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Replacing Gary Blair Features Several Potential Paths

Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork has a big task ahead to replace the legend, and he could pursue several different trajectories

When Gary Blair arrived at Texas A&M it wasn’t a destination job. In fact, the Aggies had been to the NCAA Sweet 16 just one time before Blair arrived for the 2003-04 season.

Now, the Aggies are a destination job. Blair made it that way by coaching 19 years, becoming the school’s all-time winningest coach for men’s or women’s basketball and winning a national championship.

Since Blair announced his retirement in October, the open question has been who will replace Blair? Unlike other programs, Blair hasn’t anointed a successor, at least not publicly. The advantage of Blair’s announcement and retirement tour is that it gave Aggies athletic director Ross Bjork the time to determine how he wants to approach the hiring process.

There are four ways Bjork could go here, and each has its pros and cons.

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The Internal Hire

If Bjork opts for an internal hire, the only natural pick is Kelly Bond-White, the co-associate head coach who has worked with Blair since 2000 when she joined him at Arkansas. That’s 22 years of soaking in the ‘Gary Blair Way’ of coaching and building a program. 

As Blair said at the SEC Tournament, “I’ve had good people around me. I let people work.” 

Bond-White has worked hard. She’s Blair’s top recruiter. She has great relationships with the roster and the university. The only significant issue is that she’s never been a head coach before. On paper, she’s ready. The questions are whether she wants to be a head coach and whether the Aggies want her to be their head coach?

The ’Big Fish’

If Blair had made this decision in October of 2019, it would have been an easy call for Texas A&M — call Vic Schaefer, then at Mississippi State.

It might STILL be that easy. At least he’s closer now, as the head coach at Texas. He’s already put an imprint on Texas, building two straight Top 10 recruiting classes and taking Texas to an Elite Eight in his first season.

Schaefer is the biggest part of the Blair coaching tree. They go all the way back to their days in the Southland Conference when Blair coached at Stephen F. Austin and Schaefer coached at arch-rival Sam Houston. When Schaefer left Sam Houston, Blair hired Schaefer at Arkansas. He went with Blair to Texas A&M (Schaefer’s alma mater, by the way) and became Blair’s ‘secretary of defense’ until he took the job at Mississippi State in 2012.

With Schaefer, you know what you’re getting. He’s proven. He led Mississippi State to a pair of national title games. He builds his program like Blair. If the Aggies are going to swing for the fences, he’s the coach.

Would Schaefer bite? Part of his logic for taking the Texas job was to be closer to family. He’s an Austin native. Perhaps he’s close enough already?

The Blair Coaching Tree

Schaefer is the most prominent name, but Blair’s tree is extensive and Bjork could look to replace Blair that way.

Those names include Arkansas’ Mike Neighbors, Auburn’s Johnnie Harris, and Georgia Tech’s Nell Fortner. The last is an intriguing name. She was a graduate assistant for Blair at Stephen F. Austin in 1986, became a Ladyjack assistant for three seasons and then joined Blair’s first employer, Louisiana Tech, as an assistant with future LSU coach Kim Mulkey. 

She coached the U.S. to a Gold Medal in the 2000 Olympics. She was the coach and the general manager of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever. She led Georgia Tech to the NCAA Tournament last year and upset UConn this year. She also coached at Auburn so she gets the SEC.

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The National Search

If Bjork doesn’t elevate Kelly-Bond and doesn’t work the coaching tree, then it’s off to a national search. One could hypothesize that if Kelly-Bond doesn’t get the job then Bjork is not going to go outside the family to hire a current assistant coach. 

So the pool could include high-major coaches looking to coach at a higher level and/or successful mid-major coaches ready to make the jump. It could also include WNBA coaches, given the success that former Atlanta Dream coach Nicki Collen has had at Baylor in her first season, leading the Bears to another Big 12 regular-season title.

Any list would be highly speculative at this point. But, this is the advantage that Blair’s success creates. Bjork can be patient. He can swing big. And he can offer worlds more than the Aggies could offer Blair 20 years ago.


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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.