Special Teams/Defensive Line Coach Job Posting

The OC, OL, and DL/ST job openings all three have identical Preferred Qualifications. Either they are no longer posting job openings tailored to a preselected candidate or we are hiring one person to be three coaches.

This says one of two things to me. Bellmont was tired of people guessing the new coach before the annoucement based on the job description, or Mack still has no effing idea who he’s going to hire for any of them after more than a week and a half. I would like to believe the former, but based on recent history I’m afraid the latter may be correct.

Scipio, in my panic that we might also be losing Giles, what does your point 2 mean? Why do they post this if Giles is going to be DL/ST? I thought internal hires didn’t need to be posted. The posting also says all of the DL specifically.

Maybe they are making these generic purposefully – is the danger of a frivolous lawsuit really that profound here? I don’t know too much about employment law, but I don’t know if a ex-post job posting, when it is widely known to be pretextual to an already-made hiring decision, is going to deter or stop lawsuits in this instance.

Nunna -
 
We’re on the same page.
 
I’m pretty confident that Bellmont is now aware that we’ve cracked the code and they are writing specs accordingly. Or they simply want the broadest description possible for a hire not yet made.
 
What do you think of the specific pairing of ST with DL coach?
 
Obviously, that function has rotated around during Mack’s tenure. Tim Brewster used to do Special Teams. At other times it was Akina. They’ve also divvied it up, too.

Ricky -
 
It means that Mack could be deciding between a LB coach hire and a DT coach hire. Does that make sense? You are correct in that internal movements require no job posting. Nor does it exclude one.
 
Arriviste -
 
Absolutely.

In the job description I am seeing DL not DT or DE. Which would suggest that if they are looking outside the 40 for someone to coach the entire DL, so they must need a replacement for Giles.

I don’t understand our insistence on pairing ST with some other facet like DT. ST is a plenty big job. You are responsible for kickoff coverage, kickoff return, PAT, field goal, punt, and punt return not to mention about 30 or more kids that are involved in the various units. And oh by the way, it’s a pretty damn important aspect of the game last time I checked. Why the hell can’t we just hire a special teams coach who happens to be a recruiting bad ass?

Ricky -
 
Es posible. Bad news if true. Giles to Florida?

No NFL experience, but Mike Elston would otherwise fit the bill.

I would hope that the ST is the focus of this hire. Our ST play is ridiculously bad. Experience coaching DL isn’t nearly as important as experience with ST don’t you think? My son plays DE and I spent a few hours reading/watching film of various drills and was able to grasp and teach rip moves, swim moves, bull rushes, gap responsibility etc… pretty easily without having ever played the DL. I know it’s a little more complicated than that, but not nearly as complicated as running all of the ST units.

t1climb1 -
 
Most coaches love to talk about the importance of special teams – and then they promptly assign it as a secondary function of a position coach. A few really emphasize it and it shows. We’ve waxed and waned. Ignored them early in Mack’s tenure – then emphasized them and had great success in many facets – then they slipped in 2010.
 
I agree with you. If I could find a dedicated ST technician, I’d hire him in a second. Special teams account for a lot of snaps. If we had difference makers in that area, we’re in a minor bowl game instead of 5-7.

Agreed Scip. Couple that with the fact that we can litter our ST units with 3, 4, and 5 star athletes and they could not just be a strength, but a real weapon. Did 2009 teach Mack nothing?

ST/DL/Bus driver. John P. Lopez?

with 3, 4, and 5 star athletes

Edit: Afoletes!

I don’t read much meaning into the pairing of defensive line coach and special teams coordinator. That’s what Tolleson’s title was: Defensive Tackles/Special Teams Coordinator
http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/tolleson_mike00.html

Can’t recall Giles’ current recruiting area responsibility. Anyone know?

Yeah, Damon. We’re aware.
 
Pairing those two things in your job description is rather limiting in terms of hiring flexibility, isn’t it?
 
And it might suggest a current hire that also coaches special teams/DTs.
 
Like Papuchis from Nebraska.
 
It gives you insight into how the staff build-out will look.

Giles is Houston

Good call on Papuchis, Scip. Think that would be a great hire in that context as both of his units have been well above average at NU in his tenure. And homeboy can recruit.

Who fills the void as the LB’s coach if Austin’s the DC?

Papuchis was my first thought, though I can’t imagine he’s nearly as likely to come here without Muschamp.

Anyone know if Papuchis is responsible for recruiting, say, West Texas, at Nebraska? Or is that what Tolly was responsible for, and they’re just holding it over in the posting but it doesn’t mean a whole lot?

Forgive me for being ignorant and perhaps a little naive about this but is there not an unspoken/gentleman’s agreement that you don’t raid the staff of the place you just came from?

Not sure if too much should be in the responsibiliities, as those can change over time without fear of a title VII suit, which the requirements are ostensibly there to avoid. So for the recruiting territories, they could just be recycling the old regional allotments and switch them up later on.

Jeff Hammerschmidt? He coached under Tomey. He probably worked with Akina at some point. No NFL experience though.

We had (allegedly) Papuchis locked up at one point, did we not? Is this a formality indicating he is back in the fold? Mack may have wanted Austin to sign off on Papuchis.

Forgive me for being ignorant and perhaps a little naive about this but is there not an unspoken/gentleman’s agreement that you don’t raid the staff of the place you just came from?

Far from it Dude. It’s actually common practice to bring coaches from the prior job to the new job.

Hell I don’t think we can even say we have Austin locked up at this point, so who knows who we are requesting sign-offs from….

Hell I don’t think we can even say we have Austin locked up at this point

Definitely not, according to Jesus’s recent tweets.

Tolly is west texas, or was. He and Kennedy were in on J. Berryhill from Od. Permian.

Scip – Thoughts on Dewayne Walker for DC? Looks like his name is gaining steam on the ‘cosm. His head coaching stint has been anything but rosy, which is expected at a place like NMSU. His specialty is also DB’s, which seems to be a common theme here, but he’s had some pretty salty defenses and knows how to coach DB’s (of course so does Akina).

Hell he only made $375k as a HC, we could easily top that to make him DC.

marqroid -
 
Yeah, that name has been getting bandied about quite a bit.
 
We’re rather intent on hiring a black, 45ish year old, DB background, def coordinator with NFL and college experience though. That much is clear.
 
Interesting thing to note: Tom Dienhart has been wrong on Walker before. He reported Walker was hired by UW back in 2008 as DC and it turned out to be in error. Maybe Walker’s agent is floating stuff to keep his name out there.

Am I the only one that thinks a combination of DL and Special teams is a bit odd? I mean really the ST are more about the skill position players than anything. Lineman don’t even show up on most of the ST units, they just seem to be such disparate skill sets.

If your going to have one guy coach the entire DL, seems like we could hire another guy to coach the ST, particularly if GIles is gone.

roach -
 
I don’t know that any specific position background prepares you better for ST than any other.
 
Teaching someone to be a good gunner or a kicker to get good leg on a hash kick could fall into a lot of knowledge baskets.

Now that I think about it, Texas did have a DL as their punter one year. Those were the days.

Scipio:

As good as our kickers have been, you must be right, I’m not joking either.

Now about that punt catching thing

Let’s get Michael Ungar as ST coach. Word has it he’s a S&C coach on the LSU staff currently. UNGAR!!!!

Arriviste – the risk of a frivolous lawsuit is ever-present, but the risk of a meritorious claim by an unsuccessful candidate for one of the open positions is slim.

Obviously, these coaching staff openings will be filled by individuals who possess a highly specialized skill set. Further, each of the candidates under consideration has his own idiosyncratic mix of experiences, strengths, skills, and talents. Mack Brown as the decision maker is free to emphasize and prefer any one or more of those (job-related) specialized characteristics in making his hiring decision. If an unsuccessful candidate who is a member of a protected category were to bring a claim alleging discrimination based on the protected characteristic, as long as Mack could articulate some legitimate, category-neutral reason for selecting the successful candidate (e.g., the successful candidate had more experience coaching linebackers), the case would probably be dismissed on summary judgment.

With respect to the specificity of these particular job postings, I’m not an expert on public sector employment, but private sector job postings tend not only to be minimalist, they also frequently include either-or provisions that give the hiring manager even greater latitude (e.g., Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience). It’s rare to see much embellishment beyond the essential job functions in a job description because marginal job functions are always subject to accommodation.

Naturally, the above is an extremely generic and superficial treatment of the subject.

Read on another site that Giles played a little LB in the NFL and CFL. So even if the new hire coaches the entire DL, doesn’t necessarily mean Giles is going anywhere – he might be able to coach LBs.

Having a good kicker has very little to do with having a good special teams coach. Tolly wasn’t out there demonstrating proper technique to Justin Tucker. Kickers at the college level are forced to discipline themselves to work and get reps despite being virtually unmonitored. A friend who played at TCU hates all kickers without exception because he’s “seen how they practice.”

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