Furman Football Coaching Staff

[PaladinNation]

Coach Fowler has assembled an impressive staff at Furman. IMO, Ricky Logo is a big get for Furman.

DEFENSE

John Windham - Defensive coordinator/linebackers coach
18-year collegiate coaching veteran, four seasons as defensive coordinator at Gardner-Webb.

Rick Logo – Defensive Line Coach
Four seasons as defensive line coach at Vanderbilt.
Five years at Troy — defensive line coach (2002-04) (2005-06) as co-defensive coordinator.

Antonio Goss – Defensive Backs, Special Teams Coordinator
Safeties coach and special teams coordinator at Louisville 2009.
Cornerbacks and special teams at Middle Tennessee State (2006-08)
Linebackers and cornerbacks coach at the University of Buffalo (2001-05).


OFFENSE

Tim Sorrells – Assistant Head Coach/Quarterbacks Coach
25 seasons as an assistant coach at Furman. Has since served in a number of capacities, including running backs and quarterbacks coach, as well as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach.

Scott Smouse – Offensive line Coach
Offensive line coach at Jacksonville State (2008-2010).
Offensive line coach at East Gadsden (Fla.) High School for the 2007
(2005-06) at East Mississippi Community College (EMCC). In his second season there he directed an offensive line that paved the way for the nation's top junior college rusher, LeGarrette Blount.
Coached for two seasons at Louisiana State University (2003-04), where he served as a graduate assistant working primarily with the offensive linemen, and was part of the Tigers' 2003 national championship team and 2004 Capital One Bowl.

Norval McKenzie – Running backs Coach
Following graduation he coached for two years at Hiram (Ga.) High School before returning to Vanderbilt as a graduate assistant coach for two seasons. In 2010 he assumed the duties of assistant recruiting coordinator while also helping with player development and coordinating the Gridiron Club for former Commodore letterwinners.

McKenzie was a four-year football letterman for Vanderbilt (2001-04), where he rushed for 1,411 yards in his career. He battled back from a serious leg injury his sophomore year to lead the Commodores in rushing in both 2003 & '04.

TBA Jimmy Kiser – Offensive Coordinator
In 1986, Kiser joined the North Carolina State staff. He served the Wolfpack as receivers coach (1986-95), quarterbacks/receivers coach (1996) and offen- sive coordinator (1997-99). Under Kiser in 1997, the North Carolina State led the Atlantic Coast Conference in rushing offense and finished second in total offense, then topped the league in total offense the following year.

In 2000, Kiser moved to Memphis where he coached quarterbacks. In 2001, he served as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Richmond.

Kiser earned widespread acclaim for mentoring quarterback Jay Cutler, the 2005 SEC Offensive Player of the Year who virtually rewrote the Commodore record books. Kiser coached Cutler for four consecutive seasons, developing the strong-armed prospect into a top National Football League prospect. By the time he graduated, Cutler ranked among the top quarterbacks in SEC history and owned nearly all of the team's passing marks. Eventually, Cutler was selected in the first round, the No. 11 overall pick, of the 2006 NFL Draft.

[Reign of Terrier]

Sorrells is still on staff. This is a good thing, I shall sleep easy this summer

[PaladinFan]

Sorrells is still on staff. This is a good thing, I shall sleep easy this summer

Sorrells staying on staff was a big bonus, actually. He kept all of Furman's top recruiting targets on board during the coaching change.

The staff has some pretty impressive credentials and they inherit a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. Now they just have to get the ship heading in the right direction again.

[OL FU]

I think the big question mark with Sorrells is did he change the offense or did Bobby. I have no clue. Sorrells certainly has seniority with the assistant head coach title but he is not running the offense. He is coaching QBs which is certainly a place few would doubt he is qualified to do .

[PaladinFan]

I think the big question mark with Sorrells is did he change the offense or did Bobby. I have no clue. Sorrells certainly has seniority with the assistant head coach title but he is not running the offense. He is coaching QBs which is certainly a place few would doubt he is qualified to do .

I was always of the impression that Lamb wanted to move to the spread. It took him a while to implement those changes as he had Ingle Martin, Renaldo Gray, and then Jordan Sorrells, all three good QBs, but none were true spread QBs.

In recent years, I simply thought the offense got far too complex. Perhaps that had something to do with Sorrell's son at quarterback. I thought, often times, we were trying to get too "cute" out there with little results.

I imagine we'll see a push back to the "old way," tough running inside. I'd love to us work off the power run game that has been so successful in the past. My hope is that we use Forcier just like we did Ingle Martin. Focus on running the ball in the middle, then boot the quarterback out on the edges and give him options. Furman was durn tough to beat when they were doing that.

[Bogus Megapardus]

I like to keep an eye on Paladin football because, to me at least, it approximates the quality of football the Patriot League might enjoy should it approve of merit scholarships in the future.

Obviously Furman is experiencing coaching staff changes with the naming of Fowler, which is to be expected. But my question is this - over the last decade, how frequent were coordinator and position coaching changes under Bobby Lamb? Are the assistants/positional coaches compensated reasonably? Are any of them part-time? How often, if at all, do you get the sense that Furman recruits also considered/were sought by Ivy or Patriot schools?

Finally, while I realize that Furman does not subscribe to a conference-wide academic index, is there a notion that Furman scholarship players, on average, approximate the academic achievement of the undergraduates as a whole? Does it make a difference to anyone?

[PaladinNation]

Bogus Megapardus, some great questions.

But my question is this - over the last decade, how frequent were coordinator and position coaching changes under Bobby Lamb? BL was IMO to a fault loyal to his staff. BL did not make a coordinator change until last season 2010. Most Furman fans will say the defense started not playing Furman Defense around 2007.

Are the assistants/positional coaches compensated reasonably? Pre 2001 word has it Furman paid its assistant coaches very well. But as Furman stepped out of the SoCon arms race… our pay scale stayed flat. But that has obviously changed. Coach Fowler didn't come cheap, nor did Logo, Kiser, Goss, etc… I have no idea what Smouse was making at JSU. But you can read into it that Furman probably gave him some pretty good incentives to move.

How often, if at all, do you get the sense that Furman recruits also considered/were sought by Ivy or Patriot schools? On occasion Furman does compete with Ivy Schools for a player, not sure about Patriot. I would say this year Furman competed mainly against Air Force, Army, Navy, MAC, ACC, SoCon.

Is there a notion that Furman scholarship players, on average, approximate the academic achievement of the undergraduates as a whole? Under Dr Shi, Furman's academic requirements for an athlete were raised three times… or so I've been told. I would say that a football player on a scholly was held to a higher standard than a undergrad.
This is changing.

[PaladinFan]

Bogus Megapardus, some great questions.

But my question is this - over the last decade, how frequent were coordinator and position coaching changes under Bobby Lamb? BL was IMO to a fault loyal to his staff. BL did not make a coordinator change until last season 2010. Most Furman fans will say the defense started not playing Furman Defense around 2007.

Are the assistants/positional coaches compensated reasonably? Pre 2001 word has it Furman paid its assistant coaches very well. But as Furman stepped out of the SoCon arms race… our pay scale stayed flat. But that has obviously changed. Coach Fowler didn't come cheap, nor did Logo, Kiser, Goss, etc… I have no idea what Smouse was making at JSU. But you can read into it that Furman probably gave him some pretty good incentives to move.

How often, if at all, do you get the sense that Furman recruits also considered/were sought by Ivy or Patriot schools? On occasion Furman does compete with Ivy Schools for a player, not sure about Patriot. I would say this year Furman competed mainly against Air Force, Army, Navy, MAC, ACC, SoCon.

Is there a notion that Furman scholarship players, on average, approximate the academic achievement of the undergraduates as a whole? Under Dr Shi, Furman's academic requirements for an athlete were raised three times… or so I've been told. I would say that a football player on a scholly was held to a higher standard than a undergrad.
This is changing.

Agreed. No real evidence to me that Furman recruits against the Patriot league head to head. This might be an on the limb statement, but my thought is that Furman really doesn't go head to head against the SoCon for recruits most of the time. Most are the service academies and the lower tier ACC schools.

I imagine Furman went out there a bit when it hired most of this staff. It seems, conceptually, that you have to sweeten the deal to get a guy to move from one school to another to coach the same thing he was already doing.

To the last question, I think the academic requirements of athletes has never been higher. I was stunned on senior day listening to the credentials some of those guys had (accepted to medical school, etc.). I have never gotten the impresion they substantialy lower their academic standards for athletes.

[OL FU]

We did have Clay Hendrix and, I think, a few others leave after 2004 ( I think) Hendrix went to Air Force and was Furman's offensive line coach. The O-line has slipped some in recent years (after watching our QB run for his life this year maybe a lot).

I think PaladinNation has it right so I am not disagreeing. I don't know that our athletes are held to a higher standard than the student body in general. Those standards have increased significantly over the last ten to fifteen years. However, I believe one of the changes was that under past presidents, athletes were guaged more on their ability to graduate than the standards of the typical student. So we could bring in a player with a slightly lower SAT as long as the coaches and administrators thought he could graduate with a reasonble GPR. As PaladinNation mentioned that has changed. While there may have been some exceptions, the exceptions were few. From what I understand, Smolla is at least contemplating returning to the old admission standards for athletes.


The interesting thing about the above is not that more qualified students aren't better athletes. It is simply the pool of potential recruits shrinks.

I do think that Furman is a good measurement of what the PL could become if scholarships were provided. Especially when you look at our long term success. Wofford is another good example although the longevity isn't quite there yet, but they certainly seem like they are going to be good for quite a while.

[OL FU]

I was always of the impression that Lamb wanted to move to the spread. It took him a while to implement those changes as he had Ingle Martin, Renaldo Gray, and then Jordan Sorrells, all three good QBs, but none were true spread QBs.

In recent years, I simply thought the offense got far too complex. Perhaps that had something to do with Sorrell's son at quarterback. I thought, often times, we were trying to get too "cute" out there with little results.

I imagine we'll see a push back to the "old way," tough running inside. I'd love to us work off the power run game that has been so successful in the past. My hope is that we use Forcier just like we did Ingle Martin. Focus on running the ball in the middle, then boot the quarterback out on the edges and give him options. Furman was durn tough to beat when they were doing that.

Martin may not have been a spread QB but I often wonder what the offense would have looked like if Martin had passed the ball as often as Jordan. I mean the offense was stellar with Martin throwing 20 times per game, but I can't imagine the numbers he would have put up throwing it 40 times.

[PaladinNation]

Jimmy Kiser is now official:

Jimmy Kiser Named Offensive Coordinator At Furman
http://furmanpaladins.com/sports/m-footbl/2010-11/releases/20110225uppvdh

[PaladinFan]

Martin may not have been a spread QB but I often wonder what the offense would have looked like if Martin had passed the ball as often as Jordan. I mean the offense was stellar with Martin throwing 20 times per game, but I can't imagine the numbers he would have put up throwing it 40 times.

I loved that offense. We were averaging about 230 yards a game on the ground, and 230 yards a game in the air. It wasn't one of those "where's the ball" offenses or one that sprinted to the line of scrimmage after each play. It was just one of those physical offenses that no matter what your scheme, you just couldn't stop.

I look back on those years with fondness. Hopefully we can recreate that type of unit again under CBF.

[OL FU]

I loved that offense. We were averaging about 230 yards a game on the ground, and 230 yards a game in the air. It wasn't one of those "where's the ball" offenses or one that sprinted to the line of scrimmage after each play. It was just one of those physical offenses that no matter what your scheme, you just couldn't stop.

I look back on those years with fondness. Hopefully we can recreate that type of unit again under CBF.

Don't get me wrong. I loved that offense too. But if you were going to design and offense to pass the ball 40 times a game, well.............

[Aho_Old_Guy]

New Vermin football coaches hold first organizational meeting ...

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindbeaversbeat/2008/12/large_village%20people.png


xlolx

[OL FU]

xnonoxxlolx Good you at Least send Daisy Mae down. We could use a little diversity:p

[Aho_Old_Guy]

Good you at Least send Daisy Mae down. We could use a little diversity

Daisy is so 1970s (like the Village People xlolx ). Yah might stand a better chance with Watauga's 2011 equivalent: A 'Lindsay' or 'Paris'.

Of course ... you owe us Big Time. We took Miss SC Teen USA off your hands xnodx

[cmaxwellgsu]

It will be nice to see Furman back to full strength. It's always fun when we play y'all last, and we both have big things on the line. The old Big 3 might be back!

[OL FU]

Daisy is so 1970s (like the Village People xlolx ). Yah might stand a better chance with Watauga's 2011 equivalent: A 'Lindsay' or 'Paris'.

Of course ... you owe us Big Time. We took Miss SC Teen USA off your hands xnodx

I'm so 1970s:o

[PaladinFan]

It will be nice to see Furman back to full strength. It's always fun when we play y'all last, and we both have big things on the line. The old Big 3 might be back!

Would be nice to see. I think in 2011 Furman is the team about which we know the least. Potential all-conference quarterback that no one seems to know how good he might be. Lot of talent on both sides of the ball. A coaching staff that, on paper, is one of the most experienced Furman has ever had.

Things are definitely pointing in the right direction, I think.