By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN —
It’s time to take a step back, perhaps, in this search for a new athletic director at West Virginia, look at where you’ve been, where you are and where you are going before deciding to change directions.
If, indeed, the list of candidates that has been bandied about in a media that seems to be as much in the dark as is the public is correct, there certainly isn’t a candidate on that list that makes you scream “I’ve got to have HIM to run my program!”
That includes the newest name to surface, Bob Huggins, who has some things on his resume that you might not want to present to a future employer, even if the shadow that they cast has been greatly exaggerated and even if his rehabilitation from some rather embarrassing moments is complete.
To be totally honest, it seems that there is no one on that list that has better qualifications than the man who already holds the job — Ed Pastilong — and who is willing to hang around a few more years to get the school through the muddy waters in which it now finds itself.
That does not belittle any of those who are clamoring to sit on Pastilong’s throne, for certainly with far less at stake than the future of the athletic department itself they would be solid candidates.
But timing is everything and the time to change captains isn’t when the ship is rocking back and forth in the midst of a hurricane.
Under normal circumstances, which would be when the conference situation is not so much in doubt, and with a football program that is facing a really crucial season in the tenure of Bill Stewart, you would simply thank Pastilong for his long and meritorious service, give him a gold watch and let him go off and find a consultant’s job somewhere.
But these are anything but normal circumstances and his experience and reputation will allow him to swim with the sharks that are circling in the college athletic waters.
Let us first understand that we have at the helm of the university a dynamic but inexperienced captain in Jim Clements, a gregarious, friendly man with large ideas but one who is still in his rookie year as a university president.
Perhaps he can go eyeball to eyeball with presidents of other schools who may be looking to leap off what could be a sinking Big East ship, but it seems that first he would have to have done more than he’s had time to do to earn their full trust and respect.
You take that and toss in an athletic director who is also in his first year running an athletic department, should that be the direction taken, and you don’t have a whole lot of clout in dealing with the situation.
Certainly most people in their first year in a new office are learning the ropes, rather than tugging on them.
Pastilong, on the other hand, has fought enough of these wars to be secretary of defense.
If he isn’t a high-pressure operative and seems to stumble some times when he is looking for words, he is careful and crafty. No matter how you look at it, Pastilong has been able to get pretty much what he wanted at crucial times.
He brought West Virginia into the Big East basketball conference, a move that was radical at the time for it was a huge step up for the program.
He brought in Rich Rodriguez to replace Don Nehlen. Love him or hate, Rodriguez revived the WVU football program and brought the team to the verge of playing for the national championship.
He brought in Bob Huggins — twice, really — to take the basketball program to another level.
And, as hard as this is to say, he took the difficult step of dropping five sports — a move that was criticized soundly in this corner — and actually improved the athletic department by doing so, if one can judge how it has grown in revenue and profit since then.
He was even able to man up under pressure and help figure out a way to bring the rifle team back, admitting a huge mistake, and bring along a coach in John Hammond good enough to return the program to its past glories.
Pastilong is more than willing to stay beyond a retirement date that was forced upon him by the previous administration. A contract extension certainly could be worked out, with Pastilong working while the search for his successor continues, without the pressure of a time limit and without putting WVU in jeopardy of being muscled around by the power conferences and their expansion plans.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
