Quotes from Emmert and Woodward
Published 4:46 pm Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Plenty of you probably listened to the press conference on the radio, but for those who didn’t here is some of what was said by UW president Mark Emmert and newly hired AD Scott Woodward:
EMMERT
“We conducted a search that was much more thorough than was generally recognized. I spent a great deal of time talking to candidates all around the country. I personally interviewed a dozen or more individuals who were sitting ADs at universities, senior associate athletic directors, non traditional candidates, a variety of others. I sent forward a bout a half dozen of those people to the search committee who met with those candidates. They were people from all walks of life in athletics. They were all very anxious about this opportunity to come join the University of Washington, but in the end I concluded that the person who was best suited for this job is the one who had it right now, and that’s Scott Woodward.”
What changed that made you want Woodward for AD when last spring you asked him to stay in his current role of VP for external affairs?
“What changed for me was looking at the cross section of candidates that were out there, all the people that I met with. I didn’t find one that I could place anywhere near the level of confidence in that I could with Scott. He was clearly far and away the best candidate.”
Why did the hire take so long, and why now?
“I know there’s a sense out there that this has been a long, drawn out, and even speculation that it was a troubled search. In all candor, that’s sort of nonsense. A nine month timeline’s not unusual in our business. We’re into a year now of searching for a law dean, and no one is implying that the law school is falling apart. The fact is that I had hoped we could have gotten it done in the spring, we looked at a bunch of candidates in that spring quarter, and I didn’t find anybody that I felt really good about… It just drug on longer than we would have liked. There’s nothing special about the timing right now. I looked at as many candidates as I needed to to know what the market had and I knew I had the right guy on the job.”
WOODWARD
“I went through a lot of emotional wrangling of whether I wanted to do this or not do this, and in the end I wanted to do this, I really wanted to, and President Emmert asked me not to. He said, ‘No, I need you in your current day job. You’re too valuable to me there’ which is very flattering to have a boss say that, so I graciously said, fine, I’m a team guy, I love the University of Washington, I love Seattle, I love being here, and it was one of those things where, you find a good AD and I’ll do everything I can to help them.”
Are you happy with your football coach and the way the program is going?
“No, I’m not happy. Nor is coach Willingham, nor are the student athletes who participate in football. No one’s happy. I go out to practice every single day and I’m in the training room every single day and I’m in the study hall and I’m in the training table every single day. And I see these kids and I look in their eyes, they’re not happy, but they’re working hard, they’re nowhere near quitting, and they’re going to give it their best. This is early in the season and it’s premature to talk about anything but supporting these Huskies and supporting them as best as we can.”
When will you evaluate Willingham’s performance?
“We’re going to discuss the season after the season, and it’s going to be done collaboratively with president Emmert the folks that we have a great deal or respect for, and we’ll go from there.”
What is you philosophy on coaching changes in season?
“It’s still to be evaluated at the right time, and now’s the right time in my opinion. But I do have a philosophy that you judge a body of work at the end of the season, and that’s how we’ll do it.”
What is the progress of the stadium renovation project?
“We’re asking two things. What we’re guessing right now is a $300 million project. We’re going to ask the state for the tourism taxes, which we pay heavily into with our visiting teams and their fans, the hotel-motel tax, restaurant tax, and rental car tax. We’re going to ask to be a part of that mix when it’s decided in Olympia and is take to King County. So that’s half of where we’re seeking funding. And of that half, the only thing that we’re going to ask for is going to be seismic, health and safety, ADA and things that really are the basis of this whole facility which is a safe facility. The second part will be a combination of current seat donor increases, philanthropic asks and I’m going to see how much we can carve out of our department to service some debt of that other $150 million dollars. So it’ll be a 50-50 split and it’ll be the same thing that we’ve been preaching for a long time now. “
Was being an AD something wanted to do before taking over interim job?
“As a southerner I can say this, this is self indicting: there is too much of an emphasis on collegiate athletics in the south. We are academic institutions first, and athletics are an important part of that mission, but it gets a little out of whack there. So the president asked me to oversee that, mainly from an external standpoint, when we were at LSU. So yeah, the bug kind of bit me there. I said, ‘We can do things the right way and it can the overall university.’ And I come into this job in that vein.”
How would you clasify your relationship with Willingham?
“Very good. Coach Willingham is a fabulous person and a fabulous coach. I’ve spent an enormous amount of time with the football program. We’ve put a lot of resources both financial and personnel into football, and fixing football was one of the top priorities that I’ve had coming in here, and it will continue to be.”
