It's not as much 'fun' as we had last season, nor will it be as entertaining as what NIU, Kent, Ball State, Temple, and even Miami are going through this season but it's time to talk about the Buffalo Assistant Coaching hunt 2010.
Watching NIU throttle Fresno yesterday showed the importance of a solid assistant coaching staff. The Huskies could have easily pulled a Cardinal (be the best team in the MAC, lose the MACC, lose their coach, and then choke away their bowl game. Instead the Huskies played close to their best game of the season.
Part one looked for a QB's coach. Rather than follow the standard model of having the OC act as the defacto QB's coach UB needs to get someone working with the QB's who is *only* concerned with the Bulls young quarterbacks. Next season UB has a sophomore (Zordich), a Junior (Davis), and three freshman (Warden, Licata, Daniel).
That still leaves two responsibilities and only one position. A wide receivers coach who will serve as an offensive coordinator. Hopefully you can dig around some pretty good FBS programs for a wide receivers coach who might make a move to a non AQ conference as a coordinator.
Andy Hill, Wide Receivers Coach Missouri.
Andy hill has been at Missouri forever, and in that time he has bounced around the coaching staff quite a bit.
Hill has coached two of the most prolific wideouts in school history. Danario Alexander's 2009 season saw him lead the NCAA in receiving (137.0 yards per game), as he shattered school records for receptions (113), receiving yards (1,781) and receiving touchdowns (14). -- Missouri Athletics
This might be a bridge too far as coach Hill is Missouri through and through but he is getting to that point in his career where he will have to make a move if he ever wants to be a head coach. If Warde Manual and Coach Quinn could lure him to UB it would be a phenomenal 'get'.
Gunter Brewer, Wide Receivers Coach Oklahoma State
Brewer, a Wake Forest grad, spent two years as the 'co-offensive' coordinator at OSU before settling down to cover only the outside wide receivers this season.
With Brewer serving as co-offensive coordinator, the 2008 Cowboy offense produced a pair of first-team All-Americans in wide receiver Dez Bryant (Walter Camp and American Football Coaches Association) and running back Kendall Hunter (Football Writers Association of America), to go with a first-team all-Big 12 offensive lineman in Russell Okung and a first-round draft pick in tight end Brandon Pettigrew. -- OSU Athletics
Brewer's Cowboys are more of a balanced team than the all out air assaults Quinn's offense let lose with the Bearcats but they have moved the ball really well through the air whenever it was called for.
Dennis Simmons, Outside Receivers Coach ECU
The Pirates did not seem to blow anyone away this season but we all know what a first season of a new staff can go. What makes Simmons a desirable OC goes back to his last gig.
After accepting the Texas Tech coaching assignment, Simmons stepped into a vital role on the offensive side and inherited the nation's leading receiver and Biletnikoff Award winner Michael Crabtree.
In 2009, he, along with inside receivers coach Lincoln Riley, transformed walk-on Alex Torres into a Freshman All-America selection after a team-leading 67-catch, 806-yard, six-touchdown performance. -- ECU Athletics
Someone with Texas ties who has developed some of the best receivers of the past decade. If not for Leachisms like "Fat Little Girlfriends" he would likely still be at a high profile AQ school developing receivers.