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The good, the bad and the bullish of Woolard's career

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By BRETT McMURPHY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 14, 2009

Here are some of the highs and lows during Doug Woolard's five years as the University of South Florida's athletic director.

Showing Jim the money

Woolard has rewarded football coach Jim Leavitt with two substantial raises in the past three years. The latest one - seven years, $12.6 million - came in 2008, making Leavitt the Big East's highest paid coach, averaging $1.8 million a year.

Miami? Nice

Though Florida AD Jeremy Foley vows the Gators will never step foot in Raymond James Stadium to play USF, Woolard has signed home-and-home deals with the remainder of the state's "Big Three." USF and Miami signed a six-game home-and-home series with the remaining five games to be nationally televised on Thanksgiving weekend. USF also secured a two-game home-and-home series with Florida State.

Bringing Prado back home

Lelo Prado, who built a powerhouse at the University of Tampa and was the winningest coach at Louisville, was hired by Woolard as USF's baseball coach three years ago. The Bulls' win-loss record has increased each year under Prado with this year's club finishing as the Big East's regular-season runner-up.

Dusty athletics district plans

Back in January 2005, Woolard announced plans for a new athletics district featuring new stadiums for softball, baseball and soccer, a new track, basketball practice facility and tennis complex, new football practice fields and a renovated Sun Dome. The only thing that's been built is a new track, which was paid entirely by Hillsborough County. The rest of the project? For now, it appears nothing but a pipedream.

Failing at its ABCs and APRs

In 2008, USF's football program had the nation's third-worst Academic Progress Rate (APR) among BCS schools, and the men's basketball team had the nation's 10th-worst APR. In 2009 it somehow managed to get worse: football had the nation's worst APR, men's basketball the third-worst. Woolard touts USF's overall GPAs, but the NCAA's academic measuring stick is the APR. If the Bulls don't improve next year, they could lose scholarships.

Saying good night to the Knights

Despite UCF-USF games drawing two of the top 10 home crowds to Raymond James Stadium, Woolard took Jim Leavitt's stance and let the USF-UCF series end in 2008. Not only was it a big money-maker for USF, but also the Bulls were 4-0 against UCF. So instead of playing a school located less than 100 miles away in a packed stadium, Woolard replaced UCF on the schedule with home-and-home deals against Division I-A rookie Western Kentucky and Ball State. Ugh.

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