[NU Sports] coaches leaving

[Roy Lamberton]

Lets see...

Pure coincidence is probably the closest to the truth.

1. I think Dunbar saw an opportunity to work with a big state school that also
had a big passing game. He's recruited the west coast for several years so he
knows the lay of the land.

2. From reading Jim Patton's comments down in Norman, OK, it appears that Kevin
Wilson made him an offer he couldn't refuse - and I think Wilson is lining up
both his running game staff at OU and a future staff should he get the top job
somewhere. 

I know from experience that OU pays better than NU, the weather's nicer most of
the year, you don't have to send your kids to private school in Norman, and he
can use all the red stuff left over from Miami. 

As an O-Line coach, you can get almost any big kid in Oklahoma to come to Norman
to play. OU doesn't recruit as much as they "reload." 

I also think that he sees an opportunity to move up to a coordinator's slot
eventually, and OU is a better place to get promoted from than NU - there are
more folks watching what you do.

3. Most assistants can't worry about their head coach's future, unless they are
totally tied to that head coach and then they're in trouble. Walker is in the
last two years of his deal, and while we're a collapse away from a new head guy,
I don't see it happening. Walker says the right things inside to keep himself
employed despite what some alumni think around here.

4. Dunbar was a good QB coach, for whom Baz and the other QBs had a great amount
of respect. He was an even better coordinator, working with a limited amount of
talent and along with his assistants, [and the rest of the coaching staff],
getting a lot out the kids we have and can get.

If anything, Dunbar will find it easier to coach at Cal, but will have more
pressure to perform. Like Walker he doesn't get overly upset in public, but you
know that much performance is expected by him.

Was he the glue that held NU's staff together? 

Randy Walker puts on this "good ole' country boy" act, but don't confuse his
public media persona with whatever he does out of the spotlight. NU is very much
Randy Walker's team, despite what you read, and his comments about being the
only assistant left in 10 years is not a negative comment about running off
staff, but a belief that for his assistants and the NU program to continue
growing under his leadership, there has to be turnover among those assistants.

Barry Switzer had a couple of long time assistants - Larry Lacewell on defense,
and a recruiting coordinator, who's name escapes me now.

When they asked Larry to finally leave - many more things than the event that
led to his departure - the team shuddered, then went on and won again.

The Recruiting guy left about the same time. It took Stoops to bring that team
back to a top 10 ranking.

I have every faith that RW will find his new coordinator and maybe will shuffle
assignments to get better guys in the right places. I think the new OC is
already in place, and he probably knows the right WR coach to bring in if there
should be a change there - the new O-Line guy is the one I'm more concerned
about.   

We'll see.

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com 
> [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Beamsley
> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 9:52 AM
> To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: RE: [NU Sports] coaches leaving
> 
> 
>  Roy,
> 
> Why do you think so many coaches are leaving?
> 
> Out of pure speculation here seem to be the possible reasons.
> 
> 1. Pure coincidence.  Coaches move on every year as better 
> opportunities present themselves.  This just happened to be 
> year when more than normal promoted themselves.  So this is 
> good news that NU is able to attract good coaches that prove 
> themselves worthy of more responsibility and get better jobs. 
> 2. They know something we don't.  Good coaches get recruited 
> every year. Sometimes they take the offers sometimes they 
> don't.  The fact that a lot of higher profile NU coaches are 
> taking offers this year may indicate that they think their 
> negotiating leverage has peaked and the post-Baz years aren't 
> going to be as good. 3. They are uncertain of RW's future.  
> Hate to put this one in here because of the general 
> sensitivity to this discussion on this list - but what the 
> heck.  If you think the team is going to be bad enough that 
> the head coach is going to get fired and you aren't in line 
> for succession, you might not want to deal with the 
> uncertainty of what would happen in a coaching change. 4. 
> Dunbar was the glue that held everything together.  Dunbar 
> leaving had a greater impact on the coaching staff than it 
> might have seemed.
> 
> Whatever the reason, all of these coaches leaving is also a 
> much better explanation than anything else that I've read 
> about why this year's recruiting class was weak.  
> 
> Jeff
>