The Delaware head-coaching position is, by virtue of 70 seasons of often-prolific history, considered a college football plum.
UD athletic director Eric Ziady expected and received “a tremendous amount of interest” in the job, he said today.
And why wouldn’t it draw some of the best and brightest?
Delaware has had just nine losing seasons the last 70 years and won six national titles in that span. Coaches Bill Murray (1940-50), Dave Nelson (1951-65) and Tubby Raymond (1966-2001) are College Football Hall of Famers. Murray and Nelson each won a national title and Raymond won three.
K.C. Keeler, dismissed last week, was 86-52 in 11 seasons with one national title and two other NCAA final appearances. Had officials and the NCAA properly seen to it that the yardage chains at the January, 2011, title game were operated by qualified men, he and the Hens likely would have had another.
Now Delaware’s fifth coach since 1940 is about to be introduced, perhaps as early as Wednesday. And if it’s Rutgers offensive coordinator Dave Brock, the question will be obvious:
Is he worthy?
Ziady may have some explaining to do and Brock will certainly have some winning to do, beginning immediately in 2013, when Delaware returns a veteran offense and the nucleus of a solid defense. This is Delaware, where fewer than eight wins constitutes a bad season (ask anyone), meaning Keeler failed to measure up four of the last five years.
Brock would bring neither the Blue Hen pedigree nor proven head-coaching acumen Delaware’s last four coaches possessed. Murray, who’d been a standout player at Duke, was discovered by UD officials having been a successful head coach at something called the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Children’s Home. Nelson was a winning head coach at Hillsdale and Maine. Raymond was Nelson’s long-time UD assistant and hand-picked successor. Keeler was a standout player at Delaware and successful coach at Division III Rowan before getting the UD job.
Former Salesianum All-State linebacker Harry Schiavi told me today that “Delaware would be lucky” to have Brock as its football coach. At Davidson College, Schiavi had several teammates who later coached with Brock, whom Schiavi has gotten to know well.
“He’s extremely organized, intelligent and has a great offensive mind,” Schiavi said. “On top of that, he’s a great recruiter. He’s got all the qualities you’d want.”
But Rutgers also scored just 33 points while losing its final three games in a 9-4 2012 season. There was speculation Brock may not be retained and a flood of criticism on fan message boards that the Scarlet Knights’ offense underachieved.
Brock has spent the last 24 years as an assistant coach, and sometimes as an offensive coordinator, at eight different schools distinguishing himself mainly in the manner coaches do: by earning enough respect and praise within the coaching fraternity to keep getting good jobs.
Now he may get another, and one can only hope he and Ziady, who worked with Brock at Boston College from 2009-11, truly understand how special the job is and the expectations that come with it.