Syracuse University hired Boise State Athletic Director Mark Coyle Friday night. Coyle had been the AD at Boise since 2011. Before that, he was a Deputy Athletics Director at the University of Kentucky working closely with John Calipari.
That’s an impressive resume, especially when looking at Boise State football and basketball during Coyle’s tenure (32-9 in football and the Broncos have made the NCAA tournament in basketball two out of the last three years).
Obviously, one of the most important parts of Coyle’s job is making sure both Syracuse’s football and basketball teams improve. He’ll be given time to make his mark there. In the short term though he must focus on tightening up SU Athletics.
In the last few years there have been too many cringe-inducing decisions and actions (or lack thereof) from the University’s Athletic Staff. There was Daryl Gross choosing to not enforce a drug policy that he implemented (this was a major reason why the NCAA came down so hard on the Orange last winter), the department doing nothing to improve the home attendance for SU women’s basketball (it ranks last in the Power 5), misspelling Roosevelt Bouie’s name on his retired jersey, and flip-flopping on un-retiring 44.
Under Coyle, the Athletics Department at SU must be run more proficiently. Similar kinds of mistakes to those listed above can’t be made. Coyle’s first major test in the competence department could be what he decides to do with the Carrier Dome.
It’s old. It’s not a good football venue. And when it hosted the NCAA Tournament regional in March visiting fans walked away unsatisfied with it. Coyle is going to have to eventually either renovate the Dome or build a new arena/stadium. Hopefully this happens sooner rather than later and is not done in the traditional SU Athletics way. Let’s see what you got, Mark.
Posted: Connor Morrissette
