Family obligations have kept me offline and I come back to lots of new stuff. My two cents - Chris Chase is a good fit. The challenges with "starting up" aren't the same as coming into a fully established program where you're maximizing what you already have and look to extend it. He's got deep relationships in the rowing community and should be able to leverage that into a recruiting advantage.
I'm sure there will be growing pains. As long as he has enough resources (doesn't need to be the most, but does need to be enough) and is given the time to build, UAlbany has some real advantages that have been overlooked for decades. I always believed if you built it, people would come. I say that from a place of optimism while trying to be brutally objective.