There is a New Sherriff in Town

The search is over, Greg Byrne has been hired as the new athletic director. You can read about the hiring and more about Byrne HERE and HERE. Greg Byrne will be transitioned in over the next few months and will take over fully no later than June 30th. He'll probably take over a couple of months before then and LT will be given some meaningless job title until he head out the door officially on the 3oth. I'll give you a very brief bare bones review of him, but you should read the linked articles if you are really interested.

-Byrne at 36, has never been an athletic director before.

-He does has been an associate AD at Oregon State and Kentucky. He has been the associate AD at Mississippi State for the past two years.

-Most of his experience is in fundraising, finding new revenue streams, etc.


I don't know about you, but I like the hire. His specialty, getting money into the athletic department, was undeniably LT's greatest weakness. LT was stagnant and had zero imagination nor desire to find new ways to bring in money. Fundraising? Advertising? Promoting the school? Nah, not for LT. I'm confident things will be changing. With a minimal athletic budget, MSU needed someone who knows creative and new ways to bring in money and promote the school. Well, they got that guy. The money side of the athletic department is now in infinitely better hands than it was a few months ago. Now, how will he handle things when a coaching change needs to be made? Can he go out and find the right man for the job, and more importantly get them to come to Starkville? He has never had to do that before so it is definitely a question mark. Time will tell.