HOUSTON: Search for athletic director on after Yurachek takes same job at Arkansas
In what is becoming a regular occurrence, the University of Houston is preparing to conduct another athletic deparment search.
This time it’s for a new athletic director. Hunter Yurachek stepped down Monday after less than three years to take the same job at Arkansas.
Arkansas announced Yurachek signed a five-year deal worth $850,000 annually, a figure that nearly doubles his salary at UH. His official title is vice chancellor and director of athletics.
“I’m very disappointed,” UH board of regents chairman Tilman Fertitta told the Houston Chronicle. “I’ve built a relationship with Hunter. I hired Hunter. I wish him the best at Arkansas. We’ll look at this as an opportunity to bring somebody in even better. It’s what you have to do. We’re
not going to go backward. We’re going to hire somebody good, and we just move on.”
Yurachek emerged as a late candidate for the Arkansas job. He replaces Jeff Long, who was fired in mid-November after a decade at the school, and will be introduced in Fayetteville, Ark., later this week. Surprise all around “It caught me by surprise. It caught Hunter by surprise,” Fertitta said. “It happened very quick for him.”
Yurachek was not immediately available for comment Monday night.
“The opportunity to serve the Razorback program is both humbling and exciting,” Yurachek said in a statement released by Arkansas. “There is so much already in place, and we will quickly build on that foundation to win championships.”
Then UH’s No. 2 athletic department official, Yurachek was given what Fertitta called a “courtesy interview” as the final candidate to replace Mack Rhoades as Houston’s AD in 2015. He impressed the search committee enough to land the job and has overseen the transition into the American Athletic Conference and more than $230 million in capital projects and renovations in recent years. Those projects include the opening of the Guy V. Lewis Development Center, an indoor practice facility for the football program, and the Fertitta Center, which is scheduled to open late next year as the Cougars’ basketball home.
Yurachek also campaigned last year for the Cougars to join the Big 12 and reached out to the Pac-12 for an informal meet-and-greet to keep the school’s options open in regard to joining a Power Five conference. He also upgraded future non-conference football schedules by adding Boise State and BYU.
Previously, Yurachek served one year as UH’s associate vice president and chief operating officer for athletics. Before that, he spent four years as athletic director at Coastal Carolina.
“I was 100 percent certain when I left Houston he was the guy that needed to take over and continue to build that program,” said Rhoades, who hired Yurachek at UH and is now Baylor’s athletic director after leaving the Cougars to become AD at Missouri. “I have no doubt he’ll do the same at Arkansas.”
While at Houston, Yurachek worked with an operating budget around $45 million. At Arkansas, Yurachek will join the lucrative Southeastern Conference and inherit an athletic department that had revenue of nearly $125 million for fiscal year 2015-16, according to figures compiled by USA Today.
Yurachek’s first order of business at Arkansas will be to hire a football coach to replace Bret Bielema, who was 29-34 in five seasons.
Yurachek had four years left on a contract extension, which he signed in 2016, paying $450,000 a year. $350,000 due UH According to details of that UH contract reviewed by the Chronicle, Yurachek would owe the school $350,000 were he to accept another job within the first three years of the deal. The Razorback Foundation will pay the $350,000, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
UH president Renu Khator praised Yurachek’s work over a short period.
“Hunter has helped us build on our nationally competitive athletics program on the field, in the classroom and by adding to our first-class facilities,” Khator said in a statement. “The University of Houston remains committed to our winning tradition, and we will immediately begin the search for a leader who shares our desire to compete for championships at the highest level.”
This will be the sixth search UH has conducted since 2014 among the three major sports and the athletic director position. The list of hires includes Tom Herman and Major Applewhite (football), Kelvin Sampson (men’s basketball), Ronald Hughey (women’s basketball) and Yurachek.
Asked if the AD job is attractive, Fertitta said he already has potential candidates for the job.
“It has always been an attractive job,” said Fertitta, who then began to chuckle. “Just look at all of our athletic directors and what they have been able to do afterward.”