Posts Tagged ‘sonny cumbie’

The term "boomerang generation" is used to describe the hordes of kids that leave their parent's home for college and return as young adults. Like the Australian icon, they go leave, see a bit of the world, and come back home.

In college football, and specifically the Big 12, there's a growing generation of boomerang coaches. They started out as highly successful players, left home either to play professional football, to coach, or in some cases, to do both, and return to their alma mater. 

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy is currently the poster child for boomerang coaches. Gundy played quarterback for the Cowboys from 1986-89 and left school as one of the most decorated players in school history. He remained in Stillwater as a coach until 1995, coached wide receivers at Baylor in 1996, then served as the quarterbacks coach at Maryland from 1997-00. He returned to Oklahoma State as the offensive coordinator in 2001, rose to head coach in 2005 and has led the Cowboys to heights previously unseen, winning the Big 12 and the Fiesta Bowl one season ago.

Another prolific Big 12 quarterback returned home yesterday, as Texas Tech hired former standout quarterback Kliff Kingsbury. The first of Texas Tech's many successful Air Raid quarterbacks, Kingbsury may bring former Red Raiders back to campus. Sonny Cumbie, Texas Tech's starting quarterback in 2004, is currently on staff in Lubbock. Former Red Raiders wide outs Eric Morris and Trey Haverty are currently coaching wide receivers at Washington State and TCU, respectively.

Elsewhere within the conference, Texas recently promoted its own former quarterback, Major Applewhite, to offensive coordinator, and former Oklahoma quarterback Josh just completed his third season calling plays for the Sooners.

Kingbsury, Applewhite and Heupel are all familiar foes. Coaching against each other will just be a continuation of when the trio quarterbacked their schools against one another a decade ago. Heupel completed his Oklahoma career in 2000, Applewhite graudated a year later, and Kingsbury moved on a year after that.  

The Big 12 is hardly unique to hiring former players, but the league clearly sees the value in it. While other coaches may just see a job as the next step on the coaching ladder, former players are emotionally invested to help their alma mater succeed. And, as we've already seen in Gundy's case, former players are more inclined to stick around when other schools come calling.

Like boomerang kids, the current crop of boomerang coaches won't stick around forever. Opportunity will come calling with raises and promotions. But, at least for these coaches, it wouldn't happen if not for the chance to return home. 

Texas Tech head coach pulled the curtain back a bit during his press conference this week. Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal provided a glimpse of how Tuberville and his staff run things during games. 

“I don’t like anybody talking on the phones with the coordinator calling plays,” Tuberville said. “Worst thing you can do is have a head coach and assistants hollering in your ear. ... It’s got to be one guy, one thought, but the thoughts of other people come whether it’s timeout or (when) you’re off the field.

“Now, Neal will ask me, ‘Run or pass, coach?’” Tuberville said. “‘If this play doesn't work, if it’s third-and-5, do you want to run it, do you want to pass it?’ And I’ll give him my thought."

Like many head coaches, Tuberville oscillates between the offensive and defensive sides of the headset during games. 

“But then he gets the last call," said Tuberville. "He knows a lot more about it than I do, because I’m over on the defensive side and a lot of times I’m not even watching (the offense). I’m listening to the defense and trying to help them.”

Brown was just 28 when Tuberville lured him from Troy to be the Red Raiders' offensive coordinator in 2010. The Texas Tech offense has come under fire of late, as the Red Raiders have been held to 24 points or under four times in Big 12 play this season. Texas Tech lost to Texas 31-22 on Saturday. 

“It’s a lot harder when you’re there calling (plays) and you’ve got about 30, 40 seconds to make that decision,” Tuberville said. “That’s the reason we go freeze a lot of times. You’ll see us line up, we’ll get down and we’re all looking at the formation, and we’ll have one guy in the press box giving Neal the front and one the coverage: ‘Neal, they’re going to be in zero coverage, they’re going to bring five’, and then he’ll call a play.”

Tuberville stated that running backs coach Chad Scott and offensive line coach Chris Tomsen give their recommendation on running plays, and inside receivers coach Sonny Cumbie and outside receivers coach Tommy Mainord will do the same for pass plays. 

The most-question decision made by Tuberville on Saturday came at the 1:35 mark of the third quarter. The Red Raiders had just scored a touchdown to pull within 24-22 and opted to go for two, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Though Tuberville bore the brunt of the criticism, it was a decision made by the staff ahead of time.

“You don’t go for two just spur of the moment,” he said, adding that the defense was playing well at that stage of the game. “We also thought, ‘Hey, we need to let these players know we’re trying to win the game.’ We’re trying to get back into it, so if we can score one touchdown and get that two-point play, then it would be huge momentum.”

Win or lose, it was a team decision.