There’s a lot to like about Laird Veatch.
That’s why the Memphis athletics director since October 2019 was an early and obvious entry on any decent list of names to know for Mizzou’s AD search, including ours. Now that Veatch is going to become Mizzou’s AD, some might turn the lack of a surprise factor into a reason to feel underwhelmed. I’d advise against that reaction.
If you had jotted down a list of experiences, qualities and accomplishments you wanted Mizzou’s next AD to have after Desiree Reed-Francois made a surprise departure to Arizona, the former Kansas State linebacker and team captain under coach Bill Snyder should check many of your boxes.
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That includes the most important one: Veatch, unlike Reed-Francois, wants to be at Mizzou and is willing to embrace the challenges it will throw at him, including maximizing a relationship with a board of curators that has significant and increasing say in athletic department doings. Reed-Francois pulled the Mack Rhoades ripcord. She did what she thought was best for her situation.
Veatch was a candidate before Reed-Francois got the job the last time around and again after. That means he knows what he’s getting into and still wants it. Good sign.
Proven success running a high-performing athletics department that operates under big expectations? Check. Memphis is no mid-major. Memphis football, in case you stopped following it after Eli Drinkwitz’s program narrowly beat the other Tigers in the Dome at America’s Center last season, finished the season with 10 wins after beating Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl. It was Memphis’ third consecutive bowl win. Coach Ryan Silverfield is 31-18 at Memphis since Veatch hired him.
Veatch didn’t hire Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway, but the basketball Tigers never have won fewer than 20 games in a season — and have qualified for two NCAA Tournaments — during Veatch’s Memphis stint. Memphis’ revenue sports are trucking right along.
Massive fundraising success? Check. As in, check out the $25 million commitment FedEx just made to Memphis for its name, image and likeness efforts. Veatch made Memphis one of the first schools to hire an NIL director. Mizzou’s NIL efforts are roaring. Veatch can turn up the volume even more.
Recent Southeastern Conference experience? Check. Before Memphis, Veatch led capital improvement projects, quarterbacked football sports administrator duties and worked as the primary liaison with Florida’s biggest boosters. Have you met a Florida booster? Real-life gators can be more temperamental. Veatch logged years of heavy lifting at his K-State alma mater and at Texas, too. Oh yeah, Texas is in the SEC now. Oklahoma, too. More pressure on Veatch. Good thing he’s power-conference pressure tested.
Mizzou connection? Check. Here’s this, straight from his old Memphis bio:
“He spent his formative years at Missouri (1997-2002), the last three as assistant athletics director for development, where he oversaw fundraising activities for the athletics department with special emphasis on facility and capital fundraising projects. A major contributor to Mizzou’s record growth in total giving, Veatch managed the Tiger Scholarship fund annual giving program and directed Mizzou’s $102 million comprehensive Capital Campaign.”
Some of those old Mizzou ties should help him now, and we’re not talking about the black-and-gold ones buried deep in his Memphis closet. Fundraising, specifically for an ambitious plan to renovate Memorial Stadium by the 2026 kickoff, is at the top of his to-do list.
Right up there with it, as outlined in clear detail by curator Bob Blitz, who led the search that led to Veatch, is helping Drinkwitz lead the Tigers to the College Football Playoff. Mizzou’s hope, and no one is being shy about it, is that renewed football success can sustain and become the rising tide that lifts boats across both the athletics department and campus. It’s worked before. It can again.
There will be wise cracks, I’m sure, about Mizzou taking two months and spending at least $125,000 on a search firm to lock in a known potential target. Unless you count women’s basketball coach Robin Pingeton getting another season to potentially save her job, was there a lot of downside to the timing? Nothing delayed the department’s plans for finalizing and presenting its football stadium renovations.
Drinkwitz and men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates continue to pile up impressive commitments from the high school and transfer-portal ranks. Interim AD Marcy Girton rallied the department and kept things moving forward. The slowly-but-surely pace produced multiple discussions with Veatch that set him apart from the pack.
As for the search-firm money, I get it. It’s a great business to be in because pretty much every notable school making a significant hiring uses one. Look, the point is these are small-potato objections as long as Mizzou hired the right person.
If Veatch both succeeds and stays, which are two things no Mizzou AD since Mike Alden has done, then the time and money spent were investments into a future in which Mizzou athletics finally can stop talking about stability and start benefiting from it. It’s overdue.
Laird Veatch could be officially introduced in Columbia as soon as Friday. His start date will be May 1, though his starting salary is unclear.