Fla State to hire Gophers LB/Assistant HC Bill Miller

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As long as Sawvel gets a promotion and a raise I'd be good with the move. TC would be instantly one of our best recruiters and he knows the game. My only question is the chemistry change on the coaching staff. I would think it would be positive.

Give me Carter today and I won't miss Miller at all (he was a good one).
 

Former Goofer said:
Now you're intentionally sticking your head in the sand. Having players get drafted relies heavily on being coached correctly. Brewster brought in great recruiting classes to the U given the situation here.
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Although I typically believe a recruit has to actually make it to campus to consider them part of a "great class". If you subtract those players that never made it here the classes as a whole don't look nearly as good. And if you're recruiting players for one style of offense with the intent of changing to a different style that they don't fit, does that still count? And you don't recruit positions of need...

That being said, I'm not a big Brewster supporter but I will say this - if he had been at FSU as a position coach...

1. How many players that didn't qualify academically here would have magically qualified at FSU?

2. How many players that left the program due to academics would have been academically eligible at FSU?

3. With consistent, high quality coaches in place how many more of the busts would have developed into good players?

4. Based on above, how many more players that he recruited here may have made it in the NFL if they were recruited to FSU today?

Obviously we'll never know.
 

Will we miss Bill Miller? Yes. Is he a huge loss? No. Is he irreplaceable? No. Would filling the position internally be a downgrade? No. Would hiring Tyrone Carter as a full time position assistant be a good idea? No. Mike Sherells as LB coach? Not yet.

Carter is where Sherells was three years ago. If we are so gung ho to hire Carter, he can work in the ADs office or as a football grad assistant. That's where he fits in best right now. Kill has Sherells where he fits best right now.
 

John Galt said:
Did he excel at recruiting while he was at the U? Let's see, in 4 years, here are the guys he recruited that are in the NFL:

1. Tramaine Brock
2. MarQueis Gray
3. Rashede Hageman (soon to be)

That's 3 players in 4 years. I think his label as a "great recruiter" can certainly be questioned during his tenure at Minnesota.
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Tim Brewster came to Minnesota with a reputation as a great recruiter, and he still has that reputation seven years later. Glenn Mason said that winning in college football is 80% recruiting. Every team needs a great recruiter. Nothing else needs to be said.
 




If we're going to toss around names with no actual coaching experience then I'll throw one out who might be a better fit as he was a linebacker, Bart Scott. No idea if he would be interested or a good candidate but he does have a connection to Kill.
 

Wasn't Miller the only guy on the staff who had extensive experience that wasn't from coaching with Kill? In other words he had some contacts that weren't also Kill's contacts.
 

dpodoll68 said:
No, it doesn't. Name me one guy who has gotten a major college position coach job with zero paid formal coaching experience at a position which he has never coached (obviously, since he hasn't coached at all) OR played. There are plenty of guys who get hired with no coaching experience (Mike Vrabel, for example), but guys don't get hired at a position where they lack expertise AND experience. Ohio St. didn't hire Vrabel to coach the secondary.



Van Pelt had multiple years as an offensive quality control coach and as an offensive coordinator. If someone's been a coordinator, I'd give them a little leeway as to position coaching. Also, comparing a former NFL offensive coordinator to a guy with zero coaching experience at any level is more than a little ridiculous.
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I remember a few months back TC was offered a job at Michigan St, which he turned down.
 




BieberHole69 said:
By the way, this move by Miller is not that surprising in the slightest bit. He's a journeyman through and through. His longest tenure was maybe 5 years as the OK State DC? I'd bet he isn't at Florida State for more than 3 or 4 years. Loved him while he was here though.
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Yep, for whatever reason Miller just never seems to stay in one place for an extended length of time. Sorry to see him go, but as you said the move really is not all the surprising. Will be interesting to see how Kill fills the position because I think it has to be a bit of a delicate balance bringing in someone new into what is a very tight knit group of coaches that has been together as long as this group has.
 


BieberHole69 said:
By the way, this move by Miller is not that surprising in the slightest bit. He's a journeyman through and through. His longest tenure was maybe 5 years as the OK State DC? I'd bet he isn't at Florida State for more than 3 or 4 years. Loved him while he was here though.
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Similar pattern as Kill if you think about it, hope Kill doesn't follow the same path. Each time was a move up though and that new raise should hopefully help!
 



I'm with Dpod, nsmike, and Highway on this. TC's first gig on a coaching staff should not be as a full-time position coach. That could be a recipe for disaster, especially working with a staff that has been together this long. Sherels is fine where he is at for now.

Miller's experience and recruiting connections in Kansas/Florida will be missed, but it could be an opportunity to hire somebody else that's really good and has other connections.
 

Triple D said:
Similar pattern as Kill if you think about it, hope Kill doesn't follow the same path. Each time was a move up though and that new raise should hopefully help!
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Haven't all of Kill's moves been on an upward trajectory?
 

The obvious choice would have been Tom Matukewicz, but he accepted his first head coaching position (SE Missouri St.) a little more than 2 months ago.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
I guess Bobby Bowden should have hired you and he wouldn't have been forced to resign after going 7-6 in 2009.
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Former Goofer said:
:rolleyes: You can bash Brewster for a lot of things, but recruiting isn't one of them. He excels at that and anyone who doesn't recognize that is just a blind homer.
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You dont know me....

I could sell a ketchup popsicle to a women wearing white gloves

I could sell a treadmill to a man in a wheel chair....

I could sell Ice to an eskimo!

GOPHERNATION!
 

Iceland12 said:
Wasn't Miller the only guy on the staff who had extensive experience that wasn't from coaching with Kill? In other words he had some contacts that weren't also Kill's contacts.
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That's right. Plus, he's the only coach that had extensive prior experience at a BCS level program.

Miller is a good recruiter. Sad to see him go.
 


dpodoll68 said:
A Big Ten coaching position is not the place for on-the-job training, nor the place for someone with zero previous formal coaching experience. I love how people rip Maturi mercilessly for hiring somebody with "no experience" (though the guy had been a major college/NFL coach for 20 years before being hired here) and yet want to hire someone with literally zero experience, and at a position for which he is thoroughly unqualified nonetheless. I love TC to death, and I want him involved as much as he is willing to be with the Gopher program, but I think even he'd tell you that he has no business on the Gopher staff in 2014, and certainly not as a LB coach. At the very least (emphasis on the very), he needs to gain some seasoning at a lower level and/or a couple of seasons as a GA before a move like this would be made. Also, you don't hire someone with no playing or coaching experience at a position to coach said position. I wouldn't hire Brett Favre to be the Gophers WR coach either.
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Van Brocklin went from player to head coach in the NFL & won 3 games with an expansion franchise
 



Sawvel to LB coach, TC coaching the DB's. I could live with that. TC is a Gopher legend, they need him in the program. I'm also guessing that his Super Bowl ring would make for a great conversation piece with the recruits.
 

TC might be able to recruit Florida too. Ya think?
 

mkAz said:
Sawvel to LB coach, TC coaching the DB's. I could live with that. TC is a Gopher legend, they need him in the program. I'm also guessing that his Super Bowl ring would make for a great conversation piece with the recruits.
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What if he can't coach?
 

Maximus said:
What if he can't coach?
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He played in the NFL for 10 years. He works with kids in the Twin Cities area already. I'm not worried about his ability to coach, it's not like it's rocket science.
 

I agree with a few others (dpo, Iceland12, Bo Darville) that what hurts about the loss of Miller has less to do with his coaching expertise and more about his ability to recruit. Kill and his staff are very well-connected and I think the reason Miller was brought in was likely due to his recruiting connections in Florida and the Midwest. I'm relatively certain they can find someone who can teach high school players the fundamentals they need to play more effectively at the college level. What I don't know is whether or not they can find a guy with Miller's recruiting connections.
 

Halsey Hall said:
Van Brocklin went from player to head coach in the NFL & won 3 games with an expansion franchise
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And he was one of the worst coaches of the NFL expansion era.
MN 29-51-4
ATL 37-49-3
TOT 66-100-7

Although his 66 wins places him 66th all time in wins, his winning percentage of .398 is THE WORST of any coach who has won 50 games. I strand corrected. Van Brocklin was THE worst.
 

I am sorry, but TC can develop talent. Davis Anderson was working with TC since the end of his 2012 season and the kid got a walk on roll for the Gophers. Anderson was locked up on Jeff Jones when he lined up at receiver when Apple Valley played Washburn in the playoffs. Jones played receiver 75% that game and got nothing. Jones was very impressive at receiver if you saw him play during the season. Hell, the game against Kennedy Jones had at least 200 yards receiving. If you would have asked me if Anderson would have played DIII I would have been shocked after seeing his junior year.

Also, he is working with Donovan Dalton who we will be talking about in the 2017 class.

If he does not get the coaching job at the U, and I had a son in late middle school and high school, I would have him training with TC at his academy.
 

mkAz said:
He played in the NFL for 10 years. He works with kids in the Twin Cities area already. I'm not worried about his ability to coach, it's not like it's rocket science.
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while it may not be rocket science, it certainly an art and very few are "good" at it.

:eek:
 

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