Right, you don't want to think about it that way, because it makes ND look bad. Everyone, Swarbrick, Rees, MF, the whole lot of them. Swarbrick looks like he lusts after something as shallow and vain and gross as favoring alums principally for their alum status, which makes him look elitist and effete, and really that he doesn't even care about winning, and winning and putting your best foot forward as a program that purportedly strives to win titles is in truth a secondary consideration for him. Important of course, and desirable, but ultimately subordinate to other priorities. So that's not good.... TR looks bad because it implies the real reason he's keeping such a plum job is not his undeniable coaching chops, but again, because of his bloodlines, in effect. Which, to repeat, in unamerican and effete. And MF looks like shit because even though traditionally HCs get to run their own show, and that is absolutely the default setting for any HC, and he gets to pick his own lieutenants... But in this case he has to humbly defer to his boss Swarbrick, and accept those terms that would be informally imposed upon him as condition of getting the job. And so they all, in different ways, coming off looking like little chump-bitches. So it's really easy to imagine a certain section of ND fans/alums resisting that narrative, whatever circumstantial evidence there is that might suggest that is in fact how the shit went down....
And since there is no smoking gun proof, no explicit tape-recorded conversations, it's only subject to speculation for us fans. Couple that with the fact that, typically and as a definite rule, HCs are totally allowed and empowered to hire and fire their own underlings on their say-so, and not the AD, thus it violates Occam's razor to entertain this sort of conspiracy theory. Though I would guarantee there have been exceptions to that usual distribution of authority, given that ADs would always reserve the final say in anything to do with the goings-on in the wider athletic dept., and I'm sure sometimes it does happen that way for whatever reason. And this could be one of those....
So.... I don't know what really happened, but I could definitely see it. Swarbrick simply retaining on his final authority and promising the spot to TR, in the initial chaos, if he stayed at ND, and later when MF got the offer to be the HC, it really was perfect and Swarbrick could have his cake and eat it too. He loves MF to death, and is absolutely willing to take a chance on him, and given MF's position, that he would accept that condition, so long as Swarbrick was tactful enough about it I suppose. And it's not forever but only for the time being, and everybody wins...
As far as your choice of the dismissive and sort of bookish term 'bromide', one doesn't have to be Sigmund Freud to note the tendentious sneer implicit within, and presumably for the reasons I've already mentioned. Because it's all rather unflattering and not to ND's credit as a whole, nor any of the individual actors. And without definitive evidence, it's certainly arguable that Swarbrick did none of the things he's accused of by the haters, and everything about this transition from BK to MF was hunky dory, MF's toes were not stepped on, nor was his dignity as a coach insulted, and none of the characters in this situation come off looking like the chump-bitches they otherwise might. All of it mere coincidence and/or conspiracy theory. Which is 100% possible.
Anyway, I think there are a lot of online ND alums, who are also Swarbrick haters it must be said, and even Rees haters as well, who totally think that's how it all went down. I don't know if they had any sort of inside info or not. And don't kill your darlings next time, that's what the internet's for. You just look like someone who's taking the pussy's way out if you're going to get all cutesy like that. If anything it makes you look more egocentric than just saying whatever it is you wanted to say. But I suppose we're done here. That was a pretty comprehensive recap on my part.....
