It hasn’t always been the norm, but there seems to increasing examples of an assistant coach being groomed to become the head coach after serving a couple of years as an understudy.
Danny Hope took over the reigns from Joe Tiller at Purdue this season. Jimbo Fisher is slated to take over the top job at Florida State when hall-of-famer Bobby Bowden retires. And at Texas, Will Muschamp is set to step in when Mack Brown steps down.
Even Notre Dame worked its version of an understudy program back in 1953 when Terry Brennan was brought in as a coach from a catholic high school in Chicago to replace Irish legend Frank Leahy. Historically speaking, Leahy was insulted and that transition didn’t have the ease and cooperation this plan is designed to create.
Naming a successor well before the torch is passed usually helps to keep continuity in the program, and brings peace of mind among prospective recruits. It’s typically done at the top, but the Irish are using this transitional formula along the defensive line. And the relationship developing between greybeard coach Randy Hart and greenhorn assistant Bryant Young can only help the program.
Hart has seen it all in his four years as a player at Ohio State and 39 years as a coach. And after four standout seasons at Notre Dame and 14 years in the NFL, Young, 37, has also seen it all, only from a much different perspective.
Hart, 61, has been coaching longer than Young has been alive. But that doesn’t mean even a veteran like Hart can’t learn something from the four-time Pro Bowl former NFL defensive lineman. The blend of coaching experience and playing experience has given the Irish defensive linemen a terrific tandem to learn from.
“I think what I’ve gone through, that experience, I can share that with them in terms of things that I went through,” Young said. “Technique, the game situations, just what I saw from a defensive line perspective.”
The working relationship between Hart and Young is interesting to watch. Not unlike the way Charlie Weis and Corwin Brown complement each other, Young is hands-on at times, but like Weis, he is more calculating and picks his spots to offer feedback. Hart is the non-stop energy guy who, like Brown, doesn’t waste a single second to get his teaching points across.
“One thing I really like about Bryant is he gets in there when it comes to specific drills and kind of shows them how to do it,” Weis said “…He doesn’t have to earn his keep when it comes to showing them how to do things. But I do think he’s met his match as far as energy because this coach Hart, he is a wired person.
“I’m very, very, very happy to have (Hart). And I think Bryant is very, very happy that he’s here as well because it is making him better in a hurry too.”
No clear timetable has been offered on exactly if, when or how the reigns will be passed between these two.
Hart doesn’t appear ready to retire any time soon, so Young can use his time as a grad assistant to learn the intricacies of coaching, and ultimately determine if it’s the proper career choice. And so far, Young seems to be adapting well. During a practice skirmish between senior Chris Stewart and freshman Tyler Stockton – in which Stewart was being the bully – Young was one of the first to get to Stockton and make it clear that he better stick up for himself if he wants to survive in this game.
“My playing days are definitely behind me,” Young said. “But I still get emotional and excited about watching them make the plays. Just being around scratches that itch.”
And the players are loving both of their coaches.
“He's teaching us so much,” sophomore lineman Hafis Williams said of coach Hart. “And coach Young comes into the picture and teaching us from his experience. It's a great feeling right now.”
The mentor-understudy approach to coaching promotions has never been used at the assistant level at Notre Dame. But if this first trial holds the momentum it is already building, the graduate assistant program might become a more valuable tool than ever imagined, especially if the right candidates come available as one did this year with Young.
“I really think Bryant will get chills when we come out to play again, and how all of the sudden he’s involved with the game. I think he’s going to go through that Notre Dame moment all over again,” Weis said. “Bryant has come out there for a game here for a long, long time, where’s he’s run out of the tunnel. The players better get out of the way because he might be the first one running out there when we end up running out there on the field.”
.jpg)
