New Texas A&M AD Scott Woodward has been on the job just two weeks, so he is "still in the adjustment phase, trying to learn as much as he can about his department and about the landscape of Aggieland," according to Robert Cessna of the Bryan-College Station EAGLE. Woodward said, "I have high goals and personal goals, which I'll keep to myself. The most important thing for me, and it was the same attitude I had when I was at LSU and it was the same attitude when I was at the University of Washington, hopefully I can leave here exit stage left and say hey, I left the place better than I found it." Woodward said that is a "hell of a statement" for Texas A&M because it is "something that's very special, and we're pretty darn good in just about everything we do." Woodward: "I'm just hoping that I can have that marked improvement in what and how we do things, whether it be graduation rates or wins or new facilities. It's, 'Hey, you pushed the ball ... you made it a little better'" (Bryan-College Station EAGLE, 2/18).
HIGH MARKS: Cessna wrote Woodward "understands the SEC and even A&M, for that matter, having graduated and worked at nearby LSU." He gets "high marks" from NCAA President and then-LSU chancellor Mark Emmert. As president at UW, Emmert hired Woodward. In addition, Alabama football coach Nick Saban "helped mold Woodward," who served as LSU Dir of External Affairs from '00-04 when Saban coached there. Woodward has a "few self-made skins on the wall." At UW he made "two solid hires in football with Steve Sarkisian and Chris Pederson." The UW coaches and media also "liked working with Woodward." That "doesn't mean he's going to be successful at A&M, but in an age in which more and more public figures seem to be less and less accessible, his approach is refreshing" (Bryan-College Station EAGLE, 2/18).
