McKewon: Who will be Nebraska’s next athletic director? Some names to consider

Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos is out. Who’s next? A look at some potential candidates in alphabetical order:

**Trev Alberts, UNO athletic director:** He didn’t get the job in 2012 or 2017, but did he even want it? Nebraska’s only Butkus Award winner is clearly going to be on any list for A.D., but he has long seemed content at UNO. Is this his time at NU? Alberts can see eye-to-eye with Scott Frost on football as they’re both Midwestern family guys who played for Tom Osborne. He’s also a contemporary of Fred Hoiberg. Is that enough to be part of the inner circle?

**Hank Bounds, former NU president:** The rare academic leader who seemed just as interested in the football program as anything else, Bounds played a major role in hiring Moos and Frost. He also served as the lead fundraiser for the football facility project. Bounds is currently teaching at the University of South Alabama. Would he want to return?

**Tim Clare, University of Nebraska regent:** A Husker football player in 1985 and the son of the team’s former chief surgeon, Clare was recently president of the Board of Regents. He’s a true insider who knows a cross-section of current and former coaches, administrators, players, business leaders and boosters. Clare, a lawyer, is a measured, influential voice who knows his way around the athletic department and would be more present at sporting events than Moos tended to be.

**John Cook, Nebraska volleyball coach:** The Husker coach most likely to become an A.D. Cook knows how to win, has a high standard for his athletes, and loves football. Cook has a quality that’d be hard for any NU coach to ignore: He’s done it at the highest level, knows what a coach goes through, and won’t be an easy mark for rationalizations. Problem is, Cook just signed the greatest recruiting class in the history of sport. He’s got to coach that incredible group, right?

**John Cunningham, Cincinnati athletic director:** If Nebraska wants to go outside a tight inner circle for a third straight time, Cunningham would be worth a look. A Lincoln Pius X High School graduate who later got a degree from Nebraska’s College of Law, Cunningham has worked at TCU, Boise State, Syracuse and Minnesota before heading to Cincinnati. The time at Minnesota is pertinent because he was the No. 2 and worked closely with the football and men’s basketball programs. Cunningham is extremely qualified, but does he have an in?

**Matt Davison, Nebraska associate athletic director for football:** Frost’s right-hand man from an external perspective, Davison played a key role in bringing Frost back to Nebraska, helped raise key funds for the “Go Big” football facility project, and has a name fans recognize and a personality that fits the outward-facing parts of the job. Davison is not a lawyer — a lot of current A.D.s are — but has been involved in key details within the athletic department.

**Turner Gill, executive vice president of diversity, development and inclusion at Liberty University:** The former Husker quarterback retired from coaching in 2018 after seven seasons at Liberty, plus stints as a head coach at Buffalo and Kansas before that. Last year he transitioned into a role in Liberty’s athletic department related to diversity and inclusion. Gill was last at Nebraska as an assistant football coach from 1992-2004 and effectively finished second to Bo Pelini in the 2007 Husker head coaching sweepstakes. He was Frost’s quarterbacks coach in college.

**Beth Goetz, Ball State athletic director:** Goetz has led the Ball State athletic department since June 2018 and has led a new strategic plan for the athletic department and spearheaded the construction of a new indoor practice facility for the football team. Before Ball State, she was the chief operating officer at UConn and has also worked at Minnesota, Butler and Missouri-St. Louis. She’s earned degrees from Clemson and Missouri-St. Louis. Goetz was a finalist for Wisconsin’s A.D. job, and her work as the interim A.D. at Minnesota was impressive after her boss resigned due to a sexual harassment allegation. She’s going to get a good job somewhere soon.

**John Johnson, Nebraska senior deputy athletic director:** If Moos wasn’t doing much from an internal perspective with the athletic department, Johnson was. He was Moos’ right-hand man at NU and Washington State, and also worked as Weber State’s athletic director for nearly a decade. His wife, Lisa, is the NU women’s golf coach. He could stick inside Nebraska’s athletic department either way.

**Garrett Klassy, Nebraska senior deputy athletic director:** Formerly the athletic director at Illinois-Chicago, Klassy has worked in athletics all over the nation, especially in external roles. He is spearheading NU’s in-house communications operation and the name, image and likeness program.

**Jamie Pollard, Iowa State athletic director:** He hired the right football coach at ISU in Matt Campbell and has the Cyclones as a trendy dark horse pick for the College Football Playoff. He’s been transparent and passionate as an A.D. — Husker fans would like that — and hired Hoiberg in Ames.

**Ed Stewart, Big 12 executive associate commissioner:** The former Nebraska linebacker and team captain in 1994 has been with the Big 12 for more than 14 years. He worked at Missouri prior to that. Would Stewart want to come back to his alma mater? If NU ever desired to return to the Big 12, Stewart has all the pertinent contacts on speed dial.

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