{"id":1858,"date":"2016-02-16T08:59:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T15:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2016-02-17T07:31:08","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T14:31:08","slug":"josh-whitman-the-right-guy-at-the-right-time-at-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/football\/1858\/josh-whitman-the-right-guy-at-the-right-time-at-illinois","title":{"rendered":"Josh Whitman the right guy at the right time at Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Josh<\/a>

Josh Whitman<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m very pleased to see that Josh Whitman will become Illinois’ new athletic director.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s what you\u2019d call. . . a perfect fit.<\/p>\n

The one potential drawback, his age (37), should not be a concern. Whitman is a young man who has taken all the steps.<\/p>\n

Josh was a go-to guy for me when I needed a quote when he played tight end. He was articulate and thoughtful, and had a grasp of the big picture as well as a sense of humor.<\/p>\n

After playing at Illinois, Whitman played briefly in the NFL, mainly\u00a0as a practice-squad\u00a0reserve, if memory serves.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Illinois\u2019 law school, Whitman worked for former AD Ron Guenther and clerked for a U.S. Appeals Court judge, then practiced law briefly.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s currently the AD at Washington University in St. Louis. Before that, he was AD at Wisconsin-La Crosse.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve kept in touch over the years, mainly through some friends we have in common.<\/p>\n

I could see him taking all the steps to the UofI job. Fans and alumni think of the glamour stuff\u2014hiring important coaches and being on the inside of the sports teams and their staffs.<\/p>\n

\"MAIN<\/a>Josh has done that, but he\u2019s also done the less-visible little things\u2014organizing staffs and fund-raising events, establishing relationships with important supporters, staying on top of NCAA regulations. No job is too big or small for ADs at La Crosse and Wash U.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s obviously a competitor. You don\u2019t play Big Ten football and excel in law school without that. But he also is a mature young man who knows how to deal with people.<\/p>\n

That said, there will be some unfamiliar challenges if he\u2019s hired at Illinois. Getting the revenue sports\u2014men\u2019s basketball and football\u2014moving in the right direction will be key.<\/p>\n

I expect Josh will handle that well, because he\u2019ll have the wisdom to seek out the right people for guidance. The Josh I know is humble as well as intelligent.<\/p>\n

Here’s another important plus:\u00a0Josh is an Illinois guy. I don\u2019t ordinarily believe that should matter a whole lot. But Illinois has been through so much, and its administration is so short of people with Illini roots, that it needs somebody who knows\u00a0the territory.<\/p>\n

I saw a comment from former Illini coach Ron Turner that he’s felt for years\u00a0that Whitman would be Illinois\u2019 AD one day\u2014the question was when, not if. I\u2019ve had that same thought.<\/p>\n

If this is opportunity is coming a bit sooner than expected, that should not be a big issue.<\/p>\n

Timing cost Illinois an opportunity with another Illini, Jim Phillips, who has become one of the nation\u2019s best ADs at Northwestern.<\/p>\n

Glad to see that didn’t happen this time around.<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @HerbGould<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m very pleased to see that Josh Whitman will become Illinois’ new athletic director. He\u2019s what you\u2019d call. . …. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":1860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,334],"tags":[3635,1009835,979722],"class_list":["post-1858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-commentary","tag-big-ten","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-josh-whitman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2016\/02\/JoshWhitman.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1869,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions\/1869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}