Illinois Football Staff Thread

[IlliniBacker]

I was reading a NIU forum this morning and they are all bummed. I'll link it below.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-774489.html

Thanks for the link. I was cool on this hire until I read some of the comments on the NIU board.

I pulled a couple of comments....

This first one is not from an Illinois fan posting on their board even though it reads that way

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No it is not. Having Lovie Smith as the front man opens so many more doors instantly. Ward is a great recruiter. I thought Lovie might go with a bigger name but this will vault Ward up the food chain. Ward got some great players from Florida to come up north to NIU. Now you are recruiting for a B1G program. You talk to a recruit and tell them that Lovie Smith is really interested in you and he would like to stop over and me you and your parents. Case closed.

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Ward outworked everyone including our "recruiting coordinator", a title Ward earned, but never received from our head coach. I know our pay scale is low, but Kill and DD never saw this kind of exodus. I am getting a bit concerned with the turnover. Changing 2 or 3 {or 4!} coaches a year is very bad PR. I hope Carey can improve his communication and loyalty skills with his asst. coaches, along with a few other things!

 

[bombayIllini]

Do not know if this has been posted

http://footballscoop.com/the-scoop

Illinois: Per Jeremy Werner, Tim Knox is being retained as director of football operations.

 

[illinisc]

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.

I may be late to this topic but I think its already been announced that Josh Whitman and Lovie will double the non-coaching recruiting staff from 2 to 4.

 

[BZuppke]

This is all just so astounding. What a difference it makes when you commit to competing at the power 5 level. The level of coaching, recruiting and general operations has made a great leap forward. The respect this coaching staff will have with recruits, the press and certainly all of us is tremendous. Wow.

 

[orangeswarm76]

My question is when all of the hires are made what are we going to talk about. For the Last 2 weeks I'm constantly checking my iPad. Hopefully it will be on the recruiting page.

 

[Epsilon]

So Alabama has 18 of these recruiting personnel and we only decided to get 4? What's the logic behind that? If we're ponying up to compete with the big boys, why not go all the way? How many does UM and OSU have?

Sounds like a "how many Alabama recruiting personnel does it take to screw in a lightbulb" kind of joke.

 

[KnoxIllini2]

So Alabama has 18 of these recruiting personnel and we only decided to get 4? What's the logic behind that? If we're ponying up to compete with the big boys, why not go all the way? How many does UM and OSU have?

I'd image if it wasn't the nontraditional hiring season that number would be higher. I'm sure come December we'll see that number increase.

 

[illinisc]

So Alabama has 18 of these recruiting personnel and we only decided to get 4? What's the logic behind that? If we're ponying up to compete with the big boys, why not go all the way? How many does UM and OSU have?

Alabama has 18 non-coaching support staff members. Not all of them are involved or focused on recruiting. They've also won 4 National Championships in the last 7 years so their budget and revenue is significantly higher than ours.

That being said, Josh Whitman is making a significant investment into growing our football program. Once we start winning games and drawing larger crowds then I would expect that investment to continue to grow.

EDIT: Noticed Mike Lockley was hired as a football analyst for Nick Saban. Alabama's support staff could essentially be the coaching staff of a lot of non P5 schools.

 

[Lake Camelot]

My question is when all of the hires are made what are we going to talk about. For the Last 2 weeks I'm constantly checking my iPad. Hopefully it will be on the recruiting page.

Well I am mildly interested in spring practice, and the season. I am most looking forward to the future. So summer camps we host and offer recruits at. Also the far off signing date next year. Wouldn't be surprised if most of our scholarships are promissed before signing day though.

Don't get me wrong I will watch the games and enjoy football season. I just am not expecting major improvement this year.

 

[KBLEE]

Alabama has 18 non-coaching support staff members. Not all of them are involved or focused on recruiting. They've also won 4 National Championships in the last 7 years so their budget and revenue is significantly higher than ours. I think they generated 33mm in profit last season where we were in the red.

This is not correct.

Illinois DIA Finances

Football led all sports in revenue in 2015, earning $30,819,616 while men’s basketball finished second with $17,823,570. Volleyball finished fourth and led women’s sports with $809,830 and men’s golf and baseball rounded out the top five, finishing third and fifth, respectively.

The past year also marked another year when football and men’s basketball were the only profitable sports for the program, a common trend among programs around the nation. Football ended the year with a $12,482,707 profit and men’s basketball had a $9,409,479 profit. Without football and men’s basketball, men’s sports would have finished with a $4,350,892 deficit while women’s sports finished with a $9,122,463 deficit.

 

[KBLEE]

You're right. I should've been clearer. I was speaking about the entire Athletic Department not just the football program.

But the DIA in total was not in the red either. The article explains that last two years have been a net $0 (break even) and made a profit prior to 2014. There was an additional $20MM in 2015 that was not allocated to a specific sport that made up for some of the deficits. In the end, I agree that Illinois is not Alabama. But, to assert that they are losing money is wrong.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Don't worry about what Bama is doing. They're in another universe, and even if we had the ability to put together a staff that big, we likely don't have the ability to manage all of them let alone the office space to house all of them. Mere bodies doesn't create productivity. Nick Saban is a genius visionary James Bond villain who is reinventing the game. We just need to start actually playing the game.

Our direct competitors in the build we are attempting are Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin. Those schools are at where we want to go. Lets take a look at those staffs. In order to be as football-specific and apples-to-apples as possible, I'm not going to count graduate assistants (who are enrolled as students, are technically not full time, and are paid peanuts), training staff, media relations people, athletic department liasons, equipment managers or secretaries. I am including Strength and Conditioning, which was not counted in that 18 number at Bama, fwiw. These are the people whose day jobs are winning football games.

Nebraska:
1 Head S&C coach with 4 assistants
2 Video Directors
3 Player Personnel Directors
2 Directors of Football Ops
1 Director of High School Relations

13 Total

Iowa:
1 Head S&C coach with 4 assistants
2 Directors of Football Ops
2 Video Coordinators
1 Director of Player Personnel
1 Director of Player Development
1 Director of On-Campus Recruiting
1 Football Analyst
1 Director of New Media (a great idea)

14 Total

Wisconsin:
1 Head S&C Coach with 3 assistants
1 Quality Control Coach
2 Directors of Recruiting
2 Directors of Football Ops
1 Director of Player Personnel & External Relations
1 Graphic Designer

11 Total

Illinois as of Cubit:
1 Head S&C Coach with 4 assistants
2 Video Coordinators
1 Assistant Recruiting Coordinator
1 Director of Football Ops
1 Director of Football Student-Athlete Development

10 Total

I think two extra recruiting-specific people would be great, whether that's evaluating film, managing communication, travel, and visits, or whatever. I also think someone to manage the design and outreach of our print and social media presence is a good idea in 2016. And the fact that Tim Knox is being retained probably means that Phair and Scheelhaase (perhaps among others) consider him to be a real asset, but acting as the logistical nerve center of the program (which is generally what DoFO's do) isn't really a one man job anymore.

 

[Illinigirl]

Good info S&C - thanks for putting that together.

 

[Deleted member 29907]

Illinois as of Cubit:
1 Head S&C Coach with 4 assistants
2 Video Coordinators
1 Assistant Recruiting Coordinator
1 Director of Football Ops
1 Director of Football Student-Athlete Development
1 Holdover Lasagne pan washer

11 Total

FIFY

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Currently S&C coach with Fresno State, was brought there by Tim DeRuyter from Texas A&M where they were both assistants.

The head S&C coach at A&M at that time was Dave Kennedy, who left to become Lovie's S&C guy with the Bucs. So there's the connection.

A&M's head coach back then by the way? Mike Sherman.

How's that for some quick internet sleuthing? :thumb:

Boese is from Southern California but played college ball at Wisconsin.

 

[Illinithad]

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.

If nothing else...you gotta love the name! :thumb:

 

[Bomb Squad 217]

I wonder if he has all of his assistants lined up. If not, I am interested. Dream job. To an extent.

 

[Lake Camelot]

Well. I am a little concerned about spring practice. But overall I don't think Lovie could have done much better getting a staff lined up quickly.

 

[Lake Camelot]

What I meant to say was could not have done much better. Iy has a good combination of coaches. And it was quick.

 

[BWBW]

If anyone knows anything more about Boese than appears on the internet, I hope they share it. I hope he is closer to Lou in his approach than the last staff. PM exchanges with those close to the program left me wondering about the previous staff.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

I hope he is closer to Lou in his approach than the last staff.

Apologies if you're deeply knowledgeable about the field of strength training, but these comments always make me laugh. "Lou = good, more like Lou!" as if he's the only successful strength coach in the history of college football.

His name is on a bevy of NFL players going 8-16 in 08-09 too you know.

 

[illynifan34]

Currently S&C coach with Fresno State, was brought there by Tim DeRuyter from Texas A&M where they were both assistants.

The head S&C coach at A&M at that time was Dave Kennedy, who left to become Lovie's S&C guy with the Bucs. So there's the connection.

A&M's head coach back then by the way? Mike Sherman.

How's that for some quick internet sleuthing? :thumb:

Boese is from Southern California but played college ball at Wisconsin.

2 Rose Bowls and 3 time Academic All Big Ten.

 

[BWBW]

Apologies if you're deeply knowledgeable about the field of strength training, but these comments always make me laugh. "Lou = good, more like Lou!" as if he's the only successful strength coach in the history of college football.

His name is on a bevy of NFL players going 8-16 in 08-09 too you know.

Laugh all you want, you aren't as knowledgeable as you think. Lou was our last best strength coach. He was very good here. I'd like someone whose approach is closer to his and hope he is as successful here as Lou was.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Laugh all you want, you aren't as knowledgeable as you think. Lou was our last best strength coach. He was very good here. I'd like someone whose approach is closer to his and hope he is as successful here as Lou was.

I know next to nothing about strength training. But I can surmise that there are many excellent S&C coaches in the country, and just like great head coaches often have different "approaches", so likely do S&C coaches.

I hope this new guy produces similar RESULTS to what Lou produced. That's what matters.

 

[mhuml32]

Laugh all you want, you aren't as knowledgeable as you think. Lou was our last best strength coach. He was very good here. I'd like someone whose approach is closer to his and hope he is as successful here as Lou was.

I think his comment is more focused on the fact there are multiple approaches for S&C coaches that are successful, it's shouldn't be a requirement that the next coach has the exact same approach Lou used.