read all day. It actually made me lol...

[Jersey77]

That's a tough call. The other men's programs like baseball, soccer, golf and even football (compared to what it was) have been pretty successful. And even the women's basketball team is headed in the right direction.

I am putting all of this together now by searching the internet for results, so by no means am I saying that these are 100% factual but I just want to give some quick context. If I am wrong, please correct me (and call me an idiot):

Football - since Fleming took over in 2014, URI has had 2 winning seasons (not including 2020) for an overall record of 24-58. We will see if 2021 was an outlier, it certainly seems to be thus far but maybe it just took Fleming 6 years to build a winning program. (source is WIkipedia).

Baseball - 2008 (Thorr's first season as AD) to 2014 coach was Jim Foster and had already been in place since 2006 season. The team finished 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, T-1st, 12th.
*(prior to Thorr, the team was Division Regular season champion in 2003 & 04, Conference regular season and conference tournament champion in 2005, and conference regular season champion in 2006)
2015 Thorr brought in Cerrato. Team has finished T-2nd, 1st (conference regular season and tournament champion), 2nd, 8th, 6th, NO 2020, 3rd (1st in North Division but 3rd overall).

Soccer (assuming you mean Men's, but if that makes me sexist let me know. Maybe the Lady Rams kick ass in soccer and I am completely unaware of it) - can only find info on gorhody and some on Wikipedia, Elliott took over in 2013:
2008 (8-8-3), 2009 (9-9-2), 2010 (3-13-12), 2011 (7-10-1), 2012 (4-11-3), 2013 (2-14), 2014 (13-5-3), 2015 (10-8-2), 2016 (8-11-1), 2017 (10-6-3), 2018 (15-5), 2019 (14-4-3), *2020 (2-3-1), 2021 (10-5-2)
2018 #4 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss
2019 #1 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss

I am completely ignoring the golf comment because 1) Golf has ZERO impact on URI, 2) I did not even know we had a golf program, and 3) I am envious of them. Hope they're great and get to play beautiful courses.

So tell me again, where has he excelled any of our programs. I literally know nothing about any of them. Football looks like we have had 1 year you could call good, Baseball seems to be on the same trajectory it was (if not worse), so I guess you could say we are now a soccer school since they have had the most recent success (which coincidentally looks a lot like our MBB 2017 and 2018 seasons).

Like - the moronicism (I like the word) of this post, the idea behind it, and the lack of any realistic contextual knowledge of URI athletics before Thorr got here is as astonishing as it is appalling.

I mean, are you insinuating that URI was Duke in basketball, Alabama in football, USC in baseball, UConn in WBB, etc before he arrived?

Like I was in school before he arrived, and when he arrived. I was a die hard fan 2 AD's before he arrived.

You have absolutely no idea how hard it is to get ANYTHING accomplished at the university of Rhode Island - you literally can't fire any of your tenured staff. You have next to zero funding from your school or state. And to your comments about how he should be out there fundraising and getting big donors engaged - you literally have zero idea about how non-existent those donors were before Thorr. Tom Ryan made a big splash in 2000. What else did URI have before Thorr came in?

The upgrades to the Ryan Center, locker rooms, offices, baseball field, training facility, football field, soon-to-be practice facility, etc, etc, etc all came under his watch. Do you even remember what URI athletics looked like before him? Do you remember the Ryan Center before video boards?

We might complain about coverage and media outreach now - do you remember what it was like before Nelligan Sports came into the picture? Soon to be acquired by Learfield? Do you know who was responsible for that?

If you want to talk about major sports at URI (football and basketball) - things have been significantly better with Thorr than without. He nailed the Rizzi hire so well that Rizzi got poached by the NFL. He had to hire a retread coach on short notice and then after recognizing Trainer wasn't the guy, he grabbed Fleming from UCF. Fleming has been the most successful football coach at URI in 25 years. He's been within 1 game of the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years, had covid take away a season that could've wound up in the playoffs as well. URI has spent weeks ranked in the top 25. URI has produced NFL talent.

Men's basketball - I mean really, shit sucks right now because Cox is the wrong guy - but he fired Jim Baron and brought in Dan Hurley. And to keep Dan happy you needed to keep Cox, so Hurley negotiated in his contract a contingency for Cox to become coach if he left - because we didn't have the capital to pay an assistant HC at the level it would've taken to keep Dave Cox without it.

The Cox hire was the right hire for a team trying to build itself into a program. It was a sound, logical, and smart decision based on the shape of the program at the time. It didn't work out. That's not on Thorr. That's on Cox.

Thorr hits far more than he misses. He is yet to repeat a mistake. The athletic department overall has been carried through more tumultuous situations than someone posting something this uninformed could possible fathom. Thorr is fighting a war against an archaic state education system that refuses to support it's flagship university's athletic programs.

I mean besides having a NACDA award for Athletic Director of the year in 2016, and being on the NCAA 1AA football championship committee - who knows maybe we're all wrong and you're the one that's right?

Doubtful, but hey stranger things have happened.

Also, not to mention that Thorr is respected enough by his peers to be chair of all the ADs in the A10.

[Taylor Swift]

That's a tough call. The other men's programs like baseball, soccer, golf and even football (compared to what it was) have been pretty successful. And even the women's basketball team is headed in the right direction.

I am putting all of this together now by searching the internet for results, so by no means am I saying that these are 100% factual but I just want to give some quick context. If I am wrong, please correct me (and call me an idiot):

Football - since Fleming took over in 2014, URI has had 2 winning seasons (not including 2020) for an overall record of 24-58. We will see if 2021 was an outlier, it certainly seems to be thus far but maybe it just took Fleming 6 years to build a winning program. (source is WIkipedia).

Baseball - 2008 (Thorr's first season as AD) to 2014 coach was Jim Foster and had already been in place since 2006 season. The team finished 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, T-1st, 12th.
*(prior to Thorr, the team was Division Regular season champion in 2003 & 04, Conference regular season and conference tournament champion in 2005, and conference regular season champion in 2006)
2015 Thorr brought in Cerrato. Team has finished T-2nd, 1st (conference regular season and tournament champion), 2nd, 8th, 6th, NO 2020, 3rd (1st in North Division but 3rd overall).

Soccer (assuming you mean Men's, but if that makes me sexist let me know. Maybe the Lady Rams kick ass in soccer and I am completely unaware of it) - can only find info on gorhody and some on Wikipedia, Elliott took over in 2013:
2008 (8-8-3), 2009 (9-9-2), 2010 (3-13-12), 2011 (7-10-1), 2012 (4-11-3), 2013 (2-14), 2014 (13-5-3), 2015 (10-8-2), 2016 (8-11-1), 2017 (10-6-3), 2018 (15-5), 2019 (14-4-3), *2020 (2-3-1), 2021 (10-5-2)
2018 #4 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss
2019 #1 seed and A10 tournament champion, NCAA first round loss

I am completely ignoring the golf comment because 1) Golf has ZERO impact on URI, 2) I did not even know we had a golf program, and 3) I am envious of them. Hope they're great and get to play beautiful courses.

So tell me again, where has he excelled any of our programs. I literally know nothing about any of them. Football looks like we have had 1 year you could call good, Baseball seems to be on the same trajectory it was (if not worse), so I guess you could say we are now a soccer school since they have had the most recent success (which coincidentally looks a lot like our MBB 2017 and 2018 seasons).

Like - the moronicism (I like the word) of this post, the idea behind it, and the lack of any realistic contextual knowledge of URI athletics before Thorr got here is as astonishing as it is appalling.

I mean, are you insinuating that URI was Duke in basketball, Alabama in football, USC in baseball, UConn in WBB, etc before he arrived?

Like I was in school before he arrived, and when he arrived. I was a die hard fan 2 AD's before he arrived.

You have absolutely no idea how hard it is to get ANYTHING accomplished at the university of Rhode Island - you literally can't fire any of your tenured staff. You have next to zero funding from your school or state. And to your comments about how he should be out there fundraising and getting big donors engaged - you literally have zero idea about how non-existent those donors were before Thorr. Tom Ryan made a big splash in 2000. What else did URI have before Thorr came in?

The upgrades to the Ryan Center, locker rooms, offices, baseball field, training facility, football field, soon-to-be practice facility, etc, etc, etc all came under his watch. Do you even remember what URI athletics looked like before him? Do you remember the Ryan Center before video boards?

We might complain about coverage and media outreach now - do you remember what it was like before Nelligan Sports came into the picture? Soon to be acquired by Learfield? Do you know who was responsible for that?

If you want to talk about major sports at URI (football and basketball) - things have been significantly better with Thorr than without. He nailed the Rizzi hire so well that Rizzi got poached by the NFL. He had to hire a retread coach on short notice and then after recognizing Trainer wasn't the guy, he grabbed Fleming from UCF. Fleming has been the most successful football coach at URI in 25 years. He's been within 1 game of the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years, had covid take away a season that could've wound up in the playoffs as well. URI has spent weeks ranked in the top 25. URI has produced NFL talent.

Men's basketball - I mean really, shit sucks right now because Cox is the wrong guy - but he fired Jim Baron and brought in Dan Hurley. And to keep Dan happy you needed to keep Cox, so Hurley negotiated in his contract a contingency for Cox to become coach if he left - because we didn't have the capital to pay an assistant HC at the level it would've taken to keep Dave Cox without it.

The Cox hire was the right hire for a team trying to build itself into a program. It was a sound, logical, and smart decision based on the shape of the program at the time. It didn't work out. That's not on Thorr. That's on Cox.

Thorr hits far more than he misses. He is yet to repeat a mistake. The athletic department overall has been carried through more tumultuous situations than someone posting something this uninformed could possible fathom. Thorr is fighting a war against an archaic state education system that refuses to support it's flagship university's athletic programs.

I mean besides having a NACDA award for Athletic Director of the year in 2016, and being on the NCAA 1AA football championship committee - who knows maybe we're all wrong and you're the one that's right?

Doubtful, but hey stranger things have happened.

Yup. Great post, blueman. Petro was AD when I was a student. Thor completely turned the ship around and he's really a level-headed guy who, again, IMHO always strives to improve on every level.


"I didn't know we had a golf team" ..... the university single-handedly had one of the best and most respected NCAA golf coaches in Tom Drennan. He was also the scorer at games up until a few years before he passed. Exemplar guy right there.

[RoadyJay]

Blueman makes many good points. We can’t appreciate the struggle and challenge that come with Thorr’s job. I’ve also never heard anything other than what a great guy/leader he is. I don’t dispute this.

But you can’t just say this is 100% on Cox. Thorr must accept some blame for the near total collapse of this program since Hurley left.

I wish Thorr would be more critical of how challenging the role is without the State’s support. Put a spotlight on it! Help the Rhode Island community understand how challenging it is to fund athletics. Show the potential return on investment if our flagship sports team regularly makes the NCAA tournament.

What’s the investment in Mens basketball been since Dan left? Stagnant? I’m not aware of new program enhancements. Where did the NCAA money go? Where did the savings on Hurley’s contract go? He has no influence on this? I always felt Dan was pushing for the program improvements and not as much Thorr. Perception is reality maybe?

Is speaking-out about the unique challenges a career killer? I’m not sure. But if it is, why would you want that role in the first place. So he’s responsible for a budget and he doesn’t get to make the most important decisions on how to spend it! I don’t know why you’d stay very long in that position.

Thorr may very well be the best person to lead the Athletic Department and make a critical upcoming decision to name our next Head Coach…. But he’s not blameless here.

He already missed an opportunity yesterday to fire Cox. That’s on him. Who would have disagreed with him doing it?

[theblueram]

Blueman makes many good points. We can’t appreciate the struggle and challenge that come with Thorr’s job. I’ve also never heard anything other than what a great guy/leader he is. I don’t dispute this.

But you can’t just say this is 100% on Cox. Thorr must accept some blame for the near total collapse of this program since Hurley left.

I wish Thorr would be more critical of how challenging the role is without the State’s support. Put a spotlight on it! Help the Rhode Island community understand how challenging it is to fund athletics. Show the potential return on investment if our flagship sports team regularly makes the NCAA tournament.

What’s the investment in Mens basketball been since Dan left? Stagnant? I’m not aware of new program enhancements. Where did the NCAA money go? Where did the savings on Hurley’s contract go? He has no influence on this? I always felt Dan was pushing for the program improvements and not as much Thorr. Perception is reality maybe?

Is speaking out on the unique challenges a career killer? I’m not sure. But if it is, why would you want that role in the first place. So he’s responsible for a budget and he doesn’t get to make the most important decisions on how to spend it! I don’t know why you’d stay very long in that position.

Thorr may very well be the best person to lead the Athletic Department and make a critical upcoming decision to name our next Head Coach…. But he’s not blameless here.

He already missed an opportunity yesterday to fire Cox. That’s on him. Who would have disagreed with him doing it?

You have to remember when we gave Dan his last contract, we borrowed from the endowment to fund it. That had to be paid back, which I assume the NCAA credits are going towards.

[KingstonLane]

Blueman makes many good points. We can’t appreciate the struggle and challenge that come with Thorr’s job. I’ve also never heard anything other than what a great guy/leader he is. I don’t dispute this.

But you can’t just say this is 100% on Cox. Thorr must accept some blame for the near total collapse of this program since Hurley left.

I wish Thorr would be more critical of how challenging the role is without the State’s support. Put a spotlight on it! Help the Rhode Island community understand how challenging it is to fund athletics. Show the potential return on investment if our flagship sports team regularly makes the NCAA tournament.

What’s the investment in Mens basketball been since Dan left? Stagnant? I’m not aware of new program enhancements. Where did the NCAA money go? Where did the savings on Hurley’s contract go? He has no influence on this? I always felt Dan was pushing for the program improvements and not as much Thorr. Perception is reality maybe?

Is speaking out on the unique challenges a career killer? I’m not sure. But if it is, why would you want that role in the first place. So he’s responsible for a budget and he doesn’t get to make the most important decisions on how to spend it! I don’t know why you’d stay very long in that position.

Thorr may very well be the best person to lead the Athletic Department and make a critical upcoming decision to name our next Head Coach…. But he’s not blameless here.

He already missed an opportunity yesterday to fire Cox. That’s on him. Who would have disagreed with him doing it?

What good comes from firing Cox yesterday? I don’t love how the past couple weeks have unfolded either, but it’s not like yesterdays loss changes the course of our season. It wasn’t great either way.

Blueman made this point in his post but there’s always politics in play with firing coaches. You don’t want to be the University that is known for firing a coach when he’s 12-9 after a multi-game losing streak. Looks emotional, at least in my opinion.

Ride out the season and fire him with just cause

[theblueram]

Blueman makes many good points. We can’t appreciate the struggle and challenge that come with Thorr’s job. I’ve also never heard anything other than what a great guy/leader he is. I don’t dispute this.

But you can’t just say this is 100% on Cox. Thorr must accept some blame for the near total collapse of this program since Hurley left.

I wish Thorr would be more critical of how challenging the role is without the State’s support. Put a spotlight on it! Help the Rhode Island community understand how challenging it is to fund athletics. Show the potential return on investment if our flagship sports team regularly makes the NCAA tournament.

What’s the investment in Mens basketball been since Dan left? Stagnant? I’m not aware of new program enhancements. Where did the NCAA money go? Where did the savings on Hurley’s contract go? He has no influence on this? I always felt Dan was pushing for the program improvements and not as much Thorr. Perception is reality maybe?

Is speaking out on the unique challenges a career killer? I’m not sure. But if it is, why would you want that role in the first place. So he’s responsible for a budget and he doesn’t get to make the most important decisions on how to spend it! I don’t know why you’d stay very long in that position.

Thorr may very well be the best person to lead the Athletic Department and make a critical upcoming decision to name our next Head Coach…. But he’s not blameless here.

He already missed an opportunity yesterday to fire Cox. That’s on him. Who would have disagreed with him doing it?

What good comes from firing Cox yesterday? I don’t love how the past couple weeks have unfolded either, but it’s not like yesterdays loss changes the course of our season. It wasn’t great either way.

Blueman made this point in his post but there’s always politics in play with firing coaches. You don’t want to be the University that is known for firing a coach when he’s 12-9 after a multi-game losing streak. Looks emotional, at least in my opinion.

Ride out the season and fire him with just cause

"just cause" happened last year.

[NYGFan_Section208]

It does look emotional...maybe that's why it'd be a good idea. Would be the most emotional thing that's happened around the team all year.