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Best Spiders' Football Coaches

I-M-UR said:
Wasn’t Jones still coach when we broke into the top 20…. In what is now FBS
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Yes...fall of 1973...unforgettable time for Richmond football...only lasted one week...lost to someone named NE Louisiana down in the bayou on a Saturday night...I wonder what the name of that University is now?

Go Spiders!
 
mojo-spider said:
Yes...fall of 1973...unforgettable time for Richmond football...only lasted one week...lost to someone named NE Louisiana down in the bayou on a Saturday night...I wonder what the name of that University is now?

Go Spiders!
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NE Louisiana is now University of Louisiana - Monroe (ULM). I mentioned this university earlier in another thread when I proffered ex-West Virginia and Big Five coach, Rich Rodriguez (58), as a possible replacement for this train wreck. He is currently serving as the Associate Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator there for his good friend, Terry Bowden at ULM and is considered an offensive innovator and genius. He pioneered the 'Spread Offense' and developed quarterbacks, Shaun King at Tulane (Tulane's Unbeaten Season), Woodrow Danzler at Clemson, and Pat White at West Virginia (NFL'ers all). ULM is one of those schools that changed their team name (Indians to Warhawks) because of political pressure.
 
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Clawson is my vote, put Hightower, Vaughan, SIdbury, and I think a couple others in NFL, even though Hightower was surely the highlight.
I think the defensive back that transferred in from Georgia Tech was Clawson (but memory could be off a couple of years) he spent time with Giants.
One of his recruited QBs transferred to Troy because he was behind Eric Ward and was Offensive Player of the Year in Sunbelt, then spent two years on Bills roster. Brown was the guy's last name (Leroy maybe was first name).
His recruits won National Championship for London, as someone mentioned.
 
Rocco’s playoff teams got poleaxed in their last games of the season.
 
Frank Jones is before my time so I have no idea. However, Clawson for me is far & away. Not even close. He took program that was about to be cut and turned it into a power. Multiple NFL guys. He won games and built a program. And he has produced coaches. Look at guys like Mike Elko.

London gets credit for winning a title. That’s impressive. While I think Clawson would have won more than one title…he left earlier. I would say that London should have gone back to back. His 2009 was truly loaded. Most talent I’ve seen at UR.

reid to me was better than Rocco. Reid won with less than a full deck. He had 50-55 scholarships on his rosters and still won playoff games. He was able to bring in some good coaches as well. That’s always impressive to me.

Rocco did what he does. He is polarizing but rallies a team around him. He had some good coaches but his main goal was making the playoffs where he then bottomed out.

rocco looks great because Huesman has bit the dust. Rocco had some good admin support when he started and always had 63 scholarships. He starting losing funding for assistants and other stuff midway and he bailed on us. I don’t blame him but I don’t see him as good as Reid and not close to same level as Clawson.
 
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Eight Legger said:
Jim Reid needs to be on this list.
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Personally, I'd go Clawson, Rocco, Jones. Jones had the advantage of University College on Lombardi Avenue (UCLA) to help with admissions; Clawson and Rocco did not. Reid hired Greg Gregory as Offensive Coordinator, then met with him when he came in and told him, "Here are the sixteen plays you can run this year." Gregory left after a year. Jones was ahead of his time, and brought in great assistants; if he hadn't, we would have lost football at Richmond in the '60's. Clawson left; and his recruits won a national championship. Rocco left; and he left the defense without very many good "Jimmys and Joes." Clawson, Rocco, and Jones definitely stand out in my mind.
 
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My ranking in "modern" history 1) Clawson 2) .... 3) Jones 4) tie Reid, Shealy, and Rocco, 7) London. Takes into account support by administration, allowing lower level academic students, fan support, facilities, league, (now, FBS vs FCS..
 
Stork3 said:
Personally, I'd go Clawson, Rocco, Jones. Jones had the advantage of University College on Lombardi Avenue (UCLA) to help with admissions; Clawson and Rocco did not. Reid hired Greg Gregory as Offensive Coordinator, then met with him when he came in and told him, "Here are the sixteen plays you can run this year." Gregory left after a year. Jones was ahead of his time, and brought in great assistants; if he hadn't, we would have lost football at Richmond in the '60's. Clawson left; and his recruits won a national championship. Rocco left; and he left the defense without very many good "Jimmys and Joes." Clawson, Rocco, and Jones definitely stand out in my mind.
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Agree with much of what you say, but important consideration is that under Jones we were playing at what now is the FBS level versus Clawson and Rocco eras at the lower FCS level. Your UCLA point is well taken and Jones was also AD for a while during his coaching tenure....that didn't hurt either.

Spiders were competing at the highest level under Jones and taking scalps with regularity (sorry, sure that is racist to someone), were actually ranked briefly, put some players in NFL, and won a bowl game. Impressive accomplishments at that level for a small private school.

I'd go Jones, Clawson, Rocco.
 
Huesman says this year's defense should be dominant. Agree, but have had their ups and downs so far.

A dominate defense would be the Jones coached 1973 team that went 9-2 with FIVE shutouts. Anyone remember Pat Kelly at LB? One of our best ever.
 
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Ill defer to Ray Tate (RIP) and say Frank Jones.

I wasn't around then but if he could get the Spiders nationally ranked in the 1970s when there was just one division then he needs to get that.

Jim Reid deserves a ton of credit that was mentioned earlier. Had he not had scholarship reductions probably wouldn't of left.

Dave Clawson since me following Spider football is the best by a country mile. He has won at Fordham, UR, Bowling Green and Wake Forest.

Mike London came in at the right time, but I wouldn't trust to build a program. Id liken him to a pitcher that got hot in the playoffs for one team, helps them win a world series, then flames out after a few years after cashing in on a fat contract elsewhere.

Rocco was a good coach but when he would lose in the playoffs he would go down in flames. I don't know if he could sustain what he was building here, which is why I thought he left (But I don't blame him).
 
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What I remember about Jones era was the size of our linemen going against the
likes of VaTech and WV. We gave away 30-40 pounds per man. Barty Smith at
fullback was same size as our tackles.
 
Clawson clearly is the best we've had in the past 30+ years or so, and I don't think there can be much debate about that. I'd give London an incomplete because he was only here two years, and I think probably spent much of the second year eyeing an FBS gig. Hard to say what his legacy would look like had he stayed five or six years. Great recruiter, but we also had some obvious gaps at certain positions thanks to him.

Reid was as good a person and motivator as I've ever been around as a coach. He took us from the Jim Marshall depths to regularly in the mix for championships and playoffs – no small feat. I rank him high for that alone, but he also changed the culture and set in motion everything that came after.

I wasn't around for the Jones era but will defer to those of you who were. Sounds like he belongs near the top of the list for sure.
 
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I have no strong feeling in this discussion- Clawson and Jones would be my top two.
When Frank Jones came to UR we literally had the nations longest losing streak.
Many of his first year recruits were players that got passed over because of h.s. Injuries
and the recruiters moved on. Our facilities were a f——g joke. And we had to play at
City Stadium.
Within a few years we were ranked in the top 25, nationally. And there was only 1 division of
D-1 football.
So, I think of Frank Jones as the Dick Tarrant of our football program. It made us believe we could be
winners in football.
 
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AnnapSpider said:
I have no strong feeling in this discussion- Clawson and Jones would be my top two.
When Frank Jones came to UR we literally had the nations longest losing streak.
Many of his first year recruits were players that got passed over because of h.s. Injuries
and the recruiters moved on. Our facilities were a f——g joke. And we had to play at
City Stadium.
Within a few years we were ranked in the top 25, nationally. And there was only 1 division of
D-1 football.
So, I think of Frank Jones as the Dick Tarrant of our football program. It made us believe we could be
winners in football.
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Not sure how much University College at Lombardi Avenue (UCLA) helped with Jones‘ success if any. Clawson did not have a place to hide less studious players.
 
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Can’t argue with you. But you still had to get the players to play. We weren’t the
only school with an “extension “ of the campus In those days.
 
localspider said:
Not sure how much University College at Lombardi Avenue (UCLA) helped with Jones‘ success if any. Clawson did not have a place to hide less studious players.
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Yu mean the football campus? I jest, but not to much, quite a few of the footballers were at UCLA
 
I-M-UR said:
I assume you’re kidding 7-3,2-9,6-5,9-3,5-6,10-3, 3-8,4-7,2-9. 48-53
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I am not positive, but if my memory serves, every class under Reid got at least one conference championship ring. That was also done with reduced scholarships in some of his years as I understand it, and even with reduced scholarships he redshirted.
I know he also had a high 804 area code rate on his teams as well, which means a lot to some here, and he won a championship or two along the way.

I have no problem with him on the list, but to each their own.

I
 
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Yep, you are correct ncfan. Reid had some clunkers but was dealing with a lot of restrictions (some self-imposed, because he refused to take guys who weren't good people first). I'm not saying his brand of offense was always the most interesting, but he took a dead program and brought it a few championships, and he did it by holding everyone associated with the program to a super high standard of personal conduct, which I always respected.
 
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Jim Reid is a class act - when my daughter arrived at Westhampton to move into the dorm he was there with a number of football players to do the heavy lifting and make it easier on the moms and dads. Another Frank Jones note - as already mentioned he served for a time as both AD and head coach. Not uncommon at all in those days. He was told he had to relinquish the AD duties and decided to resign from both jobs. Is easy to wonder how our football future may have been different if that had not taken place?
 
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nothing but respect for Reid here...his W/L's weren't as impressive as some of our best...but from my perspective as a fan it always seemed like his teams had a chance regardless of the opponent...he coached them hard and their play usually reflected his passion...he was also a great spokesperson and ambassador for the program, although that hilarious accent was foreign to some of us!

ha! another Reid story I got from a co-worker whose son played during his time...he would volunteer players to provide labor on public works types of projects in the City of Richmond...usually around dawn digging somewhere, or picking up heavy things...claimed it built strength and character simultaneously

Go Spiders!
 
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mojo-spider said:
nothing but respect for Reid here...his W/L's weren't as impressive as some of our best...but from my perspective as a fan it always seemed like his teams had a chance regardless of the opponent...he coached them hard and their play usually reflected his passion...he was also a great spokesperson and ambassador for the program, although that hilarious accent was foreign to some of us!

ha! another Reid story I got from a co-worker whose son played during his time...he would volunteer players to provide labor on public works types of projects in the City of Richmond...usually around dawn digging somewhere, or picking up heavy things...claimed it built strength and character simultaneously

Go Spiders!
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I Tended to agree about Reid’s character, but abandoning VMI made me reconsider
 
An insight into why he was a perfect Coach for Richmond, AND why we had continued success after he left. We can do it again if we put in place similar pieces.
 
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