 Marc MorehouseHi, I'm Marc Morehouse. I've covered sports for more than 15 years, mostly in Eastern Iowa. I've had Hayden Fry [...] |
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Iowa assistant Wilson hired by Rutgers
Iowa is in the market for three new assistant coaches
Iowa Linebackers and Special Teams coach Darrell Wilson on the Hawkeyes sideline during the third quarter of their NCAA football game against Nebraska at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, in Lincoln, Neb. (SourceMedia Group News/Jim Slosiarek)
The Iowa coaching shakeup now is really shaking.
Wednesday, Rutgers coach Kyle Flood announced the hiring of Iowa secondary coach and South Jersey native Darrell Wilson, the school said in a release. Wilson spent the past 11 seasons as an assistant at Iowa. He coached linebackers, special teams and spent last season as Iowa’s secondary coach.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome Darrell and his family home,” Flood said in a statement. “Darrell is a proven winner on the field and a proven recruiter in the State of Rutgers. He brings more than a decade of Big Ten experience with him but more important than all of that, Darrell is the right person for our program.”
Wilson, 54, moved to Iowa’s secondary in 2012, while also continuing to assist with special teams. Wilson coached all the linebacker positions and special teams for four seasons after working with special teams and outside linebackers in his first six seasons. He was named by Rivals.com in February 2011 as one of the top 25 recruiters in the nation.
He earned $244,080 at Iowa last season.
Wilson joined the Iowa staff after serving as outside linebacker coach and special teams coordinator at Wisconsin for two years (2000-01). Wisconsin punter Kevin Stemke won the Ray Guy punter of the year award in 2000.
He also coached running backs at Rutgers (1999) and the defensive secondary and wide receivers at Rhode Island (1996-98).
With Wilson’s departure, Iowa will have replaced five of the nine full-time assistants who began the 2011 season in a span of 18 months. That number will grow by one more. Running backs coach Lester Erb will not return to Iowa next fall, according to sources. Wilson was asked to move to running backs coach, but he declined and accepted the job at Rutgers.
During news conference last Wednesday, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz didn’t deny the possibility of more moves on Iowa’s coaching staff, which saw the departure of wide receivers coach Erik Campbell in December.
“Change is part of college football, and that happens,” Ferentz said when asked if the absence of a wide receivers coach hampered recruiting at that position (Iowa landed five WRs). “It’s part of football in general. And I think, again, the players looked at what we’re trying to do, what we’re trying to accomplish and probably saw opportunity.”
Ferentz said he hoped to be able to announce something on wide receiver coach in the next 10 to 14 days. When asked if he expected more changes coming for his staff, he said, “Not right now. We’re just moving forward here and we’ll see what the next couple of weeks bring.”
When asked if a receivers coach would come from inside the program or outside, Ferentz said, “We’ll do what’s best for the team. And I’ve given it a lot of thought, certainly, and we’ve been busy with recruiting. Now, we’ll return our attention to that. Hopefully, 10, 14 days we’ll be able to have everybody in the right seats and go forward.”
Last Friday night, FootballScoop.com, a website dedicated to information on college football coaching searches, tweeted that Bobby Kennedy and Jim Reid “will likely join the staff” at Iowa.
On Dec. 2, Reid was fired as associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Virginia after the Cavaliers finished 4-8 last season. The consensus was Virginia fans were surprised Reid was fired. The Cavaliers defense was projected to be the weak link last season, but performed above expectations.
Kennedy, 45, spent two seasons as wide receivers coach at Colorado, his home state, after seven seasons (2004-10) as wide receivers coach at Texas, where he also served his last six as the assistant recruiting coordinator.
Of course, Iowa offensive coordinator Greg Davis spent 13 seasons as Texas’ offensive coordinator (1998-2010), so there’s an obvious connection with Kennedy, who spent 1990-92 as a graduate assistant at Illinois and then Penn State.
On Thursday night, FootballScoop reported that Hampton offensive coordinator Earnest Wilson interviewed with Iowa for the wide receivers job.
Wilson’s Coaching Career
Rutgers DBs, 2013-present
Iowa DBs, ST, 2012
Iowa LBs, ST, 2008-2011
Iowa OLBs, ST, 2002-2007
Wisconsin OLBs, ST, 2000-01
Rutgers RBs, 1999
Rhode Island DBs, WRs, 1996-98
Woodrow Wilson HS HC, 1988-95
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This is a pretty smart and savvy move by Rutgers as they transition to the B1G, and a blow to Iowa’s recruiting. As noted, Wilson is a very good recruiter, but it is his region of recruiting that is most important here. Namely, the mid-Atlantic and, specifically, the Baltimore-DC/NOVA corridor. Iowa, largely through Wilson, has really exploited this region for some of its better talent the past few years, and Wilson has been the guy who’s done it. If Rutgers is going to compete, this is exactly the area they will need to pull kids out of to do so. Good move for them, but a real blow for Iowa as now someone else will have to re-establish those relationships with coaches in the region. The hit is even worse (from a recruiting standpoint) if the rumors about Erb are true. Wilson and Erb are arguably Iowa’s two best recruiters (as far as talent level and numbers are concerned) and losing them both in one off-season will really hurt.
Erb will not be back.
Wilson was the lead recruiter in Maryland and Jersey. You’re right, this is a good move by Rutgers. Iowa has other contacts in Jersey. KF mentioned Frank Verducci (veteran NJ prep coach) during the signing day presser. He sent them Wadley this year.
I think we’re seeing, perhaps, why spring practice isn’t starting until March 27.
Is the past 2 years a commentary on the direction of program or seeing the writing on the wall with Kirk? Seems odd you would have what will be 5 staffers leaving 2 years when I don’t think that many left in the previous 12 years.
Could there be sour grapes among the long time assistance that there is nepotism and preferential treatment for family members? Not saying its true. And obviously Brian was very qualified but this is the slippery slope you go down when you hire family members. Whether its true or not that speculation exists.
For all the fans who think this staff had gotten comfortable here’s a chance to bring in fresh and hungry up and coming coaches. Will Kirk do this or will he go with”comfortable choices” like Davis again?
Has anyone noticed how poor our special teams have become over the last several years? Do you know who was coaching special teams?
A loss to recruiting in a specific region, Yes. Not a surprise though, as Wilson is going home. He’s from New Jersey, coached at Rutgers, and went to school at UConn. A no-brainer there.
If the prospects are true, I like this change. Jim Reid would be a very impressive upgrade to the Iowa staff, and Kennedy with his link to Davis can’t hurt.
I think the loss of recruiting in New Jersey would be exponentially improved with Kennedy’s Texas ties, Reid being from Massachusetts, Earnest Wilson with an abundance of time in the Southeast, Texas, and being from Ohio. Last I checked, more top recruits come from Texas, Ohio, and the Southeast than from New Jersey.
I think you’re a little too sanguine about the recruiting losses. Yes, IF Kennedy comes aboard, that will probably help Texas recruiting. But will it be enough to offset the mid-Atlantic losses (Wilson wasn’t just doing NJ)? I doubt it will, for the simple reason that Texas is already mined by the big local programs (UT, A&M, Oklahoma) as well as the second-tier teams in the state/region. Add to that the SEC’s expansion via A&M and you’re not going to get the top-flight, or even second-flight, kids to come to Iowa. Contrast that with the level of talent we’ve gotten out of MD/DC/NOVA the past few years, an area that is somewhat underserved/undervalued in recruiting, and that’s a nasty hit to take.
And if Reid comes in, that’s a guy who has been coaching all over the NE for over 30 years. He might have just as many contacts as Wilson had.
I don’t know how much connections in the upper NE will help, there’s not much talent to be had there. But it will be interesting if Reid opens up more of VA to potential Iowa recruiting (assuming he comes aboard). There is a lot of talent in VA, and one of the reasons UVa is still so solidly behind Mike London is because he has done a great job of recruiting that talent (particularly the Hampton Roads area) instead of simply ceding it to VA Tech. It will be interesting to see how much, if any, of that was (1) due to Reid and (2) whether Reid can open those avenues to Iowa.