Nick Howell: Bronco yes man w/ no football resume now BYU's defensive coordinator

[Art Vandelay]

Ox, isn't time for you to take another trip, or turn down another girl? Those threads are much funner to read. sjbh

[Shaka]

I have two Lake Powell and a Maui trip planned for this summer. Maybe I can post some photos to make up for Ox's lack of updates.

[oxcoug]

I have two Lake Powell and a Maui trip planned for this summer. Maybe I can post some photos to make up for Ox's lack of updates.

I'd love that, please do.

Yeah, this hire has tweaked me a bit. In the context of coordinator hirings at BYU and at D1 programs I doubt there is anything comparable and I'd love it if someone wld find me one a recent precedent that looks like this: someone with no background playing college football who is promoted to a coordinator-level position within three years of his first job as a position coach. And given Bronco's immediate history on big personnel decisions - Jaime Hill, Doman and Riley Nelson - I don't think anyone has good cause to trust his judgment on big personnel choices.

I think he was hired because (a) Bronco felt he had to name a DC, (b) Howell's been a loyal foot soldier to Bronco and (c) because Bronco isn't comfortable with Kaufusi and Tidwell who are carryovers from an earlier regime, not his hand-picked lieutenants.

[All-American]

I'd love that, please do.

Yeah, this hire has tweaked me a bit. In the context of coordinator hirings at BYU and at D1 programs I doubt there is anything comparable and I'd love it if someone wld find me one a recent precedent that looks like this: someone with no background playing college football who is promoted to a coordinator-level position within three years of his first job as a position coach. And given Bronco's immediate history on big personnel decisions - Jaime Hill, Doman and Riley Nelson - I don't think anyone has good cause to trust his judgment on big personnel choices.

I think he was hired because (a) Bronco felt he had to name a DC, (b) Howell's been a loyal foot soldier to Bronco and (c) because Bronco isn't comfortable with Kaufusi and Tidwell who are carryovers from an earlier regime, not his hand-picked lieutenants.

Mike Leach?

(Wikipedia says Leach is one of 7 DA head coaches who didn't play college ball. The others are Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech, David Cutcliffe at Duke, George O'Leary at UCF, Bobby Hauck at UNLV, Charlie Weis at Kansas, and Chip Kelly at Oregon.

• Paul Johnson, it appears, started his coaching career as an offensive coordinator at Lees-McRae in 1981, was an OC at Georgia Southern by 1985, and an OC at Hawaii by 1987.
• David Cutcliffe had a long high school coaching background before coaching tight ends and QBs at Tennessee for about ten years before getting a coordinator job.
• George O'Leary coached the DL at Syracuse for six years before becoming DC at Tech.
• Bobby Hauck appears never to have held a coordinator's position. He coached positions for fourteen years before becoming head coach at Montana (and more recently, UNLV)
• Charlie Weis' first coordinator job, after 18 years of coaching high school and at South Carolina, was for the New England Patriots.
• Chip Kelly became a coordinator at John Hopkins after three years of position coach work at Columbia and New Hampshire.

So nobody who fits your job description exactly among the eventual head coaches.)

[oxcoug]

Mike Leach?

(Wikipedia says Leach is one of 7 DA head coaches who didn't play college ball. The others are Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech, David Cutcliffe at Duke, George O'Leary at UCF, Bobby Hauck at UNLV, Charlie Weis at Kansas, and Chip Kelly at Oregon.)

Yeah the Leach and Johnson examples have been addressed. Leach proved himself over years of assistant coaching at the lower levels of the college ranks - Cal Poly, Iowa Wesleyan, and then absolutely killed it with his passing game at Valdosta State before anyone at an FBS program gave him a look for a coordinator level job. He even did one odd year coaching an American football team in Finland.

Johnson was a position coach at Georgia Southern and then an OC there before an FBS football program gave him a shot at a coordinator level job.

So neither of them is comparable to Howell who had three years as a high school coach, then was an intern at BYU then three years as a position coach.

Chip Kelly spent nearly a decade as a position coach at Columbia, New Hampshire and Johns Hopkins and then seven years as OC at New Hampshire - where he was stellar - before an FBS program gave him OC consideration. BTW, his bio says he played football at the University of New Hampshire anyway.

The common thread is - every other coach who didn't play football had to prove himself in the lower college ranks as both position coaches and then excel massively at the coordinator level before any FBS program considered them a serious coordinator level candidate.

So... still looking.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I can't believe you folks still argue with GM about sports.

bump.

[Green Monstah]

bump.

Yeah, who the fuck wants to talk sports on a sports messageboard?

I much prefer hard hitting substance like "yeeeehaw! Pac-12 sucks!" Way to set the bar high Lebowski. We can't all be McGuirk's yes man like you. Maybe someday.

[Indy Coug]

Lighten up, Francine.

[oxcoug]

I thought this was endearing:

When asked if that meant he would be happier on defense, Davis recalled that being on that side of the ball wasn’t easy either.

“Coach (Nick) Howell does a lot of screaming, so I wasn’t really missing that too much,” he said. “It’s fun to catch the ball, but it’s fun to defend and lay a hit on people. It’s good both ways.”