• Bige70
    69
    I just read that Lynn Swann has resigned as AD for USC. I've always been nervous about how long we can hold on to Kevin Blue. It's probably too much of a jump from UC Davis to USC for Dr. Blue (or is it?), but I really hope this opening doesn't lead to an "AD carousel" with Dr. Blue accepting an offer at a larger program. Am I being paranoid, or do we have real cause for concern?
  • zythe
    102
    He probably got fired for allowing to schedule us in the first place...
  • agalum
    294
    Blue's wife works in Silicon Valley and I have been told that she actually commutes there in a private plane from the UCD airport. Los Angeles would be a tougher commute. I was raised down there. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind wanting to live down there now. The traffic is so bad, even during non commute hours, that it literally takes hours to go short distances. I was down there a few years ago. Had to travel 9 miles to make dinner reservations in Santa Monica. And I know all the back roads to "beat the traffic." Still took me 1 hour 15 minutes to do 9 miles. No thank you. Quality of life in the Davis area is much better.
  • DrMike
    649
    Daryl Gross has a successful track record there and just down the road at CSULA. He was at the USD game
  • 69aggie
    370
    If USC offered I think Dr. Blue would get a six figure plus plus raise and many new benies. Ms. Blue would not have to worry about work. But, that said, USC too stupid and proud to deign to hire an AD from UC Davis. So no worries IMHO.
  • movielover
    484
    They'll hire a Trojan or business Titan. Completely different world there.
  • 72Aggie
    300
    May be, but President Folt of USC has a bucket full of degrees including one from Davis, and the interim AD is Dave Roberts, a former UCD All-American lineman. (He used to block for a guy named Biggs.)
  • movielover
    484
    LA Times, excellent article

    Lynn Swann’s exit allows USC to start cleaning house in the athletic department

    By Bill Plaschke

    "...This was Folt smartly beginning a massive overhaul of a Trojans athletic department that has become a national embarrassment. This was the new boss commencing a cleansing of the nation’s only university athletic department recently involved in the two announced FBI probes into college sports."

    "There was Tony Bland, former USC assistant basketball coach, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery in the college hoops scandal. Then there was Donna Heinel, former senior associate athletic director, allegedly accepting $1.3 million in bribes in the college admissions scandal...."

    "All of this was just in the last year, all while the USC football team was finishing with its first losing season in 19 years, everyone led by Swann, who had such a distant connection to his job that in the middle of the scandals he was seen at a sports memorabilia convention in Virginia signing autographs for money."

    "Swann needed to go. He should have been gone by now. Given his close ties to the deep-pocketed USC boosters who have been given free rein to run the joint, it took a fresh new voice to finally make that call. *** Folt admirably used that voice in a statement that was even louder when she appointed Swann’s interim successor. ***

    "It isn’t longtime shadow athletic director Steve Lopes, the good soldier who has diligently run the department for years. It is Dave Roberts, a USC special advisor to the president and the vice chair of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. This sends the message that Folt is intent on bypassing tradition and completely reshaping Trojans athletics from the outside. Her announced search committee for the new athletic director is filled with academics and business leaders who are also not connected to the department. These are all good things...."

    https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/story/2019-09-09/lynn-swann-usc-clay-helton
  • 72Aggie
    300
    USC has for too long relied on the figure head AD; former USC athletes like Garrett, Haden, Swann....This is a job, particularly at the upper level of the NCAA, that requires administrators, not celebrities.

    Read a highly speculative article a couple of weeks ago, before the first kick off that was already speculating on who would replace Helton as head FB coach. The article concluded Swann would convince Tomlin to leave the Steelers and coach at SC. Don't think that's in the cards now.

    Dave Roberts is a straight arrow. I recall he lived in the dorms longer than most, even lived in the dorms at law school (not at Davis). Probably still has a couple of large glasses of milk with each meal.
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