Memphis AD search was short, sweet
Veatch’s hire says a lot for university
Before we get into why the hiring of new University of Memphis athletics director Laird Veatch is a home run, let’s start with the search. Because by all accounts, it was only supposed to just be starting.
President M. David Rudd admitted Friday he figured it would take more than 78 days. Interim athletic director Allie Prescott said he was prepared to serve in that role for up to a year. Like the media, most of the athletic department staff had no inkling a new hire was in the works until Rudd announced it himself on Twitter Friday morning.
There was no search firm hired, Rudd confirmed, because so many potential candidates expressed interest in the job, including several sitting athletic directors. Instead, it was Rudd who initially reached out to Veatch about five weeks ago. He was the top name on the list, the man university officials identified as the best fit.
Rudd likened it to recruiting a prominent head coach. The recruiting process, in this case, included a trip to Veatch’s hometown of Manhattan, Kan., where Rudd and a couple other university decision makers spent an entire day with Veatch during his scheduled vacation.
Once that went well, a clandestine visit to Memphis earlier this week followed. Veatch and his family got a tour of the campus and facilities from
Prescott.
He had lunch with football coach Mike Norvell and met with men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway.
And then Memphis closed the deal. This is perhaps more important than the hire itself.
Because if athletic directors were football players – and Veatch was a linebacker at Kansas State – the new Tigers’ athletic director would be a blue-chip recruit.
Veatch, who will start at Memphis on Oct. 1, worked under some of the biggest athletic directors in the business at some of the biggest schools in the country over the past 25 years. He’s raised close to $300 million as the top deputy athletic director at Kansas State and Florida over the past decade. He’s even got experience on the marketing and media sides working for Learfield Sports before that. He’s developed a national reputation as a rising star in college administration.
Becoming a permanent athletic director was about the only hole on his resumé.
So just as much as Memphis chose him, he chose Memphis. Which says something about Memphis right now.
“I probably had my eye on this type of opportunity for awhile … but I’ve always felt like while I want to be an athletic director, I want to do it at the right place at the right time and with the right people,” Veatch said Friday. “This is one of those really special circumstances where that all seems to be lining up well.”
It can be easy to lose sight of this following the recent drama surrounding the administration of Memphis athletics.
Look around, though, and the momentum is obvious.
There’s a sparkling $21 million stateof-the-art basketball practice facility, and Hardaway just welcomed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. The foundation is finally being laid on the football team’s long-awaited indoor football practice facility and the Tigers are in the midst of a five-year bowl streak that’s unmatched in program history. And the AAC just signed a new media rights contract, a deal that confirmed this conference is superior to any other Group of Five conference.
There’s also an ongoing investigation into the women’s basketball program and the uncomfortable and abrupt manner in which former athletic director Tom Bowen resigned.
Taken together, it speaks to what Bowen accomplished during his seven years, revitalizing a department that was a mess. But it also speaks to the fact that his time had run its course, particularly given his prickly relationship with Rudd and his reluctance to embrace the public nature of this role.
Veatch, Rudd said, “can take this thing the next step.”
Frankly, upon closer inspection, he’s almost too good of a hire. You wonder, now that he’s finally filled the one missing piece to his fantastic resume, how long it’ll be before a power five school comes calling.
That, though, is always the risk when you hire well and it’s better than the alternative of hiring someone who isn’t any good.
This strategy worked in football and men’s basketball in recent years with the arrival of Norvell and Hardaway. Veatch called them “a huge part of why I’m so excited about this.”
It’s why a search that was only just starting ended sooner than anyone expected.
And Memphis fans can only hope his time here goes as well as theirs have.