Holder's Contributions Great, but New Culture is Needed and That is Weiberg's Task
STILLWATER – The last two days Pokes Report has outlined the glowing achievements of Oklahoma State University athletic director Mike Holder. The golf coach that delivered eight NCAA National Championships crossed over and made the future changing move of bringing his billionaire friend, capital investor, and hedge fund chief T. Boone Pickens to the rescue of the athletic department. That allowed Holder to sway others to assist the dream of catching OSU up to some of its’ rivals in college athletics. Oklahoma State University athletics has a completely changed landscape as a result. As a sharp coach that may not have created a lot of life long relationships with his athletes, but did know how to push buttons and ran a disciplined program, Holder was often able to see the traits needed and made a higher percentage of good hires in coaching than unsuccessful hires.
Nobody is perfect. I’ve seen athletic directors at some schools raise plenty of funds but make dreadful decisions when hiring coaches. I’ve seen others that made great hires but fell short in the financial area and never gave the coaches and their programs the tools they needed for success. Then there is the overall culture and atmosphere of an athletic department. Just like coaches in individual sports set the tone and the culture in their programs with their athletes. I look at the athletic director as the person most responsible for the overall attitude in the athletic department.
From observations as a media member that has covered Oklahoma State athletics off and, mostly, on for 37-years and from sources I have cultivated, many sources, I feel like I have always had a good read on the attitudes and vibes in the athletic department.
When Mike Holder first took over as the athletic director and vice-president of athletics there was a real excitement. How could there not be? The promise of an athletic department that for the most part ran on a shoestring budget having some capital was exciting. Holder in golf and baseball, under Gary Ward and Tom Holliday, had gone out and secured their own money resulting in their programs being funded much more competitive than the others.
Holder started with football. He told head coach Mike Gundy that he would give him what he needed to be competitive. Holder fully understood and talked about how when football was successful the entire athletic department could be successful as a result.
Oklahoma State football with Gundy, his staff, and players energized with new facilities and a larger budget won like the school had never won in football previously. There have been 15 straight winning seasons, 15 straight bowl games, four New Year’s Day bowls, a Big 12 Championship, and six double-digit win seasons in that time.
Unfortunately, there have been events since then that have fractured Holder and the alliance that started so strong with football and Gundy. The contract with basketball coach Travis Ford was the first blow. Gundy secured Jimmy Sexton to represent him in his negotiations and that set off a mini feud.
Since then, the relationship has suffered periodically and many times it would be built back. Holder’s attitude that football costs; especially the size of football staff, support staff, and the salaries in the department; were out of control has been a constant crack in the relationship between the West End Zone and the athletic center. More recently, Holder has pitted the department against football. That comes from a variety of individuals that work on both ends of the athletic department.
It is not all Holder’s fault, but the pandemic did a lot of damage to attitudes in athletics. Holder, a devout believer in pay as you go, did not broach any rainy day or emergency money to help offset the loss of revenue from COVID-19. Instead, employees took pay cuts ranging as high as 20 percent and those have stayed in effect through June 30 (today) and the end of the fiscal year. The assistant football coaches under contract offered close to 20 percent that included their bowl bonus, Holder originally accepted but came back and said it was not enough. The coaches continued to offer but it was refused. The whole scenario set up a football versus the rest of the coaching community inside the athletic department disconnect. It is July 1 and the new regime of Chad Weiberg as athletic director that department paychecks will go back to full salary. That issue is among others that will need repair.
While fund raising has stayed mostly successful, Oklahoma State has not been in a leadership role in the Big 12 Conference or NCAA overall. Holder has been on the NCAA Golf Committee, served as chairman twice, but, with the exception of a few other administrators and President Burns Hargis, they have not had positions on critical NCAA committees.
Football season tickets have gone up and the athletic department operating budget when Holder took over in 2006 of close to $55-million is now close to $100-million. The most recent numbers from 2018-19 school year show that Oklahoma State made a slight profit in athletics with revenue of over $95-million and expenditures just below. We all know that the pandemic and COVID-19 created a financial disaster in the past year, but numbers pulled from a report filed with the NCAA for the 2018-19 school year showed that football had revenue of $52.2-million and expenditures of $24.3-million. Football brought in $27.9-million for the rest of the athletic department.
Holder has helped so many sports with new facilities. Those are fabulous and state-of-the-art buildings and stadiums. Those facilities, in some cases, have come with constant threats of what might happen if team performance is not successful. It is fine for expectations to increase but coaches don’t even need subtle reminders. Competing is what these people do. Let’s just say the bedside manner of the athletic director has not always been appreciated. There are several coaches in the department that are staunch Holder disciples, but there are more that are anticipating the breath of fresh air that will be experienced with Weiberg taking over.
Holder was not happy about the change either and has told some that he wanted to stay on as athletic director. That has created frustration as well. Change is often difficult and this one has been.
There are problems to solve, one of the first is how to offset the revenue shortfall from the past fiscal year. Another is to set the tone for the future of Oklahoma State athletics as campus leadership changes with both new President Dr. Kayse Shrum and Weiberg taking over.
Chad Weiberg comes at this job of athletic director with a different background, a long career of experience in administration, fund raising, and supporting coaches rather than constantly critiquing them. It will be different and I’m told by a number of people involved, it is a change they welcome. Mike Holder leaves the position with the thanks he richly deserves for making massive forever changes to the landscape of Oklahoma State athletics.