Jinks Assembling Coaching Staff
So, you might think that a guy who has very little coaching experience in college ball would try, you know, to balance that out. Get some guys with experience to fill key slots, build a strong team. Like Lincoln in Team of Rivals.
Our coach, Mike Jinks, is doing the opposite. He is doubling down on what apparently is the greatest untapped resource in the history of college athletics, which is people hanging around Texas Tech and other even small college programs in Texas or Alabama. To date, on paper, BG has never had a less accomplished staff.
At offensive coordinator, BG has apparently gone for co-OCs.
Andy Padron is one part of the partnership. He coaches for his father at Texas Lutheran, a DIII school. He is the OC there and they have had a highly-ranked DIII offense. He also played DIII ball.
Kevin Kilmer will be the other Co-OC. He is the offensive quality control coach at Texas Tech. Mike Leach nicknamed him "Moe." He has never been an actual coach at any level.
The new DL coach and Co-DC is the former DL coach at Faulkner University, an NAIA school in Alabama. His name is Marcus White. He met Jinks at Texas Tech, where White had an "off-field" role, presumably with the football program. He was a quality control coach at Houston and a line coach at Tarleton. He played at Auburn and Murray State, as well as in the NFL.
Stephen Hamby will be BG's OL Coach. He was an assistant line coach at Texas Tech, which means something completely different there. They had an OL coach and Hamby was that guy's assistant. He also played at Texas Tech.
BG did retain two coaches from the Babers staff....Andrew Sowder is staying, along with Mike Mickens.
Finally, what do Barack Obama, John Kasich, Rob Portman, Sherrod Brown and Mike Jinks have in common?
They all have a "Chief of Staff"
The one at BG is Ryan Downard, who is a "defensive assistant" with the Cleveland Browns. He played at EMU. No idea what a chief of staff does on a college football team.
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7 comments :
Your negativity on this issue reveals a misunderstanding of how college football works at the Division I level. The coaches from Texas Tech didn't "hang around," they performed myriad coaching and recruiting duties at a Power 5 school with the only difference from the full-time staff being a lack of pay. These are incredibly difficult positions to attain and wouldn't be filled with unqualified people. Read the release to see the specific football-related and coaching duties Ryan Downard had with an NFL franchise. High school coaches in Texas deal with boosters and recruits and D-I GA's and D-III coaches are exceptionally competent and work extremely hard at what they do.
Recruiting is a 24/7/365 endeavor and is a young man's game more than ever. Youth and energy is an asset. Gary Blackney's staff was packed with guys with "experience" in large programs and BGSU football was run into the ground. An effective coach is an effective coach.
Mr. Warner:
Thanks for reading and responding. A couple of thoughts.
First, Gary Blackney and his staff won two MAC Championships at the collegiate level, ground which Mike Jinks would be happy to run into. Other than Doyt Perry, he is the only coach at BG to win 2 MAC titles.
Second, the staff put together by Dave Clawson consisted of seasoned coaches and they built a wave that Babers rode on.
Third, I know you say that the positions wouldn't be filled with "unqualified" people. I agree--qualified to be an analyst or quality control coach. My question is are they qualified to be FBS coordinators? Is that really all it takes? One year as a quality control assistant or at Faulkner and you're a coordinator?
Oh and this Texas Tech juggernaut they are all coming from? Or is it a .500 program?
Finally, I agree that these people are probably competent and hard working. I don't doubt it for a minute.
So are lots of people, many of whom have a demonstrated ability to do the job they were hired for.
I stand by my statement....
BG has never had a less accomplished staff.
Not even when we hired a head coach who never had coordinator experience in Urban Meyer?
Beckman was a holdover from the Blackney staff, but was he the DC under Blackney?
Brandon had been at Northwestern but was not the OC.
And remember, under Meyer - BG football never won a MAC championship and did not go bowling either year of his reign (just like Moe Ankney).
Not sure Jinks is as bad as you think.
Look, you can compare, say, Kevin Kilmer and Gregg Brandon if you want. Who has more experience and a longer track record?
The rest of it stands for itself.
I had the same original reaction as Orange. Then I thought about this. It seems Mike Jinks is not only a classy guy but also a smart guy. You don't accomplish what he did without being smart. That being said, I trust he knows these men fairly well and so there is something to be said for trusting his judgment (and by proxy, our AD) until proven otherwise.
In other words, while factually Orange may be correct, i.e. the staff is less accomplished on paper, it may not mean the staff is actually less effective. For that we wait and watch.
I am encouraged by two things: Mike's emphasis on discipline and class. I am also enjoying what appears to be true humility coupled with competence. I am withholding judgment on these choices and trusting they are good ones based on what we see of our coach in other areas so far. I am encouraged to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Enjoy your blog Orange. If we're going to say Babers (and his young staff of commensurate inexperience) rode the wave of Clawson then we also have to say Blackney rode the wave of Ankney in the first two years. Not to say that it was entirely of his doing, but when Blackney left BGSU football was in dire straights with a full-staff of highly experienced Division I people aboard. That's simply to say that where someone has coached isn't an automatic predictor of success, or for that matter failure.
If the point is that Gregg Brandon and Warren Ruggiero were more accomplished and experienced at their point of entry to Falcon football than Kevin Kilmer then you're correct. Kilmer, however, comes from an offense that just scored 46 points per game and has that blueprint ready to replicate in BG. On paper that's more than Brandon's offense at Colorado/Northwestern or Ruggiero's at Kansas State. Babers hired Sterlin Gilbert when he was an offensive coordinator at a Texas high school with no full-time paid college experience. 4 years later he's now making 850k as the OC at Texas. When you've got the secret sauce it might not matter how long you've had it.
You're right: on paper this is a relatively unaccomplished staff in terms of experience, but like Ken said, we've got to place the trust in the person that hired them, and that person has dealt with coaches of every stripe for 20+ years and has known nothing but winning. That earns him the benefit of the doubt in my mind. We'll all be curious to see how it plays out.
Mr. Warner:
Thanks for reading and I appreciate the points you make. A last couple points that illustrate how we view the world differently....
I think Gilbert is a ridiculously bad hire at Texas...way overhired. Time will tell. Your view seems to be that making $850K is when you have succeeded, where I'd like to see success first.
I don't believe that just being present and having an ancillary role when a big offense is functioning means you can replicate it and translate to players, especially when someone else was in charge. To that point, I do like the Padron hire.
As far as I am concerned, Kingston has only hired one coach where there's a reasonable verdict of success. When you're not the person in charge, it is different.
But, to your point, why wouldn't you want football coaches who have dealt with every stripe for 20 years and known nothing but winning?
Anyway, I do agree, as I posted today. These are our guys. I hope we're on the right path.
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