Donati was CDC’s deputy. We were in the midst of a huge fundraising effort and he had the relationships with donors (who were getting tired of CDC’s schtick), and he had the most trust with key coaches as compared to a random outsider—Patterson, Dixon, and Schloss. He was rightly seen as the right move when UT scooped up our AD and we wanted to do everything we could to keep the fundraising on track and key coaches employed here. Lots of revisionist history lately. And lol at the idea Boschini couldn’t figure out how to do a national search—he hired both Danny Morrison (SoCon Commissioner) and Chris Del Conte (Rice) before promoting Donati.
And let’s not forget Donati’s (many) successes in raising the money for the east side of AGCS, all the new football facilities under construction, and securing record revenues. He staved off CJS’ inevitable departure as long as possible, held on to the best chance basketball coach we’ve had in our history, made good Olympic sports moves, and did the seemingly impossible in moving on from Patterson when it was time.
He didn’t nail the Patterson replacement, but 2022 was still a helluva run that we wouldn’t have made with Patterson (who’d lost the players and program). It was probably an impossible task for any AD. At least we got one big run out of it, I guess.
Right to criticize his maturity and style and ethics. But objectively he’s had more Ws than Ls here and earned his keep to date. Should he continue in the role going forward? That’s for him or the Chancellor, Board, and BMDs to decide. And it’s a tough call, I bet. But know the Chancellor cares about his legacy, would like to retire, and has hung around at the insistence of the Board to work on stabilizing athletics in the midst of these monumental industry changes and preserving/slowly handing off key donor relationships while they test out Pullin with training wheels. I think that tends to suggest Boschini will be inclined to make a quick move at AD and head football coach if needed to preserve his own legacy. Its an uncertain time, though, and nothing is cheap or easy.
