Except if you are Jeff Fisher......
Illinois Football Staff Thread
Except if you are Jeff Fisher......
ILLINIShox24
Orange Krush '04 & '05
Regardless of overall B1G staff rankings, I think we unquestionably have the top staff in the B1G West. That's going to speed up the turnaround a bit more.
This is still surreal. :thumb:
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
I like the way the staff has come together. Just waiting for the S&C coach to be announced!
Recruiting coordinator and RBs coach, plus support staff (like Nate).
How did we get this guy and how long do you think we can keep him here in Champaign?!
Wow. This coaching staff is superior to most coaching staffs in college football. Consider that for a moment. I am not quite in shock, but this is simply amazing.
Thank you Josh Whitman for pushing all your chips to the middle of the table. Looking forward to being a part of college football Saturdays again.
Wow. This coaching staff is superior to most coaching staffs in college football. Consider that for a moment. I am not quite in shock, but this is simply amazing.
Thank you Josh Whitman for pushing all your chips to the middle of the table. Looking forward to being a part of college football Saturdays again.
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
Dang, we couldn't steal the Zooker from Green Bay eh?
All his chips? Cmon man. That was just a small fraction of his chip pile. :thumb:
illinitrav
- NW Suburbs
Sounds like Thad Ward is the RB Coach. Previously coached WR at Northern Illinois for 3 years. He's got big Florida connections... brought a lot of talent to Dekalb.
Based on who their new coaches are, im sure they arent too distraught over it.
NIU does very well in Florida, I would like that hire.
I wondered that also. But I "Think" they do in order to have contact with players don't they?
"Recruiting coordinator" is a meaningless phrase, essentially.
What is important is that there is a beefed-up behind the scenes nuts and bolts recruiting staff to make the mundane parts of the recruiting season go smoothly for a staff with not a ton of recent college experience relative to others. Folks seem to be suggesting that will be the case, which is encouraging.
What is important is that there is a beefed-up behind the scenes nuts and bolts recruiting staff to make the mundane parts of the recruiting season go smoothly for a staff with not a ton of recent college experience relative to others. Folks seem to be suggesting that will be the case, which is encouraging.
I agree with what you are saying. I just don't know the rules well enough to know if Nate or some other person could set up visits with players behind the scenes. If they are not allowed to talk to them, it would be difficult to do that. Maybe they can do all that, just not leave campus.
Yeah, having people who really know recruiting will be important to support the staff. I think guys like Hardy Nickerson and Lovie can be really effective recruiters, but they will need some help to get up to speed on how recruiting works in today's age.
Doesn't every school have a Compliance Manager or something to that effect? I think they provide guidance on all of the blackouts, no contact, etc. I think that would be more of an admin position (non-coaching staff)
I just spoke to a colleague who is pretty tied into NIU football and he is basically distraught over the loss of Thad Ward and his Florida connections. Makes me feel pretty good about this hire!
I was reading a NIU forum this morning and they are all bummed. I'll link it below.
http://csnbbs.com/thread-774489.html
The recruitment of a class is a huge schlep of just grunt work. Watching and evaluating game tape, managing a database of players, sending out mail, coordinating travel schedules, assuring NCAA compliance, dealing with grades and transcripts and admissions and all that, the tick-tock and mechanics of campus visits, etc, etc.
The more of that stuff you can take off of your coaching staff's plate, the better. Their time is incredibly precious.
The "recruiting coordinator" title dates back to a time when that stuff was mostly the responsibility of the lower-level coaches on the staff itself. Those days are long gone.
Alabama has 18 full-time football staff in non-coaching roles. 18! Almost double as many as they have coaches. A lot of experienced coaches around the country have looked at that and said "I don't know how I would be able to manage that many people, I don't know what I'd have them all do" but they are increasingly figuring it out and this is becoming a new arms race in college football. And these folks do a lot of scouting of opponents and breakdown of their own film in addition to recruiting stuff, btw.
Whitman's willingness to talk about this and make it a priority, plus McGee's college head coaching experience and reputation as an ace recruiter at the Power Five level, plus Lovie's experience managing the much larger staffs that NFL teams have make me optimistic that we will be able to make big, big upgrades from where we've been in this department. Big picture personnel management was a particular weakness of Beckman's, and he didn't have great resources in the first place.