GoHens interview with Jordan Skolnick - Part 3

[Big R]

In Part 3 of this interview, I asked Jordan about the effects of being named AD and having the “interim” tag removed; his strategy and vision for the future; adjustments of move to CUSA / FBS; player retention; and facilities.

GH: Questions for and about you, now. What does having been named the athletic director do for you versus when you were the interim athletic director? I mean, what additional freedom or capabilities does that give you moving forward - the ‘weight off your shoulders’ or whatever you want to call it - what's that do for you?

JS: I think the thing that is most different about it is probably for others that view this as being more stable, even though this past year, I think if you ask our staff and our people it just felt like there's been a lot of continuity and stability as we went through a pretty big moment of change for us as a university and as a department. So, I think it's probably more external than anything else. I mean, for me, I feel incredibly grateful and I love being able to have the impact on our student athletes and our people here, but I was doing that before. And so, I get to keep doing that which is the part that I am excited about. So, from a day-to-day perspective, it probably won't look and feel a lot different. I have to challenge myself to make sure that I'm spending enough time on the future, on our strategy, on our vision, to pair with all the things that I'm still going to be really involved with from an execution standpoint. And so, for me, it's making sure that I balance out the time in a way so that I don't lose the opportunities for what the vision needs to look like, but I've got great people here that aren't going to let me do that. You know, just this morning, when our executive team met, that's what we talked about - we talked about what's next, we talked about the priorities, and we talked about how we're going to keep focus on that. And I believe that might be the only real difference for me - is just making sure I give myself enough time and energy and space to do that, knowing that I could spend all day responding to emails or just getting the daily stuff done. But I've got to take the time to make sure that we focus on the strategy and the vision.

GH: OK, you just opened the door so I'm going to walk in - what is your strategy and vision for the future at Delaware?

JS: Yeah, our opportunity is going to continue to be the things that we've been doing, which is graduating our student athletes, helping prepare them for life after college, and winning championships. So, we don't need to change our strategy - we need to think about the initiatives and the steps to make our strategy and vision a reality, because winning championships and graduating student athletes and making sure they have great experiences - those things are hard. They require a lot of work and energy and people, but it also is the most rewarding part. And you can see it with our teams right now. Winning is difficult and we are going to continue to challenge ourselves to believe that we can be champions across the board in all facets of what we do, and we aren't going to settle. But that doesn't mean that it's easy, and it doesn't mean it's a straight line always, so I'm really proud of how our teams and our coaches and our student athletes have responded to this past year, but we're not going to settle with where we are.
So, from a vision standpoint, we know what we need to do to win, but we've got a lot of steps that we have to do to get there.

GH: Now that we've got almost two sports seasons under our belts - fall and most of winter, there's a lot more travel involved, and I think you had said previously that there's not a huge difference between taking an airplane flight for three hours versus taking a bus for three or more hours, do you still subscribe to that, or have you found that, yeah, traveling greater distances does bring some additional challenges?

JS: I think that the travel has been great. I think our student athletes enjoy going to new locations. I think they like going to new arenas and stadiums and places of competition. I think that's been really positive for us. There are things that are difficult about it, so we've got to prepare for that … you know there's a lot more elevation than we expected at UTEP so there's things that are different, which we won't have to experience next year going out there. There's a couple of pieces with how close the airports are to the places that we're playing, and how do we get home if the game is a little bit later at night - there are a couple complexities there that I don't want to make it sound like it's all perfect. There are challenges to it, but I believe that we've done a great job of managing that, and our coaches and student athletes have really risen to that occasion. And I think it gives us an opportunity for our student athletes to get exposure to new places that they might not have otherwise, and I think that's awesome. I think they really like that.

GH: When we went down to Mobile, one of the things you said you were looking forward to, was looking at the facilities there at South Alabama. And, looking out from the rear of the press box, I could see their “indoor” practice facility. That was kind of interesting. Because it's a southern school, it's all open-sided - they didn't have to have walls and things like that. And when I was watching videos of our wide receiver who transferred from Oklahoma State giving interviews in their practice facility, I saw the same thing - it was all open-sided. So, beautiful, gorgeous facilities, but that's not a luxury that we're going to have, right? So, when you were down there and looking at those facilities, and I'm sure you've done that every single place we've gone, what have you brought back, and where are we on the facility path right now?

JS: At every school it's interesting to see them and to understand their strategy and how they got to where they did. You're right, at South Alabama and Oklahoma State they worry more about lightning than they do about cold, so they're just basically using those facilities to prevent them from having to not be able to practice when there is there's a storm coming through. But, yeah, when we were at South Alabama it was about, and you might remember, I think it was like 15-20 degrees one day, maybe it was warmer than that but it certainly wasn't 30 degrees, and we were in that no-walled indoor facility, “indoor in quotes”, and it was cold it - was really cold! So, no I don't think that that would work for us that way. But I do believe that we have terrific facilities, so we always need to start with the idea that our facilities attract student athletes. Our footprint is fantastic, allowing everyone to have a place where they can study and train and work on everything about who they are outside of their practice competition in the Whitney. That is a huge advantage for us - that everyone is that close to it; and even golf and swimming who are up at the Little Bob, they come down all the time and use it too, so that's a huge advantage for us. We've certainly got a lot that we want to do as we move forward with facilities, but we're going to take it in a way where we've got to make sure that we have the right talent, first, in our student athletes. That is the priority, and then the facility piece is going to continue to focus on student athlete experience, fan experience, and revenue generation. Those principles are going to help us determine how we're going to move forward, and all the different thoughts and ideas that we have, but we've got to make sure we have the talent, first, for our teams, and that's been the priority. And I think that you saw it in football this year that you know the retention of those student athletes is a worthy investment.

GH: Yeah so just to go back to that - I think Nick was one of the first ones, and I guess Ed was part of putting those announcements out on the Delaware Football Facebook page, which was kind of a cool thing. But it just seemed like you were rolling that out in a way that looked like there was momentum developing there. Is that the way it actually happened - kind of like one domino fell and then the next and the next, or did they all get done mostly before that and you just decided to divvy out the announcements to make it more interesting? How did that work?

JS: Yeah - a little bit of both. We had a strategy and we wanted to make sure that we communicated the excitement that we had for our student athletes who are returning, but they didn't all confirm that they were staying at the same time, so that was a process. And I give so much credit to Coach Carty and to Patrick Callaway and the work that they did with all of our assistant coaches who all played a pivotal role, our OPS team, and all of our support staff - there was a true team effort to communicate how important it was for us to keep a core together. And having only one starter, who was eligible to return, not return, is something that I hope all of our fans are as proud of as I am. And it was fun this year to see those dominoes fall, and I think what it did is, it really showed our ability to build on this year. I am so proud of what they accomplished, and we'll always have that first FBS year and bowl win and some of those memorable games at Delaware Stadium that were unlike anything I've ever seen before in my life. But that was the start. What we're going to accomplish as we move forward, and our ability to have success on top of that - that is what we're driving towards. We are not satisfied. We are not going to be OK with the status quo, but we are going to celebrate the heck out of what this last year was and then we're going to build upon it. And that ability to show that through our student athletes who are coming back - it was a way that we got to have a number of moments to celebrate it over the course of a of a few weeks stretch.

GH: And it's interesting, when you talk about investing in the athletes first, that that whole paradigm, I assume, changed from when you first started considering Phase 2 facility improvements. And then, with NIL, and House, and that sort of thing, the focus changed, if I'm not mistaken, to “OK now we know we have to invest money that might have gone someplace else into the retention of our student athletes”, right? So, how has that affected the things that you wanted to do before NIL and that sort of thing came into the picture? I assume it slowed it down.

JS: Well, yeah, it's just an evolution, right? I think it shows that, for us to be successful, we've got to make sure that we prioritize the things that we believe are going to give us the best chance of winning, and the culture that we want to create. So, in this moment ‘people’ is the priority and, in addition to our student athletes, it's our coaches, it's our staff, it's the entire community around this place. We've got to invest into the people. And I think that that's a great investment. I believe that our people are the difference. So, that makes me feel really good about being able to invest into them and their futures and their success. So, it has evolved and changed, and I think we are comfortable enough to adapt to whatever comes our way, that we've got to be true to who we are and do it in a way that we think is right for Delaware. But we also are not going to get left behind because we're stuck in a way of thinking that doesn't allow us to pivot when we need to and change direction when we think it's the right thing to do. So, I’m excited about it. I love the fact that we're investing into people, because we were doing that before NIL, but now we get to do that in a way that feels like it's true to who we are.

GH: So, more of another facilities question. Given what we did and the success of moving to FBS and the additional publicity that we've received, has that improved our chances of getting organizations, companies -whatever you want to call that - to invest, whether it's naming rights or something else, as we move forward here? Are we positioned better than we were before, would be the question.

JS: Yes. What I feel really strongly about is that we want to find companies that align with our values and that want to partner with us and want to invest into the University of Delaware and Delaware athletics in a way that feels right for everyone involved. And that alignment is going to be really strengthened by the fact that they get way more visibility by doing something with us now than what they did before. You know, we had over 5 million people watching Delaware football games this past year. We had the best viewed Conference USA CBS Sports game at home; we had the best viewed ESPN 2 game at home; and then we had the best-viewed ESPN game when we were on the road. So, the University of Delaware is attracting a really large audience and that is a huge benefit to companies who want to align with us. And just like recruiting, it's about “fit” and it's about making sure that everyone understands what we're trying to accomplish together. And I do think that this is a moment where there is a lot greater opportunity for us now than there was a few years ago.

GH: And if you allow me just one follow up to that, I don't want to say that we got “burned” in the past by saying something like: “We hope by this time next year that we're going to be able to make an announcement about facilities”, but my sense is that you're not going to put out any kind of time limit or time frame on that. When the time comes, the time comes I assume. Is that right?

JS: Yes, and I think it's important for everyone to know that a lot of work happens on a daily basis behind the scenes, but we are going to be cautious about how we talk about things publicly, just because there's a number of moving pieces at any given point, and I would rather under-promise and over-deliver. So, what we're focused on is making sure that we put our student athletes in a position to be successful, and sometimes that's facilities, but sometimes that's helping them to graduate, and helping them do well academically, and sometimes that's retention through NIL, and sometimes that's making sure we have great coaches. So those are all things that we're going to weigh as a part of it all and not let any one thing derail us from what we're trying to do from a strategy standpoint.

GH: Alright. Thanks so much your time, Jordan. I really appreciate it. I probably have a million more questions, but I’ll have to wait to another time to ask them!

JS: No problem, Rich, thank you.

End of Interview Part 3 (and all)

My reflections and comments

So, there were some pretty clear and consistent takeaways from this final portion of the interview.
- Vision “mantra” - graduate student athletes, help prepare them for life after college, win championships
- Key principles - student athlete experience, fan experience, revenue generation
- For retention to succeed at a high level, it needs to be worked on every minute of every day
- Much work is being done behind the scenes to find the “right” corporate partners to develop financial support, which has been aided considerably by the exposure created by the move to FBS.
- Facilities - we have terrific facilities that are key to attracting student athletes and we want to move forward with improvements -
BUT
- We’ve got to make sure we have the talent first, for our teams -
SO
- $$$ will be prioritized towards student athletes before anything else because that has become such an important aspect of college athletics these days, and you have to understand and embrace that, or get left behind
- Equally important, if not more so - great people are the key! Whether student athletes, coaches, or staff

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Jordan as much as I did.

[HENJOHN]

Great stuff. The questions you ask Rich in all your interviews are fantastic. I definitely feel like we have the right person in the AD position. Thx again.

[93BlueHen]

Great work. Pretty enlightening interview insofar as it explains that the perpetual delays in moving forward with facilities is because we have to pay players to succeed now. It makes sense, even if we don't like it. Talent on the field has to be priority #1.

[Cluck U]

Dear Jordan,

Regarding your statement that you would not want to overpromise and underdeliver...ahem...when your sports folks advertise a, "LEGO UDEE GIVEAWAY," the word, "LEGO" means something (LEGO is trademarked). Disappointing that it was a Chinese made knock off Building Block Set and not a LEGO product. A fun giveaway...but that doesn't excuse falsely advertising it as a, "LEGO" product.

Side note: Lil' Cluck predicted, despite reading the UD website's LEGO verbiage, that there was no way UD would have paid for a genuine LEGO giveaway. Unfortunately, he was correct.

[Info Hound]

Thanks, Big R. I really enjoy your work.

As to the "LEGO" UDEE, I'll look forward to getting mine for having made the "302 Donation". I'm sure the grandkids will like it.

As to the three highly watched games, WKU on CBSSN, MTSU (?) on Weds. night, what was the other on ESPN? I know there was high viewership on FOX for Colorado.

edit: I know, Jax State was the ESPN game.

[Cluck U]

Thanks, Big R. I really enjoy your work.

As to the "LEGO" UDEE, I'll look forward to getting mine for having made the "302 Donation". I'm sure the grandkids will like it.

As to the three highly watched games, WKU on CBSSN, MTSU (?) on Weds. night, what was the other on ESPN? I know there was high viewership on FOX for Colorado.

edit: I know, Jax State was the ESPN game.

603 pieces. And they are super small pieces.

Should be a fun build.

Reminds me of that story where a group of blondes comes into a bar and they are cheering and whooping it up while screaming, "Three years!! Three years!! Three years!!" After a few minutes of watching them party, a guy walks over and asks the blondes what they were celebrating. They responded that they had just completed a puzzle after three years of hard work! The guy asked what was so special about that...and the blondes responded that the puzzle box said it was for 6+ years.

[VIKING '87]

The interviews were great, Rich. Many thanks for doing this.

[Youdee Blues]

So, if the Vision “mantra” is - graduating student athletes, help prepare them for life after college, and win championships, when does that third part ever kick in?
Asking for a friend.

[Hens79]

So, if the Vision “mantra” is - graduating student athletes, help prepare them for life after college, and win championships, when does that third part ever kick in?
Asking for a friend.

I agree. The AD seems like a great guy who will probably be a very good AD. But winning needs to happen. Especially in the sports most fans really care about … football and basketball. It just does. All the talk of culture, special place, even graduating students (in a time of players constantly moving around) will ring hollow if the Hens don’t.

And what the heck does “fit” and “align with our values” mean for corporate sponsors and naming rights? Maybe beggars really can be picky choosers? Fusco Water Ice Stadium would be fine with me:-) .. the family recently gave millions to a local high school to redo their athletic complex.

Again, I am thrilled with the start to FBS football. I want the Hens to take the next step this year and maintain it for years to come. I want winning to be bragged about just like graduating and preparing the athletes for life beyond their time at UD.

[Cluck U]

So, if the Vision “mantra” is - graduating student athletes, help prepare them for life after college, and win championships, when does that third part ever kick in?
Asking for a friend.

And what the heck does “fit” and “align with our values” mean for corporate sponsors and naming rights? Maybe beggars really can be picky choosers? Fusco Water Ice Stadium would be fine with me:-) .. the family recently gave millions to a local high school to redo their athletic complex.

Hilarious coming from someone who had issues with the $70+ million donation in the Business school.

[Hens79]

So, if the Vision “mantra” is - graduating student athletes, help prepare them for life after college, and win championships, when does that third part ever kick in?
Asking for a friend.

And what the heck does “fit” and “align with our values” mean for corporate sponsors and naming rights? Maybe beggars really can be picky choosers? Fusco Water Ice Stadium would be fine with me:-) .. the family recently gave millions to a local high school to redo their athletic complex.

Hilarious coming from someone who had issues with the $70+ million donation in the Business school.

The harvest season continues. Simply said the language for UD’s to be Seigfred Institue kinda looks kinda like that of the Claremont Institute. Hope that isn’t what it becomes and doubt UD would let it. But you gotta take the money unless it is coming from some place just egregious and/or for a questionable purpose. Anyway, it just seemed out of place in a discussion with the AD unless some shady organizations like World Liberty Financial is trying to get naming rights

[UDFootballFan]

I love these interviews and him wanting to win championships but its hard to win when you have so many sports just struggling in year one.

Football overachieved, mens soccer did well but other sports IE mens, womens basketball - so far baseball are just terrible and bottom feeders

[mpwerrell]

The main words here are “year one”.

[UDFootballFan]

I get its year one but did the Coaches not prepare ahead of time? Its not like they woke up in Aug before the season started and decided to move to CUSA

[Cluck U]

I love these interviews and him wanting to win championships but its hard to win when you have so many sports just struggling in year one.

Football overachieved, mens soccer did well but other sports IE mens, womens basketball - so far baseball are just terrible and bottom feeders

Swimming did well. Not sure why people forget about some of our other D1 teams.