It blindsided the longest-tenured college basketball coach in the country and a football coach who was hired less than six months ago. The move that surprised both was made by a man who is now halfway across the country with a new job.

Mark Coyle bolted from his position as Syracuse director of athletics on Wednesday and he was already in Minnesota gearing up for his introductory press conference as the new Golden Gophers’ AD when Jim Boeheim and Dino Babers found out their now-former athletic director was gone. The move not only caught the head coaches of the two biggest sports at Syracuse off-guard, but also delayed a meeting of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s athletic directors meeting on Wednesday (according to an ESPN report) because the group was missing Coyle, who they didn’t know would soon be leading an athletic department in the Big Ten.

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MORE COVERAGE: 

• Insight on Mark Coyle’s decision to leave Syracuse from former Minnesota director of athletics
• 3 things we learned from Mark Coyle’s introductory press conference at Minnesota
• Syracuse Athletics emails season-ticket holders following Mark Coyle’s departure
• Poll: Are you understanding of Mark Coyle’s rationale for leaving Syracuse?
• Jim Boeheim and Dino Babers surprised by departure of athletic director Mark Coyle

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One common word, transparent, from Coyle’s introductory press conferences at Syracuse and Minnesota provides both justification and irony behind his departure from SU less than a year after he took the job.

“You’ll hear me talk about this a lot,” Coyle said when he was introduced at Syracuse on June 22 of last year. “We want to make sure we live in truth always and that we’re very honest and transparent in everything we do.”

That transparency, both the “family reasons” Coyle cited for leaving and the announcement from U of M on the base salary he’ll receive (one that SU never made), fairly justify why he would leave Central New York. But a lack of that same transparency — catching Boeheim, Babers, his ACC colleagues and according to Floyd Little via Syracuse.com, what seemed like the majority of SU’s athletic department by surprise — taint how he left.

“Family reasons” is vague, but after Coyle teared up on Wednesday reminiscing about his daughter singing the Minnesota fight song as a toddler and recalling his family’s Midwest roots, it was clear that family matters were a motive.

There’s also the $850,000 base salary he’ll be receiving over a five-year deal, which trumps the $567,776 base salary Daryl Gross received as Syracuse’s Director of Athletics. Coyle’s base salary at SU was never disclosed, but the prospect of Coyle being paid around $300,000 more in base salary than his predecessor was unlikely. Even though he didn’t openly say money was a reason for the move, the numbers provide a look into what had to be a major factor, and justifiably so.

But 324 days ago, when Coyle stood at a podium in the Petty-Iocolano Football Wing at SU, he preached ideals that he was raised on, crediting former athletic directors at Kentucky and Minnesota (two athletic departments he had worked in prior) for cultivating him to be honest and transparent in everything he did.

On Wednesday, Little and Boeheim both used a form of the word “shock” to describe their reactions to Syracuse.com, which also reported that SU deputy athletic director John Cunningham (who Coyle brought with him from Boise State) had just bought a house in nearby Manlius, New York. Syracuse deputy athletics director and senior woman administrator Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick, who was also brought aboard by Coyle, recently told The Daily Orange that she was closing in on buying a house in the area, and as of Friday, only had to meet with a realtor to close the deal.

Those same people who Coyle kept close when he crossed the country from Idaho to New York were among the others now at a distance as Coyle played this move close to the vest.

When he stood at the podium on Wednesday, this time donning a tie with Minnesota colors instead of Syracuse ones, his own description of himself hadn’t changed.

“It’s very important to me about being transparent and building trust and relationships,” he said.

The relationships he built with coaches at Syracuse could’ve very well been strong and built on trust. Boeheim told Syracuse.com Wednesday that he liked Coyle a lot and that the 47-year-old had a firm grasp on the athletic department in his short tenure.

But in the end, even though family and money gave justifiable motives to leave Syracuse, Coyle wasn’t the wholeheartedly transparent and honest person he has prided himself on being.

“At the end of the night, you’ve got to put your head on your pillow or in the morning when you’re shaving or brushing your teeth, you know what’s going on,” Coyle said last June. “And I want to make sure that I know what’s going on if that makes sense.”

It makes perfect sense. Coyle clearly knew what was going on. What doesn’t make sense, though, is why he kept all the others in the dark.

Published on May 11, 2016 at 8:19 pm