Dale Lennon press conference transcript
12/29/2007 | 12:00:00 | Football
Dec. 29, 2007
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Dale Lennon Press Conference
Director of Athletics, Mario Moccia
On behalf of Chancellor Trevino who had a prior commitment today and on behalf of President Poshard who was ill in central Illinois we welcome you to today's press conference. I'd like to recognize some of my bosses. Dr. Sam Goldman and also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Roger Tedrick.
As I begin this press conference today I would once again like to thank Coach Kill and his staff for the the phenominal job they have done over the past seven years. In their tenure, their performance has allowed us to attract a candidate of this caliber. I talked to Jerry a few times on the phone last night. He was also excited. I want to publicly thank him and his staff one more time.
It has been 15 days since Coach Kill departed for Northern Illinois University and we have worked very diligently to secure a new football coach. I had asked a five-member screening committee to assist me in the process and I wanted to thank them for their efforts. Dr. Harold Bardo, who is here. A former Saluki men's basketball player, associate professor for the med-prep and also our faculty athletic representative, Dr. Bardo if you could stand. Thank you.
John Nicholou, an associate dean in the college of engineering, and is also a chair of the intercollegiate athletic committee and a former college football player. He is visiting some family in Pennsylvania today.
Coach Kerri Blaylock, our head women's softball coach, if she would raise her hand. Thank you.
Mr. Greg Cook, an SIU supporter and booster, if you would raise your hand. Thank you very much.
And finally, Mr. Bill Norwood. Bill is in Arizona right now.
In addition, I'd like to bring up some other names, Jason King, Mark Scally, Chet Savage, my assistant Linda Auxier for doing a lot of behind the scenes work to make all of this happen. So thank you to all of those individuals.
Whether you are a coach or an administrator at this point in time, you go into recruiting mode and I'd like to also thank the following people who helped me recruit coach here to Southern Illinois University. On the outset, President Poshard. He did a wonderful job in my opinion in the recruiting process. Certainly the mayor, Brad Cole. He did a wonderful job as well and point him out. Thank you very much.
An SIU alum and former football player, a gentleman named Shannon Fahbrah. Shannon is the director of sports marketing for UnderArmour and he was also instrumental and we're not prepared to do this today, but we will shortly have a big announcement with a partnership with UnderArmour sports and Saluki Football that's going to be unparalleled in my opinion in the Championship Subdivision.
Certainly this next gentleman Greg Cook. I've mentioned him before, but we could not have secured a candidate of this caliber if it not have been for Greg Cook. He did a phenominal job with his time, with his resources away from his family at a critical time of the year which is the holidays. Greg one more time please, thank you very much.
And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't thank my wife for putting up with me.We did not have much of a Christmas at the Moccia household. In fact we didn't have a Christmas, but we will definitely make it up next year. Heidi, thank you very much for being patient with your husband. You know at the outset, we had identified 12 things that we were looking for in our next head coach and I'm going to tell you what they are because it really helped in the process.
The committment to the academic success of his players.
The committement to the responsibility of his players.
A proven recruiter.
A hard worker.
Someone who knows previous success.
Someone who had ties to the midwest.
Someone who had experience with equivalency scholarships.
A good fit for our community.
Someone who could live with our current resources.
Someone I can work with well.
Someone who has a great desire to win.
And finally, someone who wants to be here.
When I took a look at the finalists and these qualities, we certainly believed that these were the ingredients that made us successful up to this point. And I'm very confident that we found our man in Coach Dale Lennon. The over riding theme was Coach Lennon, whether it was athletic directors or coaches or what have you. He's a great coach, but can you get him here. They said, "I don't think you can get the guy. He's been successful, I just don't think you can get him."
Well, let me just tell you a little bit about Coach Lennon. From an academic standpoint, in 2006 he had 59 players receive a 3.0 GPA and 12 receive a 4.0 GPA. Last year's players led the North Central Conference with 22 on the Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll, and his teams have averaged a GPA of 3.0, seven out of the last eight years. So he is very committed to academics.
From a community standpoint, he was and will remain an icon in the Grand Fork's community. I know he and his family will be missed there. At this time I'd like to recognize Chris, his wife, if you would please recognize her, as well as his sons Jared, Trevor, and Cody.
And finally, from a competitive standpoint, he has put up some eye-popping numbers. Number one, he is the North Central Conference three-time Coach of the Year. He has five consecutive ten or more win seasons. 2001 National Champions. 2001 National Coach of the Year. As a reminder, next year the Gateway Conference will be expanding to bring in North Dakota State and South Dakota State, two powers from the upper Midwest. In the last ten games against those schools Coach Lennon is 8-2. Finally, in 2006 Coach Lennon awarded North Dakota's squad with 36 scholarships, went up to the Dome against Northern Iowa and won. That's a feat that we have not accomplished since 1983.
Here's a little story for you. On December 23, late night, a plane pulled into Grand Forks. Greg Cook and I said goodbye to Coach Lennon and Chris, we were waiting for the plane to refuel before coming home to Carbondale. We were just shooting the breeze for a little bit then it was time to go, Coach Lennon's car had warmed up and he was going to get the escort off of the grounds. At that time it was just Greg and I and we were making our final decision - do we wait for the escort to take us to the plane or do we walk? We looked at the guy who was behind the counter and he said "Hey, it's only three degrees out there. But it is -17 degree windchill. So Greg and I looked at each other and I'll never forget this, Greg said "I don't know if we can get this guy, but I know that we've got a little warmer weather in Carbondale." Well, Greg, we got him."
At this time we would like to introduce the next football coach at Southern Illinois University. Dale Lennon.
SIU Head Football Coach, Dale Lennon
Thank you, Mario.
It's an honor and a privilege to be named your head football coach. This is a process that happened fast, I'd like to recognize the efforts of the search committee. They did a tremendous job of selling your program. The program itself, just to let you know, has an incredible reputation on the national scale. You have a football program that you can be very proud of and those were the things that came together in a hurry that made myself and the family realize that this was just too good of an opportunity to pass up on.
I probably knew that something was on the horizon. My birthday was on December 13, and my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday present. I live up north, there's a lot of snow, and I've never been into cross-country skiing, so what did I tell her to do? I want a set of cross-country skis. I don't know if we got the receipt for that or not. But that was probably an indication right there that something was going to happen.
It's been a whirlwind. A week ago today, they had flown me into St. Louis for a chance to visit with the committee. That following Sunday, I came on campus, had a chance to meet quite a few people in here. Then right before Christmas, they made the offer. It happened very fast.
At North Dakota, that was a place that I was very entrenched. I played there, I was assistant coach there, I had been the head coach there. It's a special place. To all of the sudden see what the potential of this football program possesses, and the possibilities that are out there, that excited me. That made me very excited about the challenges that are in front of us. I thought this was the time for me to make the move. Visiting it over with my family and individuals that have been my mentors over the years, I asked what they thought. Is this a good move for me? To the man, they all indicated this was the right move, this was the place I had to go.
I feel very good about the journey we're about to enter, and I'm looking forward to it. I had the chance to visit with some of the players, right before this press conference, and as a coach, that's what it's all about. It's about those relationships with your players and I can't wait to get that started. That's why you coach the game, because of the people that coach the game. You get to be a part of that and those are things that are just right around the corner.
I also had the chance to visit with Coach Kill on the phone. Him and I had actually crossed paths a long time ago when he was the offensive coordinator at Pittsburgh State and I was the defensive coordinator at North Dakota and we had played against each other a couple of times in 1992 and 1993. Calling him on the phone was very beneficial because he expressed a lot of the same concerns that I had in leaving, some of the same things that he had in leaving this program. I know his heart and soul went into this program to build it where it currently is. We were talking the same things.
There's that anxiety in leaving a place that you put so much time and effort into. But again, that next challenge that is there in this coaching profession, you have to take those challenges. You need to take that step every now and then. That's why the coaches that are in it, especially the ones that are successful, they have that competitive drive. It was time for me to make that move too. We're kind of coming from the same circumstances. This is a program I want to build upon. It's not broke, it doesn't need to be fixed. But what I hope that I can bring to the program will allow us to build on those successes that have been put in place.
My first challenged is I'm hired, okay now what do you do? Well, first thing I have to do is get staff put together. But there I'm very encouraged. The phone calls I've been receiving are from coaches I have a tremendous amount of respect for and coaches that have established themselves on the national scene. I think we have the potential to put together an incredible coaching staff here at Southern Illinois.
We've got to get started recruiting. Right now we have to play some catch-up ball. But as soon as we get that rolling we're going to approach that as hard as we can.
I want to establish a connection with the current team. The players report back on January 13. One thing I want to do as soon as possible is have individual meetings with each and every player. Get to know them, allow them to get to know me. Successful football programs are about having the right chemistry, having a connection, and I want to connect with that football team as soon as possible.
And then establish that connection within the SIU community and in the community of Carbondale. That's something that is very important to us as a family. We want to be a part of everything that's going on. Whether it's with the other programs on campus, being at the games, being at the activities within the community itself, those are things that we're looking forward to.
As far as coaching style, coaching philosophy, our offense philosophy is we try to be 50-50 run-pass. We've had a tremendous amount of success with our offensive numbers. This past year especially, we re-wrote the record book at the University of North Dakota with a lot of the numbers that we put into it. So I'd like to continue on that end. Defensively, we have run a 3-4 defense, that's my background and that's where we've had a lot of success. It's been a very aggressive concept. Those are things I want to have in place. With special teams, that's the third element that is sometimes overlooked. I work directly with the special teams, with the punters and the kickers, with the snappers. I'll take the punt team, I won't let anybody on my staff touch the punt team. Just because it's that one team that I don't think any coach really wants. But I want to make sure that we're ready to go on that end. So those are the challenges that are in front. There is a lot of work to be done. There is a lot of familiarity to accomplish.
When I went home for Christmas, I'm from a very small town up in the northern part of North Dakota, and my whole family was back. I hadn't told them yet that I was looking at this position. So they all show up and I kind of gather them around and every single one of them was wearing a Fighting Sioux outfit. So I told them, you know what, I think I'm going to do this. They said, "You better have some gifts to give us!" So that's what we'll be doing to get everybody up to date.
The fan base has increased, because there are a lot of loyal supporters up in North Dakota that will be following the success here. Having a chance to go to North Dakota State next fall to play is something I'm looking forward to. I guarantee there will be quite a few people cheering for us on that end. So those are fun.
The last press conference, where I took the head coach was nine years ago. It's one of those thing that when you go through these press conferences, it's kind of intimidating because you get the microphones, the cameras, and all these people out in front of you. Nine years ago I was at North Dakota accepting the position, it's one of those things where you're getting through what you need to say, and all of the sudden I say "Are there any questions?" Well at that point in time, my middle son Trevor was eight years old, and he had snuck up to the front of the audience and before I could stop him, he raises his hand and says, "Dad, how long are you going to be at this job?" So Trevor, you don't get the opportunity to do that.
It is an honor, a privilege to be here. I really look forward to the opportunity of being a part of everybody here.
Are there any questions from the general public that would need to be addressed?
Every move that you make in a coaching career is individual to each person. You look at a person's background, there is no set pattern to what happens in a coaching career. For me, I played ball at North Dakota, I had nine years as an assistant coach, and nine years as the head coach there. Most of my coaching career has been in the state of North Dakota. It was time for me to branch out and take on another challenge. This was a perfect fit. I wasn't looking, I didn't apply for this job, the contacts were made. I came on campus and the feel was there. Then the potential, the thing that I saw here was the success that's been in place is amazing considering some of the things the football facilities are going through. Then you look at the stadium that will be there in 2010. When you combine facilities with a program here that has the tradition of success. Then you've got a recruiting area here that, to be honest with you, I would die for up in Grand Forks. This is a sweeping giant. The other thing is for me to leave North Dakota, I'm not coming here just to be competitive. We're coming here to take that next step, and I really believe that will be accomplished.
What Jerry did was the most difficult, just getting the attitude of winning. When you expect to win going into a football game, you've got a leg up on your opponent. That's the thing that was always talked about at the University of North Dakota, we had that expectation in the fourth quarter that no matter what the situation was, we were going to find a way to win that ballgame. And we usually did. That was part of the expectation. It something, as players, when they know when they take the field that they are going to win that football game and they're going to have something happen down the stretch that will allow them to do that, that's a chemistry thing. That's a tradition thing that you need in place.
With the five previous years, especially here, with the success that the Saluki program has had, that has put that winning tradition in place. The expectation there is to win. When visiting with the guys, they were in the semi-finals, they had the taste, they could see the National Championship game right around the corner and it slipped away from them. That's something that I hope does eat at them that makes them want to get back at it in this off-season and what are we going to do to take this next step, and have that hunger. That's the winning tradition. That's what I want to build upon. I don't have to get them thinking that they have to win, I know they can win. Now it's just how do we take that next step.
As a coach, it's all about relationship with the players. It broke my heart to leave UND. It's not an easy time to leave, you don't have your team there, you can't tell them why you're leaving, what the circumstances are. But on the other side you see the hunger in the guys' eyes, as far as getting this going, excited you're here, let's do this. Let's make this happen. That's what I'm hoping when we get together January 13, that I can look out in the eyes of the team and see that hunger, "alright coach tell us what we need to do, let's do it". That's exciting.
When I came back to UND, we had not won a National Championship up to that point. We had been very successful on the National Scene, but we just hadn't been able to climb that final hill. One of the very first things I mentioned to that team when I talked to them was "Gentlemen, we're going to win a National Championship. I don't know when it will be, but we will. It's just a matter of time, it's going to happen." Then once you start talking about it, then once you start visualizing it, putting it out there as your goal. You have to do that in order to even have a chance of winning it. I think this program is at the level that they can talk about it and legitimately believe that they have a chance to win a National Championship. That's why you play and coach the game.
What I'll do as far as hiring a staff, there's a progression that will happen. I've got a top assistant that I'm currently visiting with that will be my top assistant. He's at another school, we've coached together in the past. Once that's together I'll make sure the coordinators are together then we'll have a staff put together, hiring through the coordinators. You're going to have some flavor, yes there's going to be some North Dakota coaches that will come with me but at the same time, you're going to have some coaches that are going to have different backgrounds. You'll have a diverse group, I think that's very important. I want somebody who has connections here with the program so that we can be led through, this is what we have done and this is the way it is done. I'm assuming there are a lot of traditions I don't want to step on. Communication is going to be critical here in this next semester just to make sure this all comes together. It's not going to be the entire staff. It's going to be a mix of coaches with some very impressive credentials. I've been encouraged with the phone calls from coaches who want to come here, I don't feel crazy for wanting to come here, it's a place a lot of people want to come.
Recruiting is going to be the big challenge for me. I need to establish those ties. I have Midwest connections, but it's upper Midwest. So we need to establish those as soon as we possibly can. That's one of my concerns.
There's a lot similarities between the two programs, then I get here and I hear about the academic success and the work ethic. I hear about the football team and the way they approach everything. Those are all the same components we have put in place at the University of North Dakota. There seems to be a familiarity there that is hopefully legit. When you come in with the transition there's going to be change, there's going to be some awkwardness. But you want to get through those awkward periods as soon as you possibly can. So that a couple months down the road, you can call it normal. That's the hope.
