Coming from a former track and field athlete at Cornell who competed 4 years as a decathlete under Nathan Taylor and has been following the story over at GT and here on Letsrun..
I think what people don't realize is that technical coaching skills, recruiting, a competent staff, and the backing of an endowed program can only get you so far at the college level. I don't know anything about Henner and I dont think any of us know the extent of the issues there but GT needs somebody at the front from here on out who can spearhead some changes.
Coach Taylor would be a great fit at a program like that.
The difference with him is that he really cares about his athletes and their lives. My career prior to Cornell I had been running for and doing other sports under coaches who looked at their job as purely a system and process to implement with the goal of winning and looked at the athletes simply as a means to that end. I thought that is how a coach-athlete relationship was supposed to work.
When I got to Cornell I got the feeling for the first time that my head coach was actually in my corner and out to make my academic experience, social experience, and even my post graduation life a lot better. This type of attitude rubbed off from him to other coaches and down to the members of the team. We cared about each other and doing things in life, not just on the track, the right way.
I think the only real way to change a culture is get somebody to run the show who can do more than just make authoritative decisions and win meets. Its obvious by Taylor's resume that he can coach and win but he can also lead a team through a tough patch and some serious changes and they'll come out stronger on the other side.