Brutal.
That's the word Jerod Haase used Friday afternoon.
Brutal.
After Stanford made it official that Haase will be the 18th head coach in school history, after the Cardinal made him an offer he couldn't refuse, I asked the fifth coach in UAB history how hard it would be to say goodbye.
"Brutal," Haase said. "It's going to be hard leaving here in a lot of different ways."
Haase isn't just leaving a job he did and did well for the last four years. He's leaving a home. He's leaving a community where he walked his kids to school and his wife helped coach T-ball.
The over-under on the amount of time it would take him to break down when meeting with his UAB players to say farewell: 30 seconds. He's very much a Roy Williams guy. It bothered him that everyone wouldn't be in town because of spring break.
Before that emotional meeting - and a conference call for the players not in town - I asked Haase what he's most proud of from his time in Birmingham.
"We built the program up, and I'm leaving it in a really good spot," he said. "When I say program, I'm talking about getting fans engaged, getting to know the boosters, doing community service, having the highest APR in the conference.
"We did win a lot of games, too. That's a program."
Haase leaving after putting down roots and setting school records leaves a lot of people on campus and in the community with a bittersweet feeling. One of those people is Brian Mackin.
The former UAB AD, who hit a home run when he hired Haase, sounded like a proud papa watching a successful son depart the nest.
"I'm very proud of him," Mackin said. "It shows you can run a program and do it the right way. Jerod and his staff emphasized family. A lot of coaches say that. Jerod and his staff lived it. They absolutely did it the right way."
Mackin may have given Haase the best compliment any coach can get from the man who hired him four years after the fact.
"He was the man I thought he was," Mackin said. "He lives what he preaches. He was much more than a basketball coach. He was part of this community, and he'll be missed."
Haase will be missed here and, if the Stanford community forgets that he played his first year of college ball at rival Cal, he'll be embraced there. He would not have left UAB for just any job, and that's the thing about Stanford.
Despite the inability of Johnny Dawkins to get it done there, it's not just another job, even by Power-5 standards.
Neither is UAB, even by quality mid-major standards. It's a better job than it was when Haase arrived because he and his staff have recruited more consistently than Mike Davis and his staff. Despite the downturn in Conference USA, current UAB AD Mark Ingram will find no shortage of quality candidates.
A number of familiar names, many of them big-name assistants as Haase was at North Carolina, have already begun working behind the scenes to get themselves into the mix.
If it were up to Haase, his assistant Rob Ehsan would be promoted to the top job to continue to develop the program Ehsan has played a key role in building, especially in recruiting.
There's no way to know which way Ingram might go. This will be his first major coaching hire at UAB, and it's critical that the next head coach continue the positive momentum of the last two seasons in particular.
Four years ago, Haase looked like the right man at the right time, and he proved Mackin right. Expect him to do the same at Stanford. When he does, we'll be fortunate to say we knew him when.