The University of Mississippi Athletics
State of the Program
10/3/2014 | Athletics
Oct. 3, 2014
By Austin Miller, OleMissSports.com
OXFORD, Miss. - Ahead of one of the biggest weekends in school history, complete with the first-ever visit of ESPN's "College GameDay" and the SEC Game of the Week on CBS, I sat down with Athletics Director Ross Bjork to discuss the state of the Ole Miss athletics program.
Austin Miller: After the football team's win over Memphis and it was officially announced that "College GameDay" was visiting Ole Miss, what was the overall excitement within the football program and within the athletics department?
Ross Bjork: I heard Coach Freeze say Monday that last week was stressful and not enjoyable because there was a lot of pressure mounting toward this moment. We know we play in the SEC and our job is to build a football program that can host a show like this. The criteria ESPN uses is the best game of the day, so I'm proud we can fit that criteria. Getting through last week was a big sigh of relief for our players, coaches, fans and staff. It signifies we're building it the right way. We have come a long way in a short amount of time, but our work is not ever finished.
It's a validation we have built all these things the right way and we are a destination for college football. Our fans already realized this, but now we can show the entire world what the Grove is all about. They hear about it and there's a mystique to it, but now it's going to be live for three hours on Saturday and all the lead-in shows that can show people directly what the Grove and the passion of Ole Miss football is all about.
AM: What does "College GameDay" do for the brand of Ole Miss, across the football program, athletics department and the university itself?
RB: Like National Signing Day in football and the SEC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in men's basketball two years ago, there's really no price tag you can put on the exposure. There's no ad campaign, there's no budget and there's no amount of planning that you can do that will capture as much branding and exposure as what this show will provide for our university.
It's a university effort to promote all the great things that we have here. That's what we say about athletics. Let's utilize the filter, the platform and the marketing power of athletics to then help the entire university. This is one of those examples that because of athletics the university can be put on a pedestal in a great way to showcase all the great things that are happening. That's a responsibility that we take very seriously.
We're not the most important thing, but we happen to be the most visible and this will be one of those examples where because of athletics that visibility takes hold and now we can show the world how beautiful our campus is and the hospitality of the Ole Miss family.
AM: What should fans expect this weekend as far as the excitement level and what they should expect when they arrive on campus?
RB: From a logistical standpoint, people need to get to campus earlier than normal and get to the game earlier than normal. We have been preaching that from day one. You will see a lot of people just come to Oxford that don't have a ticket. That means there will be more people on our campus. The Texas game in 2012, the estimates were that we had over 100,000 people in Oxford on that Saturday. My guess is this weekend will be bigger than that, over 100,000 people, and we only have 61,000 tickets, so those 40,000 or 50,000 will have to go somewhere.
The message will be to have patience and get to your spot early. The "GameDay" set will take away some spaces in the Grove that people have had traditionally, and we will do our best to accommodate with a make-good situation for them. This is a very unique opportunity. We want "GameDay" to come back. We would love for them be here every week.
I have had people tell me, 'You can tell me my spot was taken every week if we had "College GameDay." It's that important to have our university on the map. It's important that that we get the message out that it's going to be a little different and it's going to be a little constrained, but it's a positive that we're going to have this stage to showcase Ole Miss.
AM: What has been the feedback from fans on the improvements and the overall game day experience after the first two home games?
RB: I believe people are listening to the message about getting to the game early. I recall walking on the field before the Memphis game and looked at the clock with 45 minutes before kickoff and the stadium was 80 percent full. That's the earliest I have seen that since I have been here. Our gates were better for the Memphis game.
People understand there are some constrictions, especially on the west side, and we're sending our students around to the south and to the east, which is different. Those things are working.
We still have to work on the parking and traffic communication piece of the fan experience because of the volume of people leaving our campus, especially when it's a night game where everyone wants to leave at once. Our highway patrol, MDOT, our sheriff, our city and our university police departments work in great concert together.
The problem is we have some construction on highways and intersections. The city infrastructure is not built for this, and everyone recognizes that, and we have to continue to work on that, both short-term and long-term, and we can do that by working together.
Those are probably the key issues still out there, but that's a good problem to have. We would rather be dealing with more parking and traffic issues than trying to beg people to come to our campus and city. We look at it as a positive problem to deal with, and now we have to keep working on them.
AM: What's the latest with The Pavilion and parking garage construction and timeline?
RB: Everything is on track with the Pavilion at Ole Miss to be open in December 2015. We have vertical construction coming out of the ground, which is a sign of progress and a sign of being on track. You don't see a lot of things happening on the outside of the parking garage except the brickwork, but on the inside, they're laying the topping slabs and finishing some internal walls. We expect it to be open by next semester. Yates Construction is working hard to finish up and they're committed to doing that.
AM: How are plans progressing for the renovation and expansion of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium?
RB: We will go out to bid on the South End Zone portion of the construction in mid-November. There may be some staging and setup in early January and then we will have 8.5 months to build the suites and the club area in the south end zone to be ready for the first home football game of 2015.
As far as the North End Zone piece, we will still continue to design and tweak and then announce the entire stadium plan before the end of the football season to give people a glimpse of what it will look like. The plan there is to have bids go out in the spring and do some prep work next summer to the North End Zone.
We have to have it ready for the football because we still need to occupy the concessions and seating in that area, and then as as soon as the last home football game ends in 2015, be ready to start tearing down the north end zone bleachers and clearing the site and then having all of that ready for the first home football game of 2016, which will be the second week of the season.
Everything is on track. Suites are sold out. Club seats are going at a reasonable pace. We have started holding open houses to show people what the club area will look like. We have met with student groups to talk about their seating and the impact that the suites and club seats will have on their seating. We're gearing up to make the full project announcement by the end of the season.
AM: How are conversations progressing as far as future football and basketball schedules?
RB: Football-wise, we are hopeful that we have some announcements coming soon. We have been saying that for several weeks, but we hope there is some movement in the next 2-5 weeks where we can announce some opponents. Sometimes these contracts take longer to sign. We have verbal agreements with other power-five teams for games that we hope to announce soon.
We're full for 2015, and the conference schedule for 2015 should be released here in the next few weeks on the SEC Network. The 2016 schedule will be released soon after that, so we're close to making some announcements, and our fans should be excited about them. We have to put ourselves on the best possible platform with scheduling as possible, and we're doing that with some of these matchups.
With basketball, we're looking at how do we open the Pavilion, whether it's a basketball game, a show, or a concert. We're working on those details, and we have 14 months to nail that down and make that announcement sometime in 2015.
AM: With the extension and raise for baseball head coach Mike Bianco and his coaching staff, what does that say about his success and the commitment to baseball?
RB: Baseball is so important here at Ole Miss. People ask if Ole Miss is a football school or a basketball school, and we're a baseball school as much as anything, and that mentality has to apply to all of our sports, particularly in baseball because our fans care at the highest level. We have the greatest fans in baseball, and our facilities and our coaching staff speak to our commitment to baseball.
We're proud of Mike and proud of the staff he has put together. Cliff (Godwin) was a loss, but we have a guy in Mike Clement that's every bit as good, if not better, and we are recruiting in different areas because of Mike (Clement's) connections. I like the layer Mike (Clement) has provided.
Our baseball program is on the upward climb because of our College World Series appearance, the attitude of the team and the guys we have coming back. It's going to be a fun season with some new faces, but when you start with Christian Trent and Sam Smith on the mound, that's a pretty good place to start going into 2015.
Mike (Bianco) deserves it. He runs a great program. He's great to work with. He sees the big picture. He fights for what he needs and asks for things, as he should, but understands that we're all in this together and let's work to make Ole Miss baseball the best.
AM: What are your first impressions of the many first-year head coaches in the athletics program?
RB: The first impression is energy. They bring a new energy and a new spirit to the table, and we're seeing that with Steven McRoberts with volleyball. We're off to a great start at 15-2. Mike Smith with softball, same thing. The attitude, the energy and the recruits we're bringing on campus early.
Chris Malloy with men's golf, he brings energy every day, and you're seeing the team respond to that. Toby Hansson was a smooth transition. The guys all knew him, so it is familiar. Our roster is also pretty loaded in men's tennis, so we're expecting a really good year.
I love what all the coaches have brought to the table, and the first place it starts is with their attitude.
AM: It's early, but what's been the early impact of the SEC Network as far as money and visibility?
RB: It's exceeded our expectations, both financially right now from early indications and the reports that we have received that say we are ahead of schedule in terms of the financial piece. We are still figuring out the net value of that for the first year, but we're very pleased.
As far as visibility, we have had more opportunity for our fans to watch and for our brand to be out there. Our soccer team has been on the prime channel three times already, and our football game against Louisiana-Lafayette was on the network. We had "SEC Nation" at the Vanderbilt game, and they will be here for the Tennessee game on Oct. 18.
The branding exposure is invaluable. Everyone I talk to has the SEC Network on. There's always something on there, and they love seeing what other people are doing. It helps our fans understand the landscape of the SEC in terms of what we have to compete against so maybe they will invest in our program because they want us to match or beat other schools' success.
AM: What's the latest as far as naming rights for the basketball arena and the overall Forward Together campaign?
RB: The campaign is going well. We have reached the $117 million plateau, so we have $33 million left to raise. In the last 2.5 years we have gone from $62 million to $117 million, so we're proud of our progress and we feel good about what is out there in the pipeline that we hope to close by the end of the calendar year or early 2015.
As far as the naming rights, we have some discussions ongoing. There is nothing substantive to get to a final agreement yet, but at least we are talking to some people, and hopefully by the time the building opens we can have a name on the side of it that someone is supporting. All of that is going well.
Fundraising is going well. There's a lot of momentum and a lot of excitement. Rebel Nation continues to respond. We're asking people every day, and people continue to say, 'What can I do to help?' And they're allowing us to show them, guide them and lead them. It's great to have that support.
AM: Anything else I might have missed, or you would want fans to know?
RB: One thing is, people should get to know our basketball rosters, both men and women, and see how much talent is there. People will be pleasantly surprised because we don't really have a lot of big names.
Jarvis (Summers) is back, and Tia (Faleru) is back on the women's side, but if you look at our overall rosters and people do their homework, you will see a lot of talent, explosiveness and excitement there. That's one sport, with moving into the new Pavilion, the more momentum that we can have with crowd support, the better our transition will be into the new Pavilion.
When people take notice and learn more about basketball rosters, they will be impressed with who's on there, their character, the teamwork, the energy and the talent. Our coaches have done a great job in those two sports, so I'm excited to see what they will do this season.
By Austin Miller, OleMissSports.com
OXFORD, Miss. - Ahead of one of the biggest weekends in school history, complete with the first-ever visit of ESPN's "College GameDay" and the SEC Game of the Week on CBS, I sat down with Athletics Director Ross Bjork to discuss the state of the Ole Miss athletics program.
Austin Miller: After the football team's win over Memphis and it was officially announced that "College GameDay" was visiting Ole Miss, what was the overall excitement within the football program and within the athletics department?
Ross Bjork: I heard Coach Freeze say Monday that last week was stressful and not enjoyable because there was a lot of pressure mounting toward this moment. We know we play in the SEC and our job is to build a football program that can host a show like this. The criteria ESPN uses is the best game of the day, so I'm proud we can fit that criteria. Getting through last week was a big sigh of relief for our players, coaches, fans and staff. It signifies we're building it the right way. We have come a long way in a short amount of time, but our work is not ever finished.
It's a validation we have built all these things the right way and we are a destination for college football. Our fans already realized this, but now we can show the entire world what the Grove is all about. They hear about it and there's a mystique to it, but now it's going to be live for three hours on Saturday and all the lead-in shows that can show people directly what the Grove and the passion of Ole Miss football is all about.
AM: What does "College GameDay" do for the brand of Ole Miss, across the football program, athletics department and the university itself?
RB: Like National Signing Day in football and the SEC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in men's basketball two years ago, there's really no price tag you can put on the exposure. There's no ad campaign, there's no budget and there's no amount of planning that you can do that will capture as much branding and exposure as what this show will provide for our university.
It's a university effort to promote all the great things that we have here. That's what we say about athletics. Let's utilize the filter, the platform and the marketing power of athletics to then help the entire university. This is one of those examples that because of athletics the university can be put on a pedestal in a great way to showcase all the great things that are happening. That's a responsibility that we take very seriously.
We're not the most important thing, but we happen to be the most visible and this will be one of those examples where because of athletics that visibility takes hold and now we can show the world how beautiful our campus is and the hospitality of the Ole Miss family.
AM: What should fans expect this weekend as far as the excitement level and what they should expect when they arrive on campus?
RB: From a logistical standpoint, people need to get to campus earlier than normal and get to the game earlier than normal. We have been preaching that from day one. You will see a lot of people just come to Oxford that don't have a ticket. That means there will be more people on our campus. The Texas game in 2012, the estimates were that we had over 100,000 people in Oxford on that Saturday. My guess is this weekend will be bigger than that, over 100,000 people, and we only have 61,000 tickets, so those 40,000 or 50,000 will have to go somewhere.
The message will be to have patience and get to your spot early. The "GameDay" set will take away some spaces in the Grove that people have had traditionally, and we will do our best to accommodate with a make-good situation for them. This is a very unique opportunity. We want "GameDay" to come back. We would love for them be here every week.
I have had people tell me, 'You can tell me my spot was taken every week if we had "College GameDay." It's that important to have our university on the map. It's important that that we get the message out that it's going to be a little different and it's going to be a little constrained, but it's a positive that we're going to have this stage to showcase Ole Miss.
AM: What has been the feedback from fans on the improvements and the overall game day experience after the first two home games?
RB: I believe people are listening to the message about getting to the game early. I recall walking on the field before the Memphis game and looked at the clock with 45 minutes before kickoff and the stadium was 80 percent full. That's the earliest I have seen that since I have been here. Our gates were better for the Memphis game.
People understand there are some constrictions, especially on the west side, and we're sending our students around to the south and to the east, which is different. Those things are working.
We still have to work on the parking and traffic communication piece of the fan experience because of the volume of people leaving our campus, especially when it's a night game where everyone wants to leave at once. Our highway patrol, MDOT, our sheriff, our city and our university police departments work in great concert together.
The problem is we have some construction on highways and intersections. The city infrastructure is not built for this, and everyone recognizes that, and we have to continue to work on that, both short-term and long-term, and we can do that by working together.
Those are probably the key issues still out there, but that's a good problem to have. We would rather be dealing with more parking and traffic issues than trying to beg people to come to our campus and city. We look at it as a positive problem to deal with, and now we have to keep working on them.
AM: What's the latest with The Pavilion and parking garage construction and timeline?
RB: Everything is on track with the Pavilion at Ole Miss to be open in December 2015. We have vertical construction coming out of the ground, which is a sign of progress and a sign of being on track. You don't see a lot of things happening on the outside of the parking garage except the brickwork, but on the inside, they're laying the topping slabs and finishing some internal walls. We expect it to be open by next semester. Yates Construction is working hard to finish up and they're committed to doing that.
AM: How are plans progressing for the renovation and expansion of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium?
RB: We will go out to bid on the South End Zone portion of the construction in mid-November. There may be some staging and setup in early January and then we will have 8.5 months to build the suites and the club area in the south end zone to be ready for the first home football game of 2015.
As far as the North End Zone piece, we will still continue to design and tweak and then announce the entire stadium plan before the end of the football season to give people a glimpse of what it will look like. The plan there is to have bids go out in the spring and do some prep work next summer to the North End Zone.
We have to have it ready for the football because we still need to occupy the concessions and seating in that area, and then as as soon as the last home football game ends in 2015, be ready to start tearing down the north end zone bleachers and clearing the site and then having all of that ready for the first home football game of 2016, which will be the second week of the season.
Everything is on track. Suites are sold out. Club seats are going at a reasonable pace. We have started holding open houses to show people what the club area will look like. We have met with student groups to talk about their seating and the impact that the suites and club seats will have on their seating. We're gearing up to make the full project announcement by the end of the season.
AM: How are conversations progressing as far as future football and basketball schedules?
RB: Football-wise, we are hopeful that we have some announcements coming soon. We have been saying that for several weeks, but we hope there is some movement in the next 2-5 weeks where we can announce some opponents. Sometimes these contracts take longer to sign. We have verbal agreements with other power-five teams for games that we hope to announce soon.
We're full for 2015, and the conference schedule for 2015 should be released here in the next few weeks on the SEC Network. The 2016 schedule will be released soon after that, so we're close to making some announcements, and our fans should be excited about them. We have to put ourselves on the best possible platform with scheduling as possible, and we're doing that with some of these matchups.
With basketball, we're looking at how do we open the Pavilion, whether it's a basketball game, a show, or a concert. We're working on those details, and we have 14 months to nail that down and make that announcement sometime in 2015.
AM: With the extension and raise for baseball head coach Mike Bianco and his coaching staff, what does that say about his success and the commitment to baseball?
RB: Baseball is so important here at Ole Miss. People ask if Ole Miss is a football school or a basketball school, and we're a baseball school as much as anything, and that mentality has to apply to all of our sports, particularly in baseball because our fans care at the highest level. We have the greatest fans in baseball, and our facilities and our coaching staff speak to our commitment to baseball.
We're proud of Mike and proud of the staff he has put together. Cliff (Godwin) was a loss, but we have a guy in Mike Clement that's every bit as good, if not better, and we are recruiting in different areas because of Mike (Clement's) connections. I like the layer Mike (Clement) has provided.
Our baseball program is on the upward climb because of our College World Series appearance, the attitude of the team and the guys we have coming back. It's going to be a fun season with some new faces, but when you start with Christian Trent and Sam Smith on the mound, that's a pretty good place to start going into 2015.
Mike (Bianco) deserves it. He runs a great program. He's great to work with. He sees the big picture. He fights for what he needs and asks for things, as he should, but understands that we're all in this together and let's work to make Ole Miss baseball the best.
AM: What are your first impressions of the many first-year head coaches in the athletics program?
RB: The first impression is energy. They bring a new energy and a new spirit to the table, and we're seeing that with Steven McRoberts with volleyball. We're off to a great start at 15-2. Mike Smith with softball, same thing. The attitude, the energy and the recruits we're bringing on campus early.
Chris Malloy with men's golf, he brings energy every day, and you're seeing the team respond to that. Toby Hansson was a smooth transition. The guys all knew him, so it is familiar. Our roster is also pretty loaded in men's tennis, so we're expecting a really good year.
I love what all the coaches have brought to the table, and the first place it starts is with their attitude.
AM: It's early, but what's been the early impact of the SEC Network as far as money and visibility?
RB: It's exceeded our expectations, both financially right now from early indications and the reports that we have received that say we are ahead of schedule in terms of the financial piece. We are still figuring out the net value of that for the first year, but we're very pleased.
As far as visibility, we have had more opportunity for our fans to watch and for our brand to be out there. Our soccer team has been on the prime channel three times already, and our football game against Louisiana-Lafayette was on the network. We had "SEC Nation" at the Vanderbilt game, and they will be here for the Tennessee game on Oct. 18.
The branding exposure is invaluable. Everyone I talk to has the SEC Network on. There's always something on there, and they love seeing what other people are doing. It helps our fans understand the landscape of the SEC in terms of what we have to compete against so maybe they will invest in our program because they want us to match or beat other schools' success.
AM: What's the latest as far as naming rights for the basketball arena and the overall Forward Together campaign?
RB: The campaign is going well. We have reached the $117 million plateau, so we have $33 million left to raise. In the last 2.5 years we have gone from $62 million to $117 million, so we're proud of our progress and we feel good about what is out there in the pipeline that we hope to close by the end of the calendar year or early 2015.
As far as the naming rights, we have some discussions ongoing. There is nothing substantive to get to a final agreement yet, but at least we are talking to some people, and hopefully by the time the building opens we can have a name on the side of it that someone is supporting. All of that is going well.
Fundraising is going well. There's a lot of momentum and a lot of excitement. Rebel Nation continues to respond. We're asking people every day, and people continue to say, 'What can I do to help?' And they're allowing us to show them, guide them and lead them. It's great to have that support.
AM: Anything else I might have missed, or you would want fans to know?
RB: One thing is, people should get to know our basketball rosters, both men and women, and see how much talent is there. People will be pleasantly surprised because we don't really have a lot of big names.
Jarvis (Summers) is back, and Tia (Faleru) is back on the women's side, but if you look at our overall rosters and people do their homework, you will see a lot of talent, explosiveness and excitement there. That's one sport, with moving into the new Pavilion, the more momentum that we can have with crowd support, the better our transition will be into the new Pavilion.
When people take notice and learn more about basketball rosters, they will be impressed with who's on there, their character, the teamwork, the energy and the talent. Our coaches have done a great job in those two sports, so I'm excited to see what they will do this season.
Austin Miller is a writer and blogger for OleMissSports.com. He joined the staff in June 2013 after serving as sports editor of the Daily Mississippian. Follow him on Twitter @austinkmiller.
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