Ole Miss Athletic Director John Shafer Press Conference

November 28, 1998

Shafer Opening Statement:

"I think the release speaks for itself. The Chancellor (Robert Khayat) has charged me with hiring a new football coach at Ole Miss. We will begin that process immediately. As I said in the release, we're going to be looking for a person who can coach, who can recruit, a man of integrity, and a person, most important to me, that is committed to staying at Ole Miss and being a part of this for as long as I'm going to be here, hopefully. Having said that, I'll open it up to your questions."

Do you have a timetable to hire a new coach?

"No, I really don't. I want to hire the best person for this job. When you're in this position, when you're the athletic director, you always have a short list of people for all coaching jobs, be it baseball or basketball, because these things happen in this business. You always hope for the best and prepare for the worst. For the last few weeks, since all you guys have been reporting all these things, I've been working behind the scenes to find out about people, unofficially, to talk with confidants that I have in the business that know this business and give names. From that, I think I can move forward."

The release talked about your wanting to get someone who could hit the ground running and hire a staff. Does that lend an edge to someone already on the staff or does everyone start equally?

"I think that everybody starts equal. It seems to me, as close as Tommy is with his staff, I would believe, and I don't know this guys, but I would believe Tommy would take the majority of his staff with him and I'll probably be looking outside the staff for a replacement."

Did Tommy call you this morning? When did you get the official word?

"Tommy called me this morning at home. He thanked me for everything and told me he had a great experience here, and it was nothing we didn't do, and that he had taken the job at Auburn."

How are the players going to be informed? Has that been done?

"I was in the lockerroom post-game before the media got in there and I think from Tommy's tone that it was pretty much a given that he was gone. I got that from it and I think the players did. The players are scattered all over, because it's Thanksgiving Holidays. I've been told that the players have a 7 o'clock meeting on Monday to go over their off-season workouts. I plan on being there, so I'm sure Tommy will have a representative there."

In terms of the bowl situation, if you get a bowl, do you hope to have the new man aboard for that? How do handle the coaching of that?

"That's a very good question. I've thought a lot about that. First off, the players are the ones that suffer if you are invited to a bowl and then can't put together a staff. That's not going to be the driving force in the search. It's important to me that if Florida gets in the B.C.S. and we have a chance to go to a bowl with a tie-in with the S.E.C., that we're able to represent Ole Miss in that bowl. But that is not going to be the driving force. The driving force is to find somebody that is going to give us stability and somebody that can keep the momentum going that's been created."

Is your next step to go see coaches or bring some to campus?

"I'm not going to comment on that, because I don't want you guys following me around all the time. I would like to do this as confidentially as I can. The next step is to actively find a replacement."

How many names are on your short list?

"I would say I've got it down to three or four."

You said you had been contacting people. Have people been contacting you already?

"Absolutely. My contacts have been second and third party. I didn't have a position until Tommy told me this morning. I didn't think it would be ethical for me to be contacting people directly, so I've called people that know people that could tell me of interest, talk to me about their character, could talk to me about their commitment, could talk to me about their integrity, and their coaching and recruiting ability and their charisma. Those are the things that I've been able to do behind the scenes. But as far as contacting one on one, I didn't think I could do that, because I didn't have a position."

How do you maintain continuity in recruiting or do you have anybody here designated to call all these guys that they have been talking to? What's ethical and what's fair game in that kind of situation?

"I think it's all fair game. I think that, probably, those that the previous staff thinks are recruits that they could get to go to Auburn, they'll probably get in on them heavy. Whoever we bring in here, we'll try to keep those people that have visited and shown an interest in Ole Miss in the fold."

I know you were probably close to seeing Coach (Vince) Dooley hire both a head football coach and a head basketball coach the last few years. What can you take from the way he handled it or what are you using from the way he handled his searches?

"I think the biggest thing is that you need to move quickly. You don't need to sit around and let 400 people call you and get every single person in America who wants the job. You would be just overwhelmed. I think moving quickly is one thing that I got from him. The other thing is to be up front with you (the media) and let you know as much as we can so that there's not a lot of speculation, because that's what happens with this. It gets into rumors and innuendoes. People take sides and I don't want this to be a divided camp. We have a great thing here. We saw that Thursday night with the crowd that we had. What a great atmosphere that we had on that football field Thursday night. It was a special night. I want to see that continue."

How soon do you come back to the media with your short list or here is the guy?

"When I feel comfortable that that is what I can do. I've got to contact athletic directors. I'm not going to do anything unethical in this. It's a Thanksgiving holiday. I've got to get in touch with people and get permission to talk their coaches. I believe that's the way to do it. When I can do that and I feel comfortable with telling you that, without embarrassing someone else or embarrassing Ole Miss, then I'll do that."

Was that done in Auburn's case? Did Auburn contact you?

"Auburn did contact me and I asked them not to talk to Tommy until after the season was over."

Back to this bowl situation. Let's say that you don't fall in the SEC mix, would you still try to lobby to get an at-large place somewhere? Is your time constraint going to be as such that if you feel like that you can't get in (a bowl) by the regular SEC structure, you try to get a coach first and not be so worried about fighting to get in a bowl?

"I've thought about that a lot, because of the kids. I believe that we owe it to the kids to try to reward them if we can, whether it be in the (SEC) mix or at-large. We are handicapped, because Romaro (Miller) is hurt and we've had a coaching change. So when you are lobbying, you've got an empty gun when you're going in there. I think, probably, to be candid, our best shot is if there are two (SEC) teams in the BCS."

If you can hire the coach before next weekend, or by next weekend, and there is an at-large position to seek, at that point can you put more emphasis on that?

"Absolutely."

It may be a wait and see thing on the bowls while you hiring?

"That is correct. I'm certainly not going to put the bowls on hold. If the bowls call and want to know our interest, I'm certainly going to talk to them. We owe that to our players."

What about agents for coaches these days? Is that getting to be a problem when trying to contact coaches?

"You bet. I wish I had gotten a law degree."

Let's say by the end of next week you'll know if you're in the BCS or not. With that situation, you might have a coach and a staff in by say the 10th or 12th, just throw out a time frame. If you don't and are in a bowl and the whole staff is over there (Auburn), who prepares these guys? What do you do? I'm not sure there's been situations where a coach would take his entire staff prior to a bowl game.

"You're right. This has all gone down this morning. I haven't had a chance to talk with all his assistants. A possibility would be to name an interim coach from the staff with the promise that they would be considered or that we would ask the replacement to keep them and go with an interim staff. If you think back, there have been times when you've gone (to a bowl) with a smaller staff. There hasn't always been 10 coaches that have coached. And again, I think that we're just going to have to wing it and see how things fall and try to do things the best we can. We're thinking about the kids as well as finding the best person for this job."

Is it possible to have a coach within that week to 10 day range, which would fall on the same deadline of the BCS announcement?

"I'm not going to hamstring myself by saying that. You know me well enough that I'm not going to tell you something that isn't so. I'm just not going to say that I'm looking for 10 days or I'm looking for 48 hours. What I want to do is find the guy that is going to be loyal to Ole Miss, loyal to me, loyal to the Chancellor, loyal to our players, who can coach, recruit, and has integrity."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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