Jack the AD

Notre Dame is set to announce its new Athletic Director later this week, when its expected that 1976 ND Alum John "Jack" Swarbrick will be the man. You can read a nice piece in the Chicago Tribune about Jack, and another piece here on Irish Eyes, both of which gets into a bit of his background. Essentially Jack is a lawyer with a major law firm in Indianapolis, IN, born in Bloomington, Indiana, who has been working in sports in some capacity for 25 years. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 1980, and he's largely responsible for bringing the Super Bowl and other sport events to Indiana.

The Pope will break it down for you with a quick list of his pro's and con's for this hiring:

Pros

• He graduated from ND - this cannot be understated. Weis was an ND grad, as many of us just feel safer with the program or department in the hands of an alum. Instantly most alumni will have a connection with Jack that we did not have with Kevin White.


• He's a smart guy - Stanford Law, on top of the ND degree. Not bad


• Been around sports - Successfully brought the Super Bowl to Indianapolis, has been chairman of the Indiana Sports Corporation, and also represented various parts of US Olympic teams like Gymnastics and US Rowing.


• He's been a finalist for a few Athletic positions - he was a finalist to be chairman of the NCAA back in 2002, losing to Miles Brand, who sucks. His familiarity with the NCAA will certainly be a huge benefit that most other candidates wouldn't have. He was also runner up to be Commissioner of the Big 12. Obviously this guy wants to get into sports administration/leadership.

Cons

• He has never been an Atheltic director - huge hole on his resume. Most ADs at Notre Dame had been ADs at a few stops before ND, just like Kevin White. No substitute for direct experience.


• No direct football experience - He has advised sports programs legally, and organized Indiana to be the host for Olympic qualifying events, the Super Bowl, etc. But at Notre Dame, managing the Football program is the real job of the AD, and he has little direct football experience dealing with the huge issues facing Notre Dame football: scheduling, BCS/Conference affiliation, and coaching.


• He's been a finalist for a few Athletic positions . . . but has never been hired.

My gut is that this is a good hire. Jack has been successful in the business world, not in the world of college athletic administration. Being an AD is just like promoting a product, protecting a client, or being a CEO. And too often the Academic type don't get the "big picture" when making decisions, which a CEO or a high ranking executive has been trained to do. I think based on the limited amount of information I've read about Jack, that he's our guy.

Will be interesting to see the press conference, likely later this week.

ND Tidbits

A few interesting items in the news regarding Notre Dame football over the past few weeks.

• Chris Zorich returns to ND in an Athletic Department role. He was a poster child of the Lou Holtz era, and is very popular around the Chicago area. Always good news.


• Not only is yours truly drinking the Kool-aid, thinking the Irish will have a good 2008 - so is one Irish assistant coach (Bernie Parmalee, pictured). His comments are vague, but entertaining for me to hear. Look for the Irish record to improve slightly, while their competitiveness and intensity improve dramatically.


• Notre Dame football team's cumulative GPA was once again over 3.0, for an unprecedented 6th straight semester. I've been an athlete at Notre Dame, and I know: there are no joke majors. There is tons of support and study sessions that athletes are required to attend, however. Even though I was a 4.0 high school student, I had to attend counseling sessions, study halls, and all other sorts of meetings to make sure that I was in fact succeeding academically. Kudos to Weis and the Athletic Academic staff and support team for doing it the right way.


• Very very quiet on the search for an Athletic Director. Impressively quiet. There have been some names floating around, in particular Steve Orsini (pictured) of SMU, who is reportedly a qualified and interested candidate. In addition, Bubba Cunningham and Joe Castiglione, AD's currently at Tulsa and Oklahoma, have been mentioned as possible candidates. We really don't know who, if anyone, has officially been contacted. And we don't have a timetable for a decision. I would assume in the next month, but who knows.


• Freshman arrived on campus this past Monday for summer school and essentially the beginning of their tenure as Irish freshman. The #2 ranked recruiting class in the country will be very important to the next few seasons, so hopefully they get started on the right foot. They have all been assigned numbers, covered in this article where the history of every number is mentioned. Pretty cool stuff. My favorite is that there will be 2 freshman wearing the #9, Tommy Zbikowski's old number. Both Kyle Rudolph (Freshman, speedy tight end from Cinncinnati) as well as Ethan Johnson (pictured, Freshman, absolute stud defensive end from Oregon) will be donning the great #9. Those 2 are easily 2 of our top 5 recruits signed last year, if not our top 2. Also interestingly, is that California QB Dayne Crist will be wearing good ole #10, last worn by this guy . . .
  
  


• Interesting take on Notre Dame and the BCS, conference situation in the Orlando newspaper. I agree, ND needs to win to maintain the power that it has at the table. More importantly, we need an Athletic Director that will continue to lead in a way that is best for ND and our independence, as well as meshing with current college football conferences.

White Out

Against my promise of last Friday, I am posting again today about Notre Dame. Two things happened over the weekend, one of which being a huge occurence:

• Kevin White is no longer the Athletics Director at Notre Dame. He has accepted the same position (with the addition of Vice President at the front of his title) at Duke University. At first glance, this move was one of job security for Kevin White. It was long known that White opposed the firing of Tyrone Willingham in 2003, but the move occured anyway due to pressure from the Board of Trustees. In addition, it was also reported that he was against the 10 year contract given to Weis just months into his first season. White likely saw that he was going to be held accountable for decisions that he wasn't fully controlling. I'm sure the less intense and microscoped environment of Durham will be a much better retirement than in South Bend, where he could have been one more bad football season away from being fired. We can't forget that he signed Bob Davie to a contract extension in early 2000, only to fire him later that year. Then he hired George O'Leary, who was on campus for 7 days before being fired due to resume issues. And then he hired Willingham and oversaw that debacle. No doubt that non-football sports made enormous strides under White however. Overall it was a great job in non-football sports but a sub-par one for Notre Dame football.



• Notre Dame and Utah will likely play in 2010 at Notre Dame stadium in a 1 game deal. This is a good move for the Irish, as we get a brand new flavor that is also a competitive college football team. Certainly they are not tier 1, but they are a solid opponent that is respectable and (should be) beatable. Always good to keep the schedule fresh and geographically spread out.

Right now there is no timetable or official hiring schedule for a new AD. The South Bend Tribune has created a list of candidates of interest, with really only two things connecting them: Athletics Directing experience, as well as passing through Notre Dame at some point in their lives. Prediction from my seat: Lawrence "Bubba" Cunningham, who has a few huge things going for him.

1. He graduated from ND (twice, 1984 & 1988)



2. He was an athlete at ND (golf)



3. He worked in the Athletics office at ND for 15 years (!!) after college, being the lead negotiator in the current deal with Adidas.



4. He has now been a full athletics director at two schools (Ball St. & Tulsa)

I met the guy once, and he was super charismatic and classy - perfect for this role. Certainly I think there is one other viable candidate that I just must mention . . .