Recently the Buffalo news published a preliminary list of names rumored to be under consideration for Warde Manuel's old position.
In no particular order Bull Run will give a quick rundown of those names and of any others that pop up during the search. The second candidate in line is Jason Lener, who currently serves as the Senior Associate Athletics Director at Illinois.
Before Joining the staff at Illinois Lener worked as deputy athletic director at Miami University, a position he was in from 2006 to 2011. In that position he led the athletic department senior management team and managed daily operations for the Miami Athletics.
He also served as the sport administrator for football and men's basketball, and was the principal liaison with Miami's budget and finance office, general counsel's office, human resources, information technology, the NCAA and the Mid-American Conference.
| Name | Jason Lener |
|---|---|
| Current Job | Sr associate AD, Illinois |
| Tenure | 2 years |
| Hired on from Miami Where he serves as the deputy AD | |
| Football Hires | |
| Tim Beckman | 0-0 |
| Conference Championships | 0 |
| Bowl Appearances | 1 |
| NCAA Tournament wins | 0 |
| Intangibles | MAC Experience |
He is the first candidate mentioned who has experience in the Mid American Conference which is going to be a huge plus.
While he was at Miami the Redhawks opened a new Hockey Arena but aside from some faculties renovations no major upgrades were built up.
I believe, some of their non revenue sports saw facilities improvements, any Miami fans that happen by let us know if that is the case.
2006-2011 was also sort of a dry season for Miami Football. They did win the conference in 2011, and another east division title in 2007 but they were not the same team that MAC fans saw in the earlier part of the decade.
He's been working in athletic departments for nearly 20 years starting with a low level job at Pitt and climbing to his current position.
Interestingly he was a graduate assistant with the football program at Robert Morris, not a role that too many AD's have had.
If you put aside his MAC experience I don't know that the resume looks like a move forward. He's been "second in command" at an FBS program for all of one year. Conrad (Bull_Trojan) has correctly said we need an empire builder. Does this look like a candidate to take UB one or more steps beyond where Warde left it?