USF Sports Information Director Jeremy Sharpe to Arizona. We Have A Suggestion

Being the Assistant Athletic Director for Communications at USF is a really tough gig. You have to put a positive spin on things like your school going to C-USA 2.0, 3-9 football seasons, and most everyone you work with leaving within a couple years of arriving. You also get paid far less than your colleagues at peer schools, and you have to put up with annoying bloggers that harass you for public records requests over and over. You also don't get nearly the staff or budget support you need to do the job correctly.

There's also the fact your department is in general a giant sound of suckitude, and you have to put a positive spin on things like this and this and just about half the archive of this blog. As a program we are the lottery winner that is now bankrupt just years later, but your job isn't to let things like facts get in the way of making the huddled masses to believe everything is fine and hey Go Bulls! Tobacco lobbyists have an easier job selling their product than someone in media relations for USF since I guess that Best Athletic Department in the Big East thing never really worked out eh?

So the decision of Jeremy Sharpe to leave USF for the same position at Arizona on August 1st is not a surprising one. We wish Jeremy the best, and during his tenure apologized to him as much as we could for making his work life even more miserable. He always took our crap in good spirits and we thank him for his kindness. And hey, maybe his bosses in Tuscon will actually let him credential us if we ever play there!

But we write this not as an ode to the old guy, but rather a suggestion for whom the New Guy Or Girl That's Going To Get Paid Even Less Than Their Predecessor Because USF OBV should be. He'll come cheap, he already knows the department, and he's proven he's damn good at it already. This guy.

Charlie Terenzio was already one helluva SID for the Bulls, and now works on the Sarasota campus in communications. He can write and communicate well, he's passionate, and he works his ass off. Having done his old job previously, I can tell you that's about 90% of the gig. The coaches he's worked with before all love him, and he knows the players and the system already, which would be a huge edge for someone that would be starting just days before football training camp begins. Plus he loves USF so much he might actually stick around even if the Bulls suck.

It's different when you're an alumni... you care more, you work harder, and that comes through in all aspects of your work product. If you truly love a place or an institution, you'll give every fiber of your being to make it better. We recognize this in Charlie, because at one time we felt the same way (before we got cynical and jaded). The Selmon Center is in desperate need of someone with raw passion and love for everything green and gold. Terenzio would bring this in spades every single day.

We don't often make suggestions like this around here, but we do consider ourselves media so we don't mind giving input on this one. This is a really crappy job. The pay is lousy, the hours are gruesome, and the story you have to tell is (at least for now) rather terrible. But there is someone (and at one point during his previous tenure, Charlie did tell us this was his dream job) that could do it immediately, and do it very well. We'd love to have the chance to make Charlie's life as hellacious as we did Jeremy's. You could do a lot worse, USF, but I'd say there's a very slim chance you can do better.

#BringBackCharlie #DoSomething

Update: Thanks to Greg Auman for catching that Sharpe will be Associate AD at Arizona, thus a promotion in title, and without sport responsibilities. He also gets a Rich Rod team that Holly Anderson gave a fun preview of yesterday for Grantland. Methinks this might be a slightly better gig.