Where's Aggie guy to give us the scoop? Should we go after this guy for AD?
At your own risk.
First, Dodd (the reporter) and Hyman (former AD) are reportedly old friends. So, don't believe the tone of everything you read in the article above. We have one true loss to the program, and that is Kyle Allen. Murry, Spavital, and Hyman all needed to go, each for a different reason (although I would have also supported Spav being demoted to co-OC).
We have zero evidence of Hyman making good personnel decisions. He did not hire any of our current head coaches, nor fire any of them. The only thing he did (or didn't do) was sit on his hands about firing our basketball coach after some pretty mediocre seasons. Kennedy and the basketball team are much improved this year (2nd place SEC), so we don't know if he had the foresight to wait it out or if he just lucked into a good situation by doing nothing.
Hyman seems very aloof and unfriendly. I have never in my life met anyone as disinterested in meeting me than Eric Hyman, and others have said the same. Now, I'm nobody as far as big donors go, but if we're at the same party or in the same elevator and I introduce myself and say hello, at least a "nice to meet you" could be uttered. If you are head of an organization run by donations, the least you can do is smile at people. I sit very near him in basketball, and 75% of the time I wouldn't even get a head nod when I said hello.
Hyman came from TCU before South Carolina, and still seems to have many friends there. He would wear purple clothes to A&M games on occasion, and could be seen talking to TCU people in a much more friendly manner than Aggies at various away functions. The icing on the cake was when Hyman was on the NCAA baseball selection committee and TCU got to host the regional over A&M, who had a better record. More on this later.
Hyman lost support from many when he said in an article (maybe in the San Antonio or Dallas papers) that our fans need to "manage our expectations." Yeah, we probably do, but don't tell us that we should expect a seven or eight win season. We just put $500 million into the football program, we expect at least a sniff at the SEC west title. Tell us that you're going to do what you can to make us successful, not that we should lower the bar.
He is also a poor communicator, as compared to our previous AD, Bill Byrne. Byrne would send out a weekly blog/email during the football season and maybe all year long. We grew a little tired of Byrne because he wanted to nickle and dime everything (so we thought until we saw texas university AD Steve Patterson) and because he focused on the non-revenue sports too much (and we got several championships there). So, we were excited to see an AD with SEC experience in our first year in the new league. However, I can think of no more than three direct communications to donors and fans from Hyman during his tenure, and none were great communications.
Recently, during a basketball tournament in the Bahamas, Hyman waived off fans who were standing next to him during the singing of the Aggie War Hymn. This would be like a Gopher AD just standing there silently and not participating during the Rouser. What does it hurt to show support for your team, especially when you are getting paid so much by them?
Now, I can't say that Hyman did no good for us - we just don't know. He has no personality, did nothing of note, said nothing to anyone. I wonder how different things would have been had we just paid someone to sit in his office and play solitaire. Maybe he helped us navigate our first years in the SEC, or helped us get better bowl games. Perhaps he was more instrumental than I think in the fundraising for Kyle Field. Maybe he was helpful in setting expectations and goals for our coaches.
One thing is well-known, is that he did not manage nor seem to get along with Kevin Sumlin. Part of that is due to our chancellor or president stepping in at various times, but also shows the weakness of his position.
The final thing is pure speculation, so take this with a grain of salt. Hyman is perceived to be loyal to TCU. There was huge news over the last two days that A&M was about to hire away TCU OC Meacham (who orchestrated the amazing Alamo Bowl comeback). A&M and TCU football sites were reporting it as a done deal. However, it completely fell apart yesterday and we hired UCLA OC Mazzone last night. Now, as soon as the news that Meacham was staying at TCU broke, news of Hyman's resignation came out. The timing is troubling. Did he tip off someone at TCU about our offer or the ceiling for what we were willing to pay? Maybe it's a coincidence, but it definitely smells fishy.
If you're wanting a new AD, I would actually go pull Bill Byrne out of retirement and bring him in for the short term of 3-5 years. He would be good at opening a line of communication to Gopher fans and would be more than capable in the fundraising projects you are currently undertaking. He was also making substantially less than Eric Hyman.
You should expect a lot more from a person who gets paid $800,000 per year.
