Andy Kennedy has it right

Andy Kennedy met with Birmingham media on Tuesday to discuss his dual roles as UAB's head basketball coach and interim athletic director. Much of it covered basketball and the Bartow Arena renovation — Steve Irvine of The Birmingham Banner has the full interview. But the part that jumped off the page was what Kennedy said about the AD search and, more specifically, what kind of person UAB needs in that chair permanently.

He nailed it.

"I think the first thing is someone that can come in and immediately cast a vision that unifies both internally as it relates to UAB and externally," Kennedy said. "The Birmingham community has been so supportive from day one. When Coach Bartow took this thing over in 1977, it would not have been done without real synergy between the university and the community and we've got to get that back."

Kennedy understands what some people inside the administration may not — or might not say publicly. UAB was built on the bond between the university and Birmingham. Gene Bartow did not build this program from a corner office. He built it by being part of the Birmingham community — not by administrating from above. That synergy Kennedy described is the foundation that made UAB athletics possible. It has eroded.

Kennedy went further.

"So you've gotta have somebody that understands 2026 intercollegiate athletics and you've gotta have somebody that understands that these rules are gonna continue to twist and turn," he said. "So you've gotta go into this thing with your eyes completely open."

The next AD cannot be someone running a 2015 playbook. The House v. NCAA settlement fundamentally changed how athletic departments operate. Athletes now receive direct revenue shares. The transfer portal gutted traditional roster management. NIL reshaped compliance from enforcement into facilitation. The job Mark Ingram accepted 11 years ago no longer exists.

"The last time that this job opened was in 2015," Kennedy said. "This job looks a lot different in 2026 and so you have to have somebody that completely understands it."

Then Kennedy got to the heart of it.

"I get frustrated in life when things are not reaching their potential," he said. "... I just want us to reach our potential."

That frustration is not abstract. Kennedy has lived inside this program as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach. He came back to UAB because he loves the place. He calls the interim AD role "a labor of love for me."

A labor of love — not a career play. That is the disposition UAB needs in the permanent chair.

I wrote a seven-part series plus an epilogue on the AD search over the last two weeks. Across those installments, I profiled more than 30 people — sitting ADs, deputies, Birmingham leaders, builders from smaller programs and nontraditional hires from outside the pipeline. None of them were candidates. I do not know who has applied or been contacted. What I did was profile people whose backgrounds and dispositions might appeal to a search committee — and in the epilogue, I offered my own short list.

Kennedy's words on Tuesday reinforced what I argued throughout the series: UAB's next AD needs someone whose fire for this program is personal — someone who wants UAB to win because it is UAB, not because it is the next rung on a career ladder.

Here is where I will say what I think a lot of Blazers are feeling.

UAB — and academia broadly — tends to look outside rather than at its own people. There is an instinct, and sometimes a deliberate choice, to go outside the family. Bring in the national search firm, cast the wide net and find the polished resume from somewhere else.

I understand the impulse. Fresh perspective has value. But right now, at this specific moment, I think UAB needs a die-hard Blazer who bleeds green and gold and whose investment in this program is personal, not professional.

Even better if they have ties to Gene Bartow.

I know that sentence will land differently depending on who reads it. There are Blazers — and I have talked to enough of them to know this is not a fringe opinion — who believe that over the last decade or so, there was a systematic removal of anyone with ties to Bartow (or Bill Clark, too). Pushed out, one by one, replaced by people with no connection to UAB whatsoever. Whether that was real or coincidental, the perception exists among a meaningful number of people who care deeply about this program. Perception matters when you are trying to rebuild trust between a fan base and an institution.

Kennedy's invocation of Bartow on Tuesday was not casual. He talked about the relationship they developed — from player to friend — and the conversations they had about what it took to build UAB from nothing. He talked about understanding "the struggles that went into getting UAB to what it is today" and getting "an appreciation for it once I kinda could see behind the curtain."

That institutional memory and emotional investment separate a good hire from the right one.

Kennedy said UAB will form a committee and hire a third-party search firm to run the process. That is how it works.

Andy Kennedy should be on that committee.

He belongs there as a voice with 30 years in college athletics, deep institutional knowledge and the trust of the fan base — the same fan base that will be asked to buy tickets, donate money and support whoever gets hired.

"So I would not have taken this on if I did not think this was gonna be a serious pursuit for finding the best possible candidate to lead the Department of Athletics at UAB moving forward," Kennedy said. "I believe that is the case. From Dr. Watts to his cabinet, everybody understands, the magnitude of this decision."

I believe Kennedy. And I hope he is right about Watts and the cabinet.

In my series, I profiled Bill Clark and Walt Maddox — both in the seven parts and in the epilogue. Both are UAB through and through. Clark coached this football program through a shutdown and out the other side, won two Conference USA championships and earned the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year award. Maddox was a defensive tackle on UAB's inaugural football team in 1991 and has served as mayor of Tuscaloosa since 2005 — 21 years of working directly with the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, the most important political relationship in UAB athletics.

I do not know if either of them wants this job. What I know is that UAB should pick up the phone and talk to both of them — and anyone else with that kind of deep, personal investment in the program.

Even if they say they are not interested. Because someone with that kind of connection to UAB — even without wanting the chair — may have ideas and insight that would be invaluable to the process. You do not have to hire someone to benefit from their perspective.

Kennedy said it himself: "This is my life."

UAB needs an AD who says the same thing and means it.

Read the full Andy Kennedy interview at The Birmingham Banner, where Steve Irvine continues to do outstanding work covering UAB. While I'm at it — the people at Blazer Victory Podcast and Birmingham Sports are doing the same. Diehard does not view them as competitors. Anyone devoted to serving these underserved fan bases has our respect. We exist to shine a light on their work, so I hope fans continue to support them and us.

Tim Stephens' seven-part series on 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