Ron English & EMU
I had originally hoped that Ron English had both the leadership, management, and technical competencies to lead a Div. I program. When it became clear that he was never in serious consideration as HC for other DI programs and settled for the DC position at Louisville, we saw the same performance gaps with Louisville Defense (ie... poor angles, over aggressive, over running plays, tons of big plays against, etc) that we saw in his tenure here.....
Now that he is HC at EMU... I again, secretly and sincerely, hope he does well at Eastern.... but I question whether or not he has the "ingredients" needed for success, to include a University infrastructure necessary to support him...
I know he has brought in some assts... ie.. Tyrone Wheatley... to help with positioanl coaching and recruiting...
I was wondering what the rest of the forum thinks??
once at the MI Football Fantasy Camp. He was very nice and extremely intense. Kind of guy you could tell the players liked.Physically, he looked like he could have stepped on the field and played. No idea if he has the "ingredients" to be a successful HC, but I do wish him the best of luck @ EMU.
I spoke with their starting TE a few weeks back and asked him about English; "intense" is exactly how he described him. He also said, "English does not mess around." English seems to have the intangibles, ie. commands respect, knows how to motivate. Hopefully that will translate to wins and losses. It's just so hard to be successful at a MAC type school that the best he can hope for is that it can be a stepping stone for a larger gig. If EMU doesn't improve (it's kind of hard not to, right?), his HC career may start and end there.
I wish him the best of luck.
I know the starting QB at Eastern quite well. I spoke with him probably a month ago or so and he said some of the same things to me: intense and detail oriented. While detail oriented seems counter intuitive if a defense is giving up big plays, I believe (hope?) that he will eventually get it right and become a good HC.
I'm not sure how good of a DC he is, but I think he may have the leadership qualities to be a good head coach. EMU's a tough job, though.
that English doesn't know how to beat Central. Hmm, English struggles with spreads...
No no no... Toledo. Central he can beat. Just not Toledo.
that English wasn't on the staff when they played Toledo.
minus 1 for not recognizing that toledo will play eastern and English had a hard time with the spread.
Minus one for not knowing that Toledo and EMU are both in the MAC, as is Central, and it was merely an allusion to my alma mater. As a Michigan fan, I don't give a crap about directional Michigan U. As a Toledo alumnus, EMU sucks.
i dont think its fair to say based on one year with guys he didnt recruit that Ron English's time in lousiville was riddled with the same performance gaps that plagued him at michigan.
with that being said, i wish him the best of luck and hope he wins all of his games that he doesnt play against michigan.
it will all depend on the OC/DC he brings in. I think he'll be a great HC (taking into account hes at eastern). I think Eastern will improve alot because English is a very passionate coach that will stress discipline. I wish him the best.
He brought in Sherm Lewis' (of hating Joey Harrington so much he retired fame) son and the former head coach of Liberty University as his DC and OC.
I think Ron has everything it takes to run a program, and he's a good recruiter. If anyone has the ability to turn EMU it's him. By the time we hired RichRod, I was resigned to the idea that English was our next head coach... and I was okay with it.
EAGLE NATION!
I sincerely hope he gets that program to a point where it is semi-competent.
EMU needs a lot of help, their program is heading in the wrong direction in terms of attendance and 1A status.
of young, charismatic, aggressive coaches on all levels of football. I never saw Raheem Morris becoming the coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs, but I think owners and AD's alike are finding that players, especially young players, respond incredibly well to these kind of coaches. I think this was a great hire my EMU for that very reason. And also because of his experience recruiting the state of Michigan.
I think he will be modestly successful there.
I think he's a guy who'll get his team to play hard and who may recruit a bit better than EMU usually does. As someone said above, he seems like a guy who players like. I think what will make or break him is the coordinators he's able to get to help him w/ X's and O's. I think he can be a good "leader of men" type coach (like Bobby Bowden in the '90's) who is not himself a whiz on the chalkboard...I'll certainly be rooting for him every time he doesn't play U of M.
One thing that by all accounts was true at M was that English had the strong respect of the defensive players. IMO leadership quality, organization, the ability to recognize talent, and recruiting ability are far more important for HC's than whether or not they were great coordinators. If he has those qualities he'll be successful, regardless of people's opinions on his ability as DC. I like him and hope for the best.
I find it funny that we are essentially hoping for the reverse with Robinson--that the characteristics that made him a bad HC (if he was--let's face it, Syracuse is a fucking ghost town) will either be uncorrelated with those that make a good DC, or will even be those that make a good DC (like perhaps more interest in scheming than managing or something).
He was a bad head coach. Syracuse wasn't a ghost town when Paul Pasqualoni was there. But he did do well as a DC at the college level. There are quite a few examples of successful coordinators turning out to be bad HCs. It's not the blind hope you seem to be making it out to be.
Ted Roof is a good example. Terrible, God-awful coach but a pretty good DC.
There are great head coaches that could be a coordinator if their lives depended on it as well as the opposite. Look at Weis. Great OC, horrible coach. English was not so great at the DC position but could be a great head coach. I think he will do well based on his attributes.
He was a decent DC but as a HC who knows what he can do
Ypsi is a cesspool. I wish there was a way to sugarcoat it, but there isn't. How on earth would you tour a recruit there and feel the least bit confident that he might sign?
To me, it seems like the only hope any coach has at EMU is to recruit second-tier athletes in the surrounding fifty-mile radius as well as possible and hope they want to stay close to home.
I know Charlie Batch was from PA, so it is possible to get out-of-state recruits, but I really can't imagine many out-of-area recruits falling in love with the campus or the surrounding community.
EMU is one of those schools that can, as a couple of people have already posted, be a stepping stone, but it can also be a career-ender if the coach isn't careful. I don't think this will happen to English because he works so hard, but he is going to need a few breaks somewhere along the way.
Hopefully, he gets the breaks he needs.
Ypsi grew on me. Depot Town is pretty nice and it's close to A2, etc. there are some nice areas.
- 40 billion
Ypsi isn't a cesspool you dickweed....and how would you know anyway you live in fucking Florida.
and yes, the best EMU can hope for are second-tier atheletes. Thank you God of football knowledge. Every team in the MAC gets lesser regards recruits (or "second-tier" as you put it) why should EMU be any different.
Frankly, most people who talk shit about Ypsi have never done more than drive through it. Talk about a city that can't live down a bad reputation. 90% of Ypsi is the same as Canton or AA.
90% is over stating it, but yes.
Depends on the area of AA/Canton/Ypsi we're discussing.
Lake in the Woods
I'll join the others is saying that Ypsi isn't as bad as you make it, and add another point:
He's competing against people trying to bring players to such mecca's of culture as Mount Pleasant, Toledo, Akron, Buffalo, and wherever Kent State is.
Kent, Ohio. Mystery solved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent,_OH
I wish him all the best in the world but in all honesty I could not tell you of very many people I would not say the same thing about. I do hope he has success at EMU with the exceptions of 2 dates this year. When they play us and they will travel to Arkansas to play the Razorbacks and since I live here I will be pulling for the piggies. Other than that, I say go Ron I guess.
I agree with the OC/DC comment above. If English has solid contributors on his staff, then he can focus on recruiting and the intangibles. Robinson was a terrible recruiter, English is not.
I love his Twitter personality. I want him to succeed for that alone.