Mike Hill's extension is baffling
Hill received a four year extension on Sunday and it's hard to understand why.
Charlotte 49ers athletic director Mike Hill talks about the “Gold Standard” he has for the program.
The excerpt below is from Hill’s opening message in the 2018 Charlotte 49ers Athletic Foundation Membership Guide.
As I’ve said before, we are not in it to be ordinary. We’re in it to be extraordinary. Excellence is our goal. The Gold Standard applies to each and every facet of our program. We want the best for our student-athletes, our coaches and our fans. And we want our fans to celebrate our successes and share in those golden moments. Our success is your success. This is your program. My personal goal is to see that we grow stronger together. It’s time that we realize our full potential instead of just talking about it. We can do this -- we will do this -- together.
Hill has been on the job for over six years and on Sunday he received a four year extension.
Apparently “The Gold Standard” applies to everything but the two most important sports Charlotte sponsors, football and men’s basketball.
I fully realize there are multiple sports sponsored by Charlotte. However, football and men’s basketball are the sports that undoubtedly drive the needle in the artist formerly known as college athletics. One of those sports has to perform well for fans to have any confidence in the Athletic Director’s ability to build and maintain a healthy program.
Men’s basketball is 91-90 since Hill took over. They haven’t won a regular season or conference tournament championship. Most importantly, they still have not made the NCAA Tournament, a drought that dates back to 2005. There’s certainly nothing extraordinary about the current state of the men’s basketball program.
Hiring Ron Sanchez sounded good on paper but that turned out to be a disaster. Hill got the ultimate reprieve when when Sanchez resigned in June 2023 to go back to an assistant role at Virginia. Aaron Fearne had the interim tag lifted after a hot start and failed to advance in the conference tournament.
Under Hill’s watch, the football program is 26-44 overall with one winning season and bowl appearance, both in 2019.
If you want to remove the 2018 season since he inherited Brad Lambert, that record is 21-37, a 36.2 percent winning percentage. There’s nothing extraordinary or excellent about losing 63.8 percent of the time your team takes the field.
Hill’s first hire, Will Healy, at least had coaching experience and made a bowl game year one to offer some hope to people before ultimately flaming out. But don’t forget, Healy was only hired after a deal to get Mike Houston didn’t come to fruition.
Hill’s gamble on hiring Biff Poggi to lead the football program has been a massive failure to date. Hill chose Poggi over Barry Odom. Odom was scooped up by UNLV, where he was 9-5 and bowl eligible in year one. Year two for Odom is off to a better start. UNLV is 3-0 with wins over Houston and Kansas. On Sunday, UNLV’s football program was ranked No. 25 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, the first time the program has ever been nationally ranked.
Meanwhile, Poggi is 4-11.
Poggi talked a big game after he got hired, but then the actual games were played on the field and the 49ers went 3-9 in his first season. Another words, Poggi’s win total matched the number of questions he was asked at the American Athletic Conference’s media day. The team was poorly coached and undisciplined on the field, highlighted by their embarrassing 38-16 home loss to FAU where multiple players were suspended for their conduct.
Poggi narrowly avoided an 0-3 start in year two after squeaking by FCS Gardner Webb at home on Saturday night. After the game, Poggi took issue with fans that left the game early.
It’s hard to point to a singular aspect of Poggi’s on field performance that predicts any modicum of future success.
Aaron Fearne had an opportunity to quell some of the pessimism in March but did not take advantage.
Perhaps that’s why the university decided to drop the news of Hill’s extension after the NFL kicked off their games on Sunday. If Chancellor Sharon Gaber is so confident in Hill’s ability to grant an extension, why announce it on an NFL Sunday when it’ll get buried beneath the other headlines?
The most bizarre section of the press release announcing Hill’s extension was the summary of his highlights. The release cited a record performance in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings and Excellence in Management Cup. Casual college fans have no idea what these magical cups are or give one rat’s behind about them.
“My personal goal is to see that we grow stronger together. It’s time that we realize our full potential instead of just talking about it. We can do this -- we will do this -- together.”
Is excellence really the goal? Extending Hill certainly doesn’t suggest that Charlotte is serious about ever competing at the highest levels of football and basketball.
If Sunday proved anything, Charlotte will spend the next four years talking about their so called potential instead of ever doing anything about it.