Historically the AD job at Rice went to a coach that you kicked upstairs--see Bale, Erfurth, May. That may have been reasonable when the AD's main job was to hire coaches. But since the 60s/70s it's been more of a business position, see Don Canham at Michigan for the prototype. We've gotten hurt by not having too much coach, not enough business person in the position. We've also been hurt because too much of the time they were just running out the string to retire. Chris was the first and so far the last AD in the modern mold--young, energetic, business savvy. We need young, energetic, driven, with a heavy business background, certainly doesn't hurt if there's a Rice connection. One thing that I think would be very helpful is a sufficient academic pedigree to be able to go one-on-one intellectually with the administration.

Possibilities off the top of my head:

RiceDoc
ruowls
ricex
David Sayler (but he may have moved so much recently that he needs to catch his breath, plus may be a bit burned from last time)
Bobby Williams (though when we talked the other day, he was still burned enough by his experience last time that I'm not sure he'd be interested, plus he's turning the Sam job into a pretty good gig)

On thing, if it is Bobby Williams, I'm guessing our next football coach would be Willie Fritz and our next basketball coach would be Bob Marlin.

In all seriousness, I think this may be the most critical hire ever for Rice athletics. We need a total paradigm shift in the department if the program is to survive, and the person hired for this position has to be strong enough to lead that.