MAHONEY’S MOMENTS
Jim has written regular leadership-related blog posts, along with other several other leaders, for Ohio University’s Voinovich Academy. On this page, you can read his monthly blog posts, Mahoney’s Moments. These moments are aimed at a variety of topics and the content is designed for the moment and intended to cause you to reflect, perhaps consider an approach, or entertain a new idea in your life or work. Enjoy!
October 2025: Money, Wins, and Lessons
At the start of the college football season this year, Penn State was ranked in preseason number two in the USA. They had made it to the quarter finals of the college football playoffs a year ago and looked to be much stronger this year. They won their first three games. Last weekend the athletic director fired his twelve-year head football coach who had a winning percentage of nearly 70%. It must have been something really bad. Perhaps a scandal? Corruption? Illicit relationship?
No. The Penn State Coach James Franklin had the audacity to oversee three losing games, one in overtime. The last two losses were against unranked teams after the overtime loss to a top five team. And just like that, the Penn State Athletic Department is on the hook for a reported nearly 50-million-dollar payment to Franklin to no longer coach. They are also ready to reopen the check book to another coach. There was a time when people might have talked about the former coaches’ athlete graduation rate. NCAA violations. Character as a person and coach. Builder of men. Team culture. I could go on with my list but only one thing mattered. Wins.
Sports pages are now filled with names of coaches in danger of being summarily fired this next weekend for simply not winning. Currently, we are throwing millions of dollars into collectives to pay players, opening portals making it easy for kids to change colleges, and offering coaches long term contracts to be “competitive.” The only outcome we care about is wins. This is what we have. Is this what we want? As a friend often said, “you can’t talk yourself out of something you have behaved yourself into.”
Years ago, another friend advised me that in a leadership role, “you are only as good as your last decision.” We laughed at the time about his observation, but that admonition is becoming increasingly true. Not just in coaching either. We want immediate outcomes as there is no time for learning and certainly not for failing forward.
As a longtime baseball fan, I long for the approach and attitude of the legendary manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Ohio native Walter Alston. Walt was manager of the Dodgers for 23 years winning 4 World Series titles. He only accepted 23 one-year contracts allowing management to make changes easily if they wanted him gone. Mostly though I admire that he bet on himself each year. Those days are long gone. Money and wins today have replaced character. The new system is teaching athletes and coaches new lessons. I hope the new ones are ones we don’t someday regret.