Arizona’s search for Greg Byrne’s replacement has covered considerable territory in three weeks and it’s likely an AD will be hired in March, if not sooner.
Whether the school chooses to hire one of the impressive mid-level ADs such as Houston’s Hunter Yurachek or stays with Wildcat blood and hires Texas A&M deputy AD Stephanie Rempe — or whoever — there probably won’t be a shakeup within the existing department structure.
Neither Byrne nor his predecessors, Cedric Dempsey and Jim Livengood, brought in a squad of new people.
New USC athletic director Lynn Swann last week told Los Angeles reporters that doing so would be a terrible idea.
“There’s no need really to come in and say you’re going to clean house,” said Swann. “That would be kind of a waste. You lose your institutional knowledge from all the years people have been here. You lose the bridges and all the relationships people have from our development people with our alumni base. So, really, I’m the new guy on the job learning from them, looking to see how things are structured, looking to see if I’m going to want to do some of these things a little differently. But that’s it.”
It appears Mr. Swann, with no previous experience in college athletics administration, learned quickly.
