Bill Stacy’s 30-plus-year administrative career has been one of building accomplishment. Yet his biggest opportunity might be right around the corner.

Following a decade-long stint as president of Southeast Missouri State University (1979-89), Stacy served as founding president of California State University San Marcos (1989-1996) before assuming his current position as president of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in 1997. At UTC, Stacy landed the school’s biggest philanthropic gift in history in 2001, a $25 million donation from Coca-Cola bottling magnate Jack Lupton and his wife Alice. With the help of that money, Stacy sparked the largest facility growth in the school’s history, including $100 million in new residence halls, and a new $40 million math and computer science building. He gained approval for the school’s first Ph.D. program, a doctorate in computational engineering, and along with it brought one of the nation’s leading engineering research centers to UTC. He also overhauled management of the school’s long struggling athletic department by appointing one-time Vanderbilt football coach Steve Sloan as athletic director and Tarheel basketball standout Jeff Lebo as men’s basketball coach. The 62-year-old academic’s climb, while not swift, has been steady.

Now, the next rung is within reach.

As everyone familiar with the scandal-plagued removal of its latest president knows, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT) needs a new president. Burned twice in a row by presidents chosen from outside of the state, UT trustees and Gov. Phil Bredesen have expressed a desire for the university’s next president to be a Tennessean. (This would be a return to form—prior to Wade Gilley and Joe Shumaker, the state historically has picked a system president from within its borders.) Forget hyped strangers. Now UT officials are looking for a familiar face.

As it happens, Stacy’s face should be very familiar to UT’s search committee, as he was a candidate for the position during the university’s last search but withdrew his name after landing the Lupton gift.

Stacy maintains strong relationships with key players in the decision-making process. Joe Johnson, UT’s interim president, hired Stacy at UTC, and Stacy counts as a proponent Chattanoogan John “Thunder” Thornton, a major UT benefactor and board member for both the UT system and UTC. (Thornton chairs the UTC liaison committee.) Clayton McWhorter, a Nashville venture capitalist and UT board member, speaks highly of Stacy: “I have a lot of respect for Bill. He’s done a wonderful job down there.”

While sources confirm that Stacy is a serious candidate for the UT presidency, the UTC president remains cautiously noncommittal. “That’s down the road,” Stacy says. “It would all depend on whatever President Johnson does, however long he stays, the shape of the university and if they need someone from within or not. Right now I’m focused on the immediate and am pleased to see President Johnson back. I will think about it when the time comes.”

With a new UT president slated to take office in July, that time could be soon.