Athletics Director Ross Bjork speaks at the freshman athletics convocation. / (Quentin Winstine)
BY AUSTIN MILLER
akmiller90@gmail.com
Expectations have been raised, but the goals remain the same as athletics director Ross Bjork reflects on the 2012-13 athletic year and looks ahead to 2013-14. Last year’s message centered on building confidence and building resources. This year, the message is centered on continuing to grow the program.
“I don’t know how many games we can win, or we will win; no one knows that, but I know what our goals are,” Bjork said. “Our goals are to be the best and win championships. And in between the foundation and winning championships, we have got to continue to perform at our highest level. That’s what the expectations are all about. They are performing at the highest level possible and continuing to build.”
Michael Thompson, senior associated athletics director for communications and marketing, described this past year as “getting shot out of a cannon, and we’re on a great trajectory.” He said he felt like something shifted in the Egg Bowl but, like Bjork, said it was more about the process and the journey than the results themselves, on and off the field.
“I don’t know if there’s one or two singular moments,” Thompson said. “To me, it’s like pebbles in the bucket. You keep putting them in, and then the thing gets pretty heavy. It’s so many little things that add up to what feels like a positive and exciting trajectory and where we all know where we’re headed.”
First-year head football coach Hugh Freeze led a five-win turnaround and guided the Rebels to a bowl game for the first time in three years, then the men’s basketball program ended a 10-year NCAA tournament drought with an SEC tournament championship run. The baseball, men’s tennis and men’s track and field programs are all ranked in the top 25 and are preparing for NCAA championships later this spring. Bjork made two new hires in track and field head coach Brian O’Neal and women’s basketball head coach Matt Insell.
On the heels of his SEC tournament championship and NCAA tournament appearance, men’s basketball head coach Andy Kennedy’s contract was extended to run through 2017, which includes a base salary of $1.8 million. The university will break ground on a new basketball arena in 2014, and it remains scheduled to open for the 2015-16 season, according to Bjork.
“It’s a big boost,” Bjork said of the men’s basketball season. “It shows that we can compete on a national level. It shows that we can win an SEC championship. And that gives people confidence that now is the time to continue that investment, to get involved in the arena project, to get involved in our campaign. If we have those resources, then we can do it.”
As part of the $150 million Forward Together campaign, Ole Miss has begun on the $12.5 million renovation and expansion of the Indoor Practice Facility, which includes the addition of a nutrition center and dining hall.
Bjork also helped lead the rebranding of the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation, formerly The University of Mississippi Athletics Association, while contributions to Forward Together have risen from $62 million to more than $82 million since he took over last spring.
“The rebrand said to everyone, ‘You can be a part of it,’ no matter what because it’s about Ole Miss, it’s about athletics, it’s about foundation, and everyone knows what that means, and that means a way to give,” Bjork said. “The response has been terrific, and it gives you a new way to think about Ole Miss athletics, about being involved.”
Since the rebranding, 1,200 new members have joined the foundation, and 34,000 football season tickets have been sold.
“Off the field, I’m really pleased with the response of confidence and commitment to our standpoint where people see that, they get excited about that, and they get emotional about that,” Bjork said. “I see people tear up as they talk to us about what we’re building and how we’re doing it, and the work ethic and the attitude and the effort that we’re putting forward. That makes you feel good that there is a purpose behind all of this.”
A lot of that excitement comes from the extensive national exposure Ole Miss received in the past year. From the Egg Bowl victory and the BBVA Compass Bowl to National Signing Day and the SEC and NCAA tournament runs, Bjork said that you can’t put a price tag on all that exposure, and it extends beyond athletics.
“I think that’s what everybody is trying to do at Ole Miss, to change how people view the university, not just athletics, but academically, socially and everything,” Bjork said. “I think what athletics can do, our role, is provide a marketing vehicle for the institution. I think it means a great deal to put us on a relevant national stage to continue to attract students, to continue to attract donors, to continue to attract people who want to invest in Ole Miss, in whatever way they can. We are seeing that in admission application, in fundraising and in athletics.”
Thompson said, as an athletics department, they’re aware of the increased expectations that come with this past year’s on-field success and look to carry momentum into next year.
“We’re never going to settle,” Thompson said. “I think that’s where you get really far behind and not really know it. You just wake up one day and all of a sudden, maybe the teams aren’t winning as much, and a big chunk of your fan base is eroded.”
Looking back on his first year in Oxford, Bjork said his plan that he laid out in his introductory press conference has not changed. He said the biggest challenge was the volume of communication and media scrutiny of athletics programs on the biggest stage in college athletics, the Southeastern Conference.
“I did not realize how deep the passion was, and you can’t really measure that when you’re in an interview situation,” Bjork said. “When you start right away, you don’t really measure that because you don’t have a sense of it.”
Bjork said that now that he’s been here a year, he really senses just how deep the passion is for this program.
