New rule earns a 10 rating
Big 12 coaches agree on value of getting to use extra assistant
The NCAA Division I Council’s new football rules adopted last week didn’t end all tussling over reform.
But there may be few things more widely accepted than the addition of a 10th football assistant. At least by the coaches in the Big 12 Conference.
In fact, they’re wondering why they have to wait until Jan. 8, 2018 to use it.
“I wish it would’ve gone in right now, today,” Kansas coach David Beaty said Tuesday on a teleconference. “I just think that there’s no reason to wait.”
Coaches believe it’s simple math. Football has the worst coach-to-athlete ratio in collegiate sports. Having 11 coaches for 120 athletes may still sound imbalanced, but it’s a step forward.
“Basketball, I think they only carry like 15 kids on the roster, maybe 18 max and they’ve got four coaches,” Texas coach Tom Herman said. “It’s long overdue, and I think it’ll be good for the sport.”
So now the question becomes, how do coaches use the extra assistant and will it really make that much of a difference?
The round number of 10 means coaches could have a balanced staff for the offense and defense. But this rule allows coaches to be creative, and considering they have a full season until it goes into effect, there is plenty of time to think about it.
Herman said he’s initially thinking of hiring a special-teams coach with additional duties, like recruiting and defense.
Beaty said he’d use the spot for an inside receivers and tight ends coach to alleviate some of the burden Kansas has on that side of the ball.
Beyond football
Helping athletes navigate the academic and social aspects of college life also is a part of the job description, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. One more body helps in that regard.
“For us, we spend a lot of time trying to regulate these guys in different areas other than football,” Gundy said. “That’s why I thought it would be a bigger impact. With 130 players on our team, I just feel like we needed more people that could help us in those areas and one more active coach will certainly contribute.”
Where coaches need more interpretation is the new rule that regulates the hiring of high school coaches to the support staff, which includes roles like quality control and director of player personnel, or in noncoaching roles in general.
FBS programs are no longer allowed to hire people close to a recruit for two years before and after the enrollment of that recruit.
It’s created to curb shady hiring practices in an effort to get a recruit’s commitment. But being an offensive analyst or director of player personnel is usually the first step toward the college game for high school coaches. This rule could shut that door.
Baylor coach Matt Rhule added high school coaches to his staff, including Cedar Hill’s Joey McGuire, Round Rock Cedar Ridge’s Shawn Bell by way of Magnolia West and San Antonio Reagan’s David Wetzel. McGuire is the lone fulltime addition.
Rhule is not in favor of making it difficult for high school coaches, but there are other areas where this rule actually helps, like when some high school coaches are paid too much to work a camp for college coaches.
Confusing aspects
Hiring from other universities is a concern, too. And what does “close with a recruit” actually mean? Coaches may not know until the rule is implemented.
“I’d be surprised if we don’t see a labor lawsuit filed against the NCAA at some point because if my director of player personnel leaves and I want to hire, oh I don’t know, Texas Tech’s director of player personnel, I can’t because he has a relationship with thousands of recruits that would then deem those thousands of recruits ineligible to participate at the University of Texas,” Herman said. “To say that to a person that is in a support staff role as a career and not allow them upward mobility in their job, to me you’re talking about federal labor laws now and not just NCAA rules.”