COLUMBIA — A change is coming for South Carolina.
Athletic director Ray Tanner is transitioning into another job, the school announced Friday, and will become athletics director emeritus and senior advisor to the president, focusing on fundraising and community engagement. He will remain AD until his successor is hired, and the school said the search will begin after the fall semester.
REQUIRED READING: South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner leaving, gets new position with Gamecocks
Here are candidates to monitor throughout South Carolina’s search for a new AD:
Ryan Alpert
Current job: Deputy AD and chief operating officer at Tennessee
Alpert has served as deputy AD for the Vols since August 2021. He has overseen numerous projects since starting his job at Tennessee, and prior, worked at Missouri, where served as deputy AD for external operations.
He is from Columbia and went to South Carolina.
In June, he was a finalist for the athletic director job at Memphis and was also finalist for the Houston AD job. It appears as though he’s willing to leave Tennessee for the right job.
Chance Miller
Current job: Vice president for intercollegiate athletics and recreation Coastal Carolina
In 2019, Chance Miller was hired as South Carolina’s senior deputy athletic director. He was instrumental in hiring men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris and football coach Shane Beamer. He left in June for the job at Coastal Carolina, so it’s interesting timing considering Tanner said Friday he had been in talks with president Michael Amiridis for a while about this, but it wasn’t clear who Tanner told in terms of his expected departure.
Either way, a name to look out for considering Miller’s extensive history and experience with South Carolina athletics.
Jeff Crane was hired to replace Miller on July 26. His name may be mentioned as he is a current member of South Carolina’s athletic department. Crane worked at South Carolina from 2006-19, then left for a job at Memphis where he was deputy athletic director.
Jeff Purinton
Current job: AD at Arkansas State
Purinton has been with Arkansas State since May 2022. He worked in various positions at Alabama for 15 years, so he has SEC knowledge and experience if that matters to the hiring committee at South Carolina. Since his arrival, Arkansas State has claimed the most Sun Belt championships in the conference each of the last two years, winning a combined nine titles.
Mike Buddie
Current job: AD at Army
Buddie is in his fifth year as AD at Army. Through his first four seasons, Army has had 10 conference championships and NCAA postseason appearances and 12 Patriot League Coach of the Year honorees. Prior to his role at Army, he was AD of Furman for four years. At Furman, he spearheaded the effort to bring the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament back to upstate South Carolina in 2017. Under his leadership, the Paladins won 26 SoCon championships.
Bryan Blair
Current job: AD at Toledo
Blair was hired in 2022 and became the youngest FBS athletic director in the nation at 37. Before Toledo, he worked at Washington State from 2018-22. Toledo won six MAC championships in 2022-23. In the 2023-24 school year, Toledo won MAC titles in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, men’s tennis and women’s tennis for a total of 11 league championships over two seasons.
Jared Benko
Current job: AD at Georgia Southern
Before being hired by Georgia Southern in 2020, Benko had a decade-long career in the SEC. Benko worked various jobs at Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, and Georgia beginning in 2008 before being hired by Mississippi State in 2016, where he served as deputy athletic director and chief financial officer for nearly four years.
Hunter Yurachek
Current job: AD at Arkansas
Yurachek started working as the AD of Arkansas in 2017. The Razorbacks have won 36 SEC championships in the past six years, including 28 conference titles in the past four years. Arkansas won two NCAA championships, recorded nine top-10 national finishes and won five SEC championships in the 2023-24 season.
Yurachek’s son Ryan, is in his second season with South Carolina football. He was an offensive analyst in 2023 and is the assistant tight ends coach in 2024.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
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Publish date : 2024-09-13 09:02:00
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