Teague has long to-do list, but No. 1: 'I want to win'

With University of Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi stepping down at the end of the month (he will take a less-involved administrative role), Norwood Teague will take over the position Monday. The North Carolina native has talked a lot about his propensity for fundraising, mostly, he says, because of what he dreams he can accomplish with the funds. Top of the list? Football budgetary improvements, a contract extension for Tubby Smith and a basketball practice facility. Those things are important, Teague says, but his most important goal: winning.

Q Joel Maturi has made it clear he's not exactly thrilled with how much of a business college athletics and the job of an AD has become. But it seems like you really embrace that aspect.

A I really do. You can call it the business side, but I think it's more the people side as it relates to fundraising, as it relates to marketing, as it relates to the external side ... that's one of the reasons why I'm in it. I believe in what it does for the student-athletes, I believe in what it does for the university. I think my strengths are being a people person, and I think all of us can enjoy things we have a talent in doing. But I will say this: I mean I'm competitive. I want to win and I want to do extremely well for the department, and part of that, your job as an AD, is to make money for the department, and I look at that as a really fun challenge and something that I just really eat up.

Q So what's first on the tackling list?

A The first thing I've got to do is honestly get there and start meeting with coaches, administrators, student-athletes and getting a really good idea of what's going on and the top four or five things that I have to do in the first six months. I strongly believe the first 100 days are ones that you do a lot of listening, and I don't think you can make too many rash decisions that are going to be major.

Q What have you heard from the coaches so far as far as what the program needs and what they want from you?

A With [football coach] Jerry [Kill]: I know is big on some of the areas in his program that need budget help whether it be moving the training table or redoing the lockers in his practice locker room or travel issues, where they need some more help financially to operate at the level they need to be operating at. With [basketball coach] Tubby Smith: First of all it's his contract. I think we're pretty far down the road on that, and I've felt good about that, getting him solidified there and completing that process ... and I think we're making progress on that. It's not done yet but hopefully it's something that will be done very soon.

A That's something we've got to make a reality. Unbelievably we have room for it behind Williams Arena, which I think is sometimes the biggest stumbling block. They've done a lot of work on that, and I've just got to go in and push it forward as quickly as we can. And that's something that Tubby -- well, he's passionate about it.

Q How do you prioritize the facilities needs of all the programs?

A You really have to go through the exercise of finding out which of those projects are necessities and which are important but maybe don't need to be done for the next two-three years. It's just a matter of evaluating. ... I think over time you see that this edges out this one as a higher priority, or this edges out this one as a higher priority.

Q Hungry is one word. Bitter is another. How do you change some of the resentment in the community or the apathy and frustration surrounding the program?

A Yeah -- here's an example of that. I got on a plane flying back to N.C. and there was two gentlemen on the plane with me. They were both from the Twin Cities -- one was sitting in front and one was sitting beside me. One couldn't be kinder. He was saying, 'You're saying all the right things, and I think you have a great plan, and I congratulate you for being here,' and the other says, 'Well you've got nowhere to go but up because they haven't done a thing.' I was like, whoa. I see a lot of that. There tends to be two sides to it. There's just this rabid, passionate, positive, feeling like we can get there. And then there's that other side that's just really frustrated, and I think they've thrown up their hands. I think to win that group, you've got to sell a vision and you've got to show success. They've got to start believing in what you're doing. And you can talk all you want, but you've got to start putting that into place.

A Not right now. I've seen others make some mistakes by jumping too quick in those areas as much as you feel like maybe you want to. But you've just got to be patient. And when I mean patient, I mean a couple months, not a year.

Q How do you feel about the new preferred seating plan?

A Once that's put into place, it's hard to go back on it. I've got to see how it goes. It seems to be going pretty darn well. How soon we'll do it again, I don't know about that, but once it's put in place, it's set in motion to happen again. And probably 80 percent of the individual schools in the country do that. It can be really tough on your donors, especially some of the ones that have been there a long time and get moved around -- and I'm certainly sensitive to that, but it's just kind of the nature of what goes on.

Q Is keeping 25 sports realistic?

A It's sometimes very debatable how much money you actually save by cutting sports for the pain you have to go through. I've been in places -- North Carolina has 28 sports -- that are like the U that have that number of sports and do very well at it. I think you've just got to -- if it comes to a situation where you have to cut sports, you're going to know it. ... It makes it hard, but I've been at places that have made it work, and I believe in it.