Brad Edwards Named New Athletic Director

[dr. gunnie]

Either A) Jacksonville is a mess and he couldn't wait to leave or B) he's a job hopper. Jacksonville had the worst DI facilities in the country - their football stadium was worse than most high school stadiums in Fairfax, so I'm guessing (hoping) it was A. The positive is that Jacksonville was talking about upgrading their football facitity for numerous years, but Edwards was the one that got it done.

From Jacksonville.com:

Edwards, who is leaving after just 22 months, had applied for several AD jobs recently (South Florida, UNLV, Stony Brook, among others) and was targeted by the Parker search firm in Atlanta for the George Mason position.

http://jacksonville.com/sports/coll...or-brad-edwards-leaves-ju-after#ixzz33ZzmlT1p

 

[99 Patriot]

Appears to be a good hire. To me his only negative is his football background that will kickstart the beating of that dead horse again. I'm also not all that familiar with how much on-field/court success he has been a part of as an administrator. Raising money and upgrading facilities is great, but it's even better if there's a winning product using those facilities.

Still like the hire a lot. Like 52, I'm anxious to see how many other personnel moves there will be as a result of this.

 

[masonjoe]

Either A) Jacksonville is a mess and he couldn't wait to leave or B) he's a job hopper. Jacksonville had the worst DI facilities in the country - their football stadium was worse than most high school stadiums in Fairfax, so I'm guessing (hoping) it was A. The positive is that Jacksonville was talking about upgrading their football facitity for numerous years, but Edwards was the one that got it done.

Newberry and Jacksonville are nowhere near the status of GMU. Both were private schools and not nearly as large at GMU. I don't think because he left those places early it means he's only going to be here a short time. Plenty to do here, plenty of resources at his disposal.

 

[dr. gunnie]

It just scares me that it seems like he was applying for every job that opened up. I want someone that wants to be here at Mason, not just someone who is dying to go anywhere. Maybe some reporter will address it at his press conference, but it is a very, very small red flag in my eyes.

The good news is with his Redskins past, our job makes a little more sense than the others regarding connections and hopefully fundraising.

 

[KAOriginal]

Either A) Jacksonville is a mess and he couldn't wait to leave or B) he's a job hopper. Jacksonville had the worst DI facilities in the country - their football stadium was worse than most high school stadiums in Fairfax, so I'm guessing (hoping) it was A. The positive is that Jacksonville was talking about upgrading their football facitity for numerous years, but Edwards was the one that got it done.

From Jacksonville.com:

Edwards, who is leaving after just 22 months, had applied for several AD jobs recently (South Florida, UNLV, Stony Brook, among others) and was targeted by the Parker search firm in Atlanta for the George Mason position.

http://jacksonville.com/sports/coll...or-brad-edwards-leaves-ju-after#ixzz33ZzmlT1p

Sitting around 5-10 years at either of those jobs is not what a young motivated guy would do. Granted JU has football, but you're talking about 2 private schools with small enrollment who are pretty much not going to do much more. He went in got some things done and was ready for the next challenge at a bigger school with more money and opportunity to build something. Look at the jobs he was looking at...not small time.

Do I expect him to put in 20 years? Nope. But this situation gives him the ability to make his mark in 5 years+ so he possibly make the next jump up IF and when he desires something more.

No different than coaching.....

 

[GSII]

Wasn't TOC the highest paid AD in the A10? Wonder if Mason will keep that salary for Edwards.

I wouldn't worry about Edwards leaving too soon. There's so much to do for Mason Athletics. For starters, kick someone in the a** over at the Post. Nothing from them today either.

 

[gmujim92]

Wasn't TOC the highest paid AD in the A10? Wonder if Mason will keep that salary for Edwards.

I wouldn't worry about Edwards leaving too soon. There's so much to do for Mason Athletics. For starters, kick someone in the a** over at the Post. Nothing from them today either.

The Post sucks, especially its Sports coverage.

Sad what has happened to what used to be one of the 2 greatest newspapers in the civilized world.

Working there was my dream job once upon a time.

 

[gmutom]

For starters, kick someone in the a** over at the Post. Nothing from them today either.

I called the Post last night and reamed out some woman at the copy desk. I said it's bad enough they constantly ignore Mason (they all but ignored our baseball team until we got eliminated), but with the way they slobber all over the Redskins they should have at least jumped on that angle. Hell, they even had a blog about fatasss Albert Haynesworth opening a burger joint. Now that is breaking news!

 

[GMUgemini]

The Post sucks, especially its Sports coverage.

Sad what has happened to what used to be one of the 2 greatest newspapers in the civilized world.

Working there was my dream job once upon a time.

It isn't just the Post, it's journalism in general... Nothing but click bait and upworthy headlines "You won't believe what this guy did after falling off a cliff," "this puppy was in an alley the other day and what it did next will amaze you."

I mean have you seen the related posts at the end if articles even on the most respected paper? "These celebrity bodies will shock you" "30 hot female track stars" at the end of an article discussing the Benghazi investigation.

[old man rant]I blame the Millenials for their horrible attention span and apparent lack of literacy [/end old man rant]

 

[gmutom]

This is NSFW, but I would at least respect the Post if they covered this bowling league.

http://www.egotastic.com/2014/06/na...aked-news-is-a-whole-lot-of-nsfw-happy-video/

 

[gmujim92]

It isn't just the Post, it's journalism in general... Nothing but click bait and upworthy headlines "You won't believe what this guy did after falling off a cliff," "this puppy was in an alley the other day and what it did next will amaze you."

I mean have you seen the related posts at the end if articles even on the most respected paper? "These celebrity bodies will shock you" "30 hot female track stars" at the end of an article discussing the Benghazi investigation.

[old man rant]I blame the Millenials for their horrible attention span and apparent lack of literacy [/end old man rant]

My paper doesn't do any of that "sensational" stuff. Probably why we get about 6.2 people clicking on our website on a daily basis.

 

[gmujim92]

I called the Post last night and reamed out some woman at the copy desk. I said it's bad enough they constantly ignore Mason (they all but ignored our baseball team until we got eliminated), but with the way they slobber all over the Redskins they should have at least jumped on that angle. Hell, they even had a blog about fatasss Albert Haynesworth opening a burger joint. Now that is breaking news!

Fat Albert opening a burger joint isn't news.

Now if he had purchased a Weight Watchers franchise, that would've been news.

 

[Washingtonian]

Nothing on Steinberg's twitter:
https://twitter.com/dcsportsbog

 

[masonjoe]

Why didn't they at least run the AP release like others did?

 

[gmujim92]

Why didn't they at least run the AP release like others did?

Because they suck, and have for some time.

Oh well, Mason will be producing graduates and winning basketball games long after the Post has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

 

[masonjoe]

I think this is a good time to bring up how terrible the marketing/PR department within the AD is

 

[psyclone]

Why didn't they at least run the AP release like others did?

Something was in the Post's print edition this morning in the "digest" section (p D2):

http://thewashingtonpost.newspaperd...u9n/wy2buhw2vaCPmDynrl8fOxRttxLcU7QkPdfo3dT

 

[gmujim92]

I think this is a good time to bring up how terrible the marketing/PR department within the AD is

I know for a fact that Cabrera has recognized that and is actively trying to change it.

A big part of what Edwards can do in the short term is energize our local fan base by upgrading the AD's marketing efforts.

Of course, anything he does is likely to be far superior to the half-a** efforts made in the past.

 

[GMUgemini]

My paper doesn't do any of that "sensational" stuff. Probably why we get about 6.2 people clicking on our website on a daily basis.

Good for your paper. Both major papers down here do it, and the Sun Sentinel is notoriously bad.

And I would agree about the PR staff. How do we not have a better relationship with the sports editor at the Post?

 

[Pablo]

I'm also not all that familiar with how much on-field/court success he has been a part of as an administrator. Raising money and upgrading facilities is great, but it's even better if there's a winning product using those facilities.

http://www.atlantic10.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209515275&DB_OEM_ID=31600

"Edwards has led his departments to athletic and academic success as well. In his two years in Jacksonville, the Dolphins won 13 regular season or conference tournament championships and had five student-athletes achieve All-American recognition, along with five conference Coach of the Year designations. Academically, the Atlantic Sun Conference Female Student-Athlete of the Year award was presented to a student at Jacksonville University. The university also received eight NCAA Public Recognition Awards, and had the highest cumulative program GPA on record with nine teams achieving higher than a 3.2 GPA.

During Edwards’ tenure at Newberry, the athletics program moved up 37 places nationally in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, while fielding 21 All-Americans, five academic All-Americans, an individual NCAA National Champion and three individual NCAA National runners-up."