Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Addazio's staff starting to take shape


Frank Piraino
 There's this Planet Fitness commercial going around these days with a muscle-bound guy with a German accent getting a tour of the gym and repeating (apparently) the only English words he knows:
"I like to lift things up and put them down."
The tour guide then shows him the door.
I used to look at strength coaches pretty much the same way until I met Dr. Linc Gotschalk, Bruce Arians' guy at Temple.
Gotschalk had strength and the art of weightlifting down to a science long before his time. He could quote Shakespere and military history. A smart guy who had his Temple teams fit.
When Temple played Rutgers, for instance, Temple guys would hit the RU guys and they would routinely be carried off the field.
The same wouldn't happen to Temple guys, who bounced off similar hits.
Linc Gotschalk would just smile.
He was one of a kind and Bruce Arians' guy. Temple won 15 national powerlifting championships under Gotschalk, who is now at  Hawaii.
Strength coaches and football coaches have a similar bond.
Tony Decker was a good guy, but he wasn't Steve Addazio's guy.
Addazio has made two hires so far, Frank Piraino as his strength coach and Justin Frye as his offensive line coach. All I know about Frye is that he was a grad assistant at Florida. Geez, I'd like a guy with a little more than GA experience coaching my offensive line, but Addazio was the best offensive line coach Florida ever had so he might know a little more than I do about this.
I don't know Jack (or Frye or Piraino) about both, but I know they are both Addazio's guys and that's important.
I'm hoping for Chuck Heater to be my defensive coordinator and maybe Ralph Friedgen or George DeLeone as my OC so maybe I'll  have something to be more to be excited about in the next few days. But more than me being excited as a fan, they have got to be guys Addazio is comfortable with and loyal to him.
To succeed, you have to have your team in place.
It's OK to borrow a player or two from another guy's team (say Matt Rhule from Golden's team to be LB coach), but it's got to be largely your guys.
We'll be getting more Addazio guys in here over the next few days.
Then it's time to rock and roll.