Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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fear of a shift that left you without op- tions. So much of this was about try- ing to gather information, understand where it was likely to head, but also timing. Timing was so critical here. "Reflecting back on it, there were a number of points in time where if we would have done something earlier, we would have missed it. It would have been too soon. And there was a risk we would've been too late. So the whole thing was nerve-wracking." BGI: Be it travel, logistics or 11th-hour scheduling, your athletes faced many unique challenges in their first year in the ACC. Yet, your program enjoyed a third-place national finish in the Di- rectors' Cup standings and a first-place national finish in the men's Capital One Cup standings. How pleased are you with the inaugural season in this highly competitive conference? JS: "I couldn't be more pleased. It went so well. Part of that was that the ACC was such a great partner to us. Those transitions are not easy. It takes a lot of time and energy and patience and they demonstrated all of those, trying to work through schedules and make all of those things work. They're just a great partner. "But the one thing about young peo- ple generally, and especially the young people at Notre Dame, is they almost always rise to the challenge and they never cease to amaze me in that regard. This was an enormous challenge for them and they responded to it. They loved the notion that they were going to be playing tougher schedules. We got where we got because of their response to that challenge." BGI: This has obviously been a very busy year for you, but many projects and initiatives continue to move forward. Now that the storm around conference realignment and the NCAA has calmed down, what is next on your agenda? JS: "For all of us, working through the new government structure, there will be a lot of legislation introduced and a lot of decisions to be made so that's got to be a priority this year. "Beyond that, increasing our capa- bilities in what we call athlete perfor- mance, the science of sport. We have great people doing good things in that right now, but we need to do more. We need to get better: nutrition, strength and conditioning, rehabilitation, train- ing, medical services. "We also want to increase community engagement, and that is the legacy of the Compton Ice Arena for me. The commu- nity uses it so often and so effectively. I want to do more of that. I want to find ways to use our resources to make sure we are providing opportunities to the people who live in the broader com- munity, not just the Notre Dame com- munity." BGI: The biggest project on the hori- zon has to be the 750,000-square-foot, $400-million Campus Crossroads sta- dium renovation project. Is that under- taking moving along to your satisfac- tion? JS: "Yeah, it's great. It largely moves now into a more operational stage in- volving people that know something about construction and architecture and those things I know nothing about. And so in that sense, I have a little less in- volvement, but my staff is very involved and a lot of decisions are being made every day.