Mark Ingram is in his closet on the phone, surrounded by clothes, trying to land a basketball coach.

No, this was not how the UAB athletic director planned to find his next coach, but it was the best of his limited options. With four active kids buzzing around the house and two Beagles that “bark like Cujo protecting the family” at everything that moves, it was the only quiet place Ingram could find at home to work the phones. He tried both downstairs and his outside patio first to little success before settling on the closet.

“No sooner than I get on a call with a coach or an agent, here they come barking,” Ingram said. “So then I go outside and there’s a truck somewhere backing up and it’s doing that back up beeping noise. I’ll have a bird chirping; neighbor cranking up a lawn mower.”

It was a far departure from the process Ingram used the last time he had to hire a basketball coach and admittedly less than perfect but he didn’t have a choice. With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting virtually every facet of our society, including college athletics, Ingram couldn’t tap into his usual hiring playbook. There would be no flying candidates in for interviews. There would be no hotel room meetings with agents and coaches at the Final Four. This time around, he’d have to rely on technology like FaceTime to determine the best fit for his vacant job.

“There’s no substitute for that face-to-face interaction,” Ingram said. “You can see somebody’s body language, how they carry themselves; how they carry themselves tells you a lot about their confidence level.”

It had the potential to get very complicated, very quickly.

But then Andy Kennedy happened.

The UAB alum and former Ole Miss head coach had long been a fanbase favorite to one day return home as the program’s head coach. Working at the time as an SEC Network analyst, Kennedy checked every box of what Ingram wanted in a coach. The only question was whether he was actually interested in the job given Kennedy had passed up on other opportunities since leaving Ole Miss in 2018.

On Friday, March 13, Ingram dismissed head coach Rob Ehsan after a 76-57 record over four seasons that included a single CBI postseason appearance. While other programs around the country have since mostly stood pat with their coaches given everything going on, Ingram moved fast because he believed it was apparent the fanbase had lost faith in the coaching staff. That wasn’t going to change, Ingram felt, even amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

A day later, Ingram connected with Kennedy’s agent, CAA’s Jimmy Sexton, and wanted to know two things. Was Kennedy interested, and, more importantly, was he interested in the salary UAB could offer? Sexton checked with Kennedy and told Ingram the answer was yes to both.

Ingram had a productive first call with Kennedy that same day and made plans to meet with him in person that weekend. Fortunately for Ingram, Kennedy already lived in Birmingham, so he didn’t have to worry about arranging a flight, which likely would have been out of the question given travel restrictions.

The two met -- and sat far apart to maintain social distancing -- and talked basketball, coaching philosophy and the type of program Kennedy thought was possible at UAB. Ingram left the conversation feeling good about Kennedy being his next head coach but wanted to do his due diligence just in case another program pursued Kennedy, or the former UAB star got cold feet about returning to his alma mater. He retreated to his clothing closet and talked to “7 or 8” people in the basketball world, a mix of coaches and agents, as he considered his options.

But Kennedy was his guy.

“If Andy hadn’t been there, it would have been very complicated,” Ingram said. “Once we learned he was interested, it was a game-changer for all the logistics.”

By Tuesday, Ingram felt confident Kennedy would be his next head coach. Next came agreeing to financial terms and getting Ingram’s boss, UAB president Ray Watts, on board with the hire. As head of one of the country’s top medical schools, Watts had his hands full last week as everyone tried to prepare for and assess the growing coronavirus crisis. It slowed down the process slightly, but UAB agreed to terms with Kennedy on Thursday and officially announced the hire on Friday.

“Not only do I think it went fast under these circumstances, I think it went fast, period,” he said. “Given what we are dealing with, I felt very appreciative of the president, system office and the board of trustees to help it move quickly, so we didn’t somehow lose Andy or make him nervous this wasn’t going to happen.”

Ingram introduced Kennedy as coach on Monday with media submitting questions through Zoom, yet another reminder of the uniqueness of the situation. It capped the most unique coaching search of Ingram’s tenure at UAB, one that he won’t forget or try to replicate anytime soon.