The man on the other end of the phone knows a little bit about hiring Big Ten athletic directors. Len Perna’s search firm, Turney ZRG, has helped place 10 of the current ADs in the conference and the league commissioner, too, which means he might have more experience sorting through high-level candidates than anyone on the planet.
So when he uses the word “pioneering” to describe a search, well, it’s hard to keep your eyebrows from climbing to the upper reaches of your forehead. He had already spent 12 uninterrupted minutes praising the search underway in New Jersey — one that finally should reach a conclusion this week — when he dropped that one twice.