New Miami AD Radakovich willing to explore football stadium near campus, eager to begin job
New University of Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich is ready to tackle numerous issues and explore considerable challenges — including a football stadium closer to the Coral Gables campus.
Just hours after he was announced Thursday as UM’s vice president and director of athletics, Radakovich, 63, the outgoing AD at Clemson, spoke via Zoom with members of the Miami media.
Among the topics he covered: a Hurricanes football home other than Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, where the Hurricanes and Dolphins play; what he needed as far as support to accept the job; his conversation Wednesday with new Miami football coach Mario Cristobal; and UM’s basketball and baseball programs.
The football stadium has been an issue down here for a while, is that a priority of yours?
“I guess I’ve been very fortunate at all the places I’ve worked we’ve had a campus stadium or a near-campus stadium. Hard Rock Stadium is just fabulous. I mean it’s a wonderful place to play, but it’s a little far from campus. If you have something that’s close by, the benefits to the entire campus community are almost immeasurable. So, if that’s something that can happen we’re going to pursue it to its logical conclusion. I know it’s been tried before, but certainly there are things we can look at to try to create an opportunity if one exists for that to happen.
“I did not sit in an interview with [UM chief of staff] Rudy [Fernandez] and president Frenk and everyone and say, ‘That’s exactly what we need to do and we have to go and get that done,’ because that might not happen for 100 reasons that you guys know better than I do right now. But it’s that pursuit to see if it could happen and the manner it could happen I think it’s going to be a worthwhile endeavor.”
In taking the job what did you need as far as support or things you wanted in place here to accept it?
“As it relates to what I need, I just need to be able to know that I can go to the administration with needs for resources that are going to be explained and understandable in an ROI [return of investment] perspective [that] if we do this, this is what we think are going to be some of the results that come from that. And not all the ROIs are dollars and cents. A lot of them have to do with just an upgraded student-athlete experience, a better recruiting opportunity to bring qualified and talented student-athletes to the campus.
“And I think after awhile people just need to be able to have another set of eyes that are invested to come in and say, ‘Here are the things that maybe we need to consider doing.’ And I’m pretty sure you’re never going to get all of them, but let’s prioritize those and see how we can move forward. I can’t tell you what they are today. I haven’t stepped foot on the campus since a basketball game six years ago. But I do know there are things that we need to be able to do to prop up all of our programs and give a better experience to our student-athletes.”
On his Zoom call Wednesday with Cristobal:
“It was fairly quick, but I love his enthusiasm. You can then take the enthusiasm and how he wants to pull everything together. That’s great. But you also have to look at his results. Both at FIU as a head coach and at Oregon. Those results were very, very good.
“Then I talked to coach [Nick] Saban about him. Nick was very forthright and gave an incredibly positive recommendation to something that’s important to me, which is work ethic. He said, ‘No one will outwork Mario Cristobal.’ He said, ‘That just won’t happen.’
“I had that conversation before I was on the Zoom call with Mario and it was very evident that was a very, very true statement. So, he’s going to pull together his staff, how it all comes together and how he changes the culture.”
What makes you confident that some of the resources you’ve asked for you will get, when it’s been a struggle at UM in the last decade to keep up with resources?
“You always have to take people at their word, especially people who were so passionate in talking about what they wanted to do with the program. I have my MBA from the University of Miami, so I did kind of look a little bit at the financials of the whole place, and they’re strong. So I feel good about that. I also feel good about the want and the desire of the leaders from president Frenk to members of the board to the upper administration in being able to take as they described it to me, this third vertical of the institution — teaching and research, health services and athletics. Athletics being the third vertical.
“And that’s important when you put it on the same shelf as those two incredible parts of the institutions. They’ve had their infusion and they continue to create positive ROIs for the institution in general. [Athletics] may not have had all that yet. So our charge is to make sure, understanding what the need and necessary resources are, to be able to make it another very profitable, not only from a dollar-and-cents standpoint but from a reputation and community espirit decore piece for the institution.
“Just looking forward to that challenge. I believe them and I want to be a part of that growth.”
What are your impressions of basketball coach Jim Larranaga and baseball coach Gino DiMare and what are fair expectations for success in both sports?
“I know coach Larranaga just a little bit. The Hurricanes beat Clemson on Saturday, so that’s all I wanted to know of him. They were able to win that game.
“He has built a very, very solid program as it relates to basketball. And I really look forward to both he and Katie Meier, from the basketball perspective to see where do they need to go and how can we from an administrative circumstance assist them there? As far as an expectation goes, that’s way too early. I don’t even have my Florida driver’s license yet. We’ll wait for expectations at that point in time.
“Gino DiMare and the baseball program is legendary. One of the members of our Board of Trustees, Alex Rodriguez, the park is named after him and he is an incredible benefactor. Baseball is important at the University of Miami.
“I spoke to both Jim and Gino [Thursday] afternoon just to introduce myself and say hello. I have known Gino’s father Paul [DiMare] for, my gosh, probably 40 years and just consider him an incredible friend.
“Sometimes you take cues from people you know. My current baseball coach Monte Lee really thinks the world of Gino and how he is working with the program. So, I’ll take some time and make sure I get to know Gino and see what you need to be able to be successful.
“Baseball has changed a lot from an intercollegiate perspective over the last 10 years. We need to see how the institution and how we can help allow, like some of the other private schools have been able to do some really good things in baseball. Is there a piece of that missing? I don’t know because I don’t know the inner workings of that right now.
“The men’s basketball program and baseball program are crucially important to the overall esprit de corps of our athletic program. It’s important to have success because success does breed success in our other programs as well.”
Radakovich, among other topics he covered, ended his conversation by saying “It’s going to be a lot of fun, guys.
“This business, you gotta have fun doing it. And I know guys all enjoy your job, and as [football] coach [Dabo] Swinney said more times than I’d like to remember, ‘The fun is in the winning.’ So let’s make sure we have a lot of fun here.’’
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 5:45 PM.
