Our New Athletic Director, joining us from South Dakota University. Have not heard of any known ties to our University or the area.

Born in South Dakota
Played Football (Punter) at Northwestern (04-07)
Started admin career at University of SD (07-08)
Was at Northern Ill (09-11)
Then SDSU (11-13)
Then was AD of Augustana College (14-18)
Returned to SDSU (19-25)

He has a wife and 4 children, and I believe the oldest just enrolled at Tennessee this fall. Welcome Slade!

Previous AD director experience at Augustana.

“Slade played a vital role in ensuring Augustana’s tradition of academic excellence among our student-athletes continued,” Herseth Sandlin said in a statement. “He oversaw major athletic fundraising endeavors, managed the dedication of new athletic facilities and ushered in unprecedented success for our programs.”

https://www.argusleader.com/story/sports/college/augustan... /

Born in Spearfish South Dakota.

He was an AD finalist at a D2 school a few years ago. Didn't get the job because the internal candidate was just a perfect fit. However, they still did a search and everyone was very impressed with Slade (great band too.).

We're so anti-woke now we hired a white punter from South Dakota.

Interesting fact: Larscheid was a punter on the Northwestern team that hosted Ohio in Frank Solich’s first game at Ohio. The Wildcats beat the Bobcats 38-14, one week before the Pitt win. Larscheid DNP in that game, but would go on to start later in the season.

What a pull, Mike. Kudos.

I took up watching recordings of FCS football games on YouTube as an interest when COVID took away live sports in the spring of 2020. Had always been fascinated by what NDSU has built and wanted to see more of it up close.

This led to also taking an interest in SDSU as I learned more about the different teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. I appreciate and respect that they are the only school of the main Dakota four who opts to play home games outside. With a stadium that is less than 10 years old, that was hopefully a deliberate decision given that USD, NDSU, and UND all play indoors.

Between what they have accomplished in football, and mens/womens's hoops, I would say that their department has accomplished more than most of the MAC schools and performed very well on their respective levels/conference. The men's basketball team has been in the dance on a pretty regular basis and their women's program went three years in a row from 22-24. Seems like Slade knows what excellence on the field/court looks like and will want to hold Ohio to similar standards. He is definitely inheriting a strong football program (best in the modern era IMHO) and will hopefully elevate the programs that are struggling a bit.

I like his fundraising background and being from western South Dakota strikes me as he won't experience much culture shock moving to Southeast Ohio and should help him connect well with the local population. Athens and Brookings appear to be about the same size in population so that won't be a major shift, either.

Best of luck to him and here's hoping Ohio Athletics will continue to climb!

Very good first impression. Hopefully can get acclimated to Athens quickly, and hit the ground running.

It was great talking to him. He seemed very personable and driven. It will be fun to see what his first moves are. I do know the President of the university is very excited. He has young kids so will be a big part of the community.

In the press conference Slade didn't recognize any differences between the two jobs but could only see similarities. The climate of Brookings, SD might as well be in Canada. Athens has almost a mid south climate. South Dakota has tremendous natural sites but Brookings is 25 minutes from a state park. Athens has Strouds Run in its city limits and locally with all the parks and Hocking Hills is better for hiking. Brookings has nicer museum, South Dakota Art Museum has 7,000 pieces of art. South Dakota arboretium is also quite lovely.

For city access Minneapolis is 3 and a half hours away with no direct highway. From the north end of Athens the Columbus suburbs are only 50 miles away and at 70 mph up US 33 it takes barley 45 minutes. Friday night before the WVU game we drove up to the german village in Columbus for dinner in an hour or so from Athens. Easily from Athens one could be up to Columbus for a night out or a day trip once a month.

I wasn't saying Athens was mid south culturally but mid south climate wise. Far different than an upper midwest climate. To say both Brookings and Athens are in the same region because their states are in the midwest is assigning them on a technicality.