Mike Vaught enters his sixth year as SMU's Deputy Director of Athletics. In this position, Vaught serves as the program administrator for football and the department's second-in-command, facilitating the overall management of the Athletic Department.
Vaught has played a huge role in the department's recent success and growth, assisting in the hiring of former National Coach of the Year June Jones to lead the Mustang football program. Since that hire, Jones and the Mustangs snapped a 25-year bowl drought and claimed a 2009 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Championship and a share of the Conference USA Western Division Championship.
SMU finished 2009 at 8-5, making the largest turnaround in the nation (+7 wins). The 2010 season saw that success continue as SMU earned its second-straight bowl berth, won a C-USA Western Division Championship and played in its first C-USA Championship Game.
SMU has also undertaken big facility upgrades in Vaught's tenure, building new facilities and improving existing ones. The $13-million, 43,000 square-foot Crum Basketball Center, a basketball-only practice facility adjacent to Moody Coliseum, opened in February 2008 and the Turpin Tennis Stadium opened in April of the same year.
Phase I of the SMU Payne Stewart Golf Learning Center at the Dallas Athletic Club was completed in 2010 and updates to the Loyd Center have been numerous. A new integrated video and audio system was installed at Gerald J. Ford Stadium prior to the 2010 season, and a renovated football locker room and team meeting rooms, along with new stadium turf, will be ready for the 2011 football season.
Renovations to Moody Coliseum, which began in 2008 with the installation of a new $900,000 videoboard and redesigned court, will only ramp up in the coming years, as SMU has announced a near $40-million plan for more renovations and expansion.
Fundraising has also improved since Vaught's arrival, with the 2011 fiscal year SMU's best fundraising year to date. The Mustangs added $6.6 million in annual gifts, breaking the $6 million mark for the first time, and, including capital and other gifts, over $10.5 million was given to SMU Athletics in 2011.
SMU also set a record in royalties received for the fifth straight year. Away from SMU, Vaught is a founder and active board member for the College Football Assistance Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of football players who have sustained serious injuries through college football.
Vaught came to SMU after spending six months as Assistant Athletic Director for Football Operations at Rice. Prior to his time with the Owls, Vaught spent three years as the Athletic Director of the Alamo Heights Independent School District in San Antonio and two years as the A.D. at the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tenn.
Prior to his move into athletic administration, Vaught was an assistant football coach at Navy (1995-2001), Texas State (1992-94) and Missouri State (1986- 93), after spending two years as a graduate assistant at Arkansas (1984-85).
He served as offensive coordinator at Navy, where his offense led the nation in rushing in 1999, and was the recruiting coordinator at all three schools at which he held full-time positions.
A native of Mena, Ark., Vaught earned his B.S. degree in health and physical education at Arkansas Tech. Vaught and his wife, Karri, reside in Fairview.
