Q&A with Maryland AD Jim Smith: ‘I’m not a candidate 5 years ago’

Did Jim Smith ever see himself here, as a Big Ten athletic director?He pauses.

Its a complicated answer to a simple yet layered question.Earlier on in my career, I did, Smith said When I was working at Ohio State, that was what I thought was going to be the pathway, and then the journey took me somewhere else.

I thought there was a chance, and then I got so far from it that I thought there was no chance.

Then the industry changed, and there was a chance again.Smith, hired by Maryland in June to replace Damon Evans as the schools athletic director, does not possess the resume of a traditional leader of a Big Ten athletic department.

And he knows it: Im not a candidate five years ago, he said.

But hes here, explaining the past that brought him to this lunch overlooking the Xfinity Center hardwood from the luxurious Maryland Club, because the Terps believe he represents what the modern job demands.Hes already flexing his business savvy.

Smith offered unlimited student entry to footballs season opener and is selling $7 tickets to Marylands second game to capitalize on the Malik Washington-led momentum, all in hopes of reenergizing a fanbase that yearns for it.Smith sat down with The Baltimore Sun last month to discuss his background, outlook for Maryland and opinion on the state of college athletics.

In part one of the interview he opened up about the Terps revenue sharing plan, voiced confidence in football coach Michael Locksley and said Xfinity Center will soon host concerts.

Heres everything else he said.Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.Question: How would you describe your early conversations with new mens basketball coach Buzz Williams?Smith: I think theyve been great.

I mean, I love his intensity.

I love his organization.

Ive watched practice.

I love his approach to how he coaches and teaches.

Its great.

He is all in on Maryland.

And when you come here and you have zero players, to see where we are in such a short period of time, is really encouraging.How aligned are you with University of Maryland president Darryll J.

Pines on your goals for Maryland?Leaders matter in every one of my jobs.

In order to be successful, you need to have a great leader and a great partner, and thats what I believe I have with Dr.

Pines.

Hes been great.

Hes a big reason why I took the job, because I believe a president can make an athletic director very successful.

And I believe that thats what can happen here at Maryland.

Darryll will do that.

He believes in the importance of athletics while managing a huge, incredibly successful academic institution.

He also understands that athletics is an important part of that.Was it a priority to hire someone with previous athletic director experience in Diana Sabau?The one thing [former Ohio State athletic director] Andy [Geiger] taught me is, always surround yourself with really smart people and people who are better than you.

Knowing that Im coming into an environment where I dont have the traditional you can use my air quote traditional athletic director background, it was really important for me to find someone who I could work with, who understands the importance of where we need to go from the future of college athletics, while bringing the current state of college athletics to the table for Maryland.

It was real important for me to find a person like that.Similarly, was it a priority to hire someone with existing Maryland connections in Joe LaBue?When you can find both, its Nirvana, right? I mean, when you can find someone with incredible experience whos also a Terp, youve hit the jackpot.

Thats what we did with Joe.

He understands how to build, because hes built from scratch.

Hes also built programs that need enhancements, and so having someone with that experience is really important.The announcement of your hiring included a mention that longtime former Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith would be accompanying you as a consultant.

Whats his role in your department?It goes back to surrounding yourself with really smart people.

So when given the opportunity to say, Hey, I can give Gene a call if theres something I dont quite feel like I have the full understanding, is really valuable.

Really valuable to have a trusted adviser who is interested in the success of Maryland athletics at your disposal with his type of experience.University president Darryll Pines, left, new athletic director Jim Smith, center, and football coach Michael Locksley smile while holding a jersey after Smiths introductory news conference.

Smith has leaned on the experiences of those around him to help guide him during his early days as the Terps' athletic director.

(Nia Meyers/Staff)How often do you meet with him, and what do those conversations entail?We do a Zoom every other week right now, hell be in town occasionally, and well see how it goes.

Hopefully I get my feet under me really fast, and now having Diana here I think it is going to happen really fast, that having Gene would be a nice to have, but not a need to have.

Weve been talking a lot about just the changing landscape in college athletics, NIL and how its being done at some of the other places, what he knows about that, coaching discussions in general about his philosophy on interacting with coaches.

Its just good to have someone to bounce those ideas off of who doesnt have an agenda.

I think thats the important part: his agenda is to see Maryland be successful, and by sharing his wisdom, its going to make us successful.What does general manager Geroy Simons day-to-day look like?Focusing on football and mens and womens basketball, managing the revenue share component of our student athlete agreements.

And assisting on talent evaluation, but thats not his primary job.Many power conference schools employ separate general managers for their highest earning programs.

Why does Maryland have just one for all sports?Geroy is part of the department.

I think each of the sports have people doing talent evaluation.

So theyre working together.

Theres a lot of the reporting, the papering think about GMs and contracts.

Thats that persons role.

...

We work with a company, Blueprint, that is spearheading our NIL efforts.

Everything is going to run through Blueprint.

So the reason you have a third party is so all the transactions, all the taxing, all of that can get taken care of through a third party source.

We dont want to be responsible for that.Related ArticlesHow does Maryland football aim to improve attendance? Friday night lights.Basketball Hall of Famer and former Terps assistant George Raveling dies at 88Maryland freshman QB Malik Washington reflects on impressive college debut3 takeaways from Maryland footballs 39-7 win against FAUMalik Washington and Terps young school bus provide spark in debutSome athletic directors have called for collective bargaining to be introduced to college sports, namely football.

As someone who worked in professional sports, could collective bargaining work in college?I think that we need to protect the student-athlete designation.

There is still a massive component that is academics.

Thats still a part of this industry that is very, very important.How important are Marylands non-revenue teams to you, and can they keep up in this current landscape?I see it in about all 20 of our teams.

They all have the chance to be incredibly successful.

And so how do we bring the resources to the table to make them all successful? That doesnt mean they all can be successful all at once at the exact same time.

But building a plan to where we can make sure were competitive in all the sports that we compete in is the goal.

Investing in mens and womens lacrosse or field hockey or soccer or gymnastics or wrestling, its all important.

Golf, tennis, all of it.

Im a believer that you can do it all.

Im not an or guy.

Im an and guy.

We can do this, and we can do that.

We dont have to sacrifice one for the other.

Can we do it all at once? No.

But we can do it all.

Thats what I believe.Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at [email protected], 410-332-6200 and x.com/taylorjlyons..

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