Making The Case: Why Mark Ingram is the Right Fit For Tennessee's AD Role

Tennessee is searching for a new athletic director. Here is the case for one of the candidates to watch, UAB AD, Mark Ingram.

The Tennessee Athletic Department is currently looking for a new athletic director to replace the retiring Phillip Fulmer. Several candidates have emerged as early candidates to replace the retiring Tennessee legend. This piece will examine the case for and against one of those candidates, current UAB Athletic Director, Mark Ingram.

Brandon:

Ingram has strong ties and a vested interest in Volunteer athletics. Ingram is a Tennessee alumnus, graduating from Tennessee with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Ingram was also a student athlete during his time in Knoxville, playing long snapper for the football team in 1995-96. During his time with the football team, Ingram was twice the recipient of the Volunteer Award, given to the most valuable player on the team that was formerly a walk-in. Ingram was also twice an All-SEC Academic selection. Ingram entered his work in athletic departments at Tennessee. His career has included stops at Missouri, Georgia, and back at Tennessee. Ingram then went to Temple where he was involved in the athletic department when Temple hired football coach Matt Rhule. Rhule was extremely successful with the Owls, before taking the head coaching job at Baylor. Rhule is now finishing his first full year as the head coach of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. After three years at Temple, Ingram became the Athletic Director for UAB in 2015. 

In his time at UAB, Ingram faced an incredible challenge, attempting to bring back a UAB football program that had been canceled. As UAB Athletic Director, Ingram has helped raise over one hundred million dollars for UAB Athletics. He oversaw the opening of BBVA Compass Stadium in 2015, as well as renovations and expansions to the facility since then. BBVA Compass Stadium is the home for UAB men’s and women’s soccer, as well as the home of Birmingham’s new professional team. Ingram oversaw the opening of a new $22.5 million football practice complex. He has also helped create and gain approval for Protective Stadium, the $175 million, 41,000 seat stadium scheduled to open in 2021 and serve as the new home for UAB Football. In regards to coaching hires/decisions, Ingram chose to ride with Bill Clark as the man to helm the return of UAB Football. Clark has gone 40-22 at UAB, winning Conference USA West each of the last three years and scoring Conference USA Titles in 2018 and 2020. After Jerod Haase left the Blazers in 2016 to take the helm of Stanford basketball, Ingram hired Robert Ehsan. Ehsan served at the coach of the Blazers until he was fired after the 2019-2020 with a .571 winning percentage. Ingram replaced Ehsan with Andy Kennedy. Kennedy, a UAB alumnus, is the winningest basketball coach in Ole Miss history, and he led the Rebels to an SEC Tournament Title in 2013. Kennedy owns a career .618 winning percentage and currently has the Blazers out to a 9-1 start.

The accomplishments and experience that Ingram has assembled as an athletic director speak for themselves. He has success in hiring and retaining both football and basketball coaches, has shown a care for creating quality facilities for non-revenue sports in the BBVA Compass Soccer Complex, and has proven to be an excellent fundraiser for the University. He has overseen the revival of a football program and creation of a new stadium for that team which the University had decided they could not afford to continue to have at all just 6 years ago. That football program is not also back, but they have been extremely successful on the field. He has shown he can attract high profile coaches like Kennedy, and help position them to succeed. Ingram has years of experience as an athletic director in challenging situations. He has direct, strong ties to the University of Tennessee, and he possess an interest in seeing the athletic department there succeed. The only real question that could be raised is that Ingram hasn’t been an AD at a Power Five program yet in his career, however he has been involved in multiple SEC athletic departments through his career. He has had success with coaches, especially football coaches, at each of the locations he has been involved in the selection process at, and he has had significant success by all measures in his time at UAB. Ingram certainly presents a strong case, perhaps the strongest, to be the next athletic director for his Alma Mater.

Matt:

Mark Ingram is a no-brainer for me. He has resurrected UAB football from the ashes, literally. He helped raise over one-hundred million dollars for the program, hired Bill Clark, and they have won two conference titles since in three  conference championship appearances. He has been highly successful at UAB is and poised for a step to the next level based off of what I mentioned and his ability to oversee multiple projects and renovations at the same time.  Tennessee makes perfect sense. He is an alumni. He worked at Tennessee for five years. He was a highly successful walk-on player who won the Volunteer award twice. He was instrumental in the Capital campaign which raised 336 million dollars for the University. There is really no con against Mark Ingram. You can say that he has not made a hire of this magnitude yet in his career, but that is not a concern to me. He hired Matt Rhule at Temple, whose meteoric rise since landed him a head coaching job in the NFL. He stuck with Bill Clark at UAB and ultimately signed him to a five-year extension in September of 2015, and we know the success they have had since. He hired Andy Kennedy to head up the Men's Basketball program at UAB, and they are currently sitting atop the conference USA standings. Academics at UAB has thrived under his oversight. Mark Ingram is an easy candidate for Tennessee's open position. 

featured image via UAB Sports