First of all, Parker Executive and UCF certainly run a tight ship. I heard six candidates would interview Tuesday and Wednesday and it was almost impossible to get confirmations on names. I've heard names of candidates of who were interested in the job, but no confirmations whether they got to the interview stage.
Last night, I was told UCF has already trimmed the list to three.
Of those three, I believe two are Bowling Green AD Chris Kingston and Kentucky Deputy AD DeWayne Peevy. It is believed Peevy interviewed on Tuesday with Kingston following on Wednesday.
Kingston is a 1994 UCF alumnus whose career began in the U.S. Army as part of the Military Intelligence Corps, then later had a four-year stint as Associate AD at Army. He spent several years at NC State prior to landing the Bowling Green job in summer of 2013. In his first few months on the job, Kingston hired Dino Babers to lead the football program to replace Dave Clawson who left for Wake Forest. Babers led the Falcons to an 8-6 record and MAC East Division crown in 2014 and this year's team is 8-2 and has already clinched the MAC East with a perfect 6-0 league record.
"Chris Kingston is an exceptional administrator and one of the best people in collegiate athletics," UConn AD Warde Manuel said when Kingston was named BGSU AD in 2013. "He has the proper perspective of focusing on the needs of the coaches and student-athletes while maintaining great relationships on campus, with donors, and with fans. He will be a tremendous asset to the Bowling Green community."
Peevy is No. 2 in Kentucky's athletic department, second in command to Mitch Barnhart and described as a "confidant" to basketball coach John Calipari, according to this Kentucky.com feature story. After his college basketball playing career was cut short, Peevy worked in communications, first at his alma mater (University of Montevallo in Alabama), then a year with the Gulf South Conference and back to Montevallo. Three years later, Peevy landed a job with the Southeastern Conference working media relations for basketball. In 2008, he was hired at Kentucky to lead their communications department. He swiftly moved up the ranks with several promotions to get to the position he has today.
"He has all the qualities to be a great athletic director," Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart told Kentucky.com last January. "He's fully ready. There have been some nibbles, but these days you have to be careful to land in the right spot. I just know that he will be a tremendous AD when given the opportunity and when he chooses to do that."
As I said earlier in the week, UCF hopes to fast track a decision with a goal of making the selection by early next week. In an ideal scenario, they'd name the AD by next Wednesday and have the individual be in attendance at next Thursday's home game against East Carolina.
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