Ed Scott, by all accounts, bowled over the search committee hunting for the Memphis Tigers’ new athletic director. He obviously impressed university president Bill Hardgrave enough that he got the job — on his own merits.

“What we needed to find was for our next AD somebody who wanted to be at the University of Memphis not for who we are, or who we’ve been, but for who we can be,” Hardgrave said in introducing Scott. “We needed that … visionary who can guide us through a very uncertain time in athletics.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have found that person.”