UW Football | Interim AD says he will back Ty

On the day after, there was still no public reaction from Tyrone Willingham, the man whose future may have been most affected by Tuesday's resignation of UW athletic director Todd Turner other than Turner himself.

Willingham was on the road recruiting and unavailable for comment, according to a UW spokesman.

It was last week's decision to keep Willingham that helped precipitate Tuesday's events, according to Turner. And the initial conventional wisdom was that the loss of Turner — the man who hired Willingham and has steadfastly supported him throughout — would put even more heat on Willingham next season. He is 11-25 in three years at UW and will be entering the fourth year of a five-year contract that has not been extended since he arrived.

But the man who will take over for Turner on at least an interim basis, Scott Woodward, UW's vice president for external affairs, said Wednesday he had talked with Willingham and pledged his assistance for as long as he is in the job.

"Tyrone and I have always had a great relationship so I'll just be there to help and support him any way I can and looking forward to having a great football season next year and working toward that goal," Woodward said.

Woodward plans to meet with UW coaches today or tomorrow. On Wednesday, he met with other athletic-department personnel to lay out the course for the next few months.

"I just reassured them that I like the path they are going on under the leadership of Todd," Woodward said. "Internally everything is fine. There are not going to be changes there. I just wanted to calm everybody down and let them know we have a job to do."

Woodward plans to begin taking an active role with the athletic department immediately. Turner is also expected to continue working in the department until his resignation becomes official Jan. 31, 2008.

"It will be easy because he and I get along very well," Woodward said. "We haven't sat down and talked about logistics yet, but we're just going to transition this thing as smoothly as possible."

A UW spokesman said a search committee for a new AD will likely be formed sometime early next year.

UW president Mark Emmert said Tuesday he hopes to complete a hire by the spring. But with Woodward in place as an interim AD he may be able to take his time.

The 44-year-old Woodward has worked alongside Emmert for the past seven years since taking a position as Director of External Affairs in the Office of the Chancellor at Louisiana State. He then moved with Emmert to Washington in 2004.

He is a native of Baton Rouge, having graduated from LSU in 1985 with a degree in political science. He then worked as a political consultant, a legislative liaison in the office of the Governor, a lobbyist, and for eight years was a principal in his own public-relations firm, all in Louisiana.

Along the way, he worked on a couple of campaigns with noted political strategist James Carville, whom he has known since childhood.

Woodward didn't rule out being a candidate to become the permanent AD, though he said it was "premature" to really discuss. Others whose names have been mentioned also said it was too early to really talk about it — or refrained from commenting at all.

Former Oregon AD Bill Moos is an obvious possibility, though his potential candidacy is complicated by a non-compete clause he signed when he left Oregon last spring. Moos will be paid $1.85 million over 10 years as long as he does not take a job as an AD "or a comparable position at a Bowl Championship Series Conference school west of the Mississippi River."

Moos had his lawyer, Raymond Cihak of Corvallis, respond to an interview request Wednesday. Cihak said Moos "thinks that the AD's job at Washington would be a great opportunity for whomever they hire, but he hasn't had any contact with the university about the job. He appreciates that some people would think of him for that but he doesn't really think it's appropriate to respond to unofficial speculation that has been floating around."

Asked if Moos would think about waiving the non-compete clause to consider the UW position, Cihaki said Moos "doesn't really want to respond to what-ifs on that level since there has been no contact."

The name of former UW kicker Chuck Nelson, who now is executive director of the Boeing Classic golf tournament, has also been floated. Nelson on Wednesday didn't rule out that he would be interested if approached.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com