Across the last 50 years, I think the two most challenging jobs in the UA athletic department were those accepted by athletic director Cedric Dempsey in 1983 and football coach Jedd Fisch in 2021, taking jobs at a breaking point and crushing it (in a good way).
I’d list new athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois No. 3, inheriting a financial mess unprecedented in the athletic department’s history. She celebrated her first full year on the job Saturday, and here’s a quick recap:
Of the 13 people on her senior leadership staff, 11 are her new hires. The only holdovers are special assistant to the AD Mike Candrea and senior associate AD for compliance Kristen Arquilla, who has been on the job for only 18 months.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois speaks during an ABOR meeting June 6 in Tempe.
Reed-Francois made her most important hire last week, adding Mike Smith, the No. 3 man of Texas A&M’s 12th Man Foundation, to be ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s senior associate AD and chief development officer (fundraiser).
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Smith’s background the last 13 years includes fundraising and engagement positions at Penn State, Auburn, Dayton and North Texas. His title at A&M was vice president of major gifts. He’ll find working the same job at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ significantly different.
According to Sportico, A&M’s athletic department raised $115 million in private donations last year. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ raised $24 million.
A&M produced an overall revenue of $279 million for athletics. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ raised $143 million.
A&M netted about $8 million alone from hosting a George Strait concert that drew 110,000 fans at Kyle Field last year, about a third of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s annual athletic department fundraising.
If Smith and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s 13-person fundraising department can be anywhere near as effective as Smith was at Texas A&M, the Wildcats should be able to hold their own with Big 12 contemporaries across the board.
Reed-Francois said that her first year on the job was about stabilizing the athletic department and setting a foundation for the next decade. Hiring Smith is one of the pillars of that foundation.