The search committee started with close to 100 candidates. Sitting athletic directors, deputy athletic directors and non-traditional candidates were all part of the pool. They were charged to cast a wide net.

Then they narrowed it down to resumes that they looked at in detail. After that, the committee selected six to 10 people to interview. The final two to three were recommended to Chancellor Kent Syverud.

At the end of it all, Mark Coyle was the man left standing.

“We came up with a list of 11 key, must-have attributes and when you go down the list and at the end of the day you look at Mark Coyle, you say ‘Wow,’” search committee chair Steve Ballentine said. “We joked at the beginning of the process when we had that list like we’re looking for a superhero. Who could possibly meet this list of 11 attributes, it doesn’t exist. And then you come to the end and you find somebody who hits on those key attributes.”

The process to find the next Syracuse athletic director started with the nine-person search committee talking to people in the community to find the qualities that people thought were necessary in someone who would hold the position.

Ballentine said Coyle didn’t come in to his interview with a list of solutions to fix the problems that are ailing Syracuse, that’s not what the committee was looking for. Football was a factor in his hire, Ballentine said, though not a disproportionate one. Success in football doesn’t come without success in other attributes and you can’t have one without the other, Ballentine said.

“We  would like to see football be better,” Ballentine said. “I don’t think that’s a surprise.”

Ballentine said that Coyle was very prepared and had “done his due diligence.” He didn’t offer any solutions, but he pledged to listen, come in, and eventually make decisions. That’s part of what attracted the committee to him.

Coyle has spent the past several days getting acclimated to the community and meeting people. His family was in attendance on Monday, decked in Syracuse colors. It felt clear that the search committee had found the person they were looking for when they started a process that started with 100 different resumes.

“He’s been there, he’s done that,” Ballentine said. “Past success are the best predictor of future success. He’s done it.”

Published on June 22, 2015 at 1:39 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3