Castiglione's legacy to be determined, not that it should have to be
However SEC works out for Sooners, longtime AD's impact ought to stand alone
The worst thing Joe Castiglione ever did as University of Oklahoma director of athletics, with the possible exception of placing the Sooners in a conference in which they may never catch up competitively or monetarily, on the football field and men’s basketball court at least, is be too flowery, too positive, too over the top and just plain too much when excited by his department’s possibilities.
I’ve kidded him about what he said the day Lon Kruger arrived to replace Jeff Capel, a fine successor to Kelvin Sampson until he suddenly wasn’t. Yet, maybe you can’t blame him given he filled Howard McCasland Field House for the introduction.
“OU men’s basketball is on the way to the top in the United States of America,” Castiglione bellowed to the full house.
Like, who’s ever invoked the nation’s full, unabbreviated name without seriously feeling their oats?
Not Castiglione, that’s who.
It was too much, and still that’s all it was because it was genuine, too.
He never minded performing, nor has he said anything knowingly false while representing it to be true, I’m pretty sure.
That’s enough for me.
I, though, am just a writer.
That he hired Bob Stoops; that he hired Stoops’ successor, he who shall not be named, who won 55 games in five seasons and took OU to three four-team playoffs; that he hired K.J. Kindler and kept Patty Gasso happy and on board; that he hired Jennie Baranczyk, getting at least one of two hires right that April; that he finally gave in and handed Sunny Golloway the job after Gene Stephenson gave it back, and after Pete Hughes ran his course as Golloway’s successor, that he went in-house to elevate Skip Johnson … well, that ought to be enough for everybody.
Also, an aside, because it doesn’t get talked about enough, Castiglione’s hire of Stoops remains even better than you think.
Stoops won just the one national championship, but his teams played for three more in 2003, ’04 and ’08 and he got the Sooners to the four-team playoff in ’15, too.
He kept the program on top for a long, long time, dominating the Big 12 pretty much the whole time, maintaining Sooner football as a cultural and economic force.
Stoops’ hire meant not having to worry about football for two decades, Rhett Bomar and Joe Mixon aside, which is utterly humongous.
Why take stock?
Because now it’s Castiglione’s who needs replacing.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel broke the story, letting the cat out of the bag on Twitter Monday morning. Then, today, Castiglione spoke for himself and others did, too (and you can read a great story about that right here).
Thamel’s reporting over several tweets spelled out what’s happening and much of what’s happened since Castiglione arrived from Missouri on April 30, 1998.
“Sources: Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione will retire from his full-time role during the upcoming school year, bringing an end to the longest-tenured run for a current AD in major college sports. Upon the hiring of his successor, he will stay on as athletic director emeritus …
“Castiglione, 67, initiated the conversation about his retirement with school officials nearly a month ago, per sources, and they landed on this plan together. It allows OU to search for his replacement this year and aid a smooth transition …
“The timing of the move will allow OU to make a hire in the upcoming months and transition with Castiglione on campus …
“His tenure has seen 26 national titles, OU’s move to the SEC and the hiring of Bob Stoops to run the football program. There’s been a football national title, five Final Four runs — two men’s and three women’s — and eight softball titles.”
Still, there’s more.
It’s not just that Castiglione hired Stoops, but that when it turned into a national championship so quickly, he was Johnny-on-the-spot to leverage it into so many capital projects and infrastructure improvements, rebuilding Sooner athletic facilities and stature, making the fiefdom he ran an athletic department on the move and destination folks wanted to reach, which led to a whole bunch of great hires, many already mentioned.
But not all …
Mark Williams to run men’s gymnastics; Ryan Hybl to run men’s golf; John Roddick to run men’s tennis; Audra Cohen to run women’s tennis; even bringing Santiago Restrepo in to breathe real life into a typically sleepy volleyball program.
Soccer success has remained elusive.
Still, talk about a run
Castiglione’s still responsible for Brent Venables, that’s true, but he’s also responsible for the implementation of what’s bound to succeed Venables or, should the Sooner defensive coordinator finally figure out head coaching, work alongside him as long as he stays.
That’s the player-personnel infrastructure led by football general manager Jim Nagy, a requirement and model at which all major programs will eventually arrive.
Heck, even if Nagy doesn’t survive, the structure will and Castiglione has OU leading, not following, with its implementation.
Porter Moser’s still hanging around, but as long as Castiglione’s successor — I’ll take Mississippi State athletic director Zac Selmon, son of Dewey, nephew of Lee Roy and Lucious and a Norman High graduate, too, in the betting pool — doesn’t give him a contract extension carrying yet another ridiculous buyout, that mistake’s bound to be resolved soon enough.
And just maybe Castiglione deserves some leeway, for moving from one conference to another is hard enough without conducting a coaching search for your No. 2 program (or No. 3 behind softball).
Which leads to his legacy.
Unfortunately, it’s bound to get tied up in Venables’ success or lack of it and the Sooners’ at-large success or lack of it in their new conference, the SEC, which just happens to be the nation’s most difficult football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, softball, baseball and women’s gymnastics conference, too.
And, because those two eventualities remain very much up in the air, so, too, is how Castiglione will ultimately be regarded.
But it shouldn’t.
If OU’s SEC entry works out, he’ll be a rightful, first-ballot legend, no ifs ands or buts. If it doesn’t, though he may not get, say, Switzer status, he might still deserve it.
For thousands of good decisions, so many championships, national and conference, for making Sooner athletics the behemoth it’s become, an enterprise so profitable its given millions to the university’s general fund rather than the other way around, and doing it virtually scandal free, Castiglione’s earned it.
For being a terrific just-before-the-tip, willing-to-talk-shop dinner companion, he’ll be appreciated, too.
It matters.
Because not running from us meant not running from the fans.
Good show.
Maybe the best show.
For years and years and years.
Excellent recap of Joe C. He will be missed. By the way, Zac Selmon is AD of Mississippi State, not Ole Miss.