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Schutt - College Coaches of the Year

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Mike London
University of Richmond

Creating Competition in Practice – Making Players Perform Under Pressure
After seven games into the 2008 season with a record of 4-3, nobody believed Richmond could win it all, except Mike London himself, who saw something special in his guys. “I knew that our losses could have gone either way early on,” said London, who was the defensive coordinator at Virginia before taking the job at his alma mater. “We lost to a Virginia team who knocked off two ranked teams in North Carolina and Maryland. We lost to a Villanova team who I thought was one of the better teams in the county. And we lost to James Madison, a perennial powerhouse, in the final seconds of the game. So I knew that if I kept these kids positive things would work out.”


Much easier said then done. London kept them motivated by getting them to compete every day in practice by implementing what he called his “sudden change drill.” At any point in practice – including a couple times before stretching even began – London would simply blow a whistle and yell “sudden change” in which offensive and defensive positions would pair up and go full tilt, live contact, body-on-body. “Offensive lineman will match up with defensive lineman and work live drive blocks. Linebackers would work live tackling drills with running backs and outside linebackers would pair up with tight ends for block protection. Defensive backs and wide receivers were working man-coverage drills. No matter where you are on the field, you have to put your face in there and knock someone off the ball. It creates a mindset that you have to be able to perform and be at your best at any given moment.”


Which is what the Spiders did, winning their last eight games including a run through the playoffs to finish 11-3 and capture the school’s first-ever Football Championship Subdivision National Championship.

Bob Nielson
University of Minnesota-Duluth

Creating Balance On and Off the Field
Can’t keep a football coach off the sidelines for long. When Bob Nielson the AD saw the Bulldogs’ program fall to 4-6 in 2007, it was time for Bob Nielson the coach to step in and right the ship. After a four-year hiatus since he last led the Bulldogs, Nielson took Minnesota-Duluth to new heights in 2008 – a perfect 15-0 season and the Division II National Championship with a 21-14 win over Northwest Missouri State. It was the greatest one-year turnaround in Division II since 1996.


“The fact that we took a group of guys that had come off a year where they hadn’t been successful and provided them the opportunity for them to be successful was the special thing,” said Nielson. “For them to go from 4-6 to 15-0 is really a testament to the kids that are in our program and the commitment they made.” It was a commitment that started last January 3rd when he first officially assumed the head coaching job. “We talked about goals in January when we had filled out a goal sheet. A common theme they focused on was winning a conference championship and making a run in the national playoffs. We knew our defense was going to be solid, so we had to implement major changes offensively.”
Nielson recommitted his offensive staff to running the football. He stuck to three run schemes – inside zone, outside zone and the power play and ran them with efficiency out of every formation. The results – when the Bulldogs needed a big play the offense produced. “We committed ourselves to being a running team again. It’s helped us control the pace of the game when we needed to and it gave us a physical personality as a football team especially here where you know you are going to get bad weather. We began to control the clock, the time of possession and we were better in the red zone. We were a more efficient passing team because we were balanced. I’m a coach that believes in balance.”

Todd Mooney
LaGrange College

Building a Program from the Foundation – Literally
Imagine starting a football program without a football. That’s the type of monumental task that Coach Todd Mooney faced when he took the job at LaGrange College in Georgia in 2005. LaGrange had decided to start a football program and it was Mooney, an assistant at Rhodes College in Memphis, who got the job of building a program from square one – handling many of the responsibilities himself. Mooney was involved in the development of a new weight room and a new stadium. He also had to design and order some of his team’s equipment. While some may have crumbled under the pressure of building a program from scratch, Mooney basked in the opportunity. “This type of situation is one of the most exciting things you can do as a coach,” said Mooney. “But you need to come in there with a plan and you’ve got to understand that your plan is going to be challenged and there will be a lot of rough days before you see light at the end of the tunnel.”


To say the early days were rough would be an understatement. Mooney started his career 0-20 and had to direct most of his time and energy keeping his kids focused on the larger picture. “Kids, especially football players, are confident people. They had to realize that this was not like high school anymore and they had to learn to compete at a different level,” said Mooney. “The biggest thing that we needed to do as a staff was to keep the guys on the same page in terms of understanding that this was going to take some time. We had a good group of people that bought into that, at least in their actions. But no matter what people say, week-in and week-out the scoreboard counts. Losing was tough, but they stayed focused. Our guys stayed focused and were able to get us to this point.”


The point Mooney and his staff got the Panthers to was a 9-2 mark and a berth in the Division III playoffs.

Kalen DeBoer
University of Sioux Falls

Maintaining Success through Consistency
As most coaches know, it’s a lot tougher being the hunted than the hunter. It even may be easier getting to the top than staying there. Kalen DeBoer knows the feeling. He’s been heading the University of Sioux Falls football program since 2006, when he won the first NAIA national championship in the school’s history at the tender age of 32. The Cougars were runner-up in 2007, losing in the championship game to Carroll College (MT). They exacted revenge on the Fighting Saints this year in the form of a 23-7 victory, earning DeBoer his second national championship and making his record at Sioux Falls a remarkable 52-3. It was the culmination of a perfect 14-0 season.


“Everyone around is always gunning for us, so we’ve kind of gotten used to it by now,” said DeBoer. “We have taken pride in that sort of thing. This year we really needed to rely on each other more to get through the big games. We’ve gotten to the point where our kids really look out for each other. They are like our coaches on the field.” Part of maintaining success is developing consistency within the program and DeBoer has certainly done that. A former All-American wide receiver for the Cougars, DeBoer set records for receptions (234), receiving yards (3,400) and touchdown catches (33). In fact, seven of his assistants have played at Sioux Falls, which according to DeBoer goes a long way in developing trust with their players.


“That kind of stuff rubs off on the players,” says DeBoer. “We are blessed to already have a foundation here and success that was already established. We already had a recipe for success that we used under former head coach Bob Young. Our coaching staff is all young so we can relate to our players. We admit we don’t know everything and the kids appreciate our humility. We do make mistakes, but we push them when we need to and they get that.”

Jeff Jordan
Butte College

Getting the Last Laugh
The story of the Butte College 2008 football season can be summed up in one sentence – “The difference between a tornado and a hurricane is that you can prepare for a hurricane, but a tornado just shows up out of nowhere and wreaks havoc.”


It was a line that the Roadrunners Head Coach Jeff Jordan snatched from Tony Dungy and unleashed on his troops the night before the Junior College National Championship game against perennial powerhouse Mount San Antonio College. It was right after a championship banquet in which even some of the keynote speakers were knocking the Roadrunners’ chances of winning.


“They were just kind of saying some derogatory things about our program, like we didn’t belong there,” said Jordan. “Our kids we’re staring me down like ‘can you believe this’? I had to respond.”


Apparently, the tornado prophecy came true. Butte stormed into the title game, turning up plenty of debris of their own en route to a 17-9 victory. It was the first national championship for Jordan, who finished the season 12-0.


“We were the underdog story all year and that game capped it off for us,” said Jordan. “We really came together this year.” It was Jordan's third year at Butte. He's gone from 2-8 in 2006, to 8-3 last year and now has become the hunted in the JUCO ranks. “We preached that ‘one week at a time’ deal and it's the truth,” said Jordan. “I would constantly tell the kids ‘let's be 1-0 this week, every week in the season.’ They bought into it and we got on top and stayed on top.”






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