Michael Kelly’s move from the University of South Florida’s vice president of athletics to Navy’s athletic director is especially meaningful given his father Dennis’ history with the school.
Kelly, 54, was named Navy’s athletic director on June 4 after Chet Gladchuk, the school’s athletic director of 24 years, retired. He became only the fourth athletic director at the Naval Academy since 1968.
“When the superintendent had given me the nod to get this opportunity, and when I was able to call my father, it really was a prideful moment to be able to make that call. I’ll never, ever forget that,” Kelly said on Glenn Clark Radio June 12. “My father was a ’67 graduate, did a couple of tours of Vietnam and ended his career here in Annapolis. So my earliest childhood memories are on The Yard or at the Naval Academy football games.”
Kelly is no stranger to Navy beyond his father’s connections since USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference. The Mids’ football program plays in the AAC, while the rest of the athletic programs compete in the Patriot League.
Kelly calls Navy an “international brand.”
“People know that the mission there is not only to succeed in what we play wherever we play it, but to develop officers for the Marine Corps and the Navy,” Kelly said.
Navy is tied for the largest Division I athletic department in the nation, supporting 36 varsity sports. Kelly expressed how unique Navy’s recent success has been amid a shift in college sports with NIL and immediate eligibility out of the transfer portal.
While other schools will have to constantly turn over rosters, Kelly says Navy can still run a true player development model.
“It’s not lost on me, I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence that in probably the first year of full chaos, if you will, that the Naval Academy won 10-plus games, won the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and beat Oklahoma in a bowl game,” Kelly said of Navy’s football team.
Student-athletes at Navy and the other service academies aren’t eligible for NIL deals, but Kelly believes that the school has other ways to attract talent.
“When you’re in the Patriot, when you’re in the American, when you play a national brand of teams in all sports, you’ve got a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament, you’ve got a chance to go to the CFP. That’s all anyone can really want,” Kelly said. “So I think young people are looking at the Naval Academy not only for the specialness in and of itself, but to know they can play D-I in so many different sports.”
Despite Navy being largely exempt from NIL and the transfer portal, the ever-changing nature of player compensation is forcing schools, including athletic directors such as Kelly, to respond on the fly.
“It’s very chaotic, things you used to have months and years to plan for and assess and make sound decisions are now happening very quickly,” Kelly said. “People are working hard on it. It’s going to work out in time. Everything’s going to kind of calm down, but right now it’s very tumultuous, it’s very disconcerting. I know the whole industry is really adjusting to a very unusual time of circumstance that very few industries have ever had to deal with.”
For more from Kelly, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of South Florida Athletics