MADISON − Shawn Eichorst’s vision as the Wisconsin Badgers’ next athletic director centers around excellence.
“Just like every place else on campus, we’ve got to be excellent in everything we do,” Eichorst said, “in our work ethic, in our people, in our vision, in our mission, our character, our integrity. … We’re going to be excellent in those things we can control.”
As for how Eichorst – most recently the deputy AD at Texas and the AD at Nebraska and Miami before that – plans to achieve that excellence, here were some of the takeaways from his Zoom call with local and national media members:
Shawn Eichorst is ‘comfortable with where things are financially’
As Eichorst begins his tenure as athletic director at Wisconsin, he has liked what he’s heard from interim chancellor Eric Wilcots about the Badgers’ financial situation.
“I’m comfortable with where things are financially,” Eichorst said. “I’m comfortable with respect to where the landscape is. It’s a challenging landscape. You got to be comfortable when it’s uncomfortable.”
Of course, Eichorst expressed his desire to improve the athletic department’s finances.
“The key with the financial piece is the investments you make,” Eichorst said. “Everybody’s trying to grow their revenue and all that other sort of stuff. But from my perspective, the key is prioritizing the things that make you great and then making those investments.”
Why Wisconsin moved so quickly to replace Chris McIntosh
Wisconsin’s athletic director search was relatively quick.
UW unveiled a search committee and search firm May 12 following Chris McIntosh’s April resignation. Less than two months later, the university was ready to announce Eichorst as its next athletic director.
That timeline was interesting for several reasons. It gave Marcus Sedberry an especially short runway as interim AD. It also meant that UW’s long-term AD will be the one making any necessary leadership decisions in Luke Fickell’s fourth season.
It also meant that Eichorst and any other candidates would be applying without necessarily knowing who their boss would be following Wilcots’ tenure as interim chancellor.
“We need to get our next athletic director in the seat as soon as possible to help us navigate this incredibly rapidly changing landscape,” Wilcots said. “So that got us started. … That’s what set the timing, but even with that timing, the charge was always, ‘We got to find excellence. We got to find the best person to help us do that.’”
What Eichorst took away from his experience with Nebraska football
Several of Nebraska’s sports teams experienced success while Eichorst was in Lincoln. When looking across all sports, the Huskers won three NCAA championships and 10 Big Ten championships during his tenure.
But the coaching change he made with football – the biggest sport and biggest revenue-driver – earned obvious ridicule. He fired Bo Pelini, who had a 67-27 record, and replaced him with Mike Riley. Eichorst’s successor fired Riley after three seasons, and Nebraska still has not won 10-plus games since Pelini’s ouster.
“Football is really important,” Eichorst said. “I get that. I understand that. I played it. I’ve been around the best. I’m connected to the best thought leaders relative to football. I do not make decisions in a vacuum. I try to communicate with as many people as I can with respect to the information I have.”
The takeaway from that experience, Eichorst said, is growth.
“We all learn, especially in times of adversity, resilience,” Eichorst said. “All those things we talk to our young people about – I’m looking in the mirror. I look at it as a positive experience. And moving forward, I’m going to use every ounce of my soul to learn and to listen and to continue to strive to get better.”
Shawn Eichorst’s familiarity with Wisconsin could be asset
Eichorst is returning to an athletic department that played a key part in his career. Before his five years of working under Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin, he was the athletic director at Division III UW-Whitewater. After his tenure, he was in the ACC as the Miami Hurricanes’ athletic director.
“My time there was probably the most transformative for me just because of the excellence and the people in Madison that care about the university and are striving to make it what it is,” Eichorst said. “And that’s world-class.”
But his familiarity with the area goes well beyond his previous work experience in Madison. He is a Lone Rock native, UW-Whitewater alum (and former football team captain) and Marquette Law School alum.
That familiarity could be an asset as he builds the necessary relationships across the state as UW’s athletic director.
“I know the state,” Eichorst said. “I know there’s 72 counties, and I know where Chetek is and Oconomowoc is and Ashland is and all those other sorts of places,” Eichorst said. “For me, there’s a little bit of comfort with that, and I love people. I love getting out.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: AD Shawn Eichorst is comfortable with Wisconsin’s financials, other takeaways
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