Kingston to UCF?

[threestooges]

Wasn't sure where to put this, so if it should go somewhere other than the football forum, my apologies. But, a radio station in Florida says Chris Kingston is the top candidate for the AD job at UCF.

http://www.espn580orlando.com/common/mo ... t_id=11691

UCF's Next Athletic Director
Oct 29, 2015 -- 2:39pm
Sources tell ESPN 580 that Bowling Green Athletic Director Chris Kingston has emerged as the leading candidate for the vacant Athletic Director position at the University of Central Florida. Kingston, who is a UCF alum, has served as the AD at Bowling Green (BGSU) since 2013.

A source familiar with the process says that Kingston’s hiring is not a done deal year, but he is the front runner for the position. The hire is expected to be made in late November or early December.

In Kingston’s two-plus years, BGSU has seen increased success academically across nearly all of the school’s eighteen programs. Kingston has made several important head coach hires the past two years that includes bringing in Michael Hunger as men’s basketball coach in April.

Prior to his stint with Bowling Green, Kingston spent more than two years at North Carolina State University as the Senior Associate Director of Athletics and Executive Senior Director of Athletics.

UCF’s Athletic Director position has been vacant since George O’Leary stepped down as interim-AD on October 12th. UCF has not had a full-time Athletic Director since Todd Stansbury left the school to take the same position at Oregon State in June.

If hired, Kingston will have a full to-do list in Orlando. The Knights are looking for a new head football coach after George O’Leary retired on Sunday. UCF, currently in the American Athletic Conference, is also searching for any way to crack in to a Power 5 conference.

Check back with ESPN 580 for the latest updates on this story.

[MarkL]

If he goes to UCF he'd be great. And if he feels a call to go right the ship at his Alma Mater, nobody can blame him. I just hope it is not the case selfishly because Kingston has done a ton of good in little time here. From the moment he bought his bright orange truck, I knew we had a winner.

[Falcon137]

I like Kingston. But, this is a guy who is replaceable. If he does leave, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kit Hughes takeover.

For what its worth...The director of the Falcon Club also recently left.

Could be some serious turnover by December 31st.

[rc_ziggy84]

The Orlando sports radio guys I listen to on the way into work were talking about this as a definite possibility too. Babers name came up as possible coaching fit for UCF, too. It was only mentioned that Babers could coach b/c they thought Kingston was a good candidate.

[jpfalcon09]

Certainly wouldn't fault Kingston for taking the job, however if he and Babers do leave, I hope the university puts in clauses for a new coach and AD that the school who hires them away owes BG compensation in return. I believe other schools have enacted this policy recently. If we're going to be poaching grounds for bigger schools, might as well get something in return for it.

[hammb]

Certainly wouldn't fault Kingston for taking the job, however if he and Babers do leave, I hope the university puts in clauses for a new coach and AD that the school who hires them away owes BG compensation in return. I believe other schools have enacted this policy recently. If we're going to be poaching grounds for bigger schools, might as well get something in return for it.

I seem to recall when we hired Babers that we put a pretty big buyout clause in his contract.

I want to say that a big buyout was part of Clawson's contract extension as well before he left.


We should always be putting big buyout clauses in our coaching contracts for football and basketball. If we hit a big time coach we WILL lose him. It's not if, it's when. We should do our very best to ensure the buyout is something that can help recoup some of the pain of losing a coach.

And I don't really see the negative for the coaches either. These buyouts are a nice chunk of change for an AD like ours, but they're not gonna stop a big program from swiping a coach they covet.

[mscarn]

I like Kingston. But, this is a guy who is replaceable. If he does leave, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kit Hughes takeover.

For what its worth...The director of the Falcon Club also recently left.

Could be some serious turnover by December 31st.

That guy just got here. Hate to see that type of instability in the most important position in the department.

There are a lot of if's here, but it might have to be Hughes because having the position vacant or filled by an interim would make hiring a football coach extremely difficult in the event Babers leaves. All my interactions with him have been positive, but you'd want this position to be thoroughly vetted regardless of the atrocious timing given its importance.

They've got a lot to figure out here. Kinston always struck me as a person who loved his Army experience more than where he went to college, but as always money talks. This will remain a great place to work and raise a family for whoever is occupying that office.

[Globetrotter]

LETS THINK ABOUT THIS YEAR ONLY!!!!!!

[jpfalcon09]

LETS THINK ABOUT THIS YEAR ONLY!!!!!!

Valid point. I hope none of this chatter becomes a distraction to the team or coaching staff. With social media, these things spread like wildfire and everyone and their brother ends up hearing about it.

[kdog27]

LETS THINK ABOUT THIS YEAR ONLY!!!!!!

Original post says the hiring could be November or December.

[Falcon137]

LETS THINK ABOUT THIS YEAR ONLY!!!!!!

Original post says the hiring could be November or December.

Sarcasm guys....

[kdog27]

Yeah... more than aware of that.

[Flipper]

Hard to say how I'd feel about Kingston leaving...I think he's done some great stuff on the promotions end...bringing diving back so swimming and diving can compete was good. I don't know enough about the behind the scenes fundraising and administrative dealings to know how that's going. He didn't appear to do a complete job of vetting Chris Jans as there was some talk after last spring's fiasco that he was a known barfly in Wichita. Babers looks like a good hire and Huger is saying a lot of the right things so far.

For continuity's sake...it'd be better if he'd stay...but I honestly don't know if he's doing a great job or not because I'm largely ignorant re the workings of the department

[threestooges]

I like Kingston. But, this is a guy who is replaceable. If he does leave, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kit Hughes takeover.

For what its worth...The director of the Falcon Club also recently left.

Could be some serious turnover by December 31st.

That guy just got here. Hate to see that type of instability in the most important position in the department.

While I agree that the Falcon Club is important, the guy who left (Chris Hawthorne) was third in command, at best. I don't know what his title was, & I'm too lazy to go look it up, but Jane Myers is an assistant AD and Dan Meyer is an assistant, or maybe even an associate, AD. They both are higher up on the food chain than Hawthorne was. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but I get the sense Hawthorne's job at BG was one of those fancy-title-in-lieu-of-salary jobs.

[Falcon Fanatic]

I will be very sad if he leaves. He's been a breath of fresh air and is a very, very personable guy. He loves the students, promotes the teams very well, especially through Twitter and for me personally, he got it from Day 1 that our hockey team could win another National Championship and promotes that team very well.

I am honestly hoping he has liked it here well enough to stay for a long time!!