Post by Aggie One on Nov 28, 2005 7:38:05 GMT -5
The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow – Part Two
Where Do We Go From Here?
by Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
Athletic Director Dee Todd made a very shrewd move to retain three assistant coaches from the staff of George Small after releasing him last Monday morning. Speculation was running rampant as to why Todd had decided to keep the three newest assistants while letting the more experienced ones follow Small to the unemployment line.
Exactly what did special teams coach Mike Stewart, wide receivers coach Joey Sulkowski, and safeties coach Travis Oliver all have in common that made them so valuable during this transition to keep them on a full time assistants until December 31st?
In a word, the reason is recruiting. Todd remarked early last week that assistant athletic director Wheeler Brown would head football operations and she and Brown had agreed that the three mentioned coaches have the strongest background in recruiting and have the necessary contacts to solidify and sign a number of prospects that were seriously leaning toward signing with the Aggies before the change in staffing took place.
She is also concerned that high school recruiting could not afford to lag behind even during the short period of days that will be needed to name a new head coach and for him to complete the hiring of a staff before the Christmas holidays. She anticipated that this most important part of the initial process will be completed within the next ten days.
In addition, several D-1 transfers and junior college transfers are still expected to make their move to the Greensboro campus for the spring semester despite Small’s dismissal but Todd is taking no chances in risking any possibility of losing any of those verbal commitments.
The first priority of this coaching trio is to shore up those offers and nail down those early commitments.
How many players and which ones will be accepted by the new head coach is evidently a non issue at this point because of the advanced planning made for the contingency of losing the head football coach and with various conversations made with short list coaching candidates and advisors from the professional football ranks.
Mike Stewart is a 31-year veteran of the North Carolina High School coaching ranks and knows virtually every high school and coach within the state. The highly respected coach who guided Shelby Crest High to several state championships during the 1990’s and is a gold member in the N.C, High Football Coaches Association.
He is currently pursing instate recruits that they have identified as strong candidates to sign with Aggies on February 5th, the national signing date.
He has several long coaching and friendship ties to high school coaches through out the state and was instrumental in helping North Carolina Central with their recruiting efforts last season that help move them to the top of the CIAA over the last two years.
Stewart also has extremely good rapport with all of the in-state D-1 head coaches and will be talking to them about players who feel they may better served on a 1-AA level.
Sulkowski was the recruiting coordinator for Hargrave Military, arguably one of the best prep school programs on the east coast. Coach “Ski” as he is referred to, is entrenched within the junior college recruiting system and like Stewart has amassed a number of contacts at that level especially in Georgia and Mississippi JUCO systems.
Oliver is a former All-MEAC performer from way of Hampton and is well respected and well liked by the current players on the Aggies roster and has many inside contacts in the Virginia tidewater area in the high schools there working with an outreach program for students at alternative schools and is a regular speaker to many student-athlete functions and has great rapport with their coaches as well.
Taylor will be instrumental is keeping players informed on the search for a new coach and helping Todd retain those players on the campus. To date no players has exprd coach expressed any interest in leaving the program because of Small’s dismissal but some were attached more so to the assistants than the head coach.
Brown is expecting the early scholarship offers that will be made to be either accepted or declined by those top tier recruits by December 31st to lessen the load on the new staff that will be totally in place before the Christmas break.
She has made no promises to any of the three assistants retained by her but they will be interviewed by the new coach upon his arrival and that she would ask that they would be retained by the new coach because of the hard work they have performed in holding the team together and bringing in several signees into the fold by first of the year. She made it clear that decision will be made by the new the coach and not by her.
Another major change that is taking place is that Coach Stewart wants all Aggie supporters to become actively involved in directly contacting the three coaches, Todd, and Brown about high school players in their areas that have shown interest in the program.
All phone calls, emails, or coaches who feel there are players that may be of interest are asked to contact the football office with information on them at once.
Even though not all of them will be suitable in pursuing with offers, all inquiries will be followed up, contact made and prospects will be evaluated by the staff according to NCAA rules regarding player contact.
As much information you can relate to the coaching staff can go a long way in re-establishing A&T’s in-state recruiting base which was somewhat neglected under the old regime.
She remarked that she understood that former AD Charlie Davis waited 81 days before naming a new head coach and that was not going to happen on her watch and that A&T will be aggressively recruiting and offering scholarships to all of the school’s top prospects before the Christmas break.
If you have any questions or student athlete information, both in-state and out of state, you are asked to contact 334-7655 or 7022 / 334-7372 at the football office or email Wheeler Brown, Asst. AD and head of football operations at wbrown@ncat.edu
Dee Todd’s phone, emails, and fax machines have running overtime since Monday’s announcement from Division-1 and D-1AA programs regarding the vacancy and wish to be considered for the position.
Despite the rumors that changing coaches so quickly would have an adverse reaction the exact opposite seems to have happened and the A&T job is still considered a “plump” that is an up and coming program that is willing to commit more resources with the addition of a new press facility and the recently installed jumbotron and more new weight room and rehab equipment.
So who may become A&T’s next head football coach and what will set him apart from the rest of the pack? The third and final installment of the three part series will be covering that very issue coming up this Tuesday.
Who Can Take Us to the Next Level?
Where Do We Go From Here?
by Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
Athletic Director Dee Todd made a very shrewd move to retain three assistant coaches from the staff of George Small after releasing him last Monday morning. Speculation was running rampant as to why Todd had decided to keep the three newest assistants while letting the more experienced ones follow Small to the unemployment line.
Exactly what did special teams coach Mike Stewart, wide receivers coach Joey Sulkowski, and safeties coach Travis Oliver all have in common that made them so valuable during this transition to keep them on a full time assistants until December 31st?
In a word, the reason is recruiting. Todd remarked early last week that assistant athletic director Wheeler Brown would head football operations and she and Brown had agreed that the three mentioned coaches have the strongest background in recruiting and have the necessary contacts to solidify and sign a number of prospects that were seriously leaning toward signing with the Aggies before the change in staffing took place.
She is also concerned that high school recruiting could not afford to lag behind even during the short period of days that will be needed to name a new head coach and for him to complete the hiring of a staff before the Christmas holidays. She anticipated that this most important part of the initial process will be completed within the next ten days.
In addition, several D-1 transfers and junior college transfers are still expected to make their move to the Greensboro campus for the spring semester despite Small’s dismissal but Todd is taking no chances in risking any possibility of losing any of those verbal commitments.
The first priority of this coaching trio is to shore up those offers and nail down those early commitments.
How many players and which ones will be accepted by the new head coach is evidently a non issue at this point because of the advanced planning made for the contingency of losing the head football coach and with various conversations made with short list coaching candidates and advisors from the professional football ranks.
Mike Stewart is a 31-year veteran of the North Carolina High School coaching ranks and knows virtually every high school and coach within the state. The highly respected coach who guided Shelby Crest High to several state championships during the 1990’s and is a gold member in the N.C, High Football Coaches Association.
He is currently pursing instate recruits that they have identified as strong candidates to sign with Aggies on February 5th, the national signing date.
He has several long coaching and friendship ties to high school coaches through out the state and was instrumental in helping North Carolina Central with their recruiting efforts last season that help move them to the top of the CIAA over the last two years.
Stewart also has extremely good rapport with all of the in-state D-1 head coaches and will be talking to them about players who feel they may better served on a 1-AA level.
Sulkowski was the recruiting coordinator for Hargrave Military, arguably one of the best prep school programs on the east coast. Coach “Ski” as he is referred to, is entrenched within the junior college recruiting system and like Stewart has amassed a number of contacts at that level especially in Georgia and Mississippi JUCO systems.
Oliver is a former All-MEAC performer from way of Hampton and is well respected and well liked by the current players on the Aggies roster and has many inside contacts in the Virginia tidewater area in the high schools there working with an outreach program for students at alternative schools and is a regular speaker to many student-athlete functions and has great rapport with their coaches as well.
Taylor will be instrumental is keeping players informed on the search for a new coach and helping Todd retain those players on the campus. To date no players has exprd coach expressed any interest in leaving the program because of Small’s dismissal but some were attached more so to the assistants than the head coach.
Brown is expecting the early scholarship offers that will be made to be either accepted or declined by those top tier recruits by December 31st to lessen the load on the new staff that will be totally in place before the Christmas break.
She has made no promises to any of the three assistants retained by her but they will be interviewed by the new coach upon his arrival and that she would ask that they would be retained by the new coach because of the hard work they have performed in holding the team together and bringing in several signees into the fold by first of the year. She made it clear that decision will be made by the new the coach and not by her.
Another major change that is taking place is that Coach Stewart wants all Aggie supporters to become actively involved in directly contacting the three coaches, Todd, and Brown about high school players in their areas that have shown interest in the program.
All phone calls, emails, or coaches who feel there are players that may be of interest are asked to contact the football office with information on them at once.
Even though not all of them will be suitable in pursuing with offers, all inquiries will be followed up, contact made and prospects will be evaluated by the staff according to NCAA rules regarding player contact.
As much information you can relate to the coaching staff can go a long way in re-establishing A&T’s in-state recruiting base which was somewhat neglected under the old regime.
She remarked that she understood that former AD Charlie Davis waited 81 days before naming a new head coach and that was not going to happen on her watch and that A&T will be aggressively recruiting and offering scholarships to all of the school’s top prospects before the Christmas break.
If you have any questions or student athlete information, both in-state and out of state, you are asked to contact 334-7655 or 7022 / 334-7372 at the football office or email Wheeler Brown, Asst. AD and head of football operations at wbrown@ncat.edu
Dee Todd’s phone, emails, and fax machines have running overtime since Monday’s announcement from Division-1 and D-1AA programs regarding the vacancy and wish to be considered for the position.
Despite the rumors that changing coaches so quickly would have an adverse reaction the exact opposite seems to have happened and the A&T job is still considered a “plump” that is an up and coming program that is willing to commit more resources with the addition of a new press facility and the recently installed jumbotron and more new weight room and rehab equipment.
So who may become A&T’s next head football coach and what will set him apart from the rest of the pack? The third and final installment of the three part series will be covering that very issue coming up this Tuesday.
Who Can Take Us to the Next Level?
