The day we hired Wilson I went to the NW board to read up on him, because he had been a long-time OC there. I was very surprised to read there were numerous posts questioning the hire, based on his temperament, use of alcohol et al. So there were warning signs. Then, if you'll remember, he had all kinds of early issues when he got to B-Ton along those lines. So he was always a potential problem. Then Fred put him on double-secret probation, and you know the rest of the story.
So Fred gets no credit for hiring Wilson. We were lucky to get out of that situation with no major lawsuits. And he gets no credit for hiring TC as head coach, as that was a no-brainer under the circumstances.
Now....whoever had the idea of bringing in CTA as DC deserves a lot of credit. That story's been on here before....as I recall, it wasn't Wilson's idea initially, but I don't know whose idea it was. Fred had to sign off on it, so give him some credit there.
Going back to Fred......he's botched 2 contracts (Crean & Archie) and his hiring of CAM has turned out to be a disaster.
On the other hand, give him credit for his $ raising and his visiblity, and the facilities. He was very good there.