The parallels that I see in these descriptions to Coach Pete and (hopefully) Coach montLake are huge. Pete is a founder. He can build something from nothing and take it to unimaginable heights from where it was but he was never meant to be the “CEO”. It doesn’t mean he couldn’t be but it was never going to be what he is best at.
I don’t think this is the right take.
Pete did a great job as a Long Term CEO at Boise in this analogy. They were clearly established when he took over and he innovated to take them to the next level. Then he came to UW and played more a Founder role for sure. But even that is a bit of stretch since the team he took over was not the 0-12 team. He was more of a Turnaround Specialist CEO taking a once solid company and making it solid again.
I’m much more inclined to take him at his word that he was just burnt out and/or lost the passion vs thinking he doesn’t have the necessary skills to keep this program moving in the right direction. He just didn’t have the heart to exercise those skills ato his full potential nymore.