I agree it is too early to make a final conclusion on Hardt. I have a lot of concerns though.
His hiring process was a joke and not indicative of a the serious deliberate process that should have been made (that is not his fault though).
Our marketing department continues to produce materials that have numerous errors. That to me should be an easy problem to fix by instituting procedures that prevent these materials from meeting the public eye and just having a culture demanding excellence. That still happens frequently. You might think that is small, but are you going to buy widgets from a company that can't proofread its materials and puts out wrong dates, times, etc...
The way he managed the Mooney situation last year was poor. If your gonna bring the guy back (which clearly he was) than don't say you are going to evaluate him after the season. And then he announces it via some written Q&A interview with JOC. To me, he did not come across strong and authortative in that process, it came across as weak, essentially hiding from disgruntled fans.
He operates from a bunker mentality, like our entire athletic department. They are besieged by a disgruntled fanbase and instead of meeting that head on, they just kind of have retreated into themselves.
I was hoping Hardt would change our athletic culture under Gill, which was weak, settling, and as Rocco famously said lacked vision. Instead, I feel he has just been assimilated into the culture and it continues on.
