UNLV president to interview several AD candidates this weekend

UNLV president Len Jessup will interview several candidates for the athletic director’s job this weekend, three sources said Thursday.

The interviews are expected to take place in Salt Lake City, two sources said. One source added there would be “more than a handful” of candidates interviewed.

The sources, all close to the search, didn’t want to be named discussing a sensitive topic.

“We have begun conversations with prospective candidates, but any further comment is premature until we get farther along in the process and narrow the field,” search committee chairwoman Nancy Rapoport said.

The next search committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, and the finalists could be determined then. If so, UNLV will publicly name them, schedule interviews on campus and make those candidates available to the media.

Being publicly named could be an issue for current athletic directors in the mix for the job. It’s probably less of one for candidates such as Arizona’s Mike Ketcham and Duke’s Mike Cragg, the second in command in their athletic departments.

Ketcham is a natural link to the job considering Jessup was the dean at Arizona’s Eller College of Management from 2011 to 2014, and Ketcham’s experience at a Power Five university would be an asset. Jessup has stated his desire that UNLV move into one of those conferences.

Once the finalists are determined and interviewed, the timeline should move quickly before Jessup names a replacement for Tina Kunzer-Murphy, whose contracts ends June 30. She then will move to the UNLV Foundation.

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Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.