University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Chemistry 101
January 4, 2012 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Jan. 4, 2012
By Lee Pace
When a head football coach and nine assistants gather around a conference table, there are 90 potential relationships in play: Ten men, each with a connection of some kind to each of the nine others. That all 90 will be smooth and swell is impossible. But it bodes well for the team if there is a high degree of respect, camaraderie and familiarity among those 10 coaches. It's hard enough to snare Logan Thomas on the keeper or double-up on Sammy Watkins without film room friction over how best to skin those cats.
Tar Heel head coach Larry Fedora introduced eight assistants Tuesday in a press conference in Kenan Football Center. One more is to follow, likely not until after Fedora has a chance to interview candidates at the American Football Coaches Association convention in San Antonio Jan. 8-11.
So far, so good. Fedora brings six coaches with him from Southern Mississippi, where they directed the Golden Eagles to a school record 12 victories in 2011. He brings another he coached with for three years at Oklahoma State and who has ties to Carolina. And he brings yet another he's known for many years and who has some history with another member of the new staff.
"We had a very hard-working staff at Southern Miss and a staff that cared about kids," Fedora says. "To be able to bring that core here was very important to me. It was one of the things probably that attracted the search committee to me--I had a staff ready to go. We would not have to go through a learning curve. Guys would not have to learn what I'm all about and how we want to run the program. They already know. They know exactly what to expect. I think that makes it a whole lot easier."
The offensive staff moving from Hattiesburg includes coordinator/quarterbacks coach Blake Anderson, line coach/running game coordinator Chris Kapilovic and tight ends coach Walt Bell. Gunter Brewer, an assistant at Carolina under Carl Torbush and John Bunting from 2000-04, returns as wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator, furthering his relationship with Fedora that included three years working together at Oklahoma State from 2005-07.
The four coaches on defense will be Vic Koenning, Dan Disch, David Duggan and line coach Deke Adams. Koenning comes to Carolina from Illinois, while the others move from Southern Miss. Koenning carries the title of associate head coach for defense, while Disch has been designated as coordinator and Duggan will assist on defense and coordinate special teams. Everyone involved on Tuesday admitted that the intricacies of the hierarchy and responsibilities had yet to be ironed out; they were more worried about organizing their first week's recruiting efforts.
Koenning and Disch point to their shared experience on head coach Ron Zook's staff at Illinois in 2010 and say they are comfortable with however the details evolve.
"It will be a collaboration," says Disch, who as the Golden Eagles' defensive coordinator gave Fedora his blessing to pursue Koenning for Carolina. "Vic's a lot like me, he does not have an ego. If you're worried about who's making the calls or who's getting the credit, you can't succeed. I learned from Vic and Larry, too, that the more good coaches you have on the field and smart guys in the meeting room, the better chance you have."
"It's not his defense, it's not mine--it's our's," adds Koenning. "We'll both have our part in it. We're both confident we'll work it out and not have any issues."
The biggest challenges at the moment for the new staff is learning the geography of the state, where to park on campus, and where to set up temporary housing until their families move. Each other's personalities are not an issue.
"That's a big plus for us," Anderson says. "We've had some success together. You don't have to take time talking about how you want things done. That's understood. The biggest thing for us is getting our feet on the ground here--getting recruiting assignments, learning the team, those things. But as a staff, we'll work well together. I have no doubt about that."
Brewer notes that the staff has worked long hours since Sunday getting a feel for the previous staff's recruiting board, the inventory of prospect film and establishing plans for the coaches to hit the road Tuesday night.
"You learn a lot about people when you get very tired," Brewer says. "You get a little nippy going from 6 a.m. to midnight. But everyone's done their part, everyone is ready to do anything we need to go see a guy or get a commitment. It's not important for me to sign a guy or someone else to sign a guy--it's North Carolina signing a guy. These guys have been through the wars together. I worked 18 hours a day with Larry for three years. The only guy Larry doesn't have a coaching relationship with is Vic--but they have known each other for so long and they're from the same mold."
Brewer's connections to the Tar Heel program run the deepest, but most of the staff have some Tar Heel tidbit in their memory bank somewhere. Brewer has been busy working his phone the last week reconnecting with high school coaches across the Carolinas and Virginia he knew in his first Tar Heel tenure. Koenning knows the area from his four years on Tommy Bowden's staff at Clemson from 2005-08; he was calling the shots when Carolina gained only 150 yards total offense and eight first downs in that infamous 52-7 beat-down at Clemson in 2006.
Adams spent two years in Greensboro at North Carolina A&T in 2006-07 and knows the heritage of the defensive line position at Carolina--Vonnie Holliday, Greg Ellis, Julius Peppers, et al.
"One of the things that attracted me to this job was the long line of talent that's come through here at the position," he says. "I know lot more will come through here and we're going to try to keep the tradition going."
Kapilovic has gotten an interesting and ironic view on the Tar Heel program from Sam Pittman, the coach who gave Kapilovic his start in the business at the University of Kansas in the early 1990s and the coach who Kapilovic is replacing. Duggan comes to Carolina remembering his first visit to Chapel Hill--as a New Hampshire assistant attending a coaching clinic in the late 1990s.
"I said, `Wow, what a beautiful place, someday I'd love to coach here,'" Duggan says.
Disch remembers his days at Ed White High in Jacksonville in the 1990s when his players knew exactly who the Tar Heels were.
"My dad remembers `Choo Choo,' but my kids were nuts over Dre' Bly and those guys, and we were all the way down in Florida," he says. "My kids were chanting his name. Carolina has good national name recognition. That will certainly help in recruiting."
The new job is a step up for the coaches from Southern Miss, coming from Conference USA in the shadow of the SEC. It's a return home of sorts for Brewer. And it's a good job for Koenning, who could have stayed at Illinois under new coach Tim Beckman. Everyone is excited to be a Tar Heel.
"Many times in that offensive staff room at Oklahoma State, Gunter and I would be talking and he'd say that North Carolina was the best place he'd ever coached. That planted a seed in my mind," Fedora says. "When I called him about joining this staff, he said he'd have crawled back."
"I'm here because of the reputation of the University of North Carolina and because of Larry," says Koenning. "I've known him a long time and admire what he's done. We have a lot of mutual friends and mutual respect. And a lot of people I know have worked here before and they love the place. Tommy Bowden always said he felt this was one of the best places in the world. That tells me a lot."
Lee Pace (leepace7@gmail.com) is in his 22nd season writing "Extra Points" and eighth covering Carolina games on the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network.
