While football programs everywhere start their summer workouts, there is some major unfinished business at Washington. The help wanted sign is amazingly still sitting in the athletic director's window, now several months after the opening was created. For a quick background, it started back in December when former athletic director Todd Turner announced he was stepping down as the AD. Turner put in over three-and-a-half years of work in the athletic department, with some notable hires including Tyrone Willingham and more recently, women's basketball head coach Tia Jackson. But things took a turn for the worse in recent times. Turner was a target for disgruntled Husky football fans, especially when Willingham was retained for the upcoming 2008 season despite an 11-25 record at UW. Meanwhile the athletic department has been trying to get a much-needed stadium renovation drive off the ground, but that effort struggled to get going under Turner's watch. And finally, Turner admitted at his parting press conference that he had more or less burned out and the expectations of the university compared to Turner's vision were simply no longer on the same wave length.
Scott Woodward has been the acting AD ever since. Woodward was initially a candidate for the AD job, and there was widespread speculation that he would eventually land the position. But back on May 1st, Woodward surprised many when he announced he would no longer pursue the job. The idea was that he was doing such a good job in his current position as VP of external affairs that it was in the best interests of University President Mark Emmert that Woodward stays right where he is.
But is Woodward really out of the running? Or is the end finally in sight? Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times and Molly Yanity of the P-I both mentioned rumors making the rounds yesterday that indicate Woodward may just take the job after all.
Whoever ends up landing this gig is going to have a full plate from day one. Willingham has the hottest seat in the PAC-10, if not the nation, heading into 2008. If you believe coacheshotseat.com, Willingham is currently number one in their rankings, and yeah, that's not the list you want to be on top of these days. And the football facility is showing some real signs of age after almost 90 years of regular use and tough northwest winter weather.
You would think that many NCAA administrators would dream of being an AD at a PAC-10 school like Washington, with a winning football tradition, a wealthy donor base, and a prime location in an educated, wired city like Seattle. But, how is it that that it is now over six months ago that Turner announced he was leaving, and the University of Washington is still searching for their next athletic director? We'll see what happens, but something doesn't add up.
