Boo Corrigan’s Press Conference Addressing the Exodus of Will Wade: TRANSCRIPT

NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan met with the media yesterday afternoon to address the abrupt exit of Will Wade, and for the most part… he didn’t dodge anything. He leaned into it.

You can read the whole transcript below:

Boo: I just want to thank everyone for coming out today. I think Philip Rivers said it, right? In thinking about who we are, what we are, the Wolfpack ain’t for soft people. We’re going to go find a coach that agrees and understands who we are and what we are. For the past seven years, we built a culture in the athletic department based on trust and accountability. We got coaches that want to be at NC State. They want to be a part of who we are, what we are. They represent this great university. We thought we had someone that came in last year to lead our men’s basketball program, and over the course of the last year, we had developed a relationship that I believe was based on trust and accountability. There were a number of different conversations that had occurred over the past year involving our program, involving everything else in the landscape of college sports, including Tuesday evening for two hours. To talk about the entire program and scheduling and the players and staff and everything that goes into that. There was no reason for me in my job not to believe the words that I was hearing coming back to me from Coach Wade.

And I believe everyone here saw it, wrote about it, whatever it is. That “I want to be at NC State. That’s where I want to be. I look forward to growing it.” I was as surprised and shocked as anyone else as this occurred. Based on the previous conversations that we had had, I believed he was telling me his true intentions. I’m disappointed for our athletic department. I’m disappointed for our fans. And I’m disappointed for our university that we’re here today. That being said, as soon as we received notice of his resignation, the search began, and we are committed to finding the next coach for our men’s basketball program that wants to be at NC State. That understands who we are. That understands that we’re a tough school. That understands that we’re a great academic institution. That understands that our fan base has very high expectations, and can embrace that. I believe everyone felt this year, being in the Lenovo Center, what this can be, with five sellouts this year. To hear the roof raised at different times, during different games, because of our fan base, because of our students and their ability to connect. That’s what our mission is, and that’s what we’re going to accomplish.

Question: How much was the buyout?

Boo: So, the buyout, everything’s a negotiation. Right? As you’re looking at everything that’s going on, and as we were talking through this, I believe everyone knows prior to April 2nd, the buyout was going to be $5 million. After April 2nd, the buyout was going to move to $3 million. We settled at a $4 million buyout. The reason we did that is to pick up the days in between today until the 2nd, as opposed to having to wait until the 2nd. So, for us, being able to move forward was just as important. But we understood the dollar amount versus the value of time. And we chose to settle at $4 million.

Question: Do you have any reason to believe that LSU was in touch with Wade before the end of the season?

Boo: I think that’s a question you need to ask LSU and you need to ask Coach Wade. I’ve got my own thoughts on where we are. I know that the number of times we had conversations about the job, including one time where it was, “Do we need to talk about this?” And the answer was “no.” I believe a number of people may have been at the ACC tournament where the answer was a definitive, “I’m going to be here.” After we lost in the ACC tournament to Virginia, there was another confirmation. After the NCAA tournament, there was another confirmation. So, I think that’s a better question answered by LSU and by Coach Wade.

Question: When were you actually aware of the resignation?

Boo: Yesterday morning as I came into work. Again, you’re aware of rumor and innuendo, but I don’t know if you all know this or not, the internet has a lot of rumor and innuendo on it. Right? It’s what’s going on. So, again, as we looked at that, it became apparent that this could be a potential outcome. And at that point in time, we engaged in conversations.

Question: Was there ever a meeting you scheduled with Coach Wade where he chose not to show up?

Boo: There was.

Question: Did you receive any communication he wasn’t going to be at the meeting, or did he simply no-show?

Boo: Yeah. He no showed. There were other meetings, phone calls and face-to-face meetings. But there was also one that was missed.

Question: With the transfer portal starting, how much does that speed things up? And how open are you to maybe assisting coaches or people that aren’t just college head coaches? And how different is it compared to, say, last year’s search?

Boo: I don’t know that it’s a whole lot different than last year’s search. If anything, with the transfer portal moving to the end of the Final Four, maybe there’s a little bit less from that standpoint. We want to find the right person for NC State, right? What’s that look like. We need to make sure that we have a person that’s committed to this university. That wants to be at this university. That shares our values of trust and accountability. That will lead this program where it goes. These things are kind of living organisms, right? You think it’s going to go down this path and then it takes a left turn or a right turn as we go down it. But we’re going to find the right person.

Question: At what point did you start coming up with a board? Or start coming up with an idea of who might be the next head coach for NC State?

Boo: One, I don’t have a top drawer in my desk to pull out where all the names are, but you always know what’s going on and try to pay attention for what’s going on. Did I think it was going to be us at this point? No. I did not. But do you have friends that are in my role at other schools that you want to be able to talk with and understand the landscape of what’s going on? 100%. You do. Like I said, as soon as we received notification of the resignation, we started. I also don’t believe in doing something before you know the final outcome. I think there’s a lot of people that…actually, I don’t know if there’s a lot of people that do this, but my perception at times is people move before anything’s done, and I don’t like that idea. I like the idea of knowing exactly where you end and then you start. Much like today is going to be the end of Coach Wade. And then we’re going to go find a coach and then we’re going to celebrate the new coach as we move forward.

Question: What was just your initial reaction when you saw the resignation?

Boo: Disappointment. Right? Probably more than anything else. You spend a year getting to know someone. And you get to know their staff and you get to know the people around them. These jobs aren’t easy. I’m not complaining. I love what I do for a living. But at times, you’re pouring into other people. It’s more about other people’s journey than it is yours. I don’t care about my journey. That’ll be when Chris and I retire. And whenever, in 10 years, we can sit back and look at that. But you spend a lot of time, personally. Your staff spends a lot of time making sure that people have the resources that they need. Making sure that the answer to the best of your ability is yes. We don’t say no just to say no. We don’t play games with our coaches. We don’t posture and do those things. If we can help, we’re going to do everything we can to help. So I would say disappointment.

Question: Part of the reporting around it was the NIL number to have to build a roster. Where would you say that kind of stands?

Boo: We’re going to be competitive. We were competitive this year with our NIL. We’ve been competitive with our program in general. You look at who we play, where we go, how we travel. Everything about our program is not missing. I believe Coach Wade was very, when he got here, very much in line with, “We have everything we need.” I feel like we have everything we need, and we’re going to do everything we can to be as competitive as we can and compete for a national championship.

Question: You mentioned you’re looking for a coach that fits NC State. What are some traits you’re looking for in a coach, and does it have to be a sitting head coach at this point?

Boo: No, I don’t think it has to be a sitting head coach at this point. I think we want to find someone, one, that knows how to coach, is a great coach, and has the ability to connect with people, both internal, external, with the players, be able to recruit. You have to be a good recruiter in this day and age. You have to understand what’s going on with NIL, what’s going on with the transfer portal. How do plan to put your team together. I think we saw this year, maybe if some of our players were four inches taller, it could have been a little bit better, right? No shade on our players this year, but the importance of a rim protector has really become something more definitive in college basketball. We need to make sure that we have someone to come in here that knows how to build a roster, knows how to put the pieces together in the right way to have a very competitive team.

Question: I want to quickly dive into the ACC, the state of it, and how while there have been successive years of increased revenue, it’s not necessarily keeping up with the SEC and Big Ten. How do you think that factors into your ability to draw in the right candidate for a place like NC State?

Boo: NC State is a great university. I think the ACC is a great league. We live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I think there’s so many attractive aspects of who we are and what we are. It’s up to us. It’s incumbent upon us in the athletic department to find the dollars, to be able to rev share, to be able to work with Learfield, be able to work with corporations, be able to find those dollars in the market. But we’ve got an unbelievably strong base to work from. We spend a lot of time, you know, comparison is a thief of joy, right? And we believe that in our athletic department, that we need to do everything we can to make NC State the best NC State we can be and then let other people compete with us. So is it a factor? It could be. But, again, that’s a better question for Coach Wade.

Question: Pack fans always pony up. How do you reassure them that everything’s going to be okay?

Boo: How great was the Lenovo Center this year? Great. I mean, how much fun was it to be in there with all the people and share in the passion that we have for this great university? Yeah, I think you can look at some of the coaches that we’ve hired and the success that they’ve had. I think you can look at the university itself, right, and what a strong university we have. And finding someone that just connects, right, that fits in with who we are, believes in what we do at NC State, is a heck of a coach. I’m going to clean my language up. It’s a heck of a coach, right, can find people, can build a team, can build a roster, can surround themselves with the right people, to be able to take us to a level beyond this year. I mean, it’s great going to the NCAA tournament, but it’s better going to the NCAA tournament winning a couple games, and that certainly is what our expectation is.

Question: Going back to Tuesday night when you met with Coach Wade. Was it him asking for further support, further investment, and when you did find out he was resigning, did he directly tell you he was resigning, or did you find out from an agent

Boo: Going back to Tuesday night, we talked about everything in the program and what we can do and who we’re going to play. The transfer portal’s not open, so you can’t talk about this person or that person. We talked about last year’s team and who was going to be back. Asked him what he needed, what do we need to be competitive. From there, as far as the resignation letter, it was an email that we received from his agent in talking with his agent.

Question: So he did not reach out to you directly?

Boo: Not from that standpoint.

Question: What have you been able to say to the players with remaining eligibility, and is there anybody who, I don’t know if interim coach is the right word, but anybody that will be a conduit, I guess, until the transfer portal begins or a coach gets hired?

Boo: Yeah, we have some people that are still in the building that have been in contact with the student athletes. I have personally not spoken with the student athletes. I’ve been a little tied up on other things, but we have senior staff members that have reached out to our student athletes to let them know that we are available, want to help whatever they need from a workout standpoint, from a trainer standpoint, rehab and those types of things. But, you know, a lot of this in this day and age, there’s going to be a lot of movement, right? There’s going to be a lot of movement with the team, and we want to make sure the ones that are here that are committed to NC State know that that commitment is from us as well, and whatever decision they make at that point is going to be up to them and whoever we hire.

Question: Going off that, is there a specific team of people in place right now to kind of help the transition from Wade to whoever the next coach is?

Boo: Yeah, there are.

Question: Who is part of it?

Boo: It’s our training staff, our strength and conditioning staff. With all this happening today, I’m not sure, from a strength and conditioning standpoint, if that person is going to go with Coach Wade or not go with Coach Wade, and the trainer, are they going to go with Coach Wade or not go with Coach Wade. We did have meetings today with the head of strength and conditioning, with the head of our athletic training, as well as nutrition, to make sure that we have people in place to make sure that our students are taken care of.

Question: You said that you got the resignation e-mail from his agent. To be clear, he has not reached out since then at all? Or have you spoken to him?

Boo: I have not spoken to Will since yesterday at noon, probably about 1 o’clock by the time the meeting ended.

Question: Obviously, this is fresh, and when you’re going through the process of looking for the next person, and I don’t think you can guarantee this by any stretch, but how much of a priority is it going to be to find someone that looks at this as an end-game destination instead of a jumping point.

Boo: It’s a priority. And I believe we’re that school, right? I believe we’re a school that someone can stay for 10 years and have an unbelievably great run here. So that’s 100% what we’re looking for. We don’t want to be a stepping stone on the way to another job. And again, we thought we had that. In every conversation, in every release, in everything that was out there, we believed that we had that. So we’re going to go out and find someone again.

Question: Again, through no fault of your own, I don’t think, there’s a lot of people, particularly the ones at NIL, that subsidize the success of athletics, that feel disappointed, maybe even feel like they were lied to. How do you speak to them in regards to what you’re going to do in the future and to sort of say, “Hey, stick around, stick with us, we’re going to do this?”

Boo: Well, I think those people also saw what happened this year, and the excitement in the building and the pride that people have in being on Big Monday and being on ESPN and who we’re playing and the games and all of those things are a part of it. That hasn’t changed, right? You know, I think I would commiserate with them in terms of feeling lied to, and let them know that it’s not something that I didn’t know anything about, and am as surprised as they are about what’s going on, but reassure them that we’re going to find a coach that wants to be at NC State and wants to be at NC State for a long time.

Question: Will there be a search firm for this or how are you planning on conducting the search?

Boo: We have not decided on whether or not we’re going to use a search firm at this point. Right now we’re not. We’re not going to use a search firm. You know, we went through this a year ago. We have a pretty good idea of what’s going on and what the market is and where salaries are and all of those things, so I don’t believe that we’re going to use a search firm this time.

Question: And do you feel like it was a misstep at all in the contract negotiations last year to have a $5 million buyout as opposed to a larger buyout by the end of April 1st?

Boo: Well, I mean, you can look at it a couple different ways. Like today, do I wish it was a bigger buyout? Absolutely, I wish it was a bigger buyout. I think if you look at the 2.5 that we were paying Coach Wade as opposed to what some of the other people were paying, which was significantly more for coaches with less experience, you know, there’s going to be give and take in every negotiation and a really good negotiation is when both sides leave a little bit upset, right? Not everyone gets exactly what they want and I think that’s what it is. Jimmy Sexton was really good to work with. I do want to say that. He’s been a pro to work with and I do appreciate the relationship that was developed with Jimmy.

Question: How much did you learn during the last year’s coaching search that you can use with this one being another major hire?

Boo: I think a lot. It’s a little bit of muscle memory, right? Does not mean we want to do more of this. But the more that you do something, the little bit more comfortable you are in that, you know, made a lot of really good contacts with people last year that are carrying over already to this year. I can assure you that between yesterday at 9 o’clock or 10 o’clock in the morning and today, my phone has been in receive mode more than it’s been in outgoing mode. So there’s plenty of people I know that are very interested in this job and a lot of work was done last year that we’ll carry over this year.

Question: In this fast-moving world of college sports, a lot of times high-profile players who leave for another program get a lot of criticism. How would you compare this situation?

Boo: You know, legitimate question. In my role, I do not spend a lot of time directly with the student-athletes talking about contracts and talking about that side. My job, I believe, is to be supportive of our coaches and make sure that they have the resources that they need. That being said, in this day and age, this is the day and age that we’re in, right? There are people that want to move and people that are looking for something else, a bigger, better deal, if you will, at all times. And I think that’s, for years, coaches were allowed to do that and students weren’t, right? And now students are and coaches are. We love being at NC State and we plan on being at NC State for a long time, right? But that’s our decision and where we are. But, you know, I’m disappointed by how it went down. I really am. It’s just really disappointing because you pour into people and you do those things. And most of the student deals are one-year deals, right? And that ability to go from school to school year over year, contractually, is a whole lot easier than it is, you know, with a coach in this situation.

Question: Why was it so important for you to come in here and talk with us today?

Boo: I appreciate you saying that. One, I think it’s important that we close this era, right? What happened this past year and the excitement around the program and that is not something that the next coach needs to deal with, right? They get to build on what occurred. They get to build on 2,000 new season tickets that we sold last year and be a part of that. Their job is to move us forward, not backwards. My job is to deal with what we have today, right? And then in some relatively short order, I don’t know what that means, right? To be able to announce a new head coach at NC State and allow them the opportunity to move forward as opposed to answering questions about Coach Wade. That’s what my job is, is to be here and answer the questions about what happened.

Question: Instead of an email, would you rather he have told you this face-to-face?

Boo: I’m a handshake guy, you know? I’d rather shake someone’s hand and say, “Are we good? Are you staying? Are we good on the numbers? Are we good on everything? The papers needs to be done. All of that stuff needs to be done.” So, yeah, sure I would have. It would have meant more to me, but I’m kind of a dinosaur in some respects, right, for what’s going on today. And they view that maybe as the most efficient way to do it or however he wanted to handle that. But again, we were not going to come forward with anything, right? We were not going to come forward with the press conference until we knew exactly what the situation was. And that to me was the most important thing.

Question: Do you regret hiring him in the first place?

Boo: No. No, I think going back to this past year, a lot of people were excited about NC State basketball, right, and excited about what happened this past year. I think it’s really hard to have a fair amount of self-reflection on everything that’s occurred in the last 24-30 hours, whatever that has been. But he did a good job, right, when he was here. It’s fun to go to games again, right, and to see all the people in the arena. It’s fun to beat teams from around here, right, and be a part of that. I guess, again, I’m disappointed that it ended the way that it did, more than I am wishing it never happened.