Thursday: The Lieutenants

If you listened to the Town Hall meeting of Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte on Tuesday night, you realize just how many talented people work alongside Del Conte to make Texas athletics the best in the country.

I felt like it would be informative to give a little more background info on those folks and exactly what they do.

Drew Martin - If it has to do with marketing and game-day experience, Drew Martin is the person whose fingerprints are all over it. Martin also helps manage and oversee third party agreements with media behemoths like Learfield and William Morris Endeavor.

Chris Plonsky - Plonsky was once the women's athletic director, but when CDC was hired, Texas unified the athletic department into one outfit for both men and women. CDC, however, did not clip the wings of Plonsky in the process. Instead, she has continued to help build Texas women's athletics into the juggernaut it is and CDC gives her due credit in the process.

Andrew Hamor - One of the leads of the Longhorn Foundation, Hamor helps CDC find the funds for various athletic department projects. While CDC is the forward facing fundraiser for the athletic department, Hamor is someone almost every major Longhorn donor knows.

Ricky Brown - The former fullback for Ricky Williams is one of the heads of outreach from the athletic department to former players.

Shawn Eichorst - He's the deputy. Eichorst is CDC's right-hand man, the "glue" that keeps it all together. The former Nebraska AD is a voice of experience that CDC can count on.

Sarah Baumgardner - Baumgardner works directly with Texas coaches to fix issues that arise on a daily basis. She works hand-in-hand with CDC.

Fernando Lovo - All those pretty new facilities and their functionality? That's Lovo's job, to execute the vision, work with the general contractors, architects, and the university, to make sure it all comes out to plan.

Rob Novak - The CFO of Texas athletics. He makes sure the money is there, not just for next month, but for large projects well into the future.

While CDC is a gifted administrator and fundraiser, the success of Texas athletics is far from a one-man show, and that's something CDC would tell you himself, and why he mentioned the folks above during his speech on Tuesday night.

Hats off to all of those who help make Texas athletics the best program in the country.