New SMU head coach Enfield 'checked all the boxes'

The decision-makers at SMU knew what they wanted in the head coach that would lead the basketball program into the ACC and Andy Enfield was the first, and only, choice.

Enfield was the first name brought up by the search firm SMU hired and they didn’t have to go any further down the list.

“He really just checked all the boxes for all of us, whether you’re the president, the board chair, the AD,” SMU athletic director Rick Hart said. “And we just felt like once we had that conversation, there was no reason to look elsewhere and muddy the waters. It was a pretty good feeling to have when you’re going to a search where there is high demand, and there was, and you feel right from the beginning that you got who you want.”

There is plenty that goes into a coaching search under any circumstances, but especially this time around. Even though both parties were in agreement there were things to work out before it could become official.

“It was smooth. I want to credit, really, Andy because not only does it not work out that way, but there was a lot of trust involved,” Hart said. “We wrapped up the search kind of maybe quicker than we thought we would as a result of that and then there were some things we had to work out. But he was committed to us, we were committed to him. So I think the last few days, the mutual trust to stay committed, to not stray from that also doesn’t happen all the time.”

Enfield’s first college coaching job was as an assistant at Florida State. He then spent two seasons at Florida Gulf Coast, including a Sweet 16 trip, and the last 11 years at USC. That’s a track record that impressed Hart and company.

“I didn’t know Andy well. He was at Florida State with Coach (Leonard) Hamilton when my dad was the athletics director there. I remember being around him. We’ve interacted a few times,” Hart said. “… I was very familiar with the job he did at Florida Gulf Coast, and then again, he did a job at a place like ours and a conference like the one we’re going to and an academic institution like SMU.

“He did it consistently, he did it at a high level. I know how he operates in terms of his integrity and who he is as a person.”

SMU has shown it can compete and it can win at a high level, but now it had a power conference too. The move to the ACC made a coach like Enfield available for the position. That’s not a luxury Hart or other SMU leaders have had in the past.

“It was so much fun. I mean, it really was. It’s the one thing we’ve been missing,” Hart said. “I’ve been here 12 years and I’ve always said that the conference affiliation is the one thing stopping us from being one of the Top 10 athletics departments in the country. This is a Top 10 job nationally now, whether you’re the AD, a head coach in a sport, a staff member, and it’s easy to sell.

“You don’t have to convince people of that. SMU is easy. Dallas is easy. The trajectory of our program, the momentum is easy. And now you put the ACC in there and we’re going to be pretty hard to beat.”

From 1954-67, SMU went to six NCAA tournaments reaching the 1967 Elite Eight and the 1956 Final Four. The Mustangs have only been back to the tournament six times since then and only twice since 1993.

That’s where SMU wants to get and Enfield is the coach it believes can take the Mustangs back.

“I give him some credit. No leverage, no games,” Hart said. “It was, ‘Do you want this job? Do you think that we are aligned around what the vision looks like?’ He wants to take a team to a Final Four. He thinks he can do that here. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, we all know how difficult it is.

“… But I think that’s a vision we can pursue. And I think it’s something that, again, I talked about expectations are commensurate with resources. And I think our program’s going to be a resource like a Final Four program. And we’re going to have coaches and student athletes who can coach and compete at that level.”