Despite all the classic denials from Texas Longhorns athletic director DeLoss Dodds and the various social media accounts run by the school several weeks ago, there's yet another report out on Monday afternoon that Dodds will announce his retirement, though this report offers an immediate timetable of an announcement on Tuesday.
On September 13, Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com published a similar report that said that Dodds would step down as athletic director by the end of the year. The new report from Kirk Bohls of the Statesman provides a few more details -- that Dodds was going to make the announcement on Monday, but opted to put it off for a day because of the unfortunate passing for former Texas quarterback James Street on Monday morning, that Dodds will remain on until next August, and that he wants to have a successor found by December.
An end of Dodds' run as athletic director has long been considered as the necessary starting point for any removal -- through firing, a forced resignation or retirement -- of longtime Texas football coach Mack Brown. As such, the resignation of Dodds would be in many ways be a death knell for Brown continuing as head coach until his contract ends in 2020, though that possibility has been a longshot for some time.
What doesn't seem quite so clear is exactly how the timetable on this is going to work. It sounds as if Dodds will remain as the athletic director until next August, but wants to have an athletic director in place right towards the end of the football season, as the Longhorns will either be preparing for an offseason of coaching changes on the football staff or getting ready for a bowl game with Brown's future up in the air.
If Texas is going to have a new football coach for the 2014 season, as seems likely at this time, it would make more sense for Dodds to give up his duties as athletic director in December and move into the consulting role at that time.
After all, what's the point of continuing on with a lame-duck athletic director when Dodds could receive his big check next August in another role within the athletic department?
In any case, it looks like Tuesday could be quite a day around the 40 Acres.