catamount man
January 6th, 2008, 06:51 AM
CULLOWHEE — Last Monday, former Nebraska assistant Dennis Wagner accepted the challenge of turning around Western Carolina’s struggling football program.
That will be no small task considering the Catamounts have not won a Southern Conference game since Nov. 5, 2005, and have posted records of 2-9 and 1-10 the last two seasons.
After being introduced to media, alumni and fans Friday afternoon, Wagner, in an exclusive interview with the Citizen-Times, discussed his new job. Following are excerpts from the conversation in which Wagner talked about everything from coaching in small towns to WCU’s rivalry with Appalachian State:
C-T: What did you know about WCU before hearing about the job opening?
Wagner: I knew what conference, obviously, they were in and the type of football played in the Southern Conference. … But in regards to (WCU) itself, until the national search firm was hired, I had not done any investigation into it. But when I received a call from them, I started my study.
C-T: What are some of the biggest challenges you face here?
Wagner: I think changing the attitude, first of all. These players need to be held accountable. How hard you work in the offseason and the things you do to prepare yourself for a season are critical. The commitment that has been given to our staff by the administration tells me that everyone here is hungry for this university to become a part of the Southern Conference in regards to championships in football, too. Right now, we’re a long ways away from that. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but they’ve certainly made the commitment to help us get there. So, I see that as the biggest challenge, to convince the players who are currently here and the people of North Carolina, particularly Western Carolina, that we can do this.
C-T: Can you give some specific examples of things the administration has done that convinced you they are making a commitment to this football program?
Wagner: First of all, as you’re probably well aware of, they had a task force that did a study on the situation and they addressed issues. … If you want to win championships, you have to not only set your standards within the football program but within the athletic budget to attain those. That was what the study told them.
What we tried to do is position ourselves where we’re at the top of the pay scale and to make our recruiting budget where it’s in the upper level ... within the conference, because that’s where we have to win first to be successful. If you do that, you’re going to be in the national playoff picture, and that’s where you want to be. … There are still some other things that were on that. Our coaches, as well as some other coaches in the conference, teach. (We need) to start to lessen the load of teaching for our coaches, because they need to be out and recruit more and be more visual out in the community and throughout the state. ... They assured us those changes were being made, and we’ve already seen that they are. … I mentioned in my interview that it’s not about what you have, it’s about what you do with what you have. And we have the resources now to be successful.
C-T: How good of a recruiting class can you realistically expect to get at this late stage?
Wagner: I don’t know that I can make a measuring stick of it yet until they’re all here on campus. … There’s still three weeks of recruiting left, and some young men might already have commitments to other people. Whenever there’s a change at a program, I think people understand that we still have an opportunity to go in and talk to those kids and give them an opportunity to come here. … We’ll address that first, and then we’ll find kids that maybe slipped through the cracks. … And we’ll need the help of our alumni to do that.
C-T: You’ve been at both large schools and small schools before. Do you prefer one to the other?
Wagner: There are advantages to both. The advantage we have here is that this is our community, and we don’t share it with anybody. In Western Carolina, we’re the show here. … When we drove in and saw the campus for the first time, actually I was surprised. I was impressed with the campus. It’s a great setting and a great place to encourage parents to bring their kids in for a visit and to see what we have to offer.
C-T: How soon will your family (wife Cyndi, daughter Whitney, son Joshua) be able to join you in Cullowhee?
Wagner: I’m hoping they’re here in March, or if not then, May. Smoky Mountain High School has a block schedule, and Lincoln Southeast, where my daughter goes, is on a semester schedule. So we need to work out details on the transferring of credits. .... These next four weeks we’re going to be pretty busy. Cyndi will be trying to sell the house, and our son is going to finish his basketball season, and my daughter’s going to begin track. So there’s never a perfect time, but we’re hoping it happens soon.
C-T: Did you hire a young offensive coordinator (Keith Heckendorf) because that’s a part of the team you’ll be most involved in?
Wagner: Number one, I hired him because I have complete trust in him as a coach. ... To me that’s a big factor when you hire coaches, you want to have people you know you can trust and that you know believe the same things you do. I’m going to be involved in the offense as a position coach, but I have a lot of other responsibilities here of continuing to fund-raise and to be involved with the whole team.
C-T: Will you call your own plays or let your offensive coordinator do that?
Wagner: He’s going to call them. We don’t know enough about our team yet to know what kind of offense we can run. I understand they went to a lot of no-huddle stuff last year, which seems to be the trend. It’s certainly something we’re going to look at because (current players) are already exposed to that. … But Keith will call the plays. I haven’t gotten to a point yet where I decide if he’s upstairs or on the field. I’ll definitely be on the field, so it may be a situation where he calls from upstairs and sends them to me.
C-T: Who are some coaches you’ve always looked up to?
Wagner: The first one is (Fresno State head coach) Pat Hill. He was my position coach in college (Utah). He’s also a gentleman who gave me an opportunity to coach at Fresno State and made me an associate head coach. I admire him as a friend and as a coach. … Pat’s probably had the biggest influence on my life as a coach.
C-T: You’ve got a five-year contract. When is it realistic for WCU alumni and fans to expect a winning season?
Wagner: It’s realistic to say you can win next year. Will that happen? We’ve got to wait and see because the progress we make between now and the start of spring ball and from spring to summer and from summer to fall are things we’ll monitor. And our recruiting class is important. But it’s our intention to have a winning season next year.
C-T: In the few days since taking the job, how much have you heard about the importance of beating Appalachian State?
Wagner: I’ve heard it several times. I was in town (Friday) for about 10 minutes. I won’t tell you exactly where, but I was at a business, and someone was an Appalachian State graduate, and they congratulated me on being here and were happy for me. But as long as we won every game (except for) Appalachian, they didn’t care. We started around joking about it, and I said, ‘Well, that’s going to happen sooner than you think.’ ... So, it’s already started.
GO CATAMOUNTS!!! xthumbsupx xthumbsupx xthumbsupx
That will be no small task considering the Catamounts have not won a Southern Conference game since Nov. 5, 2005, and have posted records of 2-9 and 1-10 the last two seasons.
After being introduced to media, alumni and fans Friday afternoon, Wagner, in an exclusive interview with the Citizen-Times, discussed his new job. Following are excerpts from the conversation in which Wagner talked about everything from coaching in small towns to WCU’s rivalry with Appalachian State:
C-T: What did you know about WCU before hearing about the job opening?
Wagner: I knew what conference, obviously, they were in and the type of football played in the Southern Conference. … But in regards to (WCU) itself, until the national search firm was hired, I had not done any investigation into it. But when I received a call from them, I started my study.
C-T: What are some of the biggest challenges you face here?
Wagner: I think changing the attitude, first of all. These players need to be held accountable. How hard you work in the offseason and the things you do to prepare yourself for a season are critical. The commitment that has been given to our staff by the administration tells me that everyone here is hungry for this university to become a part of the Southern Conference in regards to championships in football, too. Right now, we’re a long ways away from that. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but they’ve certainly made the commitment to help us get there. So, I see that as the biggest challenge, to convince the players who are currently here and the people of North Carolina, particularly Western Carolina, that we can do this.
C-T: Can you give some specific examples of things the administration has done that convinced you they are making a commitment to this football program?
Wagner: First of all, as you’re probably well aware of, they had a task force that did a study on the situation and they addressed issues. … If you want to win championships, you have to not only set your standards within the football program but within the athletic budget to attain those. That was what the study told them.
What we tried to do is position ourselves where we’re at the top of the pay scale and to make our recruiting budget where it’s in the upper level ... within the conference, because that’s where we have to win first to be successful. If you do that, you’re going to be in the national playoff picture, and that’s where you want to be. … There are still some other things that were on that. Our coaches, as well as some other coaches in the conference, teach. (We need) to start to lessen the load of teaching for our coaches, because they need to be out and recruit more and be more visual out in the community and throughout the state. ... They assured us those changes were being made, and we’ve already seen that they are. … I mentioned in my interview that it’s not about what you have, it’s about what you do with what you have. And we have the resources now to be successful.
C-T: How good of a recruiting class can you realistically expect to get at this late stage?
Wagner: I don’t know that I can make a measuring stick of it yet until they’re all here on campus. … There’s still three weeks of recruiting left, and some young men might already have commitments to other people. Whenever there’s a change at a program, I think people understand that we still have an opportunity to go in and talk to those kids and give them an opportunity to come here. … We’ll address that first, and then we’ll find kids that maybe slipped through the cracks. … And we’ll need the help of our alumni to do that.
C-T: You’ve been at both large schools and small schools before. Do you prefer one to the other?
Wagner: There are advantages to both. The advantage we have here is that this is our community, and we don’t share it with anybody. In Western Carolina, we’re the show here. … When we drove in and saw the campus for the first time, actually I was surprised. I was impressed with the campus. It’s a great setting and a great place to encourage parents to bring their kids in for a visit and to see what we have to offer.
C-T: How soon will your family (wife Cyndi, daughter Whitney, son Joshua) be able to join you in Cullowhee?
Wagner: I’m hoping they’re here in March, or if not then, May. Smoky Mountain High School has a block schedule, and Lincoln Southeast, where my daughter goes, is on a semester schedule. So we need to work out details on the transferring of credits. .... These next four weeks we’re going to be pretty busy. Cyndi will be trying to sell the house, and our son is going to finish his basketball season, and my daughter’s going to begin track. So there’s never a perfect time, but we’re hoping it happens soon.
C-T: Did you hire a young offensive coordinator (Keith Heckendorf) because that’s a part of the team you’ll be most involved in?
Wagner: Number one, I hired him because I have complete trust in him as a coach. ... To me that’s a big factor when you hire coaches, you want to have people you know you can trust and that you know believe the same things you do. I’m going to be involved in the offense as a position coach, but I have a lot of other responsibilities here of continuing to fund-raise and to be involved with the whole team.
C-T: Will you call your own plays or let your offensive coordinator do that?
Wagner: He’s going to call them. We don’t know enough about our team yet to know what kind of offense we can run. I understand they went to a lot of no-huddle stuff last year, which seems to be the trend. It’s certainly something we’re going to look at because (current players) are already exposed to that. … But Keith will call the plays. I haven’t gotten to a point yet where I decide if he’s upstairs or on the field. I’ll definitely be on the field, so it may be a situation where he calls from upstairs and sends them to me.
C-T: Who are some coaches you’ve always looked up to?
Wagner: The first one is (Fresno State head coach) Pat Hill. He was my position coach in college (Utah). He’s also a gentleman who gave me an opportunity to coach at Fresno State and made me an associate head coach. I admire him as a friend and as a coach. … Pat’s probably had the biggest influence on my life as a coach.
C-T: You’ve got a five-year contract. When is it realistic for WCU alumni and fans to expect a winning season?
Wagner: It’s realistic to say you can win next year. Will that happen? We’ve got to wait and see because the progress we make between now and the start of spring ball and from spring to summer and from summer to fall are things we’ll monitor. And our recruiting class is important. But it’s our intention to have a winning season next year.
C-T: In the few days since taking the job, how much have you heard about the importance of beating Appalachian State?
Wagner: I’ve heard it several times. I was in town (Friday) for about 10 minutes. I won’t tell you exactly where, but I was at a business, and someone was an Appalachian State graduate, and they congratulated me on being here and were happy for me. But as long as we won every game (except for) Appalachian, they didn’t care. We started around joking about it, and I said, ‘Well, that’s going to happen sooner than you think.’ ... So, it’s already started.
GO CATAMOUNTS!!! xthumbsupx xthumbsupx xthumbsupx