Brock Huard said Monday he was not surprised to learn Jen Cohen is leaving her role as Washington’s athletic director for the same position at USC.

Cohen has been in the UW athletic department for more than two decades. She was named UW’s athletic director in 2016. Since then, she’s brought coach Kalen DeBoer to Seattle, been selected to serve on the College Football Playoff committee, and helped facilitate UW’s move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten.

Following the news, Huard and his co-host on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk reacted to the news.

“This does not surprise me,” Huard said. “Kind of like Colorado leaving (for the Big 12), I had heard rumblings of this for months. It really is a testament to Jen, and I couldn’t be more proud and more happy for her. As she has climbed, as she has worked, as she has ascended when I was there in school with (my wife) Molly — in the 1990s, Jen was there and starting and working her way up and climbing and climbing, and she has gained so much respect. So this is going to be a massive payday for her. This is a huge step on the national landscape for her, and I could not be more happy for her.”

Huard also said he thinks the decision to leave UW for USC could have something to do with the Big Ten move and the revenue gap that will still exist between USC (a full member) and Washington (a partial member).

“That brand (USC is) going to the Big Ten, and it’s going to be probably – I don’t know the numbers, but I’m gonna guess – double her pay, at least,” he said. “She was not one of the high-paid ADs. They did not take care of her in that way, just being point blank. And I think USC knows what they’re getting and went after it, and had to get the right person at this time after firing Mike Bohn, which was a colossal disaster.

“A lot of the upheaval that they have been in, you look at her track record of Chris Peterson, of moving on from Jimmy Lake in a hurry when it was wrong, of hiring Kalen DeBoer. You know, her hires in many of the Olympic sports have been home runs, and she is a go-getter, man. … She’s on the Playoff committee. She’s respected on a national level. And she is now going to get an immense, immense payday, which she deserves.”

You can see more of Huard’s comments below: