Mike Ward is the new DC

[orangeandbrown]

Well, there is non-BCS I-A, like where we found Lovett.

Lovett came to BG from Clemson, a member of the ACC, a BCS conference.

Lovett was coaching at La Tech before he came to BG. La Tech is in the WAC, a non-BCS conference.

Lovett never coached a game at La Tech. He lost his job at Clemson after the season, went to La Tech through Spring practice and then we hired him in May/June.

Who said anything about him coaching a game? That's where he was working when he got the BG job.

[Warthog]

No one said anything about coaching a game. I was just clarifying that he was only at La Tech for a few months.

[Flipper]

Ward was pased over two years ago...that was two years ago under different circumstances and at a different time of the year. I'm not at all close enough to the situation to know how he's grown as a coach in those two years, but I do know that a former player under the God of football Urban Meyer has said hiring Ward was a good thing...

[Globetrotter]

Ward was pased over two years ago...that was two years ago under different circumstances and at a different time of the year. I'm not at all close enough to the situation to know how he's grown as a coach in those two years, but I do know that a former player under the God of football Urban Meyer has said hiring Ward was a good thing...

My pessimism comes from Brandon not from any knowledge of Ward. Whats that they say, how you are in one thing is how you are in all things? If he has trouble with halftime adjustments I get the feeling he is a bit lazy or uncreative. I think that may be true here.

The best thing about Ward, from a I know nothing about Ward stance, is that he can continue the progress that Lovett was making. Lovett has recruited for a system for the last three years. To give that up and start over would be foolish.

[NWLB]

I've known Mike Ward since he was hired as the strength and conditioning coach under Blackney. Some have told me that we haven't had a better S&C coach since he jumped into the assistant coaching ranks.

He does bleed brown and orange. You might not find a more fanatical guy on the staff, in terms of butt kicking and motivating. He truly loves living and working in BG, and is a regular church-goer at my former parish. I'd rate him as right up there with Stud as a hard-core BG man.

Ward has worked his butt off long and hard to get to this point. He has truly paid his dues and is worthy of the chance. Come what may, of his success or Brandon, this should be the kick his career needs.

I can say without question, regardless of what his skill in calling plays might be, even skeptics can rest assured that this man can, and will most certainly light fires under the collective butts in his charge.

Coach Ward loves football in a way few of us can understand. He will throw himself into this with a fury. I won't tell people to give him a blank check, but only say to remember he is being put into a hard spot, but is a good man. If it doesn't go well this year, lets be mindful how we aim the darts we throw. I'll cut this guy a mulligan if it doesn't work for him, he's earned the right not to be run out of town.

[1987alum]

If he has trouble with halftime adjustments I get the feeling he is a bit lazy or uncreative. I think that may be true here.

That is one of the most ridiculous if-then statements I have ever read.

[Rightupinthere]

I've known Mike Ward since he was hired as the strength and conditioning coach under Blackney. Some have told me that we haven't had a better S&C coach since he jumped into the assistant coaching ranks.

He does bleed brown and orange. You might not find a more fanatical guy on the staff, in terms of butt kicking and motivating. He truly loves living and working in BG, and is a regular church-goer at my former parish. I'd rate him as right up there with Stud as a hard-core BG man.

Ward has worked his butt off long and hard to get to this point. He has truly paid his dues and is worthy of the chance. Come what may, of his success or Brandon, this should be the kick his career needs.

I can say without question, regardless of what his skill in calling plays might be, even skeptics can rest assured that this man can, and will most certainly light fires under the collective butts in his charge.

Coach Ward loves football in a way few of us can understand. He will throw himself into this with a fury. I won't tell people to give him a blank check, but only say to remember he is being put into a hard spot, but is a good man. If it doesn't go well this year, lets be mindful how we aim the darts we throw. I'll cut this guy a mulligan if it doesn't work for him, he's earned the right not to be run out of town.

Brilliant post, NWLB.

[Schadenfreude]

Another observation: In a good work environment, your boss knows if you are looking for another job.

Brandon may have had weeks to decide what to do if Lovett left. Perhaps he spoke to a few people informally before concluding Ward really was the right guy.

[Warthog]

I would call this and the McCall hiring Blah. We had a chance to potentially pluck up and comers off of BCS schools to be our DC and OC and by the timing of the hires it appears we did not even look. McCall and Ward may do fine at their jobs, but to me it seems like we wasted one of the only attractive things that BG had to offer on people we already here. Why not try to pluck one of those up and comer gogetter types off of a BCS school. We can't pay these guys a comprable amount, we can't offer them a big city to live in, we can't offer them nice weather to live in. What we can offer them is a promotion. If Dennis Springer is getting a promotion. And we wasted them on guys already here. You can't tell me that there were not opportunities to improve our coaching staff outside of these two. This situation looks exactly like Brandon was lazy in replacing his coaches.

AWSBOB Another Wasted Season Because of Brandon

Once again you are way off. No BCS assistant is coming to BG to be a coordinator today. Maybe 20 years ago they did, but unless they are getting fired they are not coming. Position coaches at BCS schools get payed more than our Head Coach so they are not coming here. Our assistnats have to come from 1-AA, division II, or high school. The only BCS coaches we are getting our GA's looking to get their first gig.

Examples Beckman to OSU

Coach Stud to LSU, Lovett to UNC......and on and on

I want the best for BG, but I want coaches who don't want to stay here for 15 years. I want a new staff every 3 years becasue quite frankly that means we are a great success. We should of had interviews for both coordinators becasue status quo is not always the greatest thing. (Naming Brandon HC without any other interviews)

We could have searched for young talent in the 1-AA and D II levels. I hope we already nabbed one in coach Gonzaga.

Good luck Falcons and just trying to be real.

Well, there is non-BCS I-A, like where we found Lovett. You've left that out. We might have been able to find a position coach at non-BCS I-A who might have wanted to be a coordinator here. After all, we lost a position coach who went to I-AA to be a coordinator, and everyone thought it was a good move for him.

I hope Ward does well. I just wonder if some new blood was warranted.

FYI, the Chicago Bears offensive quality control coach left to become the offensive coordinator at Central Michigan.

[JoeFalcon]

FYI, the Chicago Bears offensive quality control coach left to become the offensive coordinator at Central Michigan.

That's fairly common. Toledo has picked up a couple position coaches from the NFL quality control ranks in recent years (Garrick McGee, Mike Devlin).

QC guys basically just break down tape all day, every day, and in some cases are allowed to run the scout teams.

The guy from the Bears said he was tired of that type of work and had worked with Butch Jones on Central's staff before.

Also, I really liked the comments from Coach Ward after he was named and think the defense will be fine next year:

http://bgsufalcons.cstv.com/sports/m-fo ... 07aae.html

[1987alum]

Another observation: In a good work environment, your boss knows if you are looking for another job.

Brandon may have had weeks to decide what to do if Lovett left. Perhaps he spoke to a few people informally before concluding Ward really was the right guy.

As a division head, I agree 100%. Part of my responsibility is to help my people advance their careers. Sometimes that's with internal opportunities. Sometimes it's opportunities outside our organization. I pass on information to my folks often, letting them know about opportunities that may interest them. It's just good management.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

As long as we're using business analogies:

Say you're a customer of a certain supplier. The supplier has about 10 employees, and you've always used them. For the last couple of years, you've noticed product quality consistently slipping. Now, within a few months, half of their employees quit.

Are you nervous about the state of your supplier? Do you start asking questions about the direction of said company? Look in another direction?

[Flipper]

I really don't like these business analogies in sports because they're not entirely applicable, but if we're going to do it, we may as well utilize all the facts available.

The supplier had 5 of it's employees recruited by competitors with offers of more money and/or more resposnibility. The supplier has seen it's market share slip over the past two years from previous levels, but the senior management was on hand in leadership positions during the years that they were a market leader. They will oversee the hiring of the rest of the new management team with the hopes of injecting some fresh ideas to the process.

The supplier continues to pour money and resources into improvements in it's physical plant.

The production workforce is now more experienced and they hope that experience will lead to fewer defects in manufacturing.

Senior management is confident that the reorginization of upper management combined with an influx of fresh talent to an expereinced work force will return them to theri recent status as a market leader.



So...I guess it's a matter of perspective. If you want to look at the reasons each decision is a sign of trouble, you can do that. If you want to look at the positives and highlight those, you can do that too.

I'm generally a positive guy and I have a degree of confidence in the people running things here. I think they've made some mistakes, but the elements for success are there.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

I guess that just where people differ. I'm a pretty impatient guy, and I've lost all confidence in the "president of the BG football company's" ability to lead a program.

You're right. These business analogies suck. All non-BCS football programs have pretty high levels of turnover. The difference here, is that it is 5 coaches leaving, amongst the backdrop of multiple promising players leaving, and multiple rumored chemistry problems in the locker room.

By themselves, the coaching departures aren't a sign of impending doom. However, as a culmination of the events of the last two years, I smell trouble.

Where there's smoke....

[transfer2BGSU]

... and multiple rumored chemistry problems in the locker room....

Where there's smoke....

...there are rumors.