A few articles are providing a little insight into the Wolfpack’s new football coaching staff that we thought that we would share.
* Love reading this – Coach O’Brien Wants to Hear from Former NC State Football Players!.
N.C. State’s Mike Archer has gained a reputation as a 3-4 defensive coordinator. Three down linemen. Four linebackers. That’s his style.
That’s what Archer learned as a defensive assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers under former coach Bill Cowher. That’s what he used the last few years as defensive coordinator at Kentucky.
But a coach has to be flexibile, and Archer says he expects the Pack to line up in the 4-3 used the last seven years under former coach Chuck Amato.
“Our philosophy will be what our players can do best,” he said. “I’ve been a 3-4 guy obviously spending seven years with Coach Cowher in Pittsburgh. I’ve done it most of my college career. The only time I coached a 4-3 was when i was at Virginia.
“But I think with our personnel right now, with who has been recruited here, we will start out in a 4-3 and eventually we could wind up in some 3-4 principles. Time will tell.”
* Dana Bible is Back on Familiar Turf
“What we pride ourselves on is that we put our players in positions to do the things they do well,” Bible said Wednesday. “I’ve learned that what you might want to be [as a player], and what you can be, might be two different things. We play to our strengths.”
Now, Bible has joined O’Brien at NCSU, with a three-year contract and $225,000 annual salary, and it’s almost like a back-to-the-future sensation. In 1983, ‘84 and ‘85, he headed up the Pack’s passing game, coaching the quarterbacks and receivers for head coach Tom Reed.
“Erik Kramer was our quarterback,” he said. “Haywood Jeffires, Naz Worthen and Danny Pebbles were the wide receivers we had in the fold. We really believed something good was about to happen.”
It did — for Dick Sheridan.
After three 3-8 seasons, Reed suddenly out as coach. Bible, then 32, was without a job. Soon, he was flying to the West Coast after being hired as an assistant coach at San Diego State.
“The whole flight … I was never bitter, but I was really, really disappointed,” he said. “Leaving Erik Kramer behind was a hard thing to do, but I didn’t have a choice.”
Last September, BC played at State and Bible returned to Carter-Finley Stadium for the first time since ‘85. He had heard about the upgrades to the stadium and was eager to see for himself.
“When we came around the bend on I-40 and then pulled down under the stadium, no one was more wide-eyed than me,” Bible said, smiling. “I came out of the locker room and it was me that you could hear saying, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ It was impressive.”
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February 20th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I talked to a former player (Sheridan era) yesterday who said that he had already spoken with “Obie”. The unfortunate thing was that he said during Amato’s tenure he attempted to make several meetings with Amato and never even received a return phone call from the football office/Amato. He’s a pretty straight-up guy and I can’t imagine he would lie about such a thing.
I also spoke with a guy who is an assistant (QB) coach at a local highschool. He reiterated that Amato alienated a lot of highschool coaches in NC because of his arrogance. He said some coaches really liked that “confidence” but others were completely turned off by it. Apparently the head coach at this school sent players to State, but was never completely sold on Amato’s talk. The quote used by this assistant coach was: “Amato’s personality just didn’t fit with the overall NC attitude. That especially goes for the more rural areas.”
Just some tidbits from the inner-rumor mill….
February 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Amato’s arrogance was pretty jarring. I’m used to dealing with “confident” coaches…but they usually had solid personality skills.
I know a lot of people didn’t like him, but Doc Holliday had a great personality, I thought. Maybe he was different the more you got to know him, but he was very winning upon initial meetings.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:09 am
There’s been a lot of debate on the value of recruiting in-state versus out of state lately. Something I have observed of some of the best coaches over the years, is they go out and get great talent out of state, but they build great relationships in-state which allow them to pick up the best in-state talent as well. We don’t have to give every scholarship available to NC kids to have a good relationship with NC high school coaches.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
^^ Exactly… along the same lines as the old adage about never kick a dog when he’s a pup, the school with zero prospects last year or this year could produce a couple of 5 stars in a year or two. Regardless of what happened in the past, it’s nice to hear open talk about the new staff’s commitment to building mutual respect with local highschool coaches.
Not to mention, coaches like any other group talk to each other. Being an ass to one could easily alienate another.
Getting feedback from past lettermen… the superstars and the benchbound alike… is equally refreshing to hear. Many of our athletes move home or to other areas across the state and country and can easily serve as “talent scouts” and embassadors in their local communities. It’s awesome to see our new staff embracing this concept.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
It is nice to hear that our new coaching staff will play to the players strengths and not stubbornly ask them to continue do what they aren’t capable of doing. Rivers senior year could have been so much more had Amato not been so stubborn with his defensive philosophy. Same can be said when we had our defense doing well and Amato stubbornly forced Jay Davis to try to be Phillip Rivers by asking him to pass so frequently.
I like what I am hearing…I hope the product on the field is the same consistently good product that TOB has produced year after year.