The Illinois Coaching Staff Search

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#526      

FT35

FT35
Naperville
FT35
WhiteRhino said:
If anything, Illinois should have a good shot at any players coming out of Elk Grove High School, between Miller as their Offensive Line Coach and Miles Osei being the head coach at Elk Grove
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I know it has little to do with Miller since he's only been there a year, but it's interesting how Wyoming has managed to land 1 or 2 Illinois kids in a number of their recent classes. They landed 6 Illinois kids in their 2017 recruiting class.

Here's the recruiting profile for Miller:

Bart Miller All Time Recruits

247sports.com 247sports.com

This may not tell the whole story, however, since he could have been the lead recruiter for a number of guys who aren't listed here. I wonder if he was the lead recruiter for Jovan Marsh or Jack Walsh? We're obviously looking to land better recruits, but it would at least show that he's had a presence in this state in terms of recruiting.

This state produces a lot of quality linemen, so hopefully we can start landing some of the top OL prospects in Illinois. You can see that our OL has been made up primarily of Illinois guys in recent years and a number of them have done quite well.
 
#527      

TMC999

TMC999
Not Iowa
TMC999
skyIdub said:
I get it, we pine for a big splashy hire coming from some kind of obvious success. However, that would be asking a successful coach to come to a program who's dumpster fire is like the eternal flame at JFK's grave. Or at least it's a 5 alarm dumpster fire that requires every fire house in the city along with all surrounding town's fire departments. And even when we have seemed to put it out over the last 20 years...they carelessly leave the dumpster smoldering in an alley where it will inevitably burst back into flames.

That's why Bielema got 4.2mil and why Petersen is getting a huge raise to come and put out this eternal dumpster fire.

I kid, except I'm not kidding.
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This is spot on. We are Illinois football. He’s got a good track record with the ability to be pass happy or run happy. It’s like we are the Robotics Club Vice President whining that we’re not going to the dance with the homecoming queen. It’s who we are - right now. He’s not splashy - but neither are we. Can you imagine if our offense improved from awful to consistently average? I’ll take it, then build from there... but we need to climb out of the cellar first.
 
#528      

Deleted member 186590

D
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Deleted member 186590
Petersen has to be the least prominent OC we’ve ever hired as part of a new staff (in the last 30 years that I’m aware of)

The one positive is that BB had the resources and coaching circle to cast a wide net and he chose Petersen.

Miller as the OL hire makes a lot more sense and could indicate that it will be BB filing out the Offensive staff not Petersen. It’s also an indication that maybe BB wants a lot more control than we thought over the offense and that is why he hired a guy like Petersen over others that likely would have wanted more autonomy in running the offense

That is my takeaway from these two hires
 
#529      

TMC999

TMC999
Not Iowa
TMC999
ChiCityIllini said:
Guessing this guy was pretty far down Bielema's OC Wish List... Yes the $$$ is there but at the end of the day getting a good OC (who likely has options) is gunna take more than $$$ - and Illinois doesn't exactly have a great history of coordinators coming out better than when they came in - and Champaign can be a bit of hard sell especially for coaches wives who prefer a more 'metropolitan' area
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That’s offensive. There’s a Noodles on Green Street now and we just cleaned up Kam’s. What else would they want?
 
#530      

Deleted member 747671

D
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Deleted member 747671
ChiefGritty said:
What is surprising is that $750k and the chance to be poured into the foundation of a new major conference project couldn't command a better resume than Petersen's. We've frequently gotten more decorated guys than that (Paul Petrino, Bill Cubit, Rod Smith) to jump aboard obviously sinking ships for less money.
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It's not like BB posted some "wanted: OC" ad on some FCS assistant coaches forum and waited on a response and chose the first guy. I get you, and many others don't particularly like the OC hire, and I too was underwhelmed. But BB is in charge of his staff. Petersen seems far more likely to adjust his scheme to his players and his HC's philosophy than some of the other guys. Helfrich would've brought his own system. Dooley and Enos too, maybe to a lesser extent. Based on the OL hire, this offense is going to value running the football. I'd say Petersen would be more open to that idea than the other 3 guys.
 
#531      

TMC999

TMC999
Not Iowa
TMC999
The bottom line is this on Miller:
If you would have told me he partnered with Bielema and coached the OL during some of Wisconsin’s glory days when their RBs ran behind 5 nasty earth movers, I’d be very excited. The fact that he grew up in Illinois and already recruits here? I’m giddy. Love this hire.
 
#532      

Keisersose

Keisersose
Keisersose
Very likely that some coordinators would want to bring their entire staff (or much of their staff) with them. And if BB was set on certain assistants, like Miller, maybe some OCs wouldn’t come.
 
#533      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
TMC999 said:
This is spot on. We are Illinois football. He’s got a good track record with the ability to be pass happy or run happy. It’s like we are the Robotics Club Vice President whining that we’re not going to the dance with the homecoming queen. It’s who we are - right now. He’s not splashy - but neither are we. Can you imagine if our offense improved from awful to consistently average? I’ll take it, then build from there... but we need to climb out of the cellar first.
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It's absolutely pathetic that this passes for "positivity" and "optimism", especially when it directly contravenes everything Josh Whitman has said publicly about this process.

We have a top 5 assistant salary pool in the Big Ten (and money is basically all that matters), and I'm sorry, but Petersen does not have a good track record. He stepped up from the low-major level of college football to a bigger job at East Carolina and comprehensively failed at exactly the sort of establish-and-build job he's going to be asked to do at Illinois.

He had Gardner Minshew splitting time with someone called "Thomas Sirk" at ECU, and Minshew was totally average there, despite putting up video game numbers both before and after and being a genuine NFL talent.

It's an unimaginably weak hire for this position on this staff for this project for this money. That does NOT mean it can't end up "working", and it's wildly premature to extrapolate the hire to broader conclusions about the staff, but the objective facts of Petersen's resume are what they are. That saying "well, we're a pathetic embarrassing dumpster fire so we deserve to laughably overpay mediocrities to coach here" can be coded as being the loyal good fan is just beyond my comprehension, I do not get it.
 
#535      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
ChiefGritty said:
It's absolutely pathetic that this passes for "positivity" and "optimism", especially when it directly contravenes everything Josh Whitman has said publicly about this process.


It's an unimaginably weak hire for this position on this staff for this project for this money. That does NOT mean it can't end up "working", and it's wildly premature to extrapolate the hire to broader conclusions about the staff, but the objective facts of Petersen's resume are what they are. That saying "well, we're a pathetic embarrassing dumpster fire so we deserve to laughably overpay mediocrities to coach here" can be coded as being the loyal good fan is just beyond my comprehension, I do not get it.
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Fun fact: I'm not a loyal good fan. I haven't been to a football game in 15 years. Although I have been outside in the lots getting sloppy faced and eating unreasonable portions of BBQ on multiple occasions.

On one occasion (UCLA?) I actually went inside, sat down, watched them run back the opening kickoff for a TD....got up and went back outside for more BBQ.
I'm lying...I went back out for more booze.
 
#537      

Deleted member 747671

D
Guest
Deleted member 747671
ChiefGritty said:
It's absolutely pathetic that this passes for "positivity" and "optimism", especially when it directly contravenes everything Josh Whitman has said publicly about this process.

We have a top 5 assistant salary pool in the Big Ten (and money is basically all that matters), and I'm sorry, but Petersen does not have a good track record. He stepped up from the low-major level of college football to a bigger job at East Carolina and comprehensively failed at exactly the sort of establish-and-build job he's going to be asked to do at Illinois.

He had Gardner Minshew splitting time with someone called "Thomas Sirk" at ECU, and Minshew was totally average there, despite putting up video game numbers both before and after and being a genuine NFL talent.

It's an unimaginably weak hire for this position on this staff for this project for this money. That does NOT mean it can't end up "working", and it's wildly premature to extrapolate the hire to broader conclusions about the staff, but the objective facts of Petersen's resume are what they are. That saying "well, we're a pathetic embarrassing dumpster fire so we deserve to laughably overpay mediocrities to coach here" can be coded as being the loyal good fan is just beyond my comprehension, I do not get it.
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The 3 big name OCs don't exactly have stellar resumes either. Enos absolutely bombed at Miami, hence why he's not calling plays anywhere. Dooley has all of 1 year experience as an OC after bombing hard as a HC at Tennessee and having no previous OC experience. Helfrich has the best OC resume of those 3, but he's been pretty much always out west and has a very different offensive philosophy from BB. You can easily poke holes in nearly any coach's resume. The staff in it's entirety is going to tell us a lot. The OL hire seems very positive. He's young, has experience, gets results and has all the makings of a good recruiter, who also happens to have played high school football in Illinois. I assume he will have an experienced defensive staff with some guys he's worked with previously. Petersen seems like a guy that can fit in with any type of coaching staff, so I can see why BB chose him. Also, unless the money is astronomical, it's a non-issue. We aren't hiring a B1G HC for much less than 4 mil/year. We aren't giving the OC like 300k when the going rate is 500+.
 
#538      

Deleted member 747784

D
Guest
Deleted member 747784
how do we even know what these guys salaries are ?
has that info been made public yet ?
 
#539      

AutoPoster 3000

AutoPoster 3000
AutoPoster 3000
ChiefGritty said:
It's absolutely pathetic that this passes for "positivity" and "optimism", especially when it directly contravenes everything Josh Whitman has said publicly about this process.

We have a top 5 assistant salary pool in the Big Ten (and money is basically all that matters), and I'm sorry, but Petersen does not have a good track record. He stepped up from the low-major level of college football to a bigger job at East Carolina and comprehensively failed at exactly the sort of establish-and-build job he's going to be asked to do at Illinois.

He had Gardner Minshew splitting time with someone called "Thomas Sirk" at ECU, and Minshew was totally average there, despite putting up video game numbers both before and after and being a genuine NFL talent.

It's an unimaginably weak hire for this position on this staff for this project for this money. That does NOT mean it can't end up "working", and it's wildly premature to extrapolate the hire to broader conclusions about the staff, but the objective facts of Petersen's resume are what they are. That saying "well, we're a pathetic embarrassing dumpster fire so we deserve to laughably overpay mediocrities to coach here" can be coded as being the loyal good fan is just beyond my comprehension, I do not get it.
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“We couldn’t attract anyone better anyway,” and “It’s possible that we’ll all be pleasantly surprised by his moderate competence” are significantly more withering criticisms of this OC choice than anything I personally could think up in a rambling four-paragraph rant.
 
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#540      

Deleted member 654622

D
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Deleted member 654622
ChiefGritty said:
In case anyone would like 70 minutes of Miller talking about O-Line play:


He mentions in the beginning that before getting into coaching he had a job on the business side of the Blackhawks front office.
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Statements/ideas that stood out
1. Seen multiple tape of him saying he grew up in Nebraska. But I see he graduated from IL. Too lazy to look up the background there
2. Says practices need to be hard so the game comes easy. They practice with a D lineman lined up off sides to make it more difficult
3. Very big on second step being planted before making contact. Gives a little insight on how anal he is on technique
4. Has some clips of Wisconsin and FAU practices
5. Works pass protection at the end of practice because they are running team and wont be in passing mode until the end of the half or game
6. Developed a pass pro circuit over the last 10 years to work on technique before practice. Because practice time needs to be used being physical and hitting
7. Loves 1 on 1 drills with the defense - man vs man. Works with the defense at least one drill every day
8. Finish Everything (referring to blocking)
9. Preparation and the knowledge of defense we are going to face.
10. We do teach technique but not at the expense of physicality. Pride ourselves on being physical. You cannot expect to be physical if you do not live in that world everyday. I know the arguments against it and I don't agree with it. Your bodies are adapted to being physical. Its better to be the hammer and not the nail. (I have expressed this exact point about Lovie's lack of physical practices and how we always get out physicalled and hurt on the field)
11. Center has to be good (Kramer staying might be the most important decision for the teams 2021 success)

Conclusion: I like him
 
#541      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
AutoPoster 3000 said:
“We couldn’t attract anyone better anyway,” and “It’s possible that we’ll all be pleasantly surprised by his moderate competence” are significantly more withering criticisms of this OC choice than anything I personally could think up in a rambling four-paragraph rant.
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Yeah, right...as if the posts would be any different if we "overpaid" for a "big" name P5 retread with exactly the same chances of success here.
 
#542      

Poe's Law

P
Poe's Law
ChiefGritty said:
At OC it really, really can. Rod Smith is objectively higher regarded in the profession than Tony Petersen is.

Now, Petersen is no Miles Smith. He's not Hardy Nickerson. He's a grizzled career guy, he's qualified for the job. We can assess the staff when it's complete.

But what is objective fact right now is that Bielema and Petersen are now making salaries for Illinois football that outstrip their market values by leaps and bounds. I tire of being taken for a sucker.
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What did Petersen make at previous stops (not accounting for inflation). Sometimes you take a step back so you can make a leap forward. For example I doubt he was paid much for his analyst position at Mizzou... but what did he make at his previous OC stops? Somewhere there is an article on Gundy (Ok. St.) giving his OC an extremely high raise for his new OC. He said something along the lines of that's what we pay for this job.

There are a lot of reasons to doubt that the new staff will work out, but if you're getting worked up because the OC's salary was a lot lower at his last position. You're either looking for reasons to be upset or you have a natural gift for it.
 
#544      

jw401

J
jw401
ChiCityIllini said:
Guessing this guy was pretty far down Bielema's OC Wish List... Yes the $$$ is there but at the end of the day getting a good OC (who likely has options) is gunna take more than $$$ - and Illinois doesn't exactly have a great history of coordinators coming out better than when they came in - and Champaign can be a bit of hard sell especially for coaches wives who prefer a more 'metropolitan' area
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We should probably pump the brakes on this train of thought. Bielema was hired on the 19th and announced his OC hire on the 28th. Unless other options literally wouldn't take his phone call (which we have no way of knowing), then I would say that Petersen was one of his first choices for this position.
 
#546      

O&B4Ever

O
O&B4Ever
Dude said:
Statements/ideas that stood out
1. Seen multiple tape of him saying he grew up in Nebraska. But I see he graduated from IL. Too lazy to look up the background there
2. Says practices need to be hard so the game comes easy. They practice with a D lineman lined up off sides to make it more difficult
3. Very big on second step being planted before making contact. Gives a little insight on how anal he is on technique
4. Has some clips of Wisconsin and FAU practices
5. Works pass protection at the end of practice because they are running team and wont be in passing mode until the end of the half or game
6. Developed a pass pro circuit over the last 10 years to work on technique before practice. Because practice time needs to be used being physical and hitting
7. Loves 1 on 1 drills with the defense - man vs man. Works with the defense at least one drill every day
8. Finish Everything (referring to blocking)
9. Preparation and the knowledge of defense we are going to face.
10. We do teach technique but not at the expense of physicality. Pride ourselves on being physical. You cannot expect to be physical if you do not live in that world everyday. I know the arguments against it and I don't agree with it. Your bodies are adapted to being physical. Its better to be the hammer and not the nail. (I have expressed this exact point about Lovie's lack of physical practices and how we always get out physicalled and hurt on the field)
11. Center has to be good (Kramer staying might be the most important decision for the teams 2021 success)

Conclusion: I like him
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Agree with all. Plus, he looks like a bad&ss!
 
#547      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
I know this isn't really adding anything new, but I'll wait to see the results before I judge these coaching hires.

How many times have we seen other schools hire non-splashy coaches only to see them build long-term success, while the hot shot hires flame out quickly? If Bielema and his staff can make Illinois consistently good/competitive with competent coaching, it will be a huge win in my book
 
#548      

TooHot4Tots

T
TooHot4Tots
The OC hire is kind of blah, but I do think he runs what BB is looking for and seems to be able to actually teach/coach players to develop their skillset. Couldn't stand Lovie's hires, so I actually can see a better fit here with BB getting TP. Miller was a very solid hire and I am actually surprised to get another coach who can truly teach and develop players. Hopefully a more splashy hire as DC, but not holding my breath.
 
#549      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Poe's Law said:
What did Petersen make at previous stops (not accounting for inflation). Sometimes you take a step back so you can make a leap forward. For example I doubt he was paid much for his analyst position at Mizzou... but what did he make at his previous OC stops?
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Looks like 300k at East Carolina, and 200k at Louisiana Tech.

The story of Petersen's career was that he was part of the rise of Marshall from 1-AA backwater to intimidating mid-major FBS school first as a player (starting QB) then as an assistant coach all the way up to getting to OC gig in 1998 (the year after Randy Moss left) and won the MAC that year. He parlayed that into a spot on Glen Mason's Minnesota staff (probably a big salary/prestige bump in those days), and he gained and lost playcalling duties there, and then after getting fired with Mason caught on as the QB coach for Gene Chizik's Iowa State, who were absolutely loathesome offensively and none of whom were brought to Auburn (Gus Malzahn got the offensive reins there).

The next year he was a non-coordinator at FCS South Dakota, still just age 43. Hanging by a thread in the profession.

Doc Holliday, a West Virginian through and through, got the Marshall job the next season, and carved out a gussied-up AHC-type role for Petersen as the well-liked former QB and assistant there. A lifeline.

Petersen obviously wanted to call plays, so he parlayed that into the OC spot on Skip Holtz' new staff at Louisiana Tech. Essentially, 15 years later he was back where he had been in 1998 at Marshall.

In terms of any real analysis of what we are getting in Offensive Coordinator Tony Petersen, that's where the story starts. That first year he crashed what had been an excellent Air-Raid offense under Sonny Dykes (an offense that absolutely thrashed the first Beckman team at MS, remember that?), going from offense #18 to offense #115. But they built it, and by year 3 the offense and team were quite good.

That landed him the jump and big raise to East Carolina, which was just a tip to tail failure over three full years.

A year in a makework analyst job followed, and then the OC job on Shawn Clark's new staff (the third in three seasons there) at App State where the Satterfield/Drinkwitz good times more or less kept rolling along.

It's a workaday mid-major OC career. As I said before, there are 20 of these guys. Petersen pulled the golden ticket out of the chocolate bar somehow.
 
#550      

Deleted member 747671

D
Guest
Deleted member 747671
ChiefGritty said:
Looks like 300k at East Carolina, and 200k at Louisiana Tech.

The story of Petersen's career was that he was part of the rise of Marshall from 1-AA backwater to intimidating mid-major FBS school first as a player (starting QB) then as an assistant coach all the way up to getting to OC gig in 1998 (the year after Randy Moss left) and won the MAC that year. He parlayed that into a spot on Glen Mason's Minnesota staff (probably a big salary/prestige bump in those days), and he gained and lost playcalling duties there, and then after getting fired with Mason caught on as the QB coach for Gene Chizik's Iowa State, who were absolutely loathesome offensively and none of whom were brought to Auburn (Gus Malzahn got the offensive reins there).

The next year he was a non-coordinator at FCS South Dakota, still just age 43. Hanging by a thread in the profession.

Doc Holliday, a West Virginian through and through, got the Marshall job the next season, and carved out a gussied-up AHC-type role for Petersen as the well-liked former QB and assistant there. A lifeline.

Petersen obviously wanted to call plays, so he parlayed that into the OC spot on Skip Holtz' new staff at Louisiana Tech. Essentially, 15 years later he was back where he had been in 1998 at Marshall.

In terms of any real analysis of what we are getting in Offensive Coordinator Tony Petersen, that's where the story starts. That first year he crashed what had been an excellent Air-Raid offense under Sonny Dykes (an offense that absolutely thrashed the first Beckman team at MS, remember that?), going from offense #18 to offense #115. But they built it, and by year 3 the offense and team were quite good.

That landed him the jump and big raise to East Carolina, which was just a tip to tail failure over three full years.

A year in a makework analyst job followed, and then the OC job on Shawn Clark's new staff (the third in three seasons there) at App State where the Satterfield/Drinkwitz good times more or less kept rolling along.

It's a workaday mid-major OC career. As I said before, there are 20 of these guys. Petersen pulled the golden ticket out of the chocolate bar somehow.
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Appreciate all the digging you do on these guys. But really, unless you're talking about a successful HC, most assistants are going to cycle through programs and positions. That's pretty much the life of a college assistant coach. The ECU thing is really the only sticking point for me, as the rest of his resume just seems like a normal cycle-through of jobs for a football lifer. The weird thing about ECU, is that somehow he went from there to hopping on with a P5 program for year, and then right back into an OC role. He didn't really "fall back" that far. I don't know. I see the hesitation as the majority of his experience is at non-P5 schools but we're not plucking some random QB coach. The guy has ran offenses at multiple schools with varying degrees of success/failure.
 
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