Jeremy McClain named Southern Miss Athletic Director
After hiring replacements for both football and the basketball head coaches—just this year—the search is on for Jeremy McClain’s replacement.
McClain has headed back to Mississippi, where he was named Southern Miss’ newest athletic director on Thursday. Before he came to Troy, he served as Deputy Director in Hattiesburg.
To say he’s a Mississippi native is an understatement.
McClain went to Delta State in Cleveland, got his undergrad and masters’ degrees there, and then joined DSU’s administration. He was Director of Development for the Delta State University Foundation before taking over as Director of Athletics in 2007.
His wife Christie is from Calhoun City, which is about an hour south of Oxford. In his own words, he’s going home.
Thank you TROY! pic.twitter.com/KWZG22jFcd
— Jeremy McClain (@jmcclain_USM) April 4, 2019
As for his tenure on this side of the state line, McClain oversaw the development of the North End Zone project. In addition to hiring Chip Lindsey and Scott Cross this year, McClain hired Mark Smartt as baseball coach in 2016.
McClain also hired the coaches for women’s golf and men’s tennis, Randy Keck and Rolando Vargas. He also oversaw the soft transition in branding (from the shield logo to the Power T) and Troy’s highest finish in the conference Bubas Cup (3rd in 2017-2018).
Under McClain’s watch, all major sports set attendance records. The Troy press release also says he “spearheaded a restructuring of the athletic department” and oversaw Troy’s football successes (even though John Hartwell hired Neal Brown.)
To be fair, McClain did a great job of building on the work of his predecessor, and it’s a shame he’s leaving so soon after his two biggest hires. Even if Lindsey and Cross don’t rise to the level of Brown and Chanda Rigby, he gets credit for keeping those two around as long as he did.
Odds are, that won’t be a problem.
Above all, McClain leaves Troy in a better place than he found it, and the Golden Eagles are getting a great Athletic Director at a great time. Now, Dr. Hawkins & Co. have to answer the question he’s handled the past few months.
“Who do we get to replace him?”