“I’ve watched some interesting things happen on this campus,” Izzo said. “We’ve had some major hires in athletics this year, and I’ve had the privilege of interviewing both people.”

Hollis’ recent internal promotion was the third major athletics change at MSU since November.

In April, women’s basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie left MSU for the head coaching job at Duke.

A month later, MSU hired Suzy Merchant, former Eastern Michigan women’s basketball coach, to replace McCallie. Merchant said it was always a goal of hers to make it back to MSU, where she attended basketball camps as a child.

“My first recollection of role models, people I looked up to in sports, were those who wore MSU uniforms,” Merchant said when she was hired.

This personnel change came six months after John L. Smith was fired. Mark Dantonio replaced him.

The common thread among Izzo, Dantonio, Merchant and other prominent figures who’ve chosen to stay at MSU is they all see their dream job in East Lansing, MSU Board of Trustees Chairman Joel Ferguson said.

“In order for us to be great, we have to have people for whom this is their dream job,” Ferguson said at the board meeting this month.

Hollis graduated from MSU in 1985 after spending time mopping floors for former basketball coach Jud Heathcote. He often discussed his goal of becoming an athletics director with Izzo. Because of this history, the MSU Board of Trustees unanimously approved him for the job.

“This is my home,” Hollis said. “It’s the people, it’s mid-Michigan, it’s the state of Michigan. We are fortunate. There’s a lot of coaches that could have gone other places, yet they have all stayed. It is the people. We are very close – very connected. That extends beyond the athletics department.”

Simon said the MSU coaching changes offered administrators an opportunity to see how Hollis could handle such a situation.

“In many ways, the adversity we’ve had this year and changing coaches was a good way to see Mark in action,” she said. “Anyone who’s worked with him, I know their confidence has grown.”

Izzo’s influence on MSU’s athletics hiring has been no secret in the past few years. He flew down with a group of MSU administrators last year to interview Dantonio for the MSU football head coaching position. He also said he spoke with Merchant in his home last year about her desire to be the MSU women’s basketball head coach.

Izzo said Ron Mason, Hollis’ predecessor, did not view the director position as a long-term job. Mason previously served as the MSU hockey coach for 23 years.

“Ron impressed our coaches group and he talked about when he took the job how he looked at it as a five-year (job),” Izzo said.

Simon said Mason’s scenario allowed for the university to plan a bit ahead and anticipate a change.

“With Ron’s announcement that he didn’t want to be athletics director for 25 years, it was easy to understand that we had to look for a (future) athletics director,” she said. “That’s given me an opportunity to talk to people around the country about who the best people are.”

Izzo said Dantonio, like Merchant, told him that MSU was a place he wanted to be for 10-15 years. At the football coach’s introductory press conference, he assured MSU fans the program’s foundation would be built progressively.

“We’ll go very slowly and walk very boldly and carry a big stick,” Dantonio said at his first press conference.

With much of the athletics personnel here to stay, sports programs are in “solid” condition, Trustee George Perles said.

“I feel very confident that our athletics department is in great shape and all good things are ahead of us,” Perles said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever been in a better position.

“The next few years should reap the harvest.”