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Kilkenny all business as University of Oregon's athletics leader.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

Not a single personal photograph adorns the walls of Pat Kilkenny's office in the Casanova Center, and yet you get the sense that Oregon's new athletic director, each day, makes it more and more his place.

The athletic department, at least, if not the precise corner room where Bill Moos worked for 12 years.

In a short time - he was introduced as Oregon's new AD on Valentine's Day, signed his contract effective March 1 and moved into the office earlier this month after Moos' tenure ended officially March 31 - Kilkenny, with increasing confidence, has seized the reins of Oregon athletics.

He's reorganized the upper management of the athletic department; while he says it's "not totally" true that administrators had to apply for their old jobs, they underwent extensive interviews with Kilkenny and a consultant. Some have new roles, and former associate AD Jim Bartko has been rehired to oversee the project to construct a new basketball arena.

He's reached across the river, trying to bridge the "disconnect," perceived or not, between academics and athletics. He's attended meetings, been a presence on campus, made connections with UO student-athletes, and drawn on the athletes-oriented perspective and institutional history of former assistant football coach Neal Zoumboukos, now a special assistant to Kilkenny....

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