The Key to Evaluating Talent; Take a Deep Dive

The best place to discover creative coaching talent is not always amongst the winners. Many organizations who are searching for a new head coach or administrator only draw from successful programs. I believe this short sightedness is shared by the power brokers who make the final decision and those of us who consider ourselves fans. Some or most believe that a team’s overall record reflects the level of excellence on the staff. I believe this is a fallacy! You must critically evaluate what is below the surface.

I coached all over the country during my career, but one thing remained consistent: we would end up in Beloit, Wisconsin for at least a week during our summer vacation. I know a lot of married couples must rotate their summer vacations to spend time with both sets of in laws more often than not in two different states. My wife, Cheryl, and I were born and raised in Beloit, a small bedroom sized community on the southern border of the state. Our parents were and still are living in our hometown, so a yearly visit was always on the docket.

Every year while in Beloit I would take a day and travel to one of the Division III schools and talk football with members of the staff. The state, besides the University of Wisconsin and Marquette, has a large number of small colleges. Wikipedia states, The University of Wisconsin System is a university system of public universities in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is one of the largest public higher-education systems in the country, enrolling more than 174,000 students each year and employing approximately 39,000 faculty and staff statewide. The University of Wisconsin System is composed of two doctoral research universities, eleven comprehensive universities, and thirteen freshman-sophomore branch campuses. Essentially there are 85 colleges and universities in the state. Granted, not all the colleges and universities have football programs, but I had a lot of great options.

I would examine the football statistics of every school in Wisconsin in search of the best teachers. Statistics do not often tell the whole story but with close examination you can determine who is doing a great job in one facet or another. Through close examination you will discover that a team’s overall record may not reflect the level of excellence on the staff. You might have a team that had a losing season but the defense, offense, kicking game was outstanding. Many of those teams were getting great results with inferior talent. Thus, I visited several staffs that flew under the radar. I gathered some of the best coaching nuggets from individuals who were in difficult situations, where every detail had to be covered thoroughly in order to enhance their slim chance of winning.

Our University of Colorado Staff from 1982-1984 under the direction of Coach Bill McCartney was a perfect example of a talented staff that flew under the radar while suffering through a rebuild. The first three years our record was as follows: 1982 (2-8-1), 1983 (4-7), 1984 (1-10). Yet on that staff were several future college head coaches. Lou Tepper became the head coach at the University of Illinois; Gerry DiNardo became the head coach at Vanderbilt, LSU and Indiana University; Ron Dickerson became the head coach at Temple University; Les Miles became the head coach at Oklahoma State, LSU and now the University of Kansas; Gary Barnett became the head coach at Northwestern University and The University of Colorado; Joe Pannunzio became the head coach at Murray State; Ron Taylor became the head coach at Quincy College; Mike McNeely became the AD at Indiana University at Bloomington. We also had perhaps the greatest collegiate offensive line coach the world has ever known (a colorful character who was a great player for the legendary Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State) Carl “Buck” Nystrom. I eventually became the head coach at Wake Forest University.

I do not recall many coaching staffs visiting our campus to pick the minds of these men. During the losing seasons few if any interviewed for college head coaching positions. But the consistent winning lie just below the surface.

The coaches of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) can also relate to operating in obscurity. In 1977 when I first started coaching, there were no African American head coaches in Division I. The men who fueled my aspirations were those men who roamed the sidelines in the SWAC. Coach Eddie Robinson of Grambling, Coach Jake Gaither of Florida A&M and “Big John” Merritt of Tennessee State provided impactful inspiration and content to me as a young coach. I remember reading everything that I could find about those men. I used some of their phrases, particularly one by Coach Gaither when he described the kind of players that he wanted on his team, “Hostile, Mobile and Agile.”

Although those men were well known in the profession, the large predominantly white institutions were not pursuing them with offers “they could not refuse.” Coach Bill Hayes of Winston-Salem State and North Carolina A&T was one of the finest football coaches in America. Billy Joe of Central State, Cheney State, Florida A&M fame and the incomparable Arnett Mumford of Southern University in Baton Rouge were excellent strategists and technicians of the game.

There is a widely held assumption that HBCU’s produce an inferior level of coaching. Even today within their ranks you can find great leaders of men who are doing more with less. Those schools are teaming with young, enthusiastic, bright minds eager to lead.

The fan base, the alumni, the media and the head-hunting firms gravitate toward those individuals who have served on winning staffs. Why? Because it looks good on paper. There are many examples of successful programs that do not produce great head coaches. They often find that some of these individuals do not quite measure up to the rigors of the position, but at surface level they appeared to be the most attractive candidate.

I would encourage the decision makers, the power brokers in leadership positions to broaden their scope, look below the surface, take a deeper dive and perhaps you will discover a leader for the ages.