Here it goes! Time to Take a Ride on the Coaching Carousel
Dec 09, 2022 8:10 pm
Coach ,
The Coaching Carousel has started to spin and the first wave of coaching changes has some big moves being made
Let’s take a look at what happened so far with some of the coaches we have had speak in our clinics, as well as picking up a few coaching points from this group of coaches.
Head Coaches
Matt Rhule - Nebraska
The Matt Rhule era begins for the Nebraska Cornhuskers with high expectations to bring the Huskers to the pinnacle of the Big Ten and college football.
Coach Rhule is very familiar with what it takes to turn a program around. Best known for taking Baylor from 1-11 to an 11-3 and the 2020 Sugar Bowl berth, Rhule led one of the quickest turnarounds in Power Five history.
He also led Temple from 2-10 to back-to-back 10-win seasons and an AAC championship in 2016 prior to departing the Owls for the Bears.
Since his time at Baylor, Coach Rhule has preached winning in the red zone. In the clip below, he explains the goals he sets for his team each season in the red zone and the different statistics he uses to implement this into his team (click image for video).
Video: Winning in the Red Zone
Luke Fickell - Cincinnati
Luke Fickell, the new head coach at Wisconsin, has the task of returning the Badgers to the top of the Big Ten.
Coach Fickell has a track record of success. It took him just a few years to build the Bearcats into a championship contender. Cincinnati reached the AAC championship game in three straight seasons, beginning in 2019 and winning the title in 2020 and 2021.
Coach Fickell and the Bearcats made history in 2021 recording a perfect 13-0 season and becoming the first Group of Five teams to make the College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014.
How did he do it? He embraced who they were and what they had and then executed around it.
In our copy and paste world it’s easy to get caught up trying to be something we are not. Coach Fickell took a deep look at who they were and built on it. While it won’t be Clifon Style in Madison, you can bet the Badgers will have a strong identity. He explains it here:
Jamey Chadwell - Liberty
Jamey Chadwell moves on to Liberty, but you can be sure that they immediately will begin building the player coach relationship with “CPR Time.”
CPR stands for coach-player relationship. It’s a concept that Coach Chadwell learned from sitting around the dinner table at his family farm.
That idea has translated to CPR time which they utilize two times a week to build trust amongst their team members. He explains it here:
Brent Dearmon - North Alabama
Brent Dearmon is no stranger to the head coach seat. In his one season as head coach at Bethel in 2018, Dearmon guided the team to the best season in school history. BU posted a 10-0 regular season mark and a No. 3 ranking, while averaging 540.3 yards and the second-highest scoring average in the country at 55.0 points per game. He was named Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year. He also was a head coach at the high school level at B.C. Rain HS (AL).
Brent Dearmon moved from Kansas to Middle Tennessee State to FAU prior to UNA. He’s been a go-to resource for coaches at every level on how to effectively run RPO. It’s something he began learning during his time with Gus Malzahn at Auburn.
When building RPO’s Dearmon starts with a set of questions to help him understand how they will set up the run and pass options of their play.
Those four questions allow for sound construction of plays that will have answers and be sound in the way that they attack which will minimize risk.
He explains how they use this process of questions and answers by illustrating it with the Buck Sweep. It helps them fix what hurts the play.
Offensive Coordinators
Phil Longo - Wisconsin
Phil Longo has been a hot name in coaching every year for some time now. That’s because his offenses are consistently at the top of the rankings and he does an outstanding job developing his players.
After a stint in the SEC with Ole Miss, then the ACC with North Carolina. Under his guidance, the Tar Heels have been one of the most explosive offenses in the country.
One thing you can count on with Phil Longo is that he will find a way to keep things simple. He brings his process for streamlining an offense and his Don’t Blink style to Madison.
In looking at the playbook, just because something is simple doesn’t mean it stays. He wants to know, “Is this play efficient enough to keep it in the offense?” For him, he can’t have something simple without being efficient.
He explains his philosophy here (Click on image for video):
Video: Introduction to the Approach
Here’s the outline of his philosophy. It’s three things:
Play Fast (speed is a premium)
Play instinctive (play without thinking) Coach discusses how he evaluates instinctiveness here.
Next Play Always (the past does not dictate the future)
Will Stein - Oregon
Will Stein comes to Oregon from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he served as the Roadrunners' co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2022 after spending the previous two seasons as pass game coordinator and receivers coach. Prior to joining UTSA in 2020, Stein was at Louisville (2013-14), Texas (2015-17) and Lake Travis High School (2018-19).
With Coach Stein elevated to co-offensive coordinator in 2022, UTSA had an offense which was nationally ranked in several categories:
- #8 3rd Down Conversions (50%)
- #9 total offense (486.1 YPG)
- #12 in scoring offense (38.7 PPG)
- #12 in passing offense (308.6 YPG)
- #17 in Red Zone Scoring (90.16%)
Coach Stein’s approach is to take simple concepts that appear in many playbooks and coach the finest details. You can see that in how he teaches spacing in this video:
Jake Spavital - Cal
After serving as Texas State Head Coach for the past four season Jake Spavital returns to the role he held at Cal for one season in 2016 when the Golden Bears' set several school records while ranking fourth in the nation in passing offense and 10th in total offense.
As an offensive coordinator (also at Texas A&M and West Virginia), Coach Spavital has led offenses on teams that finished in the top 20 in the country in total offense six times, reached seven bowl games, and earned a spot in the AP Top 25 in seven different seasons.
If you watch just a few minutes of him talking through a concept you know why his offenses have done so well. He knows the schemes inside and out as well as the coaching points that make his plays explosive. Here he is talking about his Storm route and how teaching the players to take ownership creates a big play.
Nate Scheelhaase - Promoted at Iowa State
Tom Manning’s departure created the opportunity for Nate Scheelhause to be promoted. It’s been a quick rise to the top. He joined Matt Campbell’s program in 2018. He will be called upon to help turn around an offense that struggled in 2022.
In this video, he explains low crossers. (click on image for video)
Defensive Coordinator
Tony White - Nebraska
Nebraska is bringing on Syracuse defensive coordinator Tony White. After guiding a strong defensive performance from the Orange, Coach White will have to heat up QBs in the Big Ten and force bad decisions and create big plays. Certainly, the his blitz package will come into play. Coach White explains one of their balanced blitzes here (click on image for video):
That’s the first wave. You can count on more changes throughout the off-season and we will be sure to highlight those as well as the coaching points behind what makes these coaches sought after for new opportunities.
Always be growing!
Coach Grabowski
P.S. It is clinic season and the first one of the year is always presented by the Illinois HS Football Coaches Association. Check to their line-up. It begins Monday. https://ihsfca2022.coachesclinic.com/