Football Staff

[MountaineerKidd]

When we pay assistants 90k a year you cant expect alot of "wow" hires, we got a few last year but they never planned to stay.

That's a problem in itself. But doesn't mean we should hire people that are not qualified for the position just because he more than likely will stay. No offense to the recent hire but what in his resume shows that he is qualified to be on staff at a top 20 program in the nation.

[t4pizza]

When we pay assistants 90k a year you cant expect alot of "wow" hires, we got a few last year but they never planned to stay.

I have no idea how many intended to stay if Drink was still here, or how many still wanted to be here but didn't get the nod by Clark, or any other internal workings of our staff or their intent. I know that they signed here and coached here last year at that salary. And I don't expect "wow" hires, but when we are all lead to believe that we will be surprised by the quality of applicants, I was expecting a good surprise with very qualified coaches not the inverse. Once again, I am holding out final judgment and hope all these hires work out really really well for us.

As an aside, I don't have an issue with assistants (or even head coaches) using App as a stepping stone, I expect it. I have much more of a problem with picking complacent coaches who don't care about upward trajectories in the profession. We may have gotten the rarest of rare with Coach Clark, a guy that loves the school and wants to coach here regardless of how much money other schools offer (time will tell on this one) but I don't expect that to happen with any of our assistants. I want hungry coaches that are the best we can get and I understand those coaches want bigger things for themselves and their families and will eventually move on to other schools.

[AppDub]

Glad to know I am not the only one feeling underwhelmed at the moment with the recent additions. Thanks for all the feedback.

[ClickClackApp]

No offense to the recent hire but what in his resume shows that he is qualified to be on staff at a top 20 program in the nation.

The fact that a top 20 AD and coach wanted to hire him. And the fact that DeBastiani coached linebackers and was QC for Defense for the 2015 #25 Florida Gators and the 2016 #13 Florida Gators.

[t4pizza]

He was the quality control guy for UF, which means he was in the room and learning a lot from others but lets not paint him out to be the defensive assistant coach at UF in charge of linebackers because he wasn't that. A quality control coach is not allowed to coach players on the field, now that doesn't mean that they aren't important and don't learn a lot it just means they aren't the coaches calling the shots. Besides his one year at Central Michigan, all other stops were FCS schools and none of them are exactly defensive juggernauts in that division. But once again, hope he does a great job.

Plus, I think the poster was talking about the other coach we got that only coached high school prior to last year as a quality control guy at Louisville.

[ClickClackApp]

DeBastiani has DC level experience at the FCS level. Position level experience in the MAC for Conference Runner-up. SEC Experience...


And people on here question the hires. Cannot be pleased. If y'all had your ways poor Roof would have been ran out of town with one of the best performances in school history.

[The Rock]

I’m not hating or over the moon on the hires so far. Several of the guys drink brought in had P5 position coaching experience (P5 HC in Roof’s case) where as most of the people Clark brought in so far has been more from the HS, QC, GA realm of coaching. Not saying this won’t work out, as Satterfield got a few (Ivey I believe) from the HS ranks with success.
I think as others have stated earlier, the comment where Clark claimed we would be surprised if we knew the amount and quality of people wanting to coach here. That leads us to believe previous P5 coordinators or maybe former coaches possibly guys with prior NFL experience (ala dorsey’s brief visit last hear) would be In the mix for some of these positions.
It’s about managing and setting expectations. Again, I am counting on Clark to make the right decisions for his 1st staff but the alleged interest and the actual hires aren’t really lining up

[Appgrad91]

Well the good news is it doesn't make a dang bit of difference what people on this board think of the Assistance Coach hires. As for me I am very excited with the Clark hire and once again, just like last year, will trust the old hole filled sweatshirt. Much the same as I trusted The Visor this past season.

[App91]

I am gonna have to trust Clark here. to say that i am underwhelmed is an understatement, but i am not really in the know on assistant football coaches around the nation. Coaching is a very tight knit community with lots of relationships due to the nomadic nature. I am hoping/thinking these folks have been recommended by sources coach knows and trusts or he knows them personally. Hopefully they are all very good at player development. I must say that i would like to see some young blood on staff that can relate to players.

[AppSt94]

So here’s the thing about Braswell. He actually checks a lot of boxes and he just didn’t land on our doorstep. He has spent many of his summers in Boone learning the nuances of our 3-4 and probably knows it better than anybody. There was a reason he went to Louisville. He knows it well enough that he can coach either LB positions and the DL. He also gets us back into Georgia for recruiting. He can hit the ground running and can actually help the other coaches get up to speed.

[App91]

DeBastiani has DC level experience at the FCS level. Position level experience in the MAC for Conference Runner-up. SEC Experience...


And people on here question the hires. Cannot be pleased. If y'all had your ways poor Roof would have been ran out of town with one of the best performances in school history.

= Tallest Midget

[mike87]

short term vs long term. Drink was short term and made as big a splash as he could including short term hires. We got our 13 wins. Great Season. And he got a great job out of it as did those great hires. But you can't say it wasn't at the potential expense of the culture on the mountain. Clark's charge, at least from what he is saying publicly, seems to be to stabilize and keep our culture. Listen to what he says. Seems to be what got him the job so I'd say his hires have been pretty smart. That tallest midget might be just hitting a growth spurt.

[AppSt94]

Well the good news is it doesn't make a dang bit of difference what people on this board think of the Assistance Coach hires. As for me I am very excited with the Clark hire and once again, just like last year, will trust the old hole filled sweatshirt. Much the same as I trusted The Visor this past season.

Rowe and Braswell are both young and can relate to our players.

[ClickClackApp]

DeBastiani has DC level experience at the FCS level. Position level experience in the MAC for Conference Runner-up. SEC Experience...


And people on here question the hires. Cannot be pleased. If y'all had your ways poor Roof would have been ran out of town with one of the best performances in school history.

= Tallest Midget

CMU was 1-11 and 0-8 in the MAC in 2018. 2019 CMU was MAC runner-up. Call that tallest midget or not. I call that good coaching. Give me some of that. Debastiani was brought in for the 2019 season to coach LBs.

[EastHallApp]

So at this point with a couple more hires added to the coaching staff and the loss of Riley and Gas, what is the temperature of the room here on the boards? Have we stepped forward or stepped back?

I would be lying if I said I am super enthused. I know we're not going for those huge splash hires but it seems like were getting older guys with less than ideal backgrounds. I am worried that we could be losing some young energy and new ideas that every program needs.

As best I can tell, Braswell and Rowe are both in their mid-30s.

[EastHallApp]

OK, this may not go over well, but here goes: We are not a "top 20 program," especially when it comes to coaching hires. We had a top 20 team this year. That's not the same thing.

We're not going to be poaching a bunch of rising-star assistants from successful FBS programs. We just don't have the money for it. Satt was surprisingly successful at getting guys to make lateral moves, but mostly we're going to be hiring either young guys very early in their careers or older "journeyman" coaches. Probably some with App ties to help attract them, but not all.

Not telling anyone how to feel about these specific coaches - I know nothing about them. But generally these are the types of guys I'd expect us to hire.

[AZAppGrad]

If we are a top 20 program then I wonder how our athletic budget compares to other top 20 programs. I believe we can absolutely be ranked on a regular basis but to maintain that we need more donors. That is why it is soooo important to give all you can and encourage others to join in.

[mountaineerman]

short term vs long term. Drink was short term and made as big a splash as he could including short term hires. We got our 13 wins. Great Season. And he got a great job out of it as did those great hires. But you can't say it wasn't at the potential expense of the culture on the mountain. Clark's charge, at least from what he is saying publicly, seems to be to stabilize and keep our culture. Listen to what he says. Seems to be what got him the job so I'd say his hires have been pretty smart. That tallest midget might be just hitting a growth spurt.

I like short term big splash make adjustments when needed. Goodness I feel a very 2012 vibe with this.

[Saint3333]

I wonder if fans commenting here are willing to work for a Fortune 500 company but get paid half their market value?

Some folks need to keep perspective of what we offer salary wise.

If App a great program - clearly.

Can we pay more than other FBS programs - maybe only 20 of the 130 programs.

I had a friend text me when Drink left why do we keep losing coaches. I replied he didn’t give enough to the Yosef Club. It wasn’t personal just factual, we don’t have the budget to make flashy assistant hires.

[Appsolutely]

"I dont want an FCS retread or a greatest hits squad from the JM years just because Clark has App connections to them or people they know."

That is a legitimate concern. I'm all about preserving the culture and being appreciative of our past, but not to the detriment of the present or our future.