Has Ole Miss A.D. Keith Carter found his No. 2?


UPDATE: The Spirit has since confirmed Kleinlein will be one of two deputies along with Lynette Johnson and oversee day-to-day football operations. He'll also act as the deputy for external.

Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter appears to have landed his No. 2.

ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg is reporting Tom Kleinlein, who resigned as Georgia Southern’s athletics director Friday morning, is expected to join the athletics staff at Ole Miss to assist Carter. WJCL was the first to report Kleinlein’s resignation.

Carter operated as the second in command to former Ole Miss A.D. Ross Bjork before he was elevated to interim following Bjork’s departure for the same position at Texas A&M in May. Carter was named to the permanent position in late-November and moved quickly to replace Matt Luke with Lane Kiffin as Rebel head football coach.

Carter has worked in the Ole Miss athletics department since 2009. He was the executive director of the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation starting in 2012 and took over as deputy A.D. for resource and development acquisition in 2018. Among his other notable moves during his interim run was the approval of alcohol sales at on-campus sporting events and his decision to not roll over the contract of head baseball coach Mike Bianco. Carter also dismissed head volleyball coach Steven McRoberts and head softball coach Mike Smith. McRoberts was replaced by Kayla Banwarth a few days before Christmas.

Ole Miss, in a statement, said it selected Carter from a pool of 30 candidates. He was unanimously recommended for approval to chancellor Glenn Boyce by the search committee, which was chaired by Mike Glenn.

Carter conducted a number of deputy interviews once Kiffin was formally announced in a public event held at The Pavilion at Ole Miss Dec. 9. A couple were held Dec. 13. Carter was, in essence, searching for a candidate to serve in a similar capacity to Stephen Ponder, the former Ole Miss deputy A.D. who held the role for five years before stepping away due to a personal matter in May of 2017.

Carter said in a previous interview with The Ole Miss Spirit his No. 2 would, among other duties, work primarily with football. Kleinlein hired now-Tulane coach Willie Fritz in his first major move for the Eagles’ football program. Fritz led the Eagles to a Sun Belt Championship in his first season (2014). Kleinlein hired Tyson Summers after Fritz left for the Green Wave, but Summers struggled mightily. Georgis Southern mired at the bottom of the Sun Belt standings. He turned in a record of 5-13 and was fired following an 0-6 start in 2017.

Kleinlein promoted then-interim Chad Lunsford to full-time head coach. Lunsford has turned in records of 10-3 (2018) and 7-6 (2019). Prior to his arrival in Statesboro, Ga., Kleinlein served as the deputy athletics director at Kent State.

“That person will likely oversee football on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “Finding the right person there and somebody that can work with coach Kiffin on a day-to-day basis and be in lockstep with him and then obviously work with me on some of the external units here in the department. It’s an extremely important hire and want to make sure we get that one right.”

Carter could make an additional hire or two to join the returning athletics staff, including a replacement for Michael Thompson. Thompson led Ole Miss’ sports marketing and communications efforts for nine years. Kyle Campbell, Ole Miss associate A.D. for communications — football, athletics, has all but handled Thompson’s responsibilities since October.

But Carter isn’t expected to make wholesale changes. Lynnette Johnson, the deputy A.D. for sports and administration, is the sport administrator for the university’s Title IX programs, from women’s basketball, rifle, tennis and soccer to softball, volleyball and men’s and women’s golf. She was responsible for the hire of Banwarth, and she’s leading the search to fill the position vacated by Smith. Smith resigned Dec. 10.

“We have a really, really good staff,” Carter said. “You’re always evaluating. Every day you’re evaluating. But we have a great staff. We have leaders of different units that do tremendous work.

“Obviously, I’ve worked with a lot of these people for a long, long time. We’ll always tweak and move and shake and do different things. But I don’t see any mass, wholesale changes. Those type of things. We’ll look at all that, but I’m very happy with our staff and the things that they’ve done. They’ve been so supportive of me. As we’ve tried to hire a football staff, they’ve been very supportive and helpful with that as well. We’re in a good place. Feel really good about our staff. Just got to get these other couple of bodies in here to get back to full staff.”

Future, short-term projects for Carter and staff range from a signifiant facilities upgrade for the Ole Miss Softball Complex, which has had only minor improvements since it opened in 1998. A new, multi-million-dollar locker room is in development for Ole Miss track and field, and Carter said Ole Miss is considering a football locker room enhancement as well.

SOURCE: Garrett, Ben. "Has Ole Miss A.D. Keith Carter found his No. 2?" OMSpirit - 247Sports.com, 3 January 2020, https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/Has-Ole-Miss-AD-Keith-Carter-found-his-No-2-141558549/