To whom it may concern

Dear whoever you are,

I have spent the last month writing about your job. A seven-part series profiling more than 30 people whose backgrounds might appeal to a search committee. An epilogue with my own short list. A column the day your predecessor left. A column yesterday about what Andy Kennedy said you need to be.

Nobody asked me. But here it is anyway.

UAB does not need a caretaker. It needs an athletic director who treats this moment as a rebuild of the institution's relationship with Birmingham. Everything on this list traces back to that.

1. Lay out the vision. Then tell people exactly how they can help.

Publish the mission, the values, the goals and the measurements. Then make the ask explicit. What do you need from alumni? From fans? From donors? From businesses? From students? From Birmingham?

Do not communicate at them. Bring them into the mission and give them something specific to do.

Kennedy said it on Tuesday: UAB was built on "real synergy between the university and the community." That synergy did not disappear because people stopped caring about UAB. It disappeared because UAB stopped asking them to care in ways that mattered.

2. Position UAB for conference realignment.

This should be central to your vision, not an afterthought. South Florida, Memphis and Tulane are not sitting back. UAB should be just as aggressive.

The worst thing that happens is UAB becomes stronger where it is. The best thing that happens could be transformative for the entire university and Birmingham. You should be aiming at the latter — and you should be selling that possibility to every stakeholder. Fans, donors, business leaders, campus leadership, the UA System Board of Trustees. The case for a stronger UAB Athletics is also the case for a stronger Birmingham, and that case only gets made if somebody is out there making it.

An R1 research university generating $12.1 billion in annual economic impact, located in a metro of 1.2 million people, playing in a new downtown stadium — that is a profile. Build on it.

3. Get out of the office and sell UAB Athletics.

Something ambitious and measurable: 60 meetings in 60 days with Birmingham business leaders. Not fundraising calls. Not donor cultivation lunches at the club. Get into Birmingham and make the case for why a stronger UAB Athletics benefits this city and why participation benefits those companies. Show up with your vision, your data ... and your ask.

The athletic director should be one of UAB Athletics' most visible salespeople. The people who run this city are busy. They are not going to come to you. Go to them.

4. Put boots on the ground throughout Birmingham.

Digital marketing alone cannot rebuild community investment. Churches. Scout troops. Youth sports. Schools. Chambers. Civic organizations. Nonprofits. Neighborhood associations. Businesses surrounding campus and Protective Stadium.

There are tens of thousands of people living and working within a few miles of UAB who should view Blazer Athletics as one of their hometown entertainment options. UAB Athletics should be part of Birmingham's downtown revival — not an afterthought to it. You should not be passive in making sure they know about UAB Athletics.

Your predecessor's survey approval rating was 1 percent. Football and basketball attendance declined. Adding another billboard is not the fix. Relationships are the fix. Building them requires people, not platforms.

5. Use technology to create more human connection, not less.

AI, automation, customer relations platforms and modern data tools can give a relatively small athletic department enormous leverage. UAB should be an aggressive early adopter. But use those tools to free people to do the things technology cannot: build relationships, shake hands, make calls and make people feel connected to the program.

And no, I do not mean the same expensive platforms everyone else has used for years. I have built a media operation of significant capability across all aspects of the business by talking into my laptop using $300 in subscriptions. Break convention. The future is so much faster than you might realize.

6. Get aggressive about scheduling.

The nonconference football scheduling since the return has generally lacked imagination. UAB has fewer future nonconference games announced than many Group of 6 peers, and other G6 programs are hosting better games than UAB is getting. Men's basketball needs more creativity and aggressiveness, too, to get the exposure and at-large consideration its competitive history warrants.

The fan base has told you — loudly, for years — that the schedule matters. Scheduling complaints during your predecessor's tenure were one of the most consistent friction points between the athletic department and the people it depends on for ticket revenue and donations. There is opportunity available. Somebody needs to get moving.

If it doesn't exist, get creative and invent it. Just a dream here: The Diehard Classic multi-team basketball tournament at Legacy Arena has a nice ring to it. Hey, a guy can dream. The right people in the right room can make those kinds of things happen.

7. Rebuild the organizational chart around the athletic department UAB needs now.

This is not a call for mass firings or a bunch of extra hires. It is a call for an honest examination of whether UAB's existing resources are aligned with today's priorities. Revenue sharing. Roster management. Talent evaluation. Revenue generation. Brand. Content. NIL. Fan engagement.

Do you still have the right seats? The House v. NCAA settlement changed how athletic departments operate. Andy Kennedy put it plainly: "This job looks a lot different in 2026." So should the org chart.

8. Tell the damn UAB story.

UAB's athletic history is remarkably underappreciated in its own backyard. Gene Bartow building a program from nothing in 1977. Most people walking around Birmingham have no idea that one of the top-30 all-time winningest men's basketball programs in NCAA history is right down the street. A football program shut down, resurrected by its fans and community, then two conference championships within four years of coming back. An upset of No. 22 Memphis as a 23.5-point underdog in the new head coach's first game.

That is an extraordinary story. Birmingham frequently lacks context for what UAB has actually accomplished.

The media environment that once helped institutions tell those stories no longer exists in the same form. Earned media still matters enormously, and UAB should make covering the program easier for everyone doing it — the Birmingham Banner, the Blazer Victory Podcast, Birmingham Sports, Diehard, the television stations, all of them. Treat every outlet covering UAB as an ally.

But UAB also has to become an exceptional storyteller itself. You actually inherit a terrific multimedia team. Unleash them to be great on a new level. If you do not consistently tell your own story now, you cannot assume somebody else will.

Get moving.

There will be a temptation to spend six months evaluating and developing a strategic plan before doing anything publicly visible. Some of that is necessary. But UAB has already spent too much time waiting for what comes next.

The fans who raised more than $45 million to save this program, who have renewed season tickets year after year through coaching failures and administrative dysfunction and a 1-percent approval rating for the previous athletic director — those fans are still here. They are not going to wait forever.

Listen. Learn. Evaluate. Fast. Then move.

I just gave you the cheat sheet. Almost everything on this list comes back to the same thing: UAB needs somebody willing to aggressively sell the possibilities of UAB Athletics — to its fans, its campus, its city and ultimately to itself. That last one might actually be the most important.

One last thing: You need to breathe fire. Don't whisper here. Put that big, bold vision out there and go for it. Trust me when I tell you that this community is just waiting for someone to make them believe again and then point them toward the hill to charge.

Good luck. I mean that.

Your pal,

Tim

Tim Stephens' coverage of the UAB AD search: Part 1: The Job | Part 2: The Profile | Part 3: The Obvious Names | Part 4: The Birmingham Connections | Part 5: The Basketball Background | Part 6: The Builders | Part 7: The Outside-the-Box Hire | Epilogue: The Dream List | Andy Kennedy has it right