New Coaching Staff: Resumes and Coaching Trees

[jellyman]

Okay, I am not a staff writer. But one poster on the Round Table asked for a comparison between the current coaching staff, and the prior coaching staff. I will not do that, but last weekend I "researched" (consisting of reading this site's articles, the RU announcements, and doing Google searches) the current staff's backgrounds, with a focus on their prior jobs and from what coaching trees ("coaching tree" meaning under which HEAD coaches they served, not alongside which other assistants they served) they came. This was also in preparation for a response to several posters on this message board who posted about Ash only hiring people with whom he coached, and too many coaches from Drake.

I may certainly have made some mistakes, and some of my timeline on jobs may be slightly off (I am human, and surely made errors). If so, feel free to correct my mistakes, but maybe cut me some slack? Here goes:

Head Coach Ash

Coaching Tree: Urban Meyer, Bret Bieliema, Dan McCarney

Prior Experience: 2 years Co-DC Ohio State; 1 Year DC Arkansas; 2 Years DC Wisconsin; 1 DB Coach Wisconsin (or was it 3 years?); 4 consecutive years DB Coach AND Recruiting Coordinator at Iowa State and San Diego State (but 2 years at SDSU were sandwiched between 1 year at Iowa St on either side of those 2 years); 4 years DB coach Iowa St.; 2 years Grad Assistant Iowa St.; 2 Years DC Drake.

Defensive Coordinator Jay Niemann

Coaching Tree: Not meaningful or recognizable

Prior Experience: 5 years DC at Northern Illinois (a very good , often domonat team, in the MAC - but only middling defense); 3 years Co-DC and DB coach at Hardin-Simmons; Head Coach at Simpson College; 5 years at Northern Iowa (2 years DC, 2 years LB coach); 8 years at Drake (3 years DC, 5 years DB coach) - regular top 10 defense at their level.

Offensive Coordinator Drew Mehringer

Coaching Tree: Tom Herman, Urban Meyer

Prior Experience: 1 year (2015) WR coach at Houston (under Herman); 1 year Co-OC at James Madison (great offense); 2 years Graduate Assistant at Ohio State; 2 years Graduate Assistant at Iowa St; 3 years Student Assistant - QB's at Rice (after injured as QB for Rice) - for Tom Herman.

Special Teams Coordinator Vince Okruch

Coaching Tree: Lou Holtz, Gary Barnett, Ron Zook, Urban Meyer - most time under Barnett, Holtz, then Meyer.

Prior Experience: 3 years "Quality Control" (essentially consultant, extra coach) assistant for Special Teams and Defense at Ohio State; 3 years ST Coordinator at Akron; 1 year DC at Illinois; 1 year LB coach at Louisiana-Monroe; 1 year DC at Western Illinois; 4 years DC at Colorado; 6 years at Northwestern (2 years DC, 4 years DL coach); 6 years at Minnesota (Graduate Assistant, 2 years RB coach, 3 years LB coach); 2 years graduate assistant at Colorado; 3 years Head Coach at Culver-Stockton.

Strength and Conditioning Coach Kenny Parker

Coaching Tree: Urban Meyer

Prior Experience: 4 years #2 strength and conditioning assistant at Ohio State; 2 years DL coach and Strength and Conditioning coach at Murray State; 5 years at Florida (under Meyer ... Intern, Graduate Assistant, Administration).

OL Coach AJ Blazek

Coaching Tree: Kirk Firentz

Prior Experience: 3 years at Western Illinois (OL coach and Running Game Coordinator for a strong offensive team); 4 years at Winona State (OL and TE coach, 3 years Co-OC); 4 years Fort Hays State (OC and OL coach); 4 years at Iowa (1 year Student Assistant, 3 years Graduate Assistant - OL); 2 years starting C Iowa (All Big Ten and Captain).

WR Coach Zak Kuhr

Coaching Tree: Urban Meyer

Prior Experience: 1 year (2015) Co-OC at James Madison (succeeded Mehrnger); 2 years RB coach at James Madison (1 year with Mehringer); Graduate Assistant at Old Dominion (RB); 2 years Intern at Ohio State (under Urban Meyer); 2 years ST Coordinator at Edwards College.

DL Coach Shane Burnham

Coaching Tree: Paul Rhoads, Jim Reid from Richmond (became NFL assistant LB coach, DC at UVA, other defensive positions). His father was the DC at Iowa State under Rhoads.

Prior Experience: 7 years at Iowa State (1 year overlap with Ash; LB coach, DT coach, 3 years ST Coordinator - very good ST's); 4 years Elon (LB/DE coach, ST Coordinator); 1 year at Citadel, 4 years LB coach at Richmond;

DB Coach Bill Busch

Coaching Tree: Urban Meyer, Bill Callahan, Gary Anderson.

Prior Experience: 1 Year Quality Control Assistant - Defense at Ohio State; 2 years at Wisconsin (Safeties coach); 4 years at Utah State (DB coach, ST's Coordinator, 2 years DC); 5 years at Nebraska (OLB coach, Safeties Coach, 3 years Special Teams Coordinator - Nebraska had great special teams under him); 3 years at Utah (DB assistant - 1 year under Meyer); 4 years at New Mexico State (DB coach); 2 years at Northern Arizona (1 year DC).

Assistant DB Coach Aaron Henry

Coaching Tree: Not relevant as a coach - played under Bret Beliema

Prior Experience: 2 years Graduate Assistant - DB's at Arkansas; 4 years playing DB at Wisconsin, including 1 year under Ash as DC.

Player Development Coach Nick Quartaro

Coaching Tree: Bill Snyder, Dan McCarney

Prior Experience: 5 years Assistant Head Coach at North Texas (under Dan McCarney); 5 years Assistant HC and OC at Kansas; 7 years at Iowa State; 4 years Head Coach at Fordham; 5 years at Kansas State (Assistant and Associate Head Coach under Snyder); 3 years Head Coach at Drake; 5 years at Northwestern (DB, DL and ST assistant).

Director High School Relationships Rick Mantz

Coaching Tree: Not meaningful or relevant

Prior Experience: Head coach at Passaic High School, South Brunswick High School and Hillsborough High School.


That is what I got so far.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Eh, it's simpler than that my friend:

Ash has hired 8 guys with "Ohio State" somewhere on their resume.

Case closed.

 

[RUMBA-JK]

Shane Burnham's dad - Wally Burnham also played for Bear Bryant and coached at Florida State for Bobby Bowden for 9 years (on staff of 1993 National Champs) - Shane grew up immersed in the atmosphere of a premier program - - see quote from his dad -

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/sports/football/article_bb6ee75e-b4bb-11e1-91ca-0019bb2963f4.html

“From the time he could take care of himself and go to practice with me and hang around and not get in trouble, I started taking him with me before school to two-a-day practices,” Wally said. “He would sleep in the office and go up to the dorms with the football players.”


Starting at a young age, Shane experienced football at its best. He attended bowl games, met famous players and, most of all, spent time with his father.

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

Thanks for doing that - excellent summaries.

 

[JERSEYROOTS]

Great post, Jelly. Thanks!

 

[jellyman]

Eh, it's simpler than that my friend:

Ash has hired 8 guys with "Ohio State" somewhere on their resume.

Case closed.

Yes ... but no ... the depth goes much deeper than that, which would be my point.

Here are the P5 teams for which these coaches actually coached (POST graduate assistant): Ohio State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Colorado, Northwestern, Arkansas, Kansas, Kansas St. and Minnesota. If you add graduate assistant positions, you would add Florida, Iowa and Rice.

If you add Div 1A (or I guess they call if FBS - Football Bowl Subdivision) you add the following schools: Houston, Northern Illinbois, San Diego St(I think they are FBS), Northern Iowa (also FBS I think), Utah State and Utah (before they were P5).

And yes,m a sprinkling of lower level schools also ... but mainly just a sprinkling.

 

[RUMBA-JK]

you may want to add -
Gary Beemer - assistant strength coach
member of the Florida Gators championship team - 2008
went from walk-on to highly respected starter for Urban Meyer
Interned for Vikings - then went on to be Head Strength Coach at Hawaii

- don't think it is fully appreciated just how rich in talent and experience this staff is - think about it - in some places your #2 Strength Coach may have played some football at some school - but now at RU the guy has a National Championship ring and is able to pass on tips that he learned while playing on an Urban Meyer team - it is not at all ridiculous to consider that Beemer could have more valuable info for a player than some of the previous position coaches.

 

[imbazza2]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
I started this like 3 times never got as close as U Jelly
Nice job. (that was a lot of work)

 

[Knight Shift]

The coaching trees of all of our coaches have strong roots. They will flourish in "R" Garden and they will be fruitful.

 

[NickKnight 1]

Eh, it's simpler than that my friend:

Ash has hired 8 guys with "Ohio State" somewhere on their resume.

Case closed.

Case closed? Meaning what?
Anyway, Ohio State is not a bad choice for modeling you team after.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Case closed? Meaning what?
Anyway, Ohio State is not a bad choice for modeling you team after.

Meaning that's all you really need to know about the staff is that has better experience than any staff ever assembled at the school, period, case closed, that's all. Good stuff!!

 

[NickKnight 1]

Meaning that's all you really need to know about the staff is that has better experience than any staff ever assembled at the school, period, case closed, that's all. Good stuff!!

OK

 

[rutger80]

Great stuff!
Power 5 level experience is a welcome change.

 

[vandalen1]

[banana]Maybe they took some online courses at Drake.

 

[Yeah Baby]

This is all good. As always this staff has my support.