​The Wisconsin Badgers brought a familiar face back to Madison, hiring Shawn Eichorst as their next Athletic Director last week following a detailed search led by a committee.Eichorst, a former Athletic Director at both Miami and Nebraska, had been Wisconsin’s Deputy Athletic Director from 2006-11 and had taken up the same role at Texas following his departure from the Cornhuskers. There, he rebuilt his reputation and became an asset for the Longhorns in the NIL era, and is now getting another shot to be an Athletic Director.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLast Tuesday, he and interim Chancellor Eric Wilcotts spoke to the media at Eichorst’s introductory press conference, where they broke down why he was the candidate for the job.What about Eichorst put him over the top over the other finalists?“When you look at what he’s been able to accomplish, particularly at Texas, but also what he’s done before that,” Wilcotts said. “A really thoughtful leader, somebody who spent a lot of time thinking about where college athletics is going and what we need to do. And that goes back to writing that he did a decade ago. But then you look at what has happened at UT Austin over the last 7 or 8 years.“As I mentioned upstairs, we are 5 out of 6 Director’s Cups. So what that signifies is a commitment to excellence and winning across the board. We spend a lot of time thinking about our full portfolio, but what reflects in his record at Texas is that commitment to that full breadth of the sports that we do. [With] Texas football, 2 College Football Playoff appearances, right, in the recent history. So you combine that with that success at a very high level at an institution that is a lot like Wisconsin in a lot of ways: a high research institution, high academic standards, R1 leading institution. And so you get somebody who has won, been successful, committed to student excellence at an institution like ours.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“And also, and a little icing on the cake is he’s from Lone Rock.”When it comes to other candidates, there’s one clear area that Eichorst leads: experience. And the new Athletic Director believes that’s his biggest asset.“[The biggest asset I’m bringing is] experience,” Eichorst said. “I think the journey of being at some of the preeminent private and public institutions across the country, and as I said, growth. I’ve learned a lot along the way. I’ve had the chance of working with some of the iconic coaches in this business and some that I have deep relationships with. Then I can talk a lot about things unrelated to football or the sport in general, just life, leadership, those sorts of things. So, I bring a little bit of experience. I bring a lot of passion for all the things that he talked about. I mean, what he just said was on the mark and perfect. Couldn’t say it better.”Time will tell if the hire is the right one, but Wisconsin brought in a candidate well known in