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UB fan reaction to our scoop yesterday that Wisconsin-Whitewater coach Lance Leipold will be coming to Buffalo was generally positive. And that makes sense: There is a threshold somewhere where you can be concerned about a coach stepping up a level and struggling, but it's likely well below 106-6 over eight years.
One area of concern for everyone, however, is recruiting. Leipold will be able to flash his five - perhaps six by the end of the year - national championships, and should have a degree of success enticing offensive recruits - his stronger side of the ball - to a team that in 2015 will be loaded with upperclassmen at skill positions, but he is not a household name.
He'll also be making a jump from one of the biggest fishes to one of the smallest in their respective ponds. Aside from the winning, some Whitewater alumni who came over to Bull Run note that UW-W has "pretty nice [facilities] for D-III." The Warhawks' Perkin Stadium is the largest in Division III, and UW-W had the second-highest average attendance across all of D-III in 2012, and third-highest in 2013.
Leipold will not bring his entire coaching staff over from Whitewater, but he's unlikely to cut bait entirely. Sports Illustrated report, published 30 minutes after ours, noted that "[he's] expected to bring at least one staff member with major FBS recruiting experience."
Enter Alan Hensell, the presumed 'staff member' from that quote. It's just one guy and Leipold will need more than that, but he does have FBS-level experience in his coaching history. Better than that, it's SEC experience.
Hensell is currently the Wide Receivers coach at UW-W, but lists the following stops on his coaching resume:
- Wide Receivers, Wisconsin-Whitewater, 2013-14
- Offensive Line, Gardner-Webb, 2012
- Offensive Quality Control, Connecticut, Spring 2012
- Assistant Offensive Line/Offensive Graduate Assistant, Ole Miss, 2011
- Offensive Line Coach, Tennessee, 2010
- Assistant Offensive Line Coach, Ole Miss, 2007-09