How does it all work? (head coaching)

[dagdaj]

I may have asked this before and forgotten to look at responses. I have zero experience playing football. I "knew" a few guys who played in college (D3 and D1) and the NFL, but that's about it. Not enough to ask these kinds of questions. Also, I'm not tying this to anything specifically current or even recent past to the Hawkeyes. Just general curiosity.

How does this all work? I've read accounts of the whole "Rudy" thing. (I'm addicted to clickbait so stuff like "10 things the movie Rudy got wrong"). Also, I've read accounts of other players etc. Mix in a dose of having watched Hard Knocks (yah, yah, I know. It's 'reality TV' and the pros, but still).

I imagine it's different for all coaches. And I imagine it can change over the years for coaches with longer tenures. But I get the sense that Dan Devine was actually fairly removed from his players. Certainly coordinators and assistants spend way more time with individual players. I once talked to a former Hawk (defense) who played while I was in school. I asked him about Hayden (cause don't we all carry around a picture of Hayden in our wallet and stuff?), and all he wanted to talk about was his love for Dan McCarney. At the time we chatted, Dan was at ISU. I'm not gonna lie. It chafed. There were no specifics, but my recollection is he kind of rolled his eyes when I brought up Kirk. Kirk left fairly early in this guy's tenure.

How removed is Kirk (or someone very much like him) from the players? Obviously he knows them all. Sets tone. Etc. But I imagine it's possible that there's players who have very little regular interaction with him after any recruiting. How much of it is being the CEO, and mostly relying on reports from department heads and VPs? Or maybe even the Chairman of the Board? I imagine, even then, though....there are players they wind up interacting with for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's the critical players like a QB? Sometimes just a player who for whatever reason draws the appreciation of a coach from a personal non-football level? Or for negative reasons they catch the coach's eye (rule breaking/legal/behavior). I suppose I could use military equivalences like "General", but I got no experience with that either.

Again, I don't tie this to anything specific at hand. My curiosity on this stems from the stuff I've read about the Rudy thing over the years and lack of experience/exposure to 'big time' college football.

 

[Fryowa]

I may have asked this before and forgotten to look at responses. I have zero experience playing football. I "knew" a few guys who played in college (D3 and D1) and the NFL, but that's about it. Not enough to ask these kinds of questions. Also, I'm not tying this to anything specifically current or even recent past to the Hawkeyes. Just general curiosity.

How does this all work? I've read accounts of the whole "Rudy" thing. (I'm addicted to clickbait so stuff like "10 things the movie Rudy got wrong"). Also, I've read accounts of other players etc. Mix in a dose of having watched Hard Knocks (yah, yah, I know. It's 'reality TV' and the pros, but still).

I imagine it's different for all coaches. And I imagine it can change over the years for coaches with longer tenures. But I get the sense that Dan Devine was actually fairly removed from his players. Certainly coordinators and assistants spend way more time with individual players. I once talked to a former Hawk (defense) who played while I was in school. I asked him about Hayden (cause don't we all carry around a picture of Hayden in our wallet and stuff?), and all he wanted to talk about was his love for Dan McCarney. At the time we chatted, Dan was at ISU. I'm not gonna lie. It chafed. There were no specifics, but my recollection is he kind of rolled his eyes when I brought up Kirk. Kirk left fairly early in this guy's tenure.

How removed is Kirk (or someone very much like him) from the players? Obviously he knows them all. Sets tone. Etc. But I imagine it's possible that there's players who have very little regular interaction with him after any recruiting. How much of it is being the CEO, and mostly relying on reports from department heads and VPs? Or maybe even the Chairman of the Board? I imagine, even then, though....there are players they wind up interacting with for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's the critical players like a QB? Sometimes just a player who for whatever reason draws the appreciation of a coach from a personal non-football level? Or for negative reasons they catch the coach's eye (rule breaking/legal/behavior). I suppose I could use military equivalences like "General", but I got no experience with that either.

Again, I don't tie this to anything specific at hand. My curiosity on this stems from the stuff I've read about the Rudy thing over the years and lack of experience/exposure to 'big time' college football.

I live near a school in NW Iowa that has consistently put Iowa players through the program just about every year, and one of their former players is now an Iowa coach. I grew up in and now coach HS sports in the same conference as this high school and know a lot of those players. The ones I’ve talked to say that players very rarely, if ever, have more than a passing interaction with Kirk unless there’s a personnel issue (which nobody wants). They say players spend 99.9% of their time with the athletic training staff and their position coach. Keep in mind these players I’ve talked to all love Kirk, but they didn’t interact with him. Pretty much the only way you’re going to get time in front of the guy is if there’s a discipline issue that has to go beyond a position coach or if you’re a star player with academic problems, etc. I got the vibe that if you’re not a star player and you have discipline/behavior/grades issues that no one really cares and you get the unceremonious boot.

When you say, “[O]bviously he knows them all,” I don’t think that’s true. Most of those guys outside of starters don’t even get to meet him unless they were such an important recruit that Kirk got involved personally.

Washed up Walkons guys basically said the same thing. They said they never had a single minute of individual interaction with Kirk and never were in his office or even talked to him really. I can’t remember which one, but one of those guys said they were pretty sure Kirk wouldn’t remember his name or recognize him walking down the street and the other agreed. They weren’t saying it in a negative way at all because they love Kirk, but they were just showing that at a P5 program you don’t interact with the head coach because he’s so busy meeting and conferencing with assistants and other administrative duties that there’s no opportunity.

To be fair, that’s the way any major P5 program is going to work. No head coach is going to have time in their schedule to get to know or even meet 100 plus football players when a majority of them are new every year and a huge chunk of them don’t last more than a season or two due to walk-on attrition. There aren’t enough hours in the day.

 

[CP87]

Washed up Walkons guys basically said the same thing. They said they never had a single minute of individual interaction with Kirk and never were in his office or even talked to him really. I can’t remember which one, but one of those guys said they were pretty sure Kirk wouldn’t remember his name or recognize him walking down the street and the other agreed. They weren’t saying it in a negative way at all because they love Kirk, but they were just showing that at a P5 program you don’t interact with the head coach because he’s so busy meeting and conferencing with assistants and other administrative duties that there’s no opportunity.

I think that is all mostly right. But the bolded was obviously a joke/hyperbole, because one thing KF is exceptional at is remembering names and faces. I think that is true for many people who excel in a leadership role. He is skilled at making everyone think they matter.