Transition Article by Ethan Joyce
Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 12:44 pm
https://www.journalnow.com/sports/colle ... 4cabf.html
Coaching can be brutal. Here's what happens when a head coach moves on.
Hey everybody,
It’s been a while. We’re barreling into football season, meaning that a ton of newsletters and football stories will start coming your way again soon. A little more than a month from now, Appalachian State will open the 2019 season and start Eli Drinkwitz’s tenure as head coach of the Mountaineers.
But before we look that way, I want you to take a step back with me to December, just after the Sun Belt Championship and right before Appalachian’s game against Middle Tennessee State in the New Orleans Bowl.
What a crazy time it was around the program. Scott Satterfield had left for Louisville. Mark Ivey and the assistants who remained were trying to lead App State to a fourth consecutive bowl win. And I was running around like crazy, trying to figure out who the next head coach might be while battling cold and sinus issues (air travel always clogs up my head, and I hate it).
I was in the same hotel as the team. Bowl week was crashed by the uncertainty of what might be next for the program and the people currently in it. And not surprisingly it came up often. Asking how an assistant was doing resulted in a “just taking it a day at a time” type of answer. A brief conversation with one of their spouses cast an understandable mood.
“I know he’s focusing on the game, but it’d be nice to know where things stand.”
(Continued)
Coaching can be brutal. Here's what happens when a head coach moves on.
Hey everybody,
It’s been a while. We’re barreling into football season, meaning that a ton of newsletters and football stories will start coming your way again soon. A little more than a month from now, Appalachian State will open the 2019 season and start Eli Drinkwitz’s tenure as head coach of the Mountaineers.
But before we look that way, I want you to take a step back with me to December, just after the Sun Belt Championship and right before Appalachian’s game against Middle Tennessee State in the New Orleans Bowl.
What a crazy time it was around the program. Scott Satterfield had left for Louisville. Mark Ivey and the assistants who remained were trying to lead App State to a fourth consecutive bowl win. And I was running around like crazy, trying to figure out who the next head coach might be while battling cold and sinus issues (air travel always clogs up my head, and I hate it).
I was in the same hotel as the team. Bowl week was crashed by the uncertainty of what might be next for the program and the people currently in it. And not surprisingly it came up often. Asking how an assistant was doing resulted in a “just taking it a day at a time” type of answer. A brief conversation with one of their spouses cast an understandable mood.
“I know he’s focusing on the game, but it’d be nice to know where things stand.”
(Continued)