Collaborative’ Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy Eager to Explore New Role: ‘I’m Here to Help’……..Read more

 

 

The Sooners introduced their new general manager, who acknowledged the job entails a lot of things “I need to brush up on and get caught up to speed on.”

NORMAN — It’s hard to know what one’s limits are when there aren’t any clearly defined boundaries yet.

That broadly describes the job of general manager for college football teams these days. It’s a largely new role with an as-yet undefined job description in an industry that’s experiencing tectonic shifts on an almost weekly basis.

Given those nebulous parameters, Oklahoma’s new general manager has already hit the ground running.

“I’m here to help,” Jim Nagy said Wednesday during his introductory press conference at the Memorial Stadium Club. “I’m here to find (and) help them find players — take some stuff off their plate. I mean, Brent (Venables) doesn’t need to be negotiating all these contracts. I don’t think that’s a coach’s place at all.”

In OU’s model, the general manager will work alongside the head coach to construct a roster capable of competing at a championship, according to last month’s press release, calling it “a progressive new structure uniquely tailored to meet the most current challenges in college football.”

“I kind of thrive in a collaborative format,” Nagy said. “So that’s what we’re going to do. This is going to be more. Everyone that comes to the building is going to this is going to be, it’s not going to be ‘Brent’s guy.’ It’s not going to be ‘My guy.’ It’s going to be an Oklahoma guy.”

A year ago, Venables appointed former Sooner linebacker Curtis Lofton as OU’s new general manager. After Lofton left in December to take a job in the ministry, Nagy represents a new direction for the position.

“I think the efficiencies of the system are what Jim and his staff are gonna manage,” Venables said Wednesday. “ … We’re doing ball and they’re doing recruiting 24/7.

“We’ve got great connections with this new, modernized staff. … They’ll help us get to a really efficient space. And the coaches … will have some impact on that.”

Nagy will now build out a support staff and delegate all the different elements, from scouting to negotiating contracts to exploring NIL earning opportunities and beyond.

Different schools from what could be considered OU’s level have hired different types of people from different backgrounds in their GM role.

Nagy, for instance, was an NFL scout for 17 years and then spent eight years as executive director of the Senior Bowl, acquiring talent on an annual basis to play in college football’s premier all-star game to land an NFL tryout. He needed to have relationships with players and their agents, but also maintain ties to NFL personnel and teams.

Other examples of GMs:

• Texas’ Brandon Harris, a former college quarterback, was an assistant coach as recently as 2019 and interviewed for an assistant QB job with the Rams’ Sean McVay in 2021, but took the Texas job, where he’s also served as director of recruiting.

• Alabama’s Courtney Morgan has followed head coach Kalen DeBoer at several stops and has served as GM at Washington, Michigan and Fresno State, but also had his own business in which he worked with athletes and entertainers on brand building, and also worked at sports agency Vanguard Sports Group overseeing contract negotiations, marketing, endorsements and brand strategy.

• Nebraska recently hired Pat Stewart, who was also an NFL scout for 17 years but also recently worked as Vice President of player personnel with the Carolina Panthers and was pro personnel director with the New England Patriots.

• Ohio State just won a national championship with a GM, Mark Pantoni, who has been in the Buckeyes athletic department for 12 years, with administrative duties in recruiting, film evaluations, on-campus recruiting and even did social media and team travel.

So there’s no real established job description yet, which means success will be defined on the fly.

“I think the unique part of my background, and we’ve talked about it at length during the interview process, is the relationship piece,” Nagy said. “Just because you’re dealing with the NFL world, and we incorporated the NFL and everything we did to the Senior Bowl. And again, being in the league almost 20 years, I had a lot of existing relationships, but made so many more, you know? And then with the NFL league office, which probably won’t play much of a role in this job, but then the agent community and college football coaches at the coaching level, the personnel people. … So really, it’s the relationship piece.

“And then, you know, from where my background is, it’s a scouting background. I mean, I like nothing more than sitting in a dark room and watching tape. That’s what I’ve done my whole life. So I’ve got a lot of work to do. … I mean, every day I’m like, ‘OK, what’s the next thing?’ I’m trying to think of the next thing, but I can’t wait to get to the point where — I know we got a lot to get done, but where we can just really start … digging in and first of all, learning this roster. I owe that to all these players, to know them inside and out as football players, because you can’t build a roster unless you know your own.”

At OU, Nagy will lead roster management and talent acquisition, including player recruitment, evaluation, retention, and compensation as part of his duties. He also will manage the impact of rules governing name, image, and likeness, the transfer portal process, revenue-share allocation, scholarship limits, and eligibility requirements.

Nagy acknowledges he’s never done this job before, so he embraces the idea that “I have a lot to learn.”

The NCAA compliance component of college athletics can make some people nervous.

“I’m not nervous,” he said. “I just, I know I got work to do. I know there’s a lot of things I need to brush up on and get caught up to speed on. But …you never go into a job having everything figured out. So I’ll definitely need help on that front. I’ll work at that.”

Nagy began his NFL front office career with Washington, where he was a regional scout from 2001-02. He worked for New England as a regional scout from 2002-09. From 2009-13, he was a national scout for Kansas City, and from 2013-18 he was a regional scout in Seattle. His teams in New England (2003 and 2004) and Seattle (2013) won three Super Bowls and were runners-up in two others (2007, 2014).