61 Days Director Personnel Matt Doherty
Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2021 5:26 am
Doherty is the new Arizona Director of Player Personnel. Don't bother clicking on the bio link, because it only has his picture. Coach Fisch created the new position on the staff and hired Doherty to modernize and improve our football recruiting. Doherty graduated from the Miami School of Business Administration, 2008, and then spent a year with the New England Patriots as a scouting assistant evaluating prospects and preparing the team for the draft. He then returned to Miami for 4 seasons rising to the Director of Player Personnel. He left Miami for 1 season to go to Michigan to be their recruiting coordinator for the 2015-2016 season. He then returned to Miami as Director of Player Personnel until we hired him away.
From Michael Lev (AZ Daily Star),
Fisch interviewed Doherty by phone on Christmas Day.
“I got up from the breakfast table with my in-laws and locked myself in a bedroom,” Doherty said. “Ninety minutes later, we were coming to Tucson.”
Fisch and Doherty were on the same wavelength when it came to a critical topic — one Doherty deems non-negotiable.
“Prioritizing recruiting in the building every single day,” Doherty said. “We have to think about, talk about and do recruiting every single day, and that’s what I pitched to Jedd when I talked to him.
“The programs that succeed are the ones who will never relent.”
In a recent interview with the Star, Doherty acknowledged another reality of the business: At some point, you have to start winning games. Players want to be coached and developed. They also want to win championships and play in bowl games.
“Results beget results,” Doherty said. “We’ve got to perform on the field. We’ve got to show that this product is dramatically improved.”
“The logo on your shirt matters to an extent,” Doherty said. “But we can outhustle the national perception of Arizona if we just don’t let up. And we’ve got the right head coach for that because he is nonstop with this stuff. Non. Stop.”
“For us, it’s been a commitment to do it. And we haven’t gone away from that commitment,” Fisch said. “We haven’t gotten spooked if we haven’t gotten a guy. We didn’t declare it over if a guy chose somewhere else. Not everyone’s coming, and you just have to accept that. You can’t live and die off of every commitment and feel like a decision’s made and therefore they speak on behalf of the state.
“We’re going to persevere and we’re going to fight and we’re going to be persistent. We’re gonna find a way to get the right guys.”