Chris Ash is hardly what I'd call a new comer. He's certainly not new to the DC position. This makes his fourth (?) year with that title—this season had the Co-DC title. He was the DC Bielema brought with him to Fayetteville from Madison where he'd spent two years as DC. (I want to say he had a stint as DC early on in his career. I looked over his resume when Bielema was hired at UArk...so it's certainly an "if I recall correctly" statement.) Geez, he's been coaching for going on two decades I'd say. I think he's in the 40 range (age) so he's a little younger than a lot of those discussed here. FWIW, most of his time in collegiate football has been coaching the secondary. EDIT: And NOW I see smisretta's post...
@TerryP right, but does he leave a job where they just won the NC to move to Baton Rouge? I say no way.
This is not really directed at you, but has anyone said Brick wasn't qualified? Chavis was DC & LB coach, so we have openings for both. The logic some use (including me) when playing 'what if' while looking for prospective candidates is to look for someone that has both LB and DC experience (or at least one of those). A candidate like Ash raises more needs than it satisfies since we already have a well respected DB coach and we would still need to add someone to coach LBs. A more likely target on CUM's team would be Fickel, since he is their LB coach also. Marc Tressel (Co-DC and LB coach at Michigan State) is another guy that has similar appeal. As this heats up, its better than the soap opera we stream on Netflix that my wife has me hooked into watching with her.
I doubt he's looking for a move like this. We're just a few weeks away from him interviewing for the HC job at Pitt. @shane0911 I suspect Ash is looking at Fickell and seeing him looking to move up.
There have been some that have said things like LSU isn't a place for a position coach to learn how to be a defensive coordinator and things to that effect.
Position coaches don't always coach the same position their entire career. They often move around and coach different positions. Are you saying Brick is qualified to be DC but can't coach LB's?
Doug Mallory has done well, DC. LSU had a GA that worked his way up to a DC in college, John Papuchis. Les hasn't had as much of a turnover of coaches as most teams. But to add, in Bricks contract, the buyout drops when he takes a DC job. Les is always pushing his coaches to better jobs. Joe Robinson was a Special Teams coach at LSU, took a DL job at North Carolina. Then you had Bo Pelini, from DC to HC. Then we had a few guys leave LSU and are doing well in the Pro's.
Got it. Yeah, eff that thinking. Brick is way more qualified than most give him credit for (not that there really are "qualifications", per se). 1. He was a DC before. 2. He's been coaching longer than most people here have been old enough to beat off. 3. He's been in major programs longer than some of the candidates tossed around.
Not at all. Did my words imply that? I think Brick actually did coach LBs before (too lazy to confirm right now). I was simply saying that from a practicality standpoint, the "ideal" candidate that a lot of people envision is one that has coached LBs in the past in order that the hire does not trigger major reshuffling of the staff. Ergo, in some peoples' minds, he is not considered as "real" of a candidate as others. Early on, my thought was to promote Brick to DC and hire a new LB coach. Haley has been a very good recruiter for us and has paid his dues, IMHO. At this point in time, I think Alleva and Miles should leave no stone unturned.
