How Maryland's new athletic director overhauled department’s finances
Jim Smith has only been Maryland’s athletic director for one year. It was enough to distance himself from his predecessor, prominent donors say.
Harry Geller, who assists Smith with drafting name, image and likeness contracts on a volunteer basis, left the AD’s office after a four-hour meeting around 5 p.m. on a Friday earlier this year. He expected it to be cleared out by then.
“Everyone was still there, meeting and working,” Geller said. “Had that been a couple years ago, that place would have been empty.”
Another longtime Terps supporter who worked closely with Smith and former AD Damon Evans put the disparity more bluntly.
“Damon was all talk. Jim is all action,” said Rick Jaklitsch, the former president of the Terrapin Club. “Jim’s a leader. Damon wasn’t.”