Athletic Director Announcement

[bulls96go]

I'm a loyal Bull and I fully support our university's decisions ---but I don't have to be happy about it.

Welcome onboard AD Woolard.

my sentiments exactly

[bulls96go]

Wow!  Dead on balls analogy.  I was thiniking it was like winning Daytona or the ole Indie 500 but the trophy girl giving the big boobie smash hug (BBSH) and the big lip smack-a-roonie turns out to be your cousin.  On a side note, I have always had trouble keeping eye contact during the BBSHs.

Analogy III:  Kid thinks he's getting a 2 day weekend at Walt Disney but 'cuz of money it ends up being a 2 day camping trip in a pup tent.  Not quite the same.

Analogy IV:  Going out to buy your first sports car and the wife tells you she's pregs on the way to the dealer.  You come home with a minivan.  Its still new but...ouch!

Humor aside.  Woolard will do an adequate job for sure.  He's weathered and time tested.  He'll do fine.  He's not that rocket ship ride to the moon us diehards are looking for though.

analogy IV happened to me but doesn't quite apply

woolard does not give you the upside of a new baby

[bulls96go]

interesting an ad from a non football school from a non bcs conference

good luck

few words have said more

[The_Reaper]

Very skeptical about this choice. Again, we get bargain basement instead of quality. Genshaft looked at the numbers, could get this guy cheap, done deal. Mark my words... CJL will be outta here in 3 years because this guy won't be able to keep up with the football program because HE DOESN"T HAVE BIG TIME FOOTBALL EXPIRIENCE, and because Genshaft won't release the purse-strings to increase the budget to be competative as all the other teams in the Big East!!! I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but we should have chosen tried and true with expirience handling ALL sports, especially in the Big time. Sure he's been through the C-USA wars, but now we are in the Big time. It's like going from AAA ball to the pros. BIG DIFFERENCE! Oh well, time will only tell. Maybe he will surprise us all. I do hope so!! GO BULLS!!!   The Reaper

[bulls96go]

Don't think anyone wanted the Superman AD.  Just someone who had that type of potential.

exactly

i was not hoping for "safe"-ly  adequate

i wanted someone who would capture my imagination like JL did when he took the job. i was not sure he would accomplish all that he saw he could, but boy did he capture my interest. and what a ride

i wish woolard the best. just keep your hands off football!

[Guest Bgbull44]

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD HIRE AN AD FROM A SCHOOL WITH NO FOOTBALL PROGRAM AND IS IN A CONFRENCE BELOW WHAT AE ARE TRING TO MOVE TO.  THE ADMINSTRATION WILL NOW RUIN WHAT WE HAVE SPENT 8 YEARS BUILDING.  TO ALL THE FANS THAT THINK THIS MOVE IS NOT A BIG DEAL, I'LL TALK TO YOU IN A YEAR AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK.  WE BETTER HAVE STRONG COACHES BECAUSE IF WE DON'T WE ARE GOING TO BE THE NEXT RUTGERS OF THE BIG EAST.  THIS DECISION HAS BROKEN MY HEART.  

[Guest BgBull44]

When ever you see a retired athlete from USF you should apologize for the university for holding his alma mater back from growing and being competative with schools like FSU, UF, UM, OU, USC, LSU, UGA, and the rest of the top 25 teams in the nation .

[The Sheriff]

The only thing built over the last eight years is football. Every other sport, fan attendance is dismal if not pathetic. Football attendance will increase with the bigger name teams at home... but what can this guy do for our other sports? Time will tell...

1st MOVE: Fire the Marketing department head and get someone who loves USF to run it and take inputs from people that care!

[CyberBull]

Funny how all these new concerned bulls fans are cropping up. Another reason to ban guest posting.....

Memo to those of you who can't read: last time I checked Washington State has a very successful football program and Woolard was heavily involved in its operation.

Memo # 2: In case you have not figured it out, Jim Leavitt runs the football program. Do you really think Leavitt needs any help in growing the program? The new AD needs to be involved in providing resources and ensuring the academic integrity of the athletic programs. We don't anyone to micromanage our coaches.  That is unless you want Leavitt to really consider going elsewhere in three years.

Considering that the biggest problems at USF right now are basketball ...on and off the court, it would seem that Woolard is perfectly suited for the job. Especially when you consider that he had little old St. Louis in the Top 30 in attendance every year in a market very similar to Tampa Bay.

[Papa_Bull]

From the St Louis paper:

Woolard is leaving SLU for job at South Florida

By Stu Durando

Of the Post-Dispatch

05/11/2004

Bills AD Doug Woolard is leaving SLU for the same job at South Florida.

(P-D)

 

St. Louis University will be headed to the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2005, but athletics director Doug Woolard is on his way to the Big East.

The University of South Florida will announce today that Woolard has been named to replace AD Lee Roy Selmon, who resigned.

Woolard could not be reached, but Virginia associate athletics director Jon Oliver told the Post-Dispatch Tuesday, "I withdrew my name from consideration this afternoon."

Woolard and Oliver had been named the two finalists last week. USF has announced that it will hold a news conference this morning to introduce its new AD. The school is one of five current Conference USA members that will join the Big East starting in the fall of 2005.

A USF official said that president Judy Genshaft planned to re-interview the finalists this week by phone, but Oliver said that didn't happen.

Woolard became AD at SLU in 1994 and spent 10 years at the school. As the only current AD among the four candidates who were interviewed for the USF job, Woolard repeatedly declined to address the situation in St. Louis, but he was open with media in Tampa after being interviewed last week.

"You have an opportunity now that very few universities have ever had," he told the Tampa Tribune. "Between 2004 and 2010 this university has a chance to do some things it's never done, and athletics has a chance to help that."

Officials at SLU had no comment and there was no word on when Woolard's departure would be addressed. When SLU undertook a search for an AD in 1994, the school's president, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, appointed broadcaster Bob Costas as chairman of an 11-member search committee.

During his 10 years at SLU, Woolard oversaw expansion on several fronts in the athletic department.

The addition of new facilities allowed the soccer, softball and tennis teams to move their home games to the campus. SLU added a women's soccer program in 1996 and will start a women's golf team in 2004-05.

During his tenure, the men's basketball program became one of the biggest draws in the country, although attendance has declined for the past six years. The men's soccer team led the nation in attendance last season.

The athletics department also has been consistently strong academically. SLU has won C-USA's academic excellence award in the conference's first eight seasons.

Woolard also served on several influential committees. He was C-USA's representative to the NCAA academic eligibility-compliance cabinet and served as chairman of the amateurism and agents subcommittee.

He was one of four finalists for the AD job at Kansas in 2001, and his name was mentioned in connection with the job at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas last summer.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/Sports/SLU/DBE82852C6C2AA2F86256E92001990A3?OpenDocument&Headline=Woolard+is+leaving+SLU+for+job+at+South+Florida