The decision to wait and write a column about Ole Miss’ new AD hire turned out to be a good one on my part. Instead of writing that I thought Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones and the search committee hit a home run with the hiring of Ross Bjork on Thursday, I instead get to say they hit a grand slam on Friday.
Ok, I know I shouldn’t get too carried away with the praise. There are times when one writes a column for a living and then goes overboard gushing about a person or a team and then it comes back to bite them. But seriously, what’s not to like about the Bjork hiring? He’s energetic, well spoken and he’s accomplished a lot so far.
There were a reported 10 candidates who were either interviewed and or seriously vetted in the process of finding Pete Boone’s replacement as AD. Some of them had more experience at being an AD compared to Bjork, but very few, if any, had as much experience as Bjork has accumulated in overall college athletics. Bjork may be 39, but he’s already done a lot at several different stops. He has criss-crossed the country trying to improve his resume and learn as much about the collegiate athletic landscape as he could.
He has been at the University of Missouri, Miami, UCLA and Western Kentucky in the past decade and his contributions have been felt at each place. His former boss at Miami, Paul Dee, spoke very highly of Bjork on Thursday when he found out he was Ole Miss’ new AD. He recalled his great organizational skills, his keen ability to raise money and his unique ability to make a great first impression.
UCLA AD Dan Guerrero told the Clarion Ledger that Bjork was a “rising star” in the AD profession, while Mississippi State’s AD, Scott Stricklin, called him a friend and seemed to show genuine respect via his Twitter account.
Positive vibe
Bjork gives off a vibe that makes you feel he is going to accomplish big things at Ole Miss, whether that is through fundraising, hiring a new coach or uniting the fan base. Bjork exudes confidence.
“Uniting” was a word former Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning used again during his comments about Bjork’s hire. He called for all Rebel fans to “come together, get on board and be all in.”
Those were wise words spoken from a man who has been very true to Ole Miss over the years. But to me, an Ole Miss fan who isn’t excited about Bjork’s hiring doesn’t really grasp how big of an accomplishment it was to land him.
The information and the knowledge he was exposed to at Miami, Missouri and UCLA can only help every Ole Miss program going. It’s one thing to hire a candidate with new, fresh ideas, but Bjork takes the cake in that regard. You don’t stay at places like UCLA, which has won 128 national team championships, for five years if you’re not doing a very, very good job. You don’t get put in charge of hiring the men’s basketball coach at Miami at a time when the program is transitioning from the Big East to the ACC without being shrewd and organized. And you don’t become an AD at age 37, regardless the size of the school or conference, without bringing a lot of accolades to the table.
We don’t know how the future is going to for Bjork, but if his past stops are any indication, the future should be a very bright one for Ole Miss athletics, the student-athletes and the fans that help make this entire experience possible. (March 23, 2012, Page 6A)

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