At Virginia Tech, sources tell us that Stanford's Aaron Moorehead will be the new WRs coach FootballScoop.com/the-scoop— FootballScoop Staff (@footballscoop) January 16, 2013
Has anyone heard anything about the OL coach? There was smoke surrounding Jeff Grimes, but I haven't seen anything substantive other than we talked to him.
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This is an except from his official Stanford bio.
Former Illinois standout and Super Bowl champion Aaron Moorehead enters his third season on the Stanford coaching staff as an offensive assistant.
He comes to The Farm after spending the 2009 season was a graduate assistant coach at the University of New Mexico, where he worked with the wide receivers.
Following his collegiate career at Illinois, Moorehead spent five seasons (2003-07) in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts, including an appearance in Super Bowl XLI when the Colts beat the Chicago Bears. In five seasons with the Colts, Moorehead appeared in 36 games, including one start, catching 31 passes for 330 yards and one touchdown.
Sounds raw, but considering he's coming from Stanford's staff, promising. So I'm going to speculate... Pep would have brought Moorehead from Stanford, and Greg Adkins was Pep's choice for offensive line coach?
Stanford's coaching hierarchy is so unorthodox.
But Moorehead was an "Offensive Assistant" but not a position coach....but they didn't have a position coach in charge of WR's.
I think it meant he was effectively the most junior of their offensive staff (they also have one or two "defensive assistants" w/out specific positions to coach). I might also mean he was being paid very little, almost a hybrid between GA (his previous experience) and position coach.
He may have also not had specific recruiting responsibilities. For instance, Rivals doesn't list him as a recruiter...but they don't list many of Stanfords recruiters.
I had also heard that Erik "Soup" Campbell had been considered, lately of Iowa, but a college teammate and coaching colleague of The Loeffler at UM.
yeah, Pep Hamilton basically coached QB's and WR's even though he was the OC. Shaw was the defacto OC so that left Hamilton with that extra time.
Seems Moorehead was not one of their 10 official coaches. The buzz on him is that he is a film-room genius, but as a non-coach I don't know how much he has worked with players on the practice field.
As a non-coach he was not allowed to recruit off campus either, so that means he's almost completely inexperienced as a recruiter. Similar to Cornell Brown when he came in.
Not as excited as this potential hire as I was when I thought he had taken over as WR coach when Hamilton was promoted.
Moorehead's experience
in the NFL and having a Super Bowl ring will be great with many recruits. Follow that up with Loeffler's experience with Brady and Tebow and Grimes' reputation. I am liking the hires greatly from a recruiting perspective. Let's see how the product is on the field.
#BEATBAMA
Re: Grimes
Is everyone just assuming Jeff Grimes is the guy because we grabbed Loeffler? It seems like there hasn't been much talk about Grimes after the Loeffler news broke. Part of me wonders if we're still looking for a OL coach.
Also, with Loeffler and Moorehead, these hires seem a bit riskier than meets the eye. Loeffler is only 38, and Moorehead is only 32. These offensive hires could flop, but who knows - they could end up really coming into their own at Tech.
Way I see it, if they don't work out, we move on, since I don't see any huge ties to the program.
If they do work out, they are young and there's the potential that they stick around for a good long time.
+1
Exactly what I said last week.
I love this thought process, but we all saw how long it took to move on from the last bad hire.
I blame that on the fact that Beamer was hiring friends/acquaintances... I haven't heard any big connections between Loeffler and anyone on our current staff, which is why I don't think it will be quite so hard next time, if necessary.
It shows VT has put on our Big Boy pants
We have long tried to use loyalty as the only mechanism for keeping coaches instead of the market. We tried to take a home-grown guy and get a "good-enough" offense out of him, knowing he would never leave.
Now, we've gone out and hired a guy who, if he is successful, will have other offers very quickly. If he isn't successful, we can move on quickly.
VT has been too dependent on home-grown talent. More risk, more reward.
The reports that came out last week had both Grimes and Loeffler in town for the second interviews together, so I think they come as a package.
Also, with Grimes, Loeffler and Morehead we will be adding someone with an NCAA championship ring, someone with a Super Bowl ring, and someone who was the position coach for a Heisman winner.
#ALLRECRUITINGEVERYTHING
Hey,
that's the risk you run when turning over the coaching staff. As per Grimes presence, it SEEMS as though he is the next line coach from multiple reports (from both Virginia Tech and Auburn beat writers) for what that's worth. Many beat writers for Auburn were extremely excited to hear he reportedly got the line job with us, especially Justin Hokanson, a radio host for Auburn and their Rivals writer (sorry- couldn't get the screen image in but here is a copy and paste of his twitter account)
@JHokanson
I see where Curtis Luper joined the #TCU staff and Jeff Grimes joined the #VaTech staff. Former #Auburn coaches.
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9:32 PM - 15 Jan 13 · Details
Others retweeted or responded to similar reports with "glad to hear he landed on his feet...great coach" or something along those lines, including the aforementioned beat writers. That being said, I will wait on French's film review before making any judgments of my own. As I said before, he seems to have a good rep with recruits, which never hurts.
Though it is not officially announced by the University, it seems as though that is the direction Frank and Scot want to go in as to coaching the line. Maybe he will use actual game film to help establish technique for the linemen?
Something to ponder
Since he's raw like Joe said and since Stanford's wide receivers aren't standouts, granted the system doesn't need them to be, it got me thinking. Maybe we're bringing him in because he knows how to coach WRs in a pro style system and knows how to get them to BLOCK (not only from his coaching experience but from his playing days as well). This, plus Logan's comments yesterdays about getting back to running the ball, make me think that Loeffler really is going to be a run heavy kind of guy and we're going after guys that fit the system.
Run first
Running more makes sense given the potential system we are looking at and the talent we have next year. With the size of Logan, Harris, and Edmunds and the speed of Coleman our backfield is solid already. I think that Stanford and Caleb are going to surprise a lot of people this spring with their talent. We already know what Knowles can (and can't do). I feel good about these hires already. Also look at future recruits that are coming. If we offer former Auburn QB commit Jacob Park he will fit intot his system down the road. He was listed this last season at 6-4 200 lbs. as a Junior.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they bring a couple of commits... I'm sure there's a number of kids that are going to be cut by Auburn's new staff, and some of them might want to follow the OC or OL coach that recruited them.
That said, obviously nothing is guaranteed.
Agreed, I'm looking at five things in recruiting
1. Does Loeffler like the QB's we have? If not, he may go after a guy or two he had pursued. Jeremy Johnson is 6'5" mobile QB from Alabama that is an Auburn commit, but recently announced he is visiting Ole Miss or South Carolina.
2. Can we get back in on Derrick Green? Green liked Shane, but he didn't like our offense. He did like Auburn when Loeffler and Grimes were there. That should be our first call this week, can we get Green to visit? Maybe Drew Harris' uncertainty helps?
3. Grimes' ability to recruit OL is pretty remarkable. If you looked back at the Rivals lists of who he recruited, he seemed to go anywhere and everywhere to find OL. In particular, he worked Colorado hard, Texas and Florida. Is there an OL out there that he might be able to bring in? I would think a guy might be interested if he is "one of Grimes guys" and we are reassessing our entire OL.
4. As mentioned, Grimes worked Florida some and Loeffler worked Florida a lot. Can we get back into Florida regularly?
5. How will we fill in traditional recruiting responsibilities? DC/MD was Sherman, NC/SC was O'Cain, half of 757 was Newsome. Will Stiney take all of 757 or split it with Cornell? Will Wiles take all of NC/SC? Will we let Grimes focus on OL anywhere? What can Moorehead handle? Will he work Indiana/Illinois?
Derrick Green
I hope we at least make another push for him. We might be able to pull it off. Green & Harris together would be awesome.
A few partial answers...
4. Haven't we already been recruiting Florida a bit over the last few years? I remember us having taken a few guys from down there. Between Torrian and Wiles, we've brought in a bunch of guys: Jayron Hosley, Mark Leal, Luther Maddy (all 3 from Atlantic Community High School), Donaldven Manning, and some other guys that haven't contributed much.
And years ago, we brought in Brandon Flowers and David Clowney from Atlantic Community. We aren't ignoring the state, and none of the guys that have connections down there are leaving. But it would be nice to get an even larger presence in the state.
5. I'm sure whatever happens, the old staff will pass their connections on to the new staff. I bet that Shane and/or Stiney are working on that right now. I wouldn't be surprised if each of the new guys has a "home base" region in the mid-Atlantic, but then also have free reign over their old stomping grounds as well to bring in a few guys.
This is why
I wish that they would go ahead and announce the coaching changes!! I really believe we could get Green if they were to. Don't the current coaches realize the huge impact that this will provide for recruiting?
There is also the kid that was an Auburn commit from SC who wants a VT offer.
Jacob Parks
but he's a 2014 recruit. For QB's, I was talking about the 3 weeks until signing day and if Loeffler makes a push for another QB. It would reflect on how he views Bucky and Carlis (both of which have their detractors).
For 2014 QB recruits, we could see (gasp!) VT pursue some less mobile QB types.
Jacob Park
He's the same kid that said he would accept an offer from VT because we're his favorite school. I can't find the article but a keyplayer posted it here a week or two ago. I don't think it would be too hard to get him.
That was me. http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2013/january/8/former-2014-auburn-qb-c...
The critical point man
is still going to be Grimes.
I agree, and his was the hire I was most excited about...
without a dominant OL, absent for a while, the talent in the backfield is very limited on its production.