Schools in playoff didn’t have to look far to find coaches
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith brought a visitor to meet university president Michael Drake in the summer of 2018.
It was Ryan Day, who had spent one season with the Buckeyes as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Smith viewed him as a rising star. After Day received job offers earlier that offseason, Smith recalled a conversation with then-coach Urban Meyer about the importance of keeping the assistant on staff.
“We’ve got to do everything we can to retain him,” Meyer said, “because he is a guy that is special and can do it here one day.”
The exchange captured Smith’s attention. He sometimes brought aspiring head coaches to chat with Drake to “understand the big picture of the university.” But he saw it as particularly necessary to usher Day into the president’s office, hoping he might come to familiarize himself with the inner workings as a prime future candidate to lead the powerhouse football program.
“I thought he was a guy that could eventually take over for Urban,” Smith said, “either if he stayed here or went somewhere else.”
The rest of the story is well known. Months later, Day was installed as acting head coach for preseason practices and the first three games after Meyer was suspended for his handling of domestic abuse allegations involving a former assistant. Day led the Buckeyes to three blowout wins. As health issues related to an arachnoid cyst prompted Meyer to retire by the end of the season, Day was tapped as the successor. In his first full season at the helm this fall, he returned Ohio State to the College Football Playoff amid an unbeaten regular season in which the Buckeyes torpedoed oppo
What does Shoup, along with Bishop and Stout have in common along with half of the this year’s team? Each play two or more sports. Shoup, along with Bishop and Stout, along with center Ethan Bronson and guards Vinny Montgomery and Andreas Pappas, were members of the Lodi High football team that posted a 6-4 record and missed earning a section playoff berth last month. Shoup also competes on the high school’s boys track and field team.
“All of the big guys,” Shoup said. “We get our strength that we get from the weight room. To go out there and dominate, that’s a big factor on how we’ve been successful.”
The Flames are determined to work harder toward their goal of earning a playoff berth. Something that Lodi hasn’t experienced since the 2015-16 season, when Nutting led the Flames to a share of the TCAL title and earned a section D-I playoff berth.
“That’s a huge goal for us,”
Shoup said. “Those close games that we’ve lost or won by short margins show that the little things make the biggest difference. If we go out and execute the little things, then big things are going to happen.”
But before Lodi can think playoffs, it has to get through TCAL action that begins after the holidays.
“We want to be able to go into league and be able to dominate every team,” Shoup said. “Go in with our head held high and that we’re the better team. We work harder. We know in our hearts
and our minds that we’re the hard-working team.”
Shoup started playing basketball at age 3. That was when he started playing recreational tot basketball.
“My dad played basketball in his life, too,” said Nathan Shoup of his father, “He’d take me out in the drive way and we’d play together. It was always had a good time playing with my dad and my brothers growing up.”