Hexter can unite Aggie Nation by picking Gross

Just as you thought the drama surrounding the search for the next Athletics Director couldn’t get any bigger, it seems as though Days of our Lives is now filming on campus.  Chancellor Katehi promised that a new athletic director was going to be in place by early fall 2015.  That was later pushed back to spring 2016 and now, who knows? 

Katehi had formed a search committee consisting of alums, coaches, and former student-athletes with the assistance of Parker Executive Search to conduct a national search for anew athletic director.  As first reported by AggieSportsTalk.com, the field was narrowed down to three candidates.  Upon that report, Davis Enterprise reporter Bruce Gallaudet was forced to pound the pavement and start calling sources on Picnic Day and was provided with a statement from the chancellor’s office advising that there were five candidates.  Four days later, there were less than five candidates.

Enter UC President Janet Napolitano.  After Chancellor Katehi admitted to sitting on several corporate boards, including a for-profit university and Wiley, Inc., a company that sells textbooks, Napolitano stood bythe chancellor.  That sure didn’t last long.  

On April 27, President Napolitano placed Chancellor Katehi on “investigatory leave” for the next 90 days and has appointed Melinda Haag to investigate the chancellor’s actions. Napolitano named UCD Provost Ralph Hexter as interim chancellor.  He has vowed to press forward with the AD search.  Amid the swirling winds of change Hexter now wades into a situation that has left many alumni frustrated for the last several years.  No doubt, Hexter is now feeling that frustration.

Katehi had been under fire by many UCD alums, particularly football alums, after Daryl Gross was not selected as a final candidate. An intense letter writing campaign seemed to have changed the committee’s mind as Gross’ chance to become athletic director is still very much alive.

Hexter has the opportunity to assuage the anguish of many UC Davis alums by selecting Gross as the next AD.  Gross has the resume and experience needed to guide a department that is struggling to find its identity.  The move to Division I almost a decade ago forced the department to realize its champagne tastes can’t be satisfied on a beer budget.  Gross knows what Aggie Pride consists of, how the campus operates, and can build the bridges necessary to bring some semblance of normalcy back to this quiet college town. 

Gross had the opportunity to unite alumni last weekend, when the UC Davis football team held their annual golf fundraiser.  He was the only candidate to attend the fundraiser and was reportedly glad-handing as many donors and alums as he could.  Gross was also present at Coach Jim Sochor’s memorial held the following day.  Reports are that alums were impressed that the former UC Davis student-athlete went out of his way to introduce himself to so many people.

The time has come and gone where those who bleed Aggie Blue and Gold want an athletic director to sit behind a desk, email surveys asking for input that may or may not be implemented, and choose not to engage with the fan base.  Aggie Nation needs someone who is working the crowd, getting him or herself in front of as many people as they can, and selling the UC Davis experience. 

Gross wasn’t the only qualified candidate with an impressive resume to apply for the position, but he is the only one left standing.  Hexter should unite the UC Davis athletic community and hire Daryl Gross as the next athletic director.

Follow the discussion on the message boards by clicking here.

EDIT: Gross' first name has been corrected to "Daryl."

Levick Denies Interest In UC Davis AD Post

Today, Cheryl Levick stated that she is not a candidate for the open UC Davis position.  Speculation remains about who the remaining final candidates are.

Levick Emerges As Front Runner in UC Davis AD Search

There might not be anymore protesters camped out in Chancellor Katehi’s foyer, but that didn’t stop the Chancellor’s spokeswoman Dana Topousis from working on Picnic Day.  Topousis was asked by Davis Enterprise reporter Bruce Gallaudet for a comment on AggieSportsTalk.com’s revealing the three finalist candidates to become UC Davis’ next athletic director.  Topousis was sure to point out that there are not three candidates, but rather five remaining.  Topousis was not quoted on whether or not the names were correct, however, employees in Mrak and the athletic department have grown frustrated that names of potential candidates have leaked on AggieSportsTalk.com.

The finalists, as reported by AggieSportsTalk.com, included current Saint Mary’s College AD Mark Orr, current Tufts’ AD John Morris and Stanford Senior Associate Athletic Director Kevin Blue. 

Mark Orr played football at California while Ron Gould, UC Davis’ current head football coach, was an assistant.  He also was the athletic director when Saint Mary’s decided to drop its football program in 2004, a certain sticking point for many UCD football alums if Orr is to be considered a serious final candidate.  Orr also was at the helm when the Gaels were sanctioned by the NCAA when their men’s basketball team conducted illegal workouts.  San Jose Mercury sports writer Jon Wilner believed that Orr was as guilty as Bennett in not being able to catch and rectify the NCAA violations.

Morris was the interim athletic director at Colorado State and signed the deal to schedule a football game against UC Davis in 2014.  He was also a Senior Associate Athletic Director at Washington, a Pac-12 connection to Teresa Gould, who was at Cal for more than a decade.  Morris has been in his current position since June 15, 2015.

Kevin Blue graduated from Stanford in 2005, earned his Ph.D from Michigan State in 2009 and has been with Stanford athletics since 2009. 

That leaves two candidates who have not been named.  Several candidates could include former UC Santa Barbara AD Mark Massari and former Portland State AD Torre Chisolm.  Massari left UCSB to become Oregon State’s deputy athletic director and Torre Chisolm has endured his fair share of criticism at Portland State.

One name that keeps popping up during AST.com’s research is Cheryl Levick.  The rumor is that Levick is interim AD Teresa Gould’s top candidate.  Levick was brought in by Gould to evaluate the current state of the athletic department and will present her vision for the department to Chancellor Katehi in the next couple of weeks.  Levick served as the athletic director at Georgia State when they started an FBS football program.  In order to meet the NCAA mandated 15,000 attendance for each home game to remain at the FBS level, Levick used acharitable ticket program to attempt to show Georgia State was averaging 15,000per home game.  Georgia State actually only averaged around 7,000 “butts-in-seats” in the cavernous Georgia Dome which holds 71,228.

Teresa Gould, Levick and Daniel Parker, the CEO of Parker Executive Search, the second firm being used by UC Davis athletics to conduct the AD search, all have a history. Levick was an employee with Turnkey Search, an executive search firm from the end of 2014 through mid-2015.  She now runs her own consulting and executive search firm, CLL Business Enterprises.  The three were spotted together at an NCAA conference and it is not a coincidence that Levick and Parker are on campus.

Some will have you believe that the search has been skewed to bring the search committee and Chancellor Katehi a weak list of candidates, giving Levick an opportunity to use her face time with Katehi to pitch herself as the best alternative.

Curiously left off the list was UC Davis alumnus and former Syracuse University AD Daryl Gross.  Gross was a wide receiver for the Aggies from 1979 to 1981.  Other applicants who did not make the final cut were current Louisiana-Monroe AD Brian Wickstrom and Montana State AD Peter Fields.

Several prominent alumni, including former Aggie football player, University of Oregon head football coach, and athletic director, Mike Bellotti wrote a blistering letter to search committee chair Scott Carrell and Chancellor Katehi expressing his frustration that Gross was not a finalist and was no longer being considered for the job.  He was joined by many other football alumni and prominent donors who have threatened to pull their financial support if Daryl Gross is not named athletic director and Teresa Gould does not recuse herself from the search process.  The argument against Teresa Gould’s involvement stems around her marriage to head football coach Ron Gould, who is in year four of a five year contract with an overall record of 9-25.  We can assume that due to the efforts of Bellotti and other football alums, Gross can be considered one of the “final five.”

One thing is for certain, what started as a mundane search has quickly escalated into nothing short of a daytime soap opera.

Pardon Our Dust

As we begin to move away from our current Yuku platform, AggieSportsTalk.com has decided to create a blog allowing us to post stories about UC Davis athletics.  We will transition our blog and message board to our new site once it is completed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via email at: AggieSportsTalk.com@gmail.com.