?How far along are you in making a short list of candidates??
EMMERT — ?We have only had preliminary discussions, there is no short list and we are only beginning this process right now.?
?Was there every any thought that Gerry would not coach the Arkansas game??
EMMERT — ?Yes that was his choice not to coach the Arkansas game.?
?Did the off the field problems factor into the decision??
EMMERT — ?Both of us were of course disturbed and frustrated by the off the field problems of student athletes. But we were both very pleased with the way Mr. DiNardo handled those circumstances. He has always been extremely good at handling disciplinary problems. I thought it was one of his particular strength.?
?Do you see any difficulty in Mr. Dean?s long-term status??
EMMERT — ?One of the reasons I?m taking such a strong role in the search for the next coach is the term of the next coach will probably cross over after Joe?s retirement. Joe or course can answer some of this for himself, but he and I have discussed this at length and I want to make sure the next coach knows he has the full support of the administration, both the current AD and an AD long into the future.?
?Was there one incident that brought this to a head??
EMMERT — ?No there was no single incident that brought this to this conclusion. We?ve of course been evaluating the program throughout the year. The most important thing to me and to Mr. Dean and the Board of Supervisors is that we make a calm, thoughtful rational assessment of the situation and not react to any one individual event and that is what we have done.?
?How cumbersome is it going to be to interview potential candidates when they don?t know who there AD might be??
EMMERT — ?The athletic director right now is Mr. Dean and Mr. Dean will be an integral and important part of this search process and one of the reasons that I will be involved is to provide assurance that they have the support of the administration. I don?t foresee that as a problem at all.?
?Is there any sort of litmus test required for the next coach??
EMMERT — ?I don?t think that there is one litmus test at all except we want to make sure that it is someone we have a great deal of confidence in. Somebody who has demonstrated their ability to be successful in SEC caliber football. Someone who is well seasoned and we have great confidence in can be successful in this the most competitive football conference.?
?Is the University willing to go into 7 figures to attract an established head coach? DEAN — ?You?re saying you have to go over a million. Are there that many? Let me say this. We will be very competitive in the marketplace.?
?Can you tell us about the tenure of your meeting today with DiNardo??
DEAN — ?It was emotional. He was emotional, I was emotional. Dr. Emmert was emotional. This isn?t easy. We liked him alot. He has great integrity. He is a quality human being. It?s never easy. We wrestled with it. It?s one of the more difficult decisions I?ve ever been involved with.?
?When did you make the decision and when did you tell Coach DiNardo??
EMMERT — ?Mr. Dean and I met with Mr. DiNardo late this morning and had this conversation with him. The final decision to move forward was made over the course of this weekend based upon conversations that had been ongoing. Consideration was given yesterday and the conclusion was that we needed to make a change. It was utterly his decision (not to coach the Arkansas game) and he thought it best for the team and for the program.?
?How did he take it when you gave him the news??
EMMERT — ?Well as Mr. Dean said, it was an emotional conversation. Obviously, he is a deeply committed individual to this program. He would have liked to have stayed and continued coaching for LSU, but he was also very professional.?
?Where is the money for the buyout coming??
DEAN — ?The Athletic Department will make that payment. It is a contract with the state and we can use dollars from within our department to make those payments. It will be $600,000 to buyout Coach DiNardo?s contract.?
At this point a question was asked about status of expansion, question was misinterpreted. Joe Dean spoke on the status of assistant coaches.
DEAN — ?I met with the assistant coaches at 2:30 this afternoon. They will stay on the payroll through the end of the fiscal year unless they get a job prior to that. They were very cooperative. As the Chancellor mentioned, Hal Hunter will be the new head coach. They will continue to recruit and represent this institution the best they can. When the new staff comes in they will begin to ease out. Some of these coaches may be retained by the new head coach and I hope that opportunity presents itself for some of these people.?
?On the expansion ??
EMMERT — ?The decision to deal with Coach DiNardo?s position really didn?t have any bearing on the expansion one way or another. Certainly we want to have the stadium filled and for that we need to have a successful program.
?Joe having gone through a couple of searches already, what?s the most important quality you and Dr. Emmert will look at??
DEAN — ?I think you heard the Chancellor comment that the two of us will lead the charge here and we?re looking for obviously, we?d love to find a top quality head coach. It?s been interesting in the league prior to this year when the Aphetic Directors in this conference have hired coaches, they have hired 1-AA coaches or assistant coaches with the exception of LSU and Florida. Mississippi State hired Jackie Sherill who wasn?t in coaching at the time. I think it tells you how difficult it is to attract a top-flight coach because those who are usually in those institutions are usually pretty happy and paid pretty well. Hopefully, we can attract someone. It?s a quality institution and we have potentially a quality program.?
?You?re not limiting yourself to head coaches.?
EMMERT — It?s an open search. We?re not locked in any one.?
?When were the players notified of this??
DEAN — ?The players had an off-day today unfortunately which hurt. We are trying to get them all together and they are coming in pieces. All the assistant coaches are visiting with the players to make them aware of what?s taking place. There is a meeting of the entire team at 2 p.m. tomorrow and hopefully Coach DiNardo will be there to address the team at the time and all the assistant coaches will be there.?
?You had great athletic success at UConn while you were there, but a little different than football in the SEC. Talk about your concerns in that area.?
EMMERT — ?We had great success in basketball at Connecticut obviously and I had the pleasure of being in the administration at Colorado when we won a national title there. So I?ve been involved in two different kinds of programs, but most directly the experience at Uconn. The fact of the matter is I know how important football is to this university. I have a very good sense how competitive football is in the SEC and I?m utterly committed to do whatever we have to do to have a program together that?s going to have LSU be competitive. I think it translates very well because I know championship programs look like.?
?Do you think next season?s recruiting efforts will be hindered at all by this??
DEAN — ?That?s an impossible question to answer. I hope not. When DiNardo came, we were getting rid of a coach and a new one came and we had one of our better recruiting years. I think it?s possible. We have a number of commitments already and we think they are solid and we have a number of others who we think are interested in our institution. Sam Nader will be key to kind of keeping things together. This group will be diligently working for us so I?m encouraged we will have a good recruiting year.?
?Offense sells. Are you thinking about some offensive mind?
DEAN — ?You?d like all those things. You want the whole package. You?re almost looking for someone who doesn?t exist in a sense all the pieces you want a coach at an institution like this to be. Hopefully, we will find that. It?s part of the equation. I don?t think there is any doubt about that. We?d like an exciting brand of football if we can get it.?
?Explain the hiring process.?
EMMERT — ?We still have some details to work out on that. Obviously we are still in the early stages of that. We?ll have to figure out how we want to proceed in some of those processes. But when it comes to making visits to coaches when those things occur, Joe and I will do it together. We also will have to at the appropriate time get the Board of Supervisors together. They will have to make the ultimate approval of any recommendation we want. But we will be figuring our those strategies as we move forward.?
?By the next meeting you will have one man??
EMMERT — ?That is our hope and that is our intention. But as I said in my statement, we certainly do not want that to hamstring us into making a decision hurriedly. We want to make sure we can do the job.?
?Was Bill Arnsparger brought in the last couple of days as candidate or consultant??
EMMERT — ?No.?
?Would you talk about the conversation with Hal Hunter and what was asked of him during this interim.?
DEAN — ?I met with him just the two of and explained to him. . . he had not heard we had made the change. I explained to him he was the assistant head coach. It was the logical choice and I asked him to assume the role of the interim head coach for the Arkansas game and he agreed to do that.?
?Do you plan on bringing someone with a proven track record??
EMMERT — ?Yes that is certainly our intention and again we want to find someone who had the experience and we have the confidence in him that he can perform successfully over a sustained period of time as our football coach.?
?TAF Involvement??
EMMERT — ?No we want. The Tiger Athletic Foundation is a support organization. It?s not an integral part of the administration. When we get down to bringing in candidates, we may want to have one or two people chat with them, but in terms of the selection and screening process that?s done by the administration.?
?Will anyone be involved besides you two??
EMMERT — ?Yes, doubtlessly there will be some involved and we will have to work out those details as we move forward.?
?Coach with a track record. Is there such a thing??
EMMERT — You never know what?s going to happen and one can only make educated guesses based on the past performances of the individual and we?ll in fact do that. There are a lot of good coaches out there, both head coaches and coordinators and assistant roles and we are going to take a good look at all of those that have records that we think are demonstrations of accomplishments. This is a very attractive position and we?ll wind up with a coach that we can be proud of and can get the job done.?
?Have you been involved in a coaching search before??
EMMERT — I?ve been involved in them but only in basketball programs at Connecticut.?
?What is the structure??
EMMERT — ?Well we?re really just starting to put it together right now. As I said in my prepared comments, we hadn?t really planned to do anything until the end of the season. It was our intention to wait a little longer.?
“After 4-7 season, you gave DiNardo a rollover and your thoughts on that decision?”
DEAN — ?Well he had a five year rollover contract, he had three straight winning seasons and three winning bowl games.. . .He had one losing season and I didn?t want to send a message that we had panicked already. We had a good quality guy and I thought from a recruiting point of view I didn?t want them to think he was suddenly a lame duck.?
“Last week, a mild ground swell of support. Would he be here if LSU hasn?t of lost Saturday??
DEAN — ?I don?t know if I can answer that. I think part of the groundswell was me. I?ve been a big fan of his. It?s very difficult changing coaches. You can tell by the questions, hiring the right coach is not easy. Hiring the right person is not easy. It?s that difficult. I didn?t want to do it again. I kept hoping the team would come together and we?d begin to win some games and that our attitude and feelings about the team would be positive and that just didn?t happen. I don?t know if (losing Saturday the final straw) would be fair. It didn?t help.?