By Ed McGranahan.

By Ed McGranahan

Regardless how he cut his teeth, Dan Radakovich clearly appreciates the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry.

During an afternoon conversation with him last Thursday, the new Clemson athletic director made it clear he was at the helm and wasn’t intimidated by the tough decisions that come with the job.

“Sometimes you’re going to have to make decisions where you’re out on that island. It’s not that you’re aloof. You’re alone. There’s nobody around you,” he said during an exclusive 45-minute interview with The Clemson Insider.com.

Whether it’s choosing between job candidates, terminating a staff member, disciplining a star athlete or instituting an unpopular policy, Radakovich implied he won’t flinch at the trigger.

“You have to make these decisions. By virtue of that you may become a little more isolated,” he said.

Replacing Terry Don Phillips won’t be simple. Considering the body of work in a decade, it’s a tough act to follow, but not impossible. The WestZone will be the most visible evidence, and his decision to pluck Dabo Swinney out of the coaching chorus line the most enduring.

In many respects Phillips made it easier (SEE: Dabo) including a healthy bank balance relative to Clemson’s debt obligation that may allow Radakovich to ponder the next step.

“While I may have some ideas of things that I would like to do, I’m not sure that I’m ready to lay them out because I still understanding the culture of Clemson University,” he said. “We may not find in eight or nine years from now the favorable confluence of opportunity we have to build some things.”

Radakovich learned to adapt to the local culture in jobs at Miami, Long Beach, South Carolina, American University, LSU and Georgia Tech, so he doesn’t intend to mistakenly ruffle feathers at Clemson.

Radakovich read the history – he alluded to Coach Frank Howard and Big Thursday during the conversation. And he must have developed a thick skin mentoring under Mike McGee at South Carolina and serving as the LSU athletic department’s liaison to football when Nick Saban was coach, both described as tough, aloof and unapproachable.

“It’s interesting that you say that because right now the most successful coach in college football in the country would be described by most media outlets as exactly the way you did,” Radakovich said. “I have found that every great coach and every great leader has a lot of those same characteristics because you have to be your own person.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t be approachable.”

In time Radakovich will make his mark on Clemson athletics. He, too, left a legacy at Georgia Tech where he hired football coach Paul Johnson, fired popular basketball coach Paul Hewitt and did a Ty Pennington-worthy makeover of Alexander Memorial Coliseum that included a name change to the tune of $45 million.

If he can keep Dabo Swinney happy, that’s a good part of the battle, but that shouldn’t be hard if he beats more LSU’s and turns slaps around the Gamecocks more frequently. With his predilection for pumping money into basketball, don’t be surprised if he scraps the proposed Littlejohn Coliseum addition for a bigger, more sweeping upgrade similar to what he did in Atlanta.

There’s an issue with the track and cross country hire to be made following his first clenched fist and teeth-gnashing call, but Radakovich must know some good folks that can make that abrasion heal quickly.

Besides football and basketball, the only two sports that generate income, he mentioned the jobs by baseball coach Jack Leggett and golf director Larry Penley, whose programs are perennially nationally significant.

“And we have had great successes intermittently with some of our other programs,” he said, “but we have to keep up to that certain level of excellence.”

Clemson’s athletic budget has grown nearly beyond all reasonable comprehension since Phillips came on board, this year budgeting around $65 million to pay the bills. Yet it’s a drop in the bucket, Radakovich said.

People think the athletics program is running the school, and it isn’t, he said.

“There are so many other great things happening here. Now, we have to make sure as an athletic program that we live up to the standards of a top 25 public university. That’s important. We have to make sure all our programs are moving in that direction.

“Certainly Dabo has our program going in the direction, and Larry Penley and Jack Leggett have done phenomenal jobs over the years. And we have had great successes intermittently with some of our other programs, but we have to keep up to that certain level of excellence.”

An expanded ACC further encumbers layering muscle on every sport. There shouldn’t be a better basketball conference, football should benefit and the Olympic sports will face stiffer conference challenges, particularly in soccer and volleyball.

Radakovich’s friendship with South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner should come in handy as the schools look to further brand the rivalry. Perhaps even discuss the relative spot of the football game in the schedule.

“There’s that fine line between tradition and habit,” Radakovich said. “Is it a habit to be at the end of the year or is it a tradition for it to be at the end of the year?

“Beginning, middle, end of the year? I think it would be intriguing at the right time to discuss all of those possibilities.”