Syracuse looks to ESPN for Mark Coyle's successor

Mark Coyle surprised many in May when he left Syracuse after less than a year to become Minnesota's athletic director.

Almost two months later, Syracuse has moved on and announced Wednesday it has chosen an ESPN executive as Coyle's successor.

John Wildhack, a New York native and a graduate of Syracuse's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, now will lead the Orange after serving as executive vice president for programming and production for ESPN since January 2014. Wildhack was responsible for 50,000 hours of content annually at ESPN, Syracuse's website reported.

During Wildhack's introduction on Wednesday, acting AD Dan French said "John will take the department to a whole new level."

The university said Wildhack was responsible for several firsts at ESPN, including producing a live college football game in 1984 and a live NFL game in 1987.

The hire appears to be made with an eye toward new revenue and television expansion. Prominent Syracuse professor Rick Burton said at the school's announcement, according to Syracuse's Twitter account, Wildhack's ESPN experience "negotiating media rights and creating new media platforms also helped make him the ideal hire." Adding, "if [the] ACC Network forms, John Wildhack is the perfect person to put Cuse in the best possible position."

Coyle started at Minnesota on June 1.