Under next AD, NC State must build on Yow's success
Posted January 30, 2019 1:23 p.m. EST
Updated January 31, 2019 11:01 a.m. EST
Raleigh, N.C. — Normally I submit this column on a Tuesday, but with NC State facing third-ranked Virginia that evening I wanted to wait until the outcome. Obviously that was going to be what the column needed to be about, right?
Wrong.
This morning, Inside Pack Sports was first to report the news that NC State would be hiring Army AD Boo Corrigan as Debbie Yow's replacement as Director of Athletics. This is huge news relative to NC State athletics.
On the surface, Corrigan appears to be a home-run hire. He has overseen a program that owns 20 Patriot League regular season or tournament championships and that sent 14 teams to the NCAA postseason. Army has had 16 Academic All-Americans, including eight first-team selections. Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Army had nine Patriot League Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
Corrigan was named the 2017 Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. His most-prominent hire, football coach Jeff Monken, just led his team to 11 wins and a No. 19 ranking in the Associated Press poll -- its highest final ranking since 1958.
He also has major ties to the Atlantic Coast Conference, as his father is Gene Corrigan, the former league commissioner. Finally, Corrigan has spent time in the Triangle, working for three years as senior associate athletic director for external affairs at Duke University.
It is an outstanding hire by NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson and everything suggests Corrigan will do a terrific job in Raleigh.
However, this is still going to be a scary transition for Wolfpack fans because of everything that Debbie Yow has accomplished as the Director of Athletics. While some may have questioned her hiring in 2010, she has silenced most doubters and led Wolfpack athletics to a completely different level – a level that most people likely didn't think NC State's athletic department could reach.
Yow has built a well-rounded athletics department with a plethora of flourishing programs. In the 2017-2018 athletic/academic year NC State accomplished one of her biggest goals -- a Top 25 finish in the Director's Cup. The university ended up 15th, the highest ranking in program history.
Academically, student-athletes are also excelling. Over the past four years, NC State student-athletes have posted the four highest Graduation Success Rates in school history.
What is perhaps Yow's best trait is her ability to identify top coaching talent, and it has led to most of NC State's success. She has an unbelievable eye for talent which extends back to her days at Maryland.
Just look at some of the hires she has made.
Dave Doeren has built a stable football program and is coming off back-to-back nine-win seasons. Kevin Keatts has already established a confidence from most NC State faithful that he will succeed in the long run in Raleigh.
Wes Moore in women's basketball, Braden Holloway in swimming and diving, and Pat Popolizio in wrestling. Each has his respective program among the best in the country -- and did so right away. These are three big-time coaches.
Even the hire some may say “did not work” -- Mark Gottfried -- actually did. Gottfried reached two Sweet 16s in his six seasons as NC State's head basketball coach, a level the Wolfpack had only reached once in the previous 20+ years.
However, Yow expected more out of the men's basketball program and she proved with Gottfried (as she also did with former football coach Tom O'Brien) that if she feels the time to make a change has arrived she will make it - whether it was her hire or not.
Athletic directors are defined by the results achieved by the coaches who work for them. Some Ads inherit quality coaches and simply maintain the status quo. Others must identify and hire those types of leaders themselves.
Yow has proved she can do that.
Corrigan inherits an athletics department with a solid foundation. He has huge shoes to fill, however, and there are many among the Wolfpack faithful who fear the unknown of the future.
NC State has to be brave.
When Yow is tasked with hiring a coach, she has stressed finding the outlier in the Top 25 of the respective sport. Woodson took the same approach when hiring Corrigan. Army West Point is an outlier currently swinging with the big boys, and Corrigan now has the resources to match his skill set.
What Yow has done is commendable and deserves to be honored. What Corrigan is about to embark on deserves a commitment from the Wolfpack fanbase.
