Eastern hires Tim Collins as new AD

[Griz til I die]

https://goeags.com/news/2023/6/9/general-tim-collins-named-new-director-of-athletics-at-ewu.aspx
For those of you who haven't heard, Eastern AD Lynn Hickey retired on June 1st, and today they announced the hiring of Tim Collins as their new AD. Spent the last 5 years as the Associate AD for Development (fundraising) at Fresno State, and prior to that served in the same role at Wyoming from 2013-18. He's also a former D2 assistant Basketball coach as well which is interesting. You never know with these guys, but on paper this looks like a pretty good hire. The most help that Eastern definitely needs is in fundraising and it sounds like this guy is perfect. He's also a younger guy so he's definitely looking to use this as a stepping stool to a bigger job, so I'm sure he'll be looking to make big splashes righ away if it means getting him out of Cheney. We'll see how it works out for them in the coming years!

 

[griz4life]

I can't think of a Big Sky Conference school other than Northern Colorado, where AD could be a worse job. Even ISU would have to be better than Eastern.

 

[Griz til I die]

I can't think of a Big Sky Conference school other than Northern Colorado, where AD could be a worse job. Even ISU would have to be better than Eastern.

IDK, I think ISU would be pretty shitty. Eastern's on a little bit better footing then they were 2 years ago. ISU is just horrible. Without question the worst facilities in the conference and literally no fan support. At least Eastern has a little bit of that

 

[3-7-77]

You speak the truth. I lived in Pokey for 13 years. Football wise, they can count on about 4,000 'fans' per game at the start of the season. That includes the hoards of kids that accompany their parents. Mormons are prolific, y'know. Attendance improves over the course of the season, with the highlights being when the Griz and its thousands of tailgaters arrive, and Weber State. I've never seen Holt sold out. The 'College Atmosphere' doesn't exist, no Delta Tau Chi. Boring as hell. Like Cheney, its a commuter college as witnessed by the congestion on I-15 in the morning and late afternoon. I think their fan base has all died off, as their NC was in 1981. Forty-two years. :roll:

 

[Wolf777]

https://goeags.com/news/2023/6/9/general-tim-collins-named-new-director-of-athletics-at-ewu.aspx
For those of you who haven't heard, Eastern AD Lynn Hickey retired on June 1st, and today they announced the hiring of Tim Collins as their new AD. Spent the last 5 years as the Associate AD for Development (fundraising) at Fresno State, and prior to that served in the same role at Wyoming from 2013-18. He's also a former D2 assistant Basketball coach as well which is interesting. You never know with these guys, but on paper this looks like a pretty good hire. The most help that Eastern definitely needs is in fundraising and it sounds like this guy is perfect. He's also a younger guy so he's definitely looking to use this as a stepping stool to a bigger job, so I'm sure he'll be looking to make big splashes righ away if it means getting him out of Cheney. We'll see how it works out for them in the coming years!

Seems like a good hire, but do you really see him making headway with that board of trustees?

 

[footballdood]

https://goeags.com/news/2023/6/9/general-tim-collins-named-new-director-of-athletics-at-ewu.aspx
For those of you who haven't heard, Eastern AD Lynn Hickey retired on June 1st, and today they announced the hiring of Tim Collins as their new AD. Spent the last 5 years as the Associate AD for Development (fundraising) at Fresno State, and prior to that served in the same role at Wyoming from 2013-18. He's also a former D2 assistant Basketball coach as well which is interesting. You never know with these guys, but on paper this looks like a pretty good hire. The most help that Eastern definitely needs is in fundraising and it sounds like this guy is perfect. He's also a younger guy so he's definitely looking to use this as a stepping stool to a bigger job, so I'm sure he'll be looking to make big splashes righ away if it means getting him out of Cheney. We'll see how it works out for them in the coming years!

Seems like a good hire, but do you really see him making headway with that board of trustees?

Maybe? One major issue EWU faces when it comes to facilities is that under state low, public funds cannot be used for to renovate athletic facilities so all monies need to be donated. EWU screwed up royally by trying to push the Gateway project (which would have been amazing) in the years following their NC and dominance of the Big Sky which at ~75m was waaaaay beyond the scope of what they realistically could gotten in a reasonable amount of time.

The newer renovation at $25m was what they should have gone with from the get-go. On paper this looks like a great hire and really addresses the big need that EWU needs which is funds coming in. Then again the previous AD on paper looked like an amazing hire too and I guess she turned out to be ok. She got some stuff started, a few improvements here and there, but honestly nothing too earth shattering.

Spokane has demonstrated they will come out for football game, even when it's not a Montana team playing, if there's something to get them excited about. Now that EWU is back down to earth, some noise around a stadium renovation is the most likely thing to garner interest.

I don't see EWU making any noise on the field until after Best is fired or resigns. Yes, he's only had one disaster of a season, but it's been pretty obvious this was brewing for some time and I really don't see him rebuilding EWU anywhere back to where they used to be...

 

[SoldierGriz]

Seems like a good hire, but do you really see him making headway with that board of trustees?

Maybe? One major issue EWU faces when it comes to facilities is that under state low, public funds cannot be used for to renovate athletic facilities so all monies need to be donated. EWU screwed up royally by trying to push the Gateway project (which would have been amazing) in the years following their NC and dominance of the Big Sky which at ~75m was waaaaay beyond the scope of what they realistically could gotten in a reasonable amount of time.

The newer renovation at $25m was what they should have gone with from the get-go. On paper this looks like a great hire and really addresses the big need that EWU needs which is funds coming in. Then again the previous AD on paper looked like an amazing hire too and I guess she turned out to be ok. She got some stuff started, a few improvements here and there, but honestly nothing too earth shattering.

Spokane has demonstrated they will come out for football game, even when it's not a Montana team playing, if there's something to get them excited about. Now that EWU is back down to earth, some noise around a stadium renovation is the most likely thing to garner interest.

I don't see EWU making any noise on the field until after Best is fired or resigns. Yes, he's only had one disaster of a season, but it's been pretty obvious this was brewing for some time and I really don't see him rebuilding EWU anywhere back to where they used to be...

The new AD will pull the trigger quickly. They hang their hats on coaches they hired...Best is a fired man walking.