Gold Rush Feature: Coaching Shifts
4/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 19, 2011
This article was originally published in the April 9 edition of Gold Rush.
By Sam Walker
Coming off a disappointing 3-9 season, there was no question that Jim Grobe would make changes to improve his program and the team's ability to once again be competitive and relevant in the ACC. Coaching shifts were made -- some by need, and others by choice -- but there's no doubt that shifting around position coaches, changing a few titles, and adding a new offensive assistant has made a positive impact in the early spring sessions.
The change that came out of need was prompted when defensive coordinator Brad Lambert left Wake Forest to become the first head football coach and begin the football program at UNC-Charlotte. Lambert served as defensive coordinator for the Demon Deacons the last three years. He served as linebackers Coach and special teams coach at Wake Forest from 2001-09. With the loss of Lambert, Grobe decided he needed an offensive-minded assistant to help offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke and move existing assistants to defense, the side of the ball where most of his current coaching staff has spent most of their careers.
Luckily, Grobe was able to lure away Lonnie Galloway, a North Carolina native, from West Virginia to become wide receivers coach. And he named Brian Knorr and Tim Billings co-defensive coordinators.
Galloway had been at West Virginia the last three seasons and helped the Mountaineers to three bowl appearances. During Galloway's three seasons there, the Mountaineers went 27-12 with three consecutive 9-4 seasons. He is a 1994 graduate of Western Carolina University, where he was a four-year letterman who threw for 5,545 yards, the second-highest total in school history. Galloway started his coaching career in 1996 at Elon where he served as the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach through 2002. He spent two years as the wide receivers coach at East Carolina University before moving to Appalachian State from 2005 through 2007.
"We've known Lonnie for a while," Grobe said. "He was at Appalachian State with Jerry Moore and was with Bill Stewart at West Virginia, who is one of my best buddies. And Jeff (Mullen -- a former WFU assistant) being up there -- it was a home run for us because I just didn't know if we could get him. My last three hires have really been defensive guys, and I felt like it was a good time to bring somebody in to help Lobo (Lobotzke). I told Ron Wellman to help Lobo out and he said, `Does he need help?' and I said he certainly doesn't need me bringing in another defensive guy. Lonnie came in and hit the ground running and a lot of the things they were doing at West Virginia are a lot of the things we're doing here, so we're familiar programs. But it has been an easy transition."
"It was an opportunity, something I wasn't looking for, but I talked to Jeff (Mullen, a former WFU assistant now the offensive coordinator at West Virginia) about it and it came across my lap. My wife and I talked about it, and it was a good fit," Galloway said. "I'm an hour away from home, and my wife is an hour and six minutes away, so we thought it was the right move.
"Wins and losses come and go and I had a great time at West Virginia. Coach Stewart was good to me, but it boiled down to just wanting to get back to North Carolina. I know Coach (Keith) Henry well, and I know some of the defensive guys. Coach Grobe made us feel like we were home, so hopefully I can help us do some things. Right now I'm just learning what we're doing, and offenses are basically made out of what you have."
The reorganization of the rest of the staff has Knorr moving from receivers to co-defensive coordinator along with Billings, who coached defensive ends last season but came into the Wake Forest program as a receivers coach.
"Bringing Brian Knorr back to defense from receivers has been a big help," Grobe said. "As much as I hate to lose Brad Lambert, I think we've made ourselves better. All our guys have done a great job on the offensive side of the ball, but Lobo had to work to teach them the offense, and it's hard not only to learn the terminology but also the fundamentals. Defensively, there is no transition because Steve Russ coordinated the defense at Syracuse, Tim Billings coordinated the defense at Marshall, and Brian coordinated my defenses at Ohio, so all three of these guys have done a great job as coordinators.
"I told Steve Russ I didn't think we were going to name tri-coordinators, so I put him in the secondary and now he's worried about getting that secondary coached up. We have a good mix involved with Brian Knorr and Tim Billings. They're working great together, and it's going to be a good mix. Tim has a good background in 4-3 defenses, and Brian Knorr has a lot of experience in 3-4, which is what we are running right now, so I think these two will work well together and the ideas will go well together." Billings is looking forward to the challenge.
"I think it was a good perspective for us coaching offense, but it's nice to get back to what you know," Billings said. "Any time you can do that, it gives you a better perspective so it's great for both of us. I feel like we have a great staff. Ray McCartney was a coordinator at Guilford (in addition to Russ, and Knorr), so every guy on that staff have been a coordinator, so it has been a great collegiality because we've all been in that situation, and we're working together, so it's been a lot of fun. Right now we are feeling each other out and its spring ball, but we're just so much on the same page. Our personalities are so different we balance each other out and that's a good thing."
Knorr said being on the offensive side will help in the transition to coaching on the other side again.
"I think understanding what people try to do on offense will help us tremendously now that were back on defense," Knorr said. "With Tim's defensive success when he was at Marshall, and I've been in the defense we're running right now for 15 years, I think it will be a nice match. My background is this, but Tim brings a nice twist to what we're doing, and he's coached the secondary, and we're trying to incorporate some new things into this 3-4 package, so Tim's bringing some good thoughts. Right now it's nice we're feeling our way through this, but sometime this summer we'll get this all together."