White smoke appeared from the tower of President Crow’s office Thursday. The search for an athletic director is over(did it ever start?). Crow said Thursday morning that he had “zero” formal interviews for the spot that came open 192 days ago. So he hired his guy, Graham Rossini. Parsing through this, the idea that someone is “Sun Devil” and that’s a good reason to hire them, isn’t something I’d hang my hat on. It’s the fine print of the hire. Either he “can” or “can’t” do the job. Where someone gets a piece of paper should matter very little in the hiring process.
Facts are Rossini has been given the golden ticket for his career. Do you disagree? If he leads Arizona State out of the gully(not a ditch) they are currently stuck in; he will have done something that Ray Anderson, Steve Patterson, and Lisa Love could not do. Of course, this points back at the president for all the misses rather than hits. The idea that everything is cured in Tempe based on today’s news is far from the truth. Only time will tell…
Can Graham Rossini be the white knight to upgrade Desert Financial Arena, FINALLY?
Can he convince/connect with business leaders who have given up on Arizona State because they have heard the same old message for many years? Please don’t use “sleeping giant” anywhere, anyplace, anytime. “Sleeping” has been accurate.
Will Crow’s vision of reimagining what an athletic department looks like within the central campus take hold? Given the current climate change in the college space, will he have to cut sports at some point?
Will Arizona State and the Fiesta Bowl be able to play in the same sandbox? Move the 2nd tier bowl game out of Chase Field and back to Tempe, where it belongs.
When Dillingham and Hurley win, will he have the skills, resources, and revenue to convince them to stay? Will there be enough money for assistant coaches to hang in rather than go across town or elsewhere?
Will there be hires within the athletic department who eventually move on because they are future administrators? Great leaders don’t hire mediocre talent, so they don’t feel threatened. You want your people to be pursued by others. How many of Ray Anderson’s hires still work in college athletics in a job higher up the food chain than when they were hired at ASU?
When asked by several this morning, “What do you think about the new hire at Arizona State?” I’m not one to try to make favor by saying “awesome” and “amazing”. This is a “prove it” hire. Lots of work to do for Graham Rossini. The pages still haven’t been fully turned from the last regime. It’s not as easy as saying, “It’s a new day.”…
