Yale Goes to Harvard…
Posted on January 26th, 2012 in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
…and hires four of its coaches.
The Globe reports,
Since he took over following the resignation of Tom Williams, [Tony] Reno has hired not one, not two, but three Harvard assistants: wide receivers coach Kris Barber, offensive line coach Joe Conlin, and defensive line coach Dwayne Wilmot.
This is probably a bit of a bummer for Harvard, but seems entirely logical to me, and not unlike what the two universities do with academic departments; if one of them steps it up a level, the other counters. And Harvard has clearly been investing heavily in its athletic programs, altering the rather laid-back dynamic once typical of Ivy League sports. It’s a (throwing) arms race!
5 Responses
1/26/2012 11:13 am
“Laid back”? Yale is, of course, responsible for the entire arms race in college athletics, because it hired a professional coach, Walter Camp, in 1892. Harvard has just been trying to keep up with Yale’s extravagance ever since.
Well, OK. I have to acknowledge that Harvard’s stadium, built in 1903 for the equivalent of $8.1 million in 2011 dollars, was a bit of a statement. And when Harvard finally responded to Yale’s football dominance by hiring its own coach in 1905, it paid the 26-year-old coach as much as Eliot was making after 36 years as president of the university!
It’s interesting that Yale’s announcement about luring a bunch of Harvard’s coaches to New Haven came almost simultaneously with Yale’s announcement of its budget woes and their consequences for academic programs.
1/26/2012 11:25 am
Ouch! Touche. But let’s be honest, Harry-Yale’s moves with these coaches is a direct response to the fact that Harvard has been kicking Yale’s ass in football for the past five years. I expect the money for these hires comes from some frustrated alumni and has been designated specifically for this purpose.
1/26/2012 12:49 pm
Bring back BD!
1/26/2012 5:33 pm
Just the fact that an Ivy League university pays someone to be its “wide receivers coach” embodies the corruption of NCAA sports… what’s the combined payroll for the coaching staff, one wonders?
1/26/2012 7:29 pm
And wow, does this take the story to a whole other level: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/sports/ncaafootball/at-yale-the-collapse-of-a-rhodes-scholar-candidacy.html