Mike Ward is the new DC

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:26 pm

announced tonight at the reception. Still looking to hire three guys

BGfootballfan · Post by **BGfootballfan** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:31 pm

I was hoping this would not come to be, this ought to be an interesting season.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:45 pm

Ugh again.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:51 pm

hammb wrote:Ugh again.

+1

That is the one thing I did not want to see.

My guess is Rothenbueler leaves next as he is the only coach from last season not to get some kind of 'promotion'.

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:13 am

Two things: Congratulations to Coach Ward on his promotion.

Second, a common theme with all mid-major[sic] programs is that it is impossible to keep assistant coaches. Coach Ward has been around for 15 years (three HCs) and somehow that is a negative. If they go: Bad. If they stay: Bad.

There is a level of insanity on this board to which I'm still trying to apply some amount of reason.

I'm going to view this promotion with guarded optimism. He very well may surprise people.

Flame, away. I ain't skeered.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:36 am

Rightupinthere wrote:Two things: Congratulations to Coach Ward on his promotion.

Second, a common theme with all mid-major[sic] programs is that it is impossible to keep assistant coaches. Coach Ward has been around for 15 years (three HCs) and somehow that is a negative. If they go: Bad. If they stay: Bad.

There is a level of insanity on this board to which I'm still trying to apply some amount of reason.

I'm going to view this promotion with guarded optimism. He very well may surprise people.

Flame, away. I ain't skeered.

No flames from me. I know next to nothing about Coach Ward, and have no problem with the move if he is the best man for the job. He could end up being the greatest DC in history for all I know.

What I don't like is this blind promotion from within everytime somebody leaves. It may take a little longer to land a replacement, but I would much rather go out and interview multiple candidates and try to get the best guy for the job. I find it hard to believe that they conducted a legit hiring search to truly find the best candidate in less than a day.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:50 am

Hammb, I agree 100%. When Beckman left, if was after Spring practice. At that point, I would have thought promoting someone from within would easily be the best idea. Too late to try to implement someone else's new scheme. But we still went outside and hired Lovett. Now we have a situation where recruiting is over but have like six weeks before Spring practice. Plenty of time to identify a great young coach to bring in and start implementing his scheme. There was no rush to name new DC at this time.

Good luck to Coach Ward though. I don't want to sound like I want to see him fail.

factman · Post by **factman** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:50 am

Didn't they do that with the DC that just LEFT!

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:58 am

factman wrote:Didn't they do that with the DC that just LEFT!

Yes they did, and was that something so bad?

I find it VERY difficult to believe that the best OC & DC that we could find were already on our staff as lower level assistants.

This team has become the posterchild for the Peter Principle.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:03 am

factman wrote:Didn't they do that with the DC that just LEFT!

Don't you mean offensive coordinator? And yes, they did. McCall was promoted to OC the day after it was announced that Studrawa was leaving.

Which gets me thinkning now. In most jobs, it takes days/weeks to name a replacement when someone leaves unexpectedly. Shoot it took my employer three weeks to name a new VP when one got promoted. There is only two situations where you see the replacement named almost immediately: when you know the person is leaving or when that person is being forced out.

JoeFalcon · Post by **JoeFalcon** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:15 am

Did anybody ever consider that Mike Ward might be the best guy for the job?

1. He'll maintain the principles implemented by John Lovett, who everyone seems to worship now, so the young players won't be forced through yet another scheme transition, a factor that caused our defensive stuggles a couple years ago.

2. He knows the strengths and weaknesses of the players better than anyone brand new coming in would. A handful of spring practices that a new guy would get up to speed on doens't make up for that.

3. An entire new defensive staff is coming in to support him, so there will be the fresh ideas and perspectives that people think an outside DC would bring.

4. He was one of only two coaches retained by Urban Meyer when he took over. He was obviosely extremely valuable. The Urban Meyer worshipers among us who are criticizing Ward can't have it both ways.

Good luck, Coach Ward.

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:19 am

Two situations? What? You can't make an assumption like that warthog. I would have liked to have seen the process extended a bit myself, but I can also see the logic in figuring that with 5 coaches having left for better gigs, it makes a certain amount of sense to promote a qualified guy internally to maintain some stability.

Now the head coach and his two coordinators can quickly move ahead and fill the remaining three positions (Brandon says he should be done hiring this month) so they can get down to contacting this year's HS junior class and get some structure in place for spring ball.

1987alum · Post by **1987alum** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:21 am

Congrats, Coach Ward! When it's game time, it's pain time, baby!

factman · Post by **factman** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:49 am

Coach Brandon knows EXACTLY what he is getting when he hires Mike Ward. He has worked with him as an assistant and a head coach for a number of years. I am sure he feels very confident about his abilities or he would have loked outside. Most "companies" do exactly the same thing and prefer to hire from the inside if they can and if have a qualified applicant. If they do not have a qualified applicant for a position, they go outside.
From a personal point of view, I really don't know the breadth of Coach Wards football knowledge and his ability to be a coorinator, because I have never worked with him, but I do know him as a person, and think the world of him. He is a great family guy, VERY personable and likable, and a GREAT fit slong those lines, and he is certainly deserving of his chance with his long loyalty to Bowling Green football.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:13 am

factman wrote:Most "companies" do exactly the same thing and prefer to hire from the inside if they can and if have a qualified applicant. If they do not have a qualified applicant for a position, they go outside.

I agree, but Ward was the only internal candidate. People should not get promoted by default. I would feel better about if I knew Brandon at least looked around at other candidates. As it is, it looks like he handed the job to Ward because he was the only one left. If he goes through a valid interview process and competes with other for the job, and Ward was still teh best candidate, then I no problem with him being the DC. It just doesn't look like that happened. Or for the OC position either.