Modeling the football team after Miami

[ZachTheZip]

Miami's turnaround began off the field.

This section sounds familiar. Will the same style pay off once Ianello gets more players who can handle a disciplined environment?

When Haywood — who’d spent 21 seasons as an assistant at seven college programs including LSU, Texas and Notre Dame — took over at Miami last season, the tradition-rich program had been derailed by defeat.

From the outset, he began making some sweeping changes — many that didn’t go over well with some folks.

“Our players had to improve the quality of their lives off the field — which would really help them improve their performances on it,” he said. “That meant making some real changes and not everyone bought into them because change is difficult.”

He watched the bumpy transition play out in practice: “You saw guys start to separate themselves from one another. Certain guys who weren’t team players, you saw them always standing together. It was like a parting of the sea. To a certain degree, it was really unfortunate ... we lost a lot of players ... so we struggled last season.”

In the offseason, there also were changes on the coaching staff and among support personnel. Everything from a new strength coach to a team psychiatrist was added. And, of course, there was an influx of new players either recruited or molded by Haywood. On this year’s 65-man travelling roster, 47 are freshmen or sophomores.

“He added a lot of control and brought the focus back to why we are here,” Boucher said.

That’s meant everything from encouraging players to live among the general student population — rather than staying together in a separate world — to insisting they sit in the front row of their classes.

“He sends coaches to classes to make sure no one is skipping,” said Boucher, who had a 4.0 g.p.a. last season and has a 3.8 now.

Instead of the large, unsupervised study halls of the past, players academic sessions now are done in the offices of their position coach or in Haywood’s quarters.

Haywood even changed the team’s practices to early mornings — something he adapted from Northwestern University — so players are free for their studies and student life the rest of the day.

Of course that came with parameters, as well.

“There’s no going Uptown (in Oxford) on weekends past 10 p.m. — just so we stay out of trouble,” said Boucher. “When we go to games, we wear coats and ties. There are no earphones outside the bus or hotel. No earrings. No hats when you’re inside.

“It’s just very businesslike ... so it carries over onto the field.”

[ZipRoo]

eh. Wouldn't it be easier to just bring in some "playmakers?"

[GP1]

eh. Wouldn't it be easier to just bring in some "playmakers?"

I think you hit the nail on the head. All this guy did is bring in better players and then do what every other school does in terms of following kids to class, etc. Babysitting has become a big part of college coaching and that's too bad, but it is what it is and it needs to be done. Good coaches end up getting fired because they treat adults like adults instead of like children.

[Zipmeister]

Looks like we got the first step of the Miami solution correct.

We also hired a guy with no head coaching experience.

[GP1]

Looks like we got the first step of the Miami solution correct.

We also hired a guy with no head coaching experience.

I only wish our model of hiring coaches without head coaching experiece turned out as good as theirs did.

The following Miami coaches had their first head coaching experience at Miami (source)

1. Joe Novak

2. Bo Schembeckler

3. Bill Mallory

4. Ara Parseghian

5. Randy Walker

6. Terry Hoepner

Being a good head coach has more to do with being able to get talented players to come to your school and then do something with them than it does laboring for years in the lower ranks of college football as you move your way up.

[ZachTheZip]

Well, think we can go from 1-11 to winning the MAC in just one season? Watching the championship game, Miami's coach was really fired up and was intense when addressing his team. I can't see Ianello ever showing that kind of intensity.

[Zipgrad01]

Looks like we got the first step of the Miami solution correct.

We also hired a guy with no head coaching experience.

I only wish our model of hiring coaches without head coaching experiece turned out as good as theirs did.

The following Miami coaches had their first head coaching experience at Miami (source)

1. Joe Novak

2. Bo Schembeckler

3. Bill Mallory

4. Ara Parseghian

5. Randy Walker

6. Terry Hoepner

Being a good head coach has more to do with being able to get talented players to come to your school and then do something with them than it does laboring for years in the lower ranks of college football as you move your way up.

[Zipgrad01]

Looks like we got the first step of the Miami solution correct.

We also hired a guy with no head coaching experience.

I only wish our model of hiring coaches without head coaching experiece turned out as good as theirs did.

The following Miami coaches had their first head coaching experience at Miami (source)

1. Joe Novak

2. Bo Schembeckler

3. Bill Mallory

4. Ara Parseghian

5. Randy Walker

6. Terry Hoepner

Being a good head coach has more to do with being able to get talented players to come to your school and then do something with them than it does laboring for years in the lower ranks of college football as you move your way up.

Funny.....I am sure they were saying the same thing about this guy when he was 1-11 last year.

[Lee Adams]

The Miami win gives cause to hold Wistrcill/Ianello's feet to the fire next year! No reason we have to sit through 3-4 wins.

They don't have to win the MAC but they can sure as hell be competetive.

[MDZip]

Gotta feel bad for NIU - good team against a team they were expected to beat and lost on a last second touchdown. Sounds really familiar somehow.

[Dr Z]

I really don't understand why we have to "model" our team after anybody. If I learned one thing about iCoach this year, it's the fact that he is going to do things his way and not "model" after anyone.