NC State alum and former Wolfpack Club employee, Chris Wyrick, is on the move.
In light of the diversity of experiences and connections to Raleigh, Wyrick - along with App State’s Charlie Cobb - would most definitely be leading candidates for the NC State Athletics Directorship if we would ever be so lucky as to have “Coach” Lee Fowler disappear into the abyss.
At South Carolina, Chris Wyrick’s job as director of the Gamecock Club the past two years was to help run a $200 million capital campaign for the USC athletics department.
His next job, at facilities-rich SEC-rival Arkansas, will encompass much more than simply fundraising.
Wyrick, 40, will be named Arkansas’ senior associate athletics director for external relations, a position that, in addition to fundraising, includes authority over tickets, marketing and handling rights for the Razorbacks’ TV and radio outlets.
One source who requested anonymity called it “a huge promotion” that will put Wyrick on “the fast track” to becoming an athletics director.
At USC, Wyrick helped the Gamecock Club increase revenues from $13.8 million in fiscal 2006 to $27.8 million in 2007. For fiscal 2008, the club was $700,000 ahead of that pace as of Dec. 31.
Among Wyrick’s accomplishments was procuring a $5.5 million contribution from Greer resident Delores “Dodie” Anderson, to be used toward the construction of the school’s academic enrichment center, which will be named after her.
“Chris accomplished a lot with his reorganization of the Gamecock Club,” Hyman said. “He created an infrastructure that will pay dividends for the school and the athletics department.
“He made (the Gamecock Club) a very professional operation. It’s run like a business now. If you ask the board members, they’ll tell you he helped implement a lot of things.”
USC board of trustees member and former chairman Eddie Floyd of Florence said Wyrick, had he stayed at USC, might have been in line for bigger responsibilities.
“I thought he would be a good candidate for the university’s head of development someday,” Floyd said. “He managed the athletics department’s business well, and he was a great fundraiser.
“I’m really disappointed he’s leaving. He’s been one of my favorite people.”
Good for Chris. He’s a fraternity brother of mine and a really good guy. Very dynamic speaker.
Just wondering why you wouldn’t consider Purcell as the top candidate to replace “Coach”. I’d love to see Purcell take the big chair (the sooner the better) and then Wyrick or Ponder come back to run the WPC. I can understand Cobb’s advantage over Purcell since he is already a successful AD but I still would think that Bobby is very qualified to run our AD.
SFN: You can use statefans@gmail.com
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I know nothing of him. But if he is that good, he could also replace Bobby Purcell at the WPC and let Bobby be AD. Either of the three would have to be leaps-and-bounds above the troll currently occupying the AD space!
If Bobby Purcell wants the AD job, then SFN would not oppose him.
But…if Bobby is great at what he does at the WPC…why move two people into new roles instead of just one?
Due to the all of the dead weight, laziness, incompetence and general composition of the NC State Athletics Department today, I would support bringing someone from the outside into the AD role as there needs to be A LOT of change and house-cleaning.
That would be very tough on Purcell as he obviously has strong persaonl relationships with all of these people.
If you believe that we are ‘broken’ today, why choose to structure an organization that would be very hard to institute future needed change?
Why not bring in someone with more administrative experience who is not constrained by a bunch of baggage and current personal relationships?
Chris would be great, and sure would be a step up from Lee Fowler. How much do we have to suffer with this man?
Good points, SFN. But if BP is as good as advertised, surely he would not take the job unless he felt he could bring himself to “clean house” and do whatever else is necessary to have a top department. In any case, I like Bobby where he is, too. And we all know what Charlie Cobb has done at “Happy Appy.” Having a third viable choice would certainly help toward filling the position as well as possible. I just can’t say how much I want Foulup gone!
statefans: I think I know the answer to my question before I ask it, but is there anything that we as alums of State can do to get Jed out?
I think that nothing good will happen to our Athletic Dept until he is out.
Or does that the change need to occur further up in the chain?
^ Chancellor JAMES statusquOBLINGER hates controversy. He hates change. He hates having to do anything that isn’t staying the course.
He, therefore, is the perfect ‘boss’ for Lee Fowler and is the reason why Lee Fowler is still employed by NC State despite the fact that no other school — even some mid to small schools - have passed over Fowler in recent years despite Fowler’s interest in their jobs.
With this said, IMHO, the only way statusquOBLINGER makes a move is for LF’s presence to cause him create inconvenience, discomfort and embarassment. You must elevate your ‘fight’ to the Chancellor.
DRW The chancellor’s office.
since wyrick is heading up, why would he come to ncsu ?
Put LF in an empty, padded cell with no windows, no doors and give him two ball bearings and he’d break one and lose the other.
I’d prefer the proven Cobb and the quickly-proving Wyrick over Purcell, personally. The common misconception is that a good salesman makes a good manager; I think Purcell has done an adequate (improving, based on issues I’ve had in the past) job as head of the WPC, but fundraising and managing a business are not the same thing. I work for a company that is completely mismanaged because of the belief that excellent salesmen make competent managers, while this too often is not even remotely true (it’s no truer for many engineers, either).
If Wyrick were to someday come home, then I would have to think it’s because he wants to be “home” — Arkansas is far and above a better situation. Cobb has done a great job at App, and what would work in our favor is that it’s still App, so I wouldn’t imagine any scenario he wouldn’t come if offered.
It’s all moot as long as LF is in “control.”
Just say statusquOBLINGER (sta-tis-quo-blinger), laugh and sit back and remind yourself how cool this site is.
Question on Purcell? Should there ever be any thought of what kind of demand a potential candidate has outside our realm? The succes of the WPC is not an entirely recent phenom., so why aren’t schools like Ar-Kansas trying to steal him away?
http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2008/02/20/simple-men-looking-for-candidate-of-change/
On more then one occassion I have heard David Glenn (good friend to SFN ) say that the question never should be “when should we fire or force to resign so and so” without long determining who we would love to get, who could we probably get, who’s a lock, and who could pull a Sid Lowe in an effort to replace so in so.
Here at the LFP we aim to keep this a simple, fair, contest and it starts with our one true mandate that we have the best man for the job in mind so there is no need to bring up anyone else.
Don’t sleep on the L(unatic) F(ringe) P(arty) just yet. We aren’t done grinding it out up the proverbial mountain of politics. Like Ralph Nader, “we are here to stay and going no-where fast!” A side not: Google search Statefansnation and the “simple men…” thread comes up #5. Hopefully Bob Knight has seen it since so far we’ve gotten no response to any interview.
SFN,
It’s funny but the “why move 2 people” argument is the exact one that I made when we passed Purcell over the last time. And it has been a good thing to have strong leadership in the WPC. What they’ve done the last several years goes far beyond fund-raising, IMO. The concept of donating facilities rather than $$ for the school to build facilities was brilliant and the execution seemingly flawless. Even with the $$ raised I don’t think there is any way in hell that we have all of the C-F stuff done if the WPC had simply turned the $$ over to “Coach” to build stuff. Overseeing construction of such large projects was clearly a stretch but they took it on and I give Bobby and his staff a ton of credit for that.
I also feel like we have more bench strength at the WPC than we did 5 years ago. Cockerham may be a possibility to come back as might Wyrick and Ponder. I like that all 3 have gone other places to see how the world works outside of West Raleigh.
I also have thought for some time that Purcell would make a very good AD for someone in the near future. As time goes on and we don’t hear of him being a candidate other places perhaps he isn’t as marketable as I thought. Or perhaps he knows how to handle such things delicately such that his name doesn’t get out unless he gets the job. Unlike “Coach” who frankly can’t handle much of anything.
I don’t want someone currently at NC State or closely associated with the current leadership. Period. That may be unfair, but it rules out Purcell, IMHO. Cobb and Wyrick (in that order) are much better choices.
Good luck with Oblinger! He’s as big a dolt as Fowler!
I honestly don’t think Bobby Purcell is anything more than a great ass kisser. I hope that doesn’t offend any of you that are here, but I’m gettin’ ready to go to the ACC Tournament and truthfully…he’s one of my least favorite parts of the “cocktail party” (thanks Roy). Anyhow, I suppose gettin’ your nose dirty is in his job description in the WPC, but I’m not sure that what is currently his strongest attribute translates very well into an Athletic Director. I would rather go with a proven entity. I would want us to look at people who have shown they can do a good job as an A.D. and spend the money. Perhaps Charlie Cobb is that person, or maybe its another individual without ties to N.C. State, but I am almost positive that the person we’re looking for to take us to the promised land…as our A.D. is NOT Bobby Purcell.
On another note…I’ll be happy to ask other high ranking WPC members what they think while I’m at the tournament if you guys encourage me to do so.
^That depends. How many cocktails are you consuming before you consider asking them how they think their money has been spent?
Ask Jim, ASK!
I guess that makes 2 Wolfpackers doing a great job at Carolina - Ray Tanner and Chris Wyrick.
Can we trade LF for Wyrick, straight up?
No?
How about we throw in a slightly used men’s soccer coach.
Not enough
We will add a women’s soccer and baseball coach at no additional price.
Still no?
How about we trade LF for a bag of wet lint and call it even.
Is he by any chance the son of a professor at State? Just curious to see if anyone knows. The prof I’m thinking of taught Renaissance Lit. (Deborah Wyrick).
Purcell has stated he wants an AD job. If we don’t give him his eventually a big-time school will give him a shot.
I also wouldn’t mind giving Purcell responsibilities over tickets, marketing, and media.
My biggest fear as far as NC State Athletics is that we are stuck with the status quo until LF make a big mistake or says the wrong thing to the right person. I feel we are headed to the bottom of the league in every sport except football.
Lee Fowler is not leaving, he’d be a fool to even think about it and nobody is going force him out.
Who wouldn’t love that “job” anyway? The AD’s position at NCSU, and a weatherman, the two jobs where you can screw up on a daily basis and never have to fear for your job.
I am also a fraternity brother of Chris, and he will probably make a fine AD some day. As long as we’re dreaming, though, we shouldn’t rule anyone out. The last 2 “homers” we hired didn’t or aren’t working out so well. Not to say they can’t. But this is a good job, and we should bring in a proven quantity whether they have ties to the university or not. I agree with the above poster that a good fundraiser/salesman does not necessarily make a good manager. Again, as long as we’re dreaming, maybe we can go after Wellman at Wake. I suspect that Oblinger would be a barrier to bringing anyone good in, just like Fowler is a barrier to bringing in good coaches (O’Brien - who practically fell into his lap - notwithstanding)
I don’t think Bobby is the man, for many of the reasons mentioned by SFN and just my own personal observations.
Hey, why not the Nebraska AD that got fired. Good Lord, think what he could do at NC State, demanding performance, talking about NC State like he did Nebraska. Perhaps he made a mistake in the football coaching decision there, but his other track record was signficant.
I want to get on the BOT and I am willing to pay for it (in donations).
I just wish MAF had taken it a little slower and then cleaned house. Can you imagine what we could be after a decade or two of her, or someone equivalent, leadership. Instead we got a food science major from Iowa (I believe) running a predominately engineering school (yes, just check out which departments are nationally ranked).
Sad. Used to think my son would obviously go to NCSU like me and my Dad did. Now, I absolutely will insist he look around.
“I want to get on the BOT and I am willing to pay for it (in donations).”
Unless those are political donations, it won’t do you any good. Four are appointed by the governor, eight come from the UNC Board of Governors and one is the student body president of NC State.
I guess myself and the other students who frequent this board need to ask some serious question of the candidates currently running for Student Body President, lucky for us they all have FaceBook groups in which to facilitate this. I encourage all other students who give a rats ass about our schools athletics department to get involved.
Please tell me what great-good-anything Lee Foulup has done for N.C. State.Not even TOB was his idea-Tom called to come here. Worthless!
As far as A.D.-what is Mary Anne Fox doing?I bet she would get some people’s asses moving.
Not that it matters, but Stephen Ponder was first offered the job at Arkansas but turned it down for various reasons.
It is a great move for Wyrick who will now oversee multiple areas (fundraising, marketing, tickets, etc.) vs. only one (fundraising) at USC.
Should LF step down, Charlie Cobb has put himself in great position to be the lead candidate to replace. The thing that he has going for him over Ponder / Wyrick / others is that he has sat in the AD chair AND had success. Additionally, he has outside, “real world” corporate experience. (Note: this in no way suggests that either Ponder or Wyrick wouldn’t be strong candidates.)
Great points by Southbeach
The former Nebraska AD is now the AD at Pitt
Don’t I remember reading some scuttlebutt on one of these sites to the effect that Charlie Cobb was a bit lacking in the people skills area? We certainly don’t need another Amato-esque person who rubs prominant people the wrong way…
From what I have heard, App State donors / fans think the world of Charlie. Apparently, he is a fresh breath for them, someone who visits their tailgates before football games and has a beer with them and talks shop.