Mark Ingram is out at UAB. What happens next matters more.

Mark Ingram is out at UAB.

After 11 years as the Blazers' athletic director, Ingram and the university agreed to part ways Tuesday. Andy Kennedy — UAB's men's basketball coach, the program's second all-time leading scorer, a Hall of Famer and the most successful coach on campus — will serve as interim AD while the university conducts a national search.

That's the news. The press release was professional and polished and said what press releases always say. Both sides expressed gratitude. Both sides wished each other well.

Now: what does the next chapter look like?

Ingram's tenure was complicated, and it would be dishonest to reduce it to a single verdict. He was the AD during The Return — the reinstatement of football after the 2014 shutdown. He oversaw the construction of the Football Operations Center and Legacy Pavilion and many other facilities that were so badly needed and that will serve the program for years. Major renovations to Bartow Arena are underway now. Bill Clark and Andy Kennedy built winning programs on his watch.

Those are real things that happened during his 11 years. How much credit Ingram deserves for all of them is a separate conversation — Clark was the man who inspired the entire fight to bring football back, and the fan base would have burned the university down if anyone else coached The Return. Kennedy was such a no-brainer hire that Ingram couldn't miss it. But the facilities got built. The money got raised. The conference move got made.

Personally, I'm a big believer that truth often resides somewhere between the best- and worst-case views of people and performance. Ingram has his defenders just as he has his detractors. He had a difficult job, and that context matters too.

But the last year buried whatever goodwill remained for many. Trent Dilfer's disastrous tenure as head football coach ended with his removal in October 2025. A player stabbed two teammates before a game a month later. The softball program's head coach exited in July after allegations of misconduct and player abuse. Football and basketball attendance declined. UAB's budget sat near the bottom of The American.

In May, Darrien Starling, who publishes Before Saturday, published a fan sentiment survey across American Conference schools. UAB's results were the worst in the league — one percent approval, 99 percent disapproval, a communication score of 1.6 out of 10.

One percent.

Whether that was entirely fair to Ingram is a legitimate question. Fan anger at UAB has never been aimed at just one person. The UA Board of Trustees and President Ray Watts carry their own history with this fan base, and Ingram was often the most visible target while the people above him stayed out of the crossfire. But the results were the results. And the number was the number.

It was no secret that Ingram butted heads with both Clark and Kennedy over the direction of their programs. Nobody expects to get everything they want from their boss. But the perception — widely held and never seriously disputed — was that Ingram was difficult to work through, and that UAB ran on an extremely tight budget even by Group of 6 standards. The two people who produced the most on this campus felt that friction the most.

One of them left. The other is now sitting in Ingram's chair.

Kennedy's interim appointment makes sense on every level. His resume speaks for itself — 145 wins in six seasons at UAB, six straight 20-win campaigns, two NCAA Tournament appearances, two players who reached the NBA and a contract extension signed last August that runs through 2031.

"Moving forward, our focus is on providing stability for our programs and the people who make UAB Athletics special," Kennedy said in a statement. "With the continued support of our fans, donors and the broader UAB community, I am confident our momentum will continue to build."

He is not going to be the permanent athletic director. He has a basketball team to coach, and the interim role is the right call — stability, credibility and a leader the coaches and staff trust while the university runs a legitimate search.

But Kennedy's presence matters beyond logistics. He knows this program from the inside out. He played here under Gene Bartow, the man who built UAB athletics from nothing. He came back as an assistant. He came home as head coach. He has spent six years fighting for resources and support from the AD's office. He knows exactly where the problems are. Whoever UAB hires as the permanent AD, Kennedy's voice in that process carries weight — and it should.

Tuesday's announcement landed on August 18 — Gene Bartow's birthday. You can decide for yourself what that means.

The real question is not who the next athletic director will be. The real question is what UAB's administration actually wants.

A caretaker? A go-getter? An up-and-comer? A UAB Family loyalist? The answer to that question will tell you more about the future of this program than any name on a short list.

Revenue sharing is here. NIL is not slowing down. UAB's budget is near the bottom of its own conference. Scheduling has been a sore spot for years — a new stadium with nothing creative on the non-conference slate. No money games. No home-and-homes, or even 2-for-1s with name opponents. Few future games announced while peer programs book out years in advance. If that sounds familiar, it should. That was one of the warning signs before the program was shut down in 2014.

Fans remember. They'll never forget.

The fan base has kicked in. They saved this program. They fought for The Return. They showed up. They donated. They did their part. What they want now is for the administration to chase excellence — not just talk about it and not just kick the hard work back to the fans while the people in charge tip-toe around it.

They really want to hear their administration talk with the same passion for UAB they hold.

And here's why.

Gene Bartow showed what could be done at UAB with vision and the desire to chase greatness. To truly chase it FOR Birmingham and UAB. Bill Clark showed it again. Kennedy keeps showing it — winning at an elite level despite rarely having the NIL budget to do it. The talent and the will have never been the problem at UAB. The ceiling has always been set by the people above the coaches.

What is their vision? What do they see as success? What do THEY want for UAB?

Look around The American. Memphis is investing. Tulane is investing. South Florida is investing. UTSA is investing. Those are UAB's peers. That is the standard. The question is whether UAB's administration is going to rise to that commitment or shrug and shrink in the new era.

Names will circulate. They already are. Murry Bartow, the former head coach and son of the man who built this program. Walt Maddox, the longtime Tuscaloosa mayor, former Blazer football player and big backer of The Return. Greg Seitz, who has built a successful athletics department at Jacksonville State up the road. DeWayne Peevy, a Birmingham native running DePaul's athletic department after a strong run as an associate AD for basketball at Kentucky. Brad Hardekopf, UAB's longtime deputy AD. And yes, Bill Clark is still sitting right there in retirement.

We'll go deeper into candidates in the days ahead. But who ends up on any list — real or otherwise — may not matter as much as what the next AD believes and whether they can inspire belief in others.

The next athletic director needs to be a fundraiser and a connector — someone who understands that the AD job in 2026 is part CEO and part evangelist. Someone who can look at this market and see what's possible instead of what's limiting. And someone who lets the coaches coach and, by Gene Bartow, fights their tail off to get them the things needed to win. To chase excellence, not just get by. To go for it - un-freaking-apologetically.

UAB has been at this crossroads before. The fan base has earned every ounce of its skepticism. They have been asked to believe, and too often they have been left to wonder whether the people asking (again and again and again) for their dollars actually believed themselves.

The next hire will tell you everything about whether UAB learned anything from the last 11 years.