Stadium journalists Brett McMurphy and Jeff Goodman today released a ranking and grading for ACC Athletic Directors. This a cumulative look at each AD’s entire career thus far through the prism of their coaching hires for football and men’s basketball. McMurphy grades the football hires while Goodman grades the men’s basketball hires. Each hire is graded on the success each coach had during their time working under the scrutinized AD. They then give an overall grade for the job done by each AD. So, how did they view the job Louisville AD Vince Tyra has done? What ranking and grade did they give him?
Based on his hirings at Notre Dame, @JackSwarbrickND is ACC’s best athletic director. @GoodmanHoops & I breakdown all the ACC ADs as part of our 4-week series at @Stadium https://t.co/JBXbWhwAGC
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) June 11, 2020
The answer is that they view the Tyra, who has only been in the job for about two years, very favorably. He is ranked third behind Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock and their number one pick, Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick. Both of those ADs have either been in their current position longer or have been an AD longer. They gave Tyra an A- grade.
The hiring of Scott Satterfield was given an A- by McMurphy. Satterfield led Louisville in his first season to an 8-5 record and a bowl berth which the team won.
Meanwhile, Goodman gave the hiring of Chris Mack an A- grade as well. Mack has a 44-21 overall record after inheriting a program rocked by scandal. He has one official NCAA Tournament appearance, but would’ve made the tournament this year as well, had it not been cancelled.
I personally think Tyra deserves an A, especially for the hire of Satterfield. He took a 2-10 team with basically the same personnel and turned it into an 8 win team that won a bowl. Of course, it’s only one year in, but the turnaround was absolutely amazing. As far as the hiring of Mack, the article mentions it was a no-brainer. Once again, I think this hire deserves an A as well. The fact he was able to lure Mack given the NCAA issues was a feat in and of itself. Mack has been able to get high profile wins and reach back-to-back tournaments after the program was in the NIT. However, given the fact these coaches have only had a very short time at the school makes me understand why they are not quite ready to give that A grade. Still, the fact all three principle figures for UofL in this article are relatively new and are already thought of so highly compared to their more experienced counterparts should give Card fans some pride.
