It's time to end UW's search for new AD

You could build a cathedral faster. You could put a newborn through college. You could fix the viaduct, replace the 520 bridge and finish up the Dreamliner.

Maybe the University of Washington will name a permanent athletic director sometime this century. Maybe one of president Mark Emmert's great-great-great grandchildren will find time before the apocalypse. After 281 days of clumsy, indecisive and secretive AD shopping, there's no use anticipating a hiring anymore.

It will happen, eventually. And it will fail to excite you, definitely. The only lingering intrigue is whether Emmert will get it done before the one-year anniversary of Todd Turner's bizarre banishment.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Turner resigned Dec. 10, about 30 seconds before the guillotine would've fallen. The explanation was philosophical differences, which is public official-ese for, "We think of each other as dolts, so the guy with more power wins." It's still confusing to decipher exactly what Turner did to warrant his sudden ousting. The worst thing he did was defend a football coach that Emmert wound up keeping around anyway.

After such an inauspicious dismissal, no wonder the Huskies have botched this search. Emmert forgot rule No. 1 of an unexpected public axing: Make sure you have a replacement in mind.

That's the laughable part of this fiasco. Nine months ago, Emmert poked out his chest, basically declared Turner wasn't good enough to do anything more than make an athletic department NCAA compliant and vowed to find a replacement that matched his vision.

Tick, tock, Prez. Tick, tock.

For several months, the word has been that it will happen soon. Once the snails deliver the preferred AD candidate his contract, there will be an announcement. Any day now. Just be patient.

In the meantime, the football team, the athletic department's primo program, has lost three straight games to open a win-or-walk season for coach Tyrone Willingham. The fan base is fractured and fuming. If nothing changes, the new AD will have to fire a coach before decorating his office.

At this point, the only smart move would be to announce interim AD Scott Woodward as the permanent honcho. He's done admirable work balancing two jobs for the past nine months. He's the acting AD and the vice president of external affairs, and throughout this elongated search, he's floated between being a placeholder and a legitimate candidate.

His current day job is so important that a switch to full-time athletic director would be considered a step down. But since his primary task is to get $150 million in public money to renovate Husky Stadium, he might help himself by accepting this new job and fixing the football program.

Waiting nine months just to make Woodward the permanent AD would lead to plenty of head-scratching, if not ridicule. But he's the best fit now. He's the only fit.

The Huskies have encountered every possible obstacle while trying to replace Turner. They've failed to lure the likes of Georgia Tech's Dan Radakovich and Utah's Chris Hill. They didn't try hard enough to lure Bill Moos out of retirement. They've discovered that the asking price for a big-time athletic director — roughly between $600,000 and $800,000 — has risen beyond what they want to pay.

So they're stuck. It almost seems like Emmert likes Woodward too much to throw this burden on him permanently.

Emmert should've had a game plan already in place. He should've kept Turner until he figured out what to do.

No established athletic director will take a below-market deal to inherit a job that the previous AD lost for unclear reasons. No established athletic director will leap to take a job in which he probably will have to fire Willingham, who happens to be the president of the American Football Coaches Association. No established athletic director will jump schools now that the fall season has begun.

As far as desirable jobs go, this one ranks down there with keeping track of the yardage opponents compile against the Huskies defense.

If Woodward is not the choice, the Sonics might return before the Huskies find a new athletic director.

Emmert can no longer claim he's simply being picky. He can't say that the search committee is dragging its feet, or that Parker Executive Search, the firm hired to find the right fit, has yet to uncover a gold candidate.

By the way, if Woodward gets the job, does the university receive a refund from the firm?

Emmert is out of town this week, so the wait for an announcement will continue. While anticipating his decision, I've kept recalling what a prominent college AD once told me about long, secretive searches: "No need to hide anything if you know what you're doing."

Clearly, the floundering university doesn't know what it's doing. So, keep it simple. Hire Woodward. End the embarrassment now.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com. For his Extra Points blog, visit seattletimes.com/sports.