Tim McMurray was introduced on October 1, 2015 as the Athletic Director at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Tim was kind enough to take time out of busy schedule to sit down with College AD and discuss his plan for his first 90 days in office. As well as giving an inside look as to what attracted him to Texas A&M University-Commerce and what Lion fans can expect from Tim McMurray as their AD.
College AD: You’ve got a very diverse background from working in five different athletic departments to then launching and running your own company. For Texas A&M Commerce fans who may not know about you, can you talk a little bit about yourself and why you felt you were the right fit for Commerce?
Tim McMurray: If I had just been at NIU, SMU, and Maryland, Commerce would probably not be the right institutional fit. But because of the other two windows that I’ve seen athletics from, Lamar and Texas State, formerly Southwest Texas, both at the time were very, very similar to A&M Commerce in terms of resources and competitive level. And both of those schools were actually former Lone Star conference members. So, being very familiar with the Lone Star conference, having grown up in this state, and having roots in the state, it was very attractive. Quite frankly, what attracted me to the position, in addition to the chance to be an athletic director and lead a program that’s on the rise, was the president’s vision.
CAD: Can you walk us through the interview process?
TM: So first of all, there was a Skype round that was done, and then there were four of us invited to campus. I was the first to go and I actually liked that. I feel like you get a chance to set the tone and set the bar, good or bad, and then you’ve gotten it out of the way. Now, unfortunately then it becomes “hurry up and wait”, and that was a little bit stressful. I got in there on a Monday night. Commerce being just a little over an hour drive from Dallas meant there weren’t a lot of travel logistics to work out. I got there and I actually just spent some time on campus, walking around, talked to some students, got a feel for the town, dropped off some presentation materials at the president’s office, and the chair of the search committee, Alicia Currin, just to give them some additional information on the front end. The interview process started on Tuesday, with President Dan Jones right out of the chute. Next I was able to meet with the coaches, senior staff, the athletic council – over a working lunch. I then met with members of the university executive council and the president’s advisory council, which is basically the five VP’s that report directly to him. Finally there was a wrap-up that evening with Alicia Currin, the chair of the search committee.
It was a great day, though, and it really set the tone because, whether it was the chief of police, the director of enrollment services, financial aid, admissions, they all come up to me in different settings and said, “We really want athletics to be successful. We’re excited that you’re here.”
CAD: In your introductory press conference, you were very complimentary towards Dr. Jones, the president, as well as your predecessor, and what they had done for Commerce. Can you go into a little bit of detail about that?
TM: The job would not have attracted the candidate pool that it did, in my opinion, without the work of Dr. Jones and Ryan Ivey. Any time you have sitting ADs in a pool, people with more than 10 years of experience, or 15 years of experience or whatever the magic number is, that means that the job’s attractive, because of what was done there. Obviously the athletic director’s job is a launching pad, because of the work that Ryan did, building the team, and putting structure in place. As I said in the press conference, it’s now a matter of taking the baton rather than having to build the track.
As far as the institution itself, Dr. Jones talked to me about several important things. First and foremost, maintaining the culture of compliance that’s been built here. We need to assess and improve our metrics of our donor and fan base. The thing that really excites me, because I’ve done it at multiple institutions, and really enjoy talking about this process, is he wants a five-year strategic plan. And that’ll cover everything, obviously. What we’re doing from a student athlete experience perspective, facilities – both needs and any new potential facilities – sports, competitive, where we rank in the Lone Star, where we need to go, and those type of things, and what our coaches need to be successful. That vision for athletic facilities I mentioned, we won six Lone Star Conference championships last year, so as he politely said, “Hopefully that’s seven or eight the next year.” I also truly believe Commerce is the model – from what I’ve experienced so far and the outreach from people – for the paradigm that athletics is celebrated, not just tolerated. And I’ve worked at some places where you have to remind them that we’re not just over there on the other side of campus, that we do provide an added benefit. And there is an extremely, sometimes potentially overused metaphor of athletics being the front porch, but it really is. And the front porch is not the most important part of the house, but it is the most visible. There’s a sports page dedicated to what we do on a daily basis.
CAD: It’s definitely important for the academic side to be on board with the athletic side and the athletic side to be on board with the academic side of the institution. Because without those two working together, it can sometimes be a very volatile mix, and you see that throughout college athletics from time to time.
TM: Yep, I had a mentor tell me a long time ago; higher education in general should be a pump, not a filter. It should be about access, not exclusivity, and that certainly carries over to the student athlete “best in class” experience that we’re going to try to emulate.
CAD: What can Lion fans expect from you and your department?
TM: I’ve got 90-day plan, I’m going to engage with each head coach and senior administrator, as well as personal outreach to some of our key leadership donors and our student athlete advisory council leadership. I will also facilitate a cultural feedback assessment. It’s six or seven open-ended questions, and then there’s a program assessment with each. If there’s anything that I need to know about right away, I want to know about it. I want to know strengths and opportunities, and I want them to assess each unit for me, whether it’s sports medicine, athletic development, strength and conditioning or academic support. Then I’m also doing a senior management team assessment with our staff, and I’m asking them to assess strength and opportunities and how they work with each sport program. So, are there issues with the business office? Are there issues with compliance? And this isn’t a gossip session. This is so I can garner as much feedback as possible, because I want to find common things. If six sport programs tell me that a certain area needs help, and that they need some work in there because that touches our student athletes every day, that’s a common theme. We’ve got to address that. So that’s what the purpose of the assessment is, it isn’t intended to build up silos. It’s actually intended to make sure we don’t start planting roots in them.
CAD: It sounds like the goal is being personal with each and every staff member and student athlete to better serve Commerce, right?
TM: It is. So we’ll do that, and then once those are done we’re going to formally schedule what I’ve termed them “Lion R.O.A.R. Days.” It’s where the senior management team has a chance to have each head coach come in and give a “state of the program”. It’s two-way dialogue, but mostly the coach a chance to talk and share with us. Again, it’s meant to break down some silos and not create friction. It’s meant to melt the friction, and we’re going to call them “ R.O.A.R. Days”. It’s an acronym for “Review, Organize, Act, and Reassess.” So what the intended outcome of those “Roar Days” is that’s going to be the second step in really starting to craft our strategic plan and strategic goals. I don’t want to just chop down trees and create a bunch of paper that’s a shelf document. So, the strategic plan will go back to some of those same things we talked about like assessing our donor and fan base progress, where we have opportunities to sell more tickets, to engage more alumni, and grow the Lions Athletic Club.
CAD: It sounds like you’ve got a lot of assessment to do, but in being the leader, the most important thing is you’re going to listen to your coaches and your student athletes, which takes a special person to do that, to understand that you’re not coming in, “This is my way or the highway” sort of deal. You’re investing in them just as they are investing in you, all for the better of Texas A&M Commerce.
TM: Yes, my comments at the press conference makes for good talk, but you actually have to back it up. God gave us two ears and one mouth and I’m certainly guilty of this, sometimes I don’t use them proportionally. But certainly in this first, I don’t know if it’s 90 days or 6 months or a year, but certainly for the first 90 days if I don’t use them proportionally then I’m doing a disservice to our administrative team, our coaches, and our student athletes. I’m batting 0 for 3 if I don’t listen proportionally first. So yes, you hit it on the head. We will be doing a lot of listening. We’ll be doing a lot of assessment, but I don’t want to mistake that for a lack of activity, because there’s going to be plenty of activity involving that, because in my mind these assessments are the athletic director’s scoreboard. Our volleyball team and our football teams have a scoreboard at the facility, and our AD doesn’t always have that. These assessments, combined with a strategic plan, this is going to be the scoreboard to see what we do and how we perform. And are we doing the right thing for the student athlete?
McMurray, wife Vickie, daughters Maya (20) and Marley (15) (via Texas A&M-Commerce)
CAD: It seems making sure student-athletes are taken care will be the most important thing in your athletic department.
TM: Yes, I want three things, if nothing else, to come out of the initial message I send, first we’re going to provide that “best in class” student athlete experience. The strategic plan will help us assess what that really means and how we define it at Commerce. To me it means being the best in class in the Lone Star Conference, and then in Division II on a regional and a national level. And the second part, in addition to that “best in class” experience, is providing our coaches with opportunities and resources to sustain and grow that success. There are a lot of great things going on right now with our student athlete advisory council. We just had a volleyball student athlete appointed to the national Division II SAAC committee. And we’re doing some great things with APR and a brand-new academic center, but at the end of the day there’s also that third thing that we’re not just passing out participation ribbons. There is a scoreboard in every facility, and that’s very, very important as well.
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