Coyle wasn't here long enough to do anything meaningful with budgets, fundraising, aligning the SUAD better, etc. He came, he fired Scott Shafer, he hired Dino, he started Cuse Council and he left.
He might have turned out to be a good AD had he stayed. 311 days at that type of position is a blink of an eye.
John has straightened out finances. John has made major improvements in fund raising that were desperately needed. The Lally gift of $25 million is the biggest but a lot more has been done here.
The SU AD used to report to Finance at Syracuse. That is an awful setup designed to take money from the department and ensure they cannot be successful. John got that changed so he reports to the chancellor.
The SU athletic department has to work closely with many elements of the university. The professors, the BOT, the chancellor, food services, the people managing the dome, physical plant services, etc. The relationship has not always been great with these groups. John is great at building relationships, getting alignment and getting departments and special interest groups to work together. His political acumen has been a major asset for the athletic department (and the university as a whole).
John was the driving force behind the dome renovation project, which is going to be the biggest investment the university has ever made to Syracuse athletics (even though SU is not running the project; SU still has some organizational changes that need to be made).
He played a huge role in getting the ACC network in place.
He retained Dino and has given him what he needs to be successful. The staffing has been bumped considerably. The recruiting budget is much bigger. The money for assistant coaches has been raised to levels competitive with peer schools. This is unheard of for Syracuse.
As for hires, I think he hired Nicky Adams as the new women's soccer coach. That was a total rebuild and we won't know for years how that goes.
Shannon Doepking was hired as the new softball coach. Again, that program was in bad shape and it will take a while to see how she does. But early returns for both coaches are good.
I think John hired Luke McGee as the new women's rowing coach. Again, too early to know how this is going to work out. But his background (former US Olympic national team coach) is very good.
Lastly, John hired Brien Bell as the head coach of the SU cross country and track teams (men's and women's) in 2018 and he appears to be a very good hire. The SU men's cross country team is a bonafide national power.
To me, the biggest thing he has done since he has been the AD is to treat the athletic department as a business. He is always aware of the bottom line, always trying to make sure initiatives make sense, are aligned with long term goals and will pay off in the end. He understands Syracuse, understands SU will always have some limitations other schools might not and is going to have to be smarter to be better than some of the other schools we are competing with. The concept of treating the department as a business is not something that was done well in the past.
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