Athletic Director of the Year: Whit Babcock (22), Virginia Tech. Eased legendary coach Frank Beamer into retirement without acrimony. Outflanked other schools on the job market to hire hot name Justin Fuente away from Memphis. And helped convince stud defensive coordinator Bud Foster to stay on staff. A tricky task couldn't have gone much better.
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I agree. It's easy to make the case for Whit as AD of the year.
Which is not to say there won't be bumps in the road, but he certainly handled this transition well.
I think Whit did a lot of pre-work, and had a plan. He got it wrapped up quickly, while other schools like Maryland and Virginia drew their searches out, and are now competing with each other for the same candidates. Beamer helped out tremendously by not trying to hang on too long. That was the difference between a celebration year and a divisive one.
Off Topic:
That's basically the same move Houston did, except it worked out. The guy at Houston, who literally nobody knows his name, won 7 games a year between Sumlin and Herman. Because it's Houston, nobody cared when they fired him but 7 games a year is a pretty good success rate at Houston. But Herman has killed it, proably get them to a NY6 game and resigned for at least another year.
It hasn't worked out at Nebraska, but that doesn't mean firing a successful coach is a bad idea. Just hiring Mike Riley is a bad idea.
Time will tell if Kirby Smart fits this description for Georgia next season.
Edit:
It's really astounding how effectively we jumped out in front of the coaching dominoes. We expected results, and he delivered. Excellent work, Whit! Some Noles I spoke with say they really wish Bowden's departure went as smoothly and without the ugly drama.
I think Frank (and Jim Weaver and so on...) set the University up to be an attractive choice whenever the time came, and Whit kept his cool when the time did come. Otherwise Justin doesn't pick up the phone after passing on a dozen or more other opportunities.
Duh.... Beamer did make it easy. I'm probably gonna name my kid after this guy
Frankie BooJooce.
I like it.
Catchy. I like it.
Sounds like a Soprano's character.
High school is gonna suck for that kid.
That name will git after ya.
He'll never know if people are actually booing him or cheering his name.
Boo-urns?
I was saying Boo-urns.
I have often pointed out to wife that when teams like Baylor, TCU, Oregon, Ok State pop on the scene out of nowhere, there is a great AD behind the scenes. (Of course it does not hurt to have wealthy donors in the background as well). Even schools that are always good; OSU, UCLA, Alabama and Michigan can be fouled by a bad AD. We are very fortunate to have hired Whit, he will have us athletically soaring very soon. A+ Whit!
No doubt on the bad AD. See Texas and imho soon to be USC. Whoever made the decision to hire Whit (Sands?) nailed it.
I believe there was a committee involved in the search for and eventual hire of Whit. I also believe Kevin Jones was on that committee but I'm unsure who else may have been a part of that.
While I know I made my criticisms of Whit's coaching search on another thread, I will say we got an amazing outcome for the football program (and BBall program).
What sticks out about Whit most for me is how the only time his name is in the news is "Whit hired ___". That's it. He is a professional above anything else.
Whit is absolutely AD of the year. He also hired Buzz Williams who's doing a great job with a young team . Then bringing in Fuente to replace legendary coach Beamer . Those two hires have the making of legends themselves in the future.
Whit making his moves:
The ADs at schools still looking for a coach:
Whit is playing chess, other ADs are playing checkers.
More like connect four
via GIPHY
I was looking for that, but couldn't find the right gif, so I went with Gerrys Game.
I would say if Miami ends up with Mullen and UVA gets Richt, it's not so clear anymore.
If Miami ends up with Cristobal and UVA ends up with Calhoun, then, yeah....we won.
It's very possible the ACC Coastal could get really good, really fast. We'll see.