South Alabama keeps it in-house with new athletic director

South Alabama athletics just went through a changing of the guard without actually changing much of anything, and that's by design. The Jaguars are promoting Daniel McCarthy to permanent athletic director after he spent the last several weeks running the show on an interim basis, according to Pete Thamel.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Sources: South Alabama is promoting Daniel McCarthy to become the school’s permanent athletic director. He’s been the interim AD since June 1 and has worked at South Alabama since 2008. He’s been the deputy AD since 2017. He worked at Richmond and Mercer prior to South Alabama.

This isn't some outsider hire brought in to shake things up. McCarthy has been at South Alabama since 2008 and has served as deputy athletic director since 2017, which means he's basically had a hand in every major decision the department has made for close to a decade. He came up through stops at Richmond and Mercer before landing in Mobile, and he's spent the interim window since June 1 essentially auditioning for the job he already knew inside and out.

The vacancy opened up when Dr. Joel Erdmann, the longest-tenured AD in the Sun Belt, announced his retirement earlier this year after 17 years running Jaguar athletics. Erdmann's run included six Vic Bubas Cups, four of them in a row from 2014-2018, plus 41 Sun Belt titles and 52 NCAA postseason appearances -- the kind of resume that makes a program nervous about who replaces him.

That's exactly why promoting from within reads as the safe, smart move here. Rather than run a splashy national search and risk bringing in someone who has to learn the roster, the boosters, and the Sun Belt landscape from scratch, South Alabama is handing the keys to the guy who's already been steering football, baseball and softball operations as part of his deputy role. No learning curve, no adjustment period -- just continuity at a program that's been building momentum in the Sun Belt for years.

The bigger question now is what McCarthy does with the job once the training wheels are officially off. Interim tags come with built-in caution; permanent ADs are the ones who make the aggressive coaching hires, chase facility upgrades, and set the tone for where a mid-major program wants to go next. South Alabama clearly likes what it's seen so far -- now it's on McCarthy to prove the promotion was earned and not just the path of least resistance.