Comeback? ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ RB coach and former Dallas Cowboy DeMarco Murray executed an April Fools' prank on Twitter.
A few days after ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ hired John Mackovic as its football coach in 2001, I got a call from ex-Wildcat All-Pac-10 running back Vance Johnson, a three-time Super Bowl receiver for the Denver Broncos.
“I want to coach at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥,†he said. “Can you put in a good word for me?â€
But because Johnson did not earn a college degree, he was unable to return home — he played high school football at Cholla — and start a new career path.
At any football school in America, even Alabama or Clemson, the hiring of an NFL star like Johnson, or new UA running backs coach DeMarco Murray, would be a coup.
There are few celebrity assistant coaches in college football; it is a game largely coached by old linebackers and safties, and the Pac-12 is a worthy example.
The most accomplished NFL player to coach in the Pac-12 was Ken Norton Jr., a 1987 consensus All-American at UCLA. Like Murray, Norton was a three-time Pro Bowl player, with three Super Bowls to his credit, not to mention being the son of boxing’s Ken Norton, who famously broke Muhammad Ali’s jaw and beat him in a famed 1973 fight.
Norton coached at rival USC from 2004-09,ÌýPete Carroll’s glory days, and has since been coaching in the NFL.
Murray, who turns 31 next month, will coach running backs at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. That’s almost a minor part of the deal. Who can’t coach running backs? Even a high school freshman knows the difference between hitting the 2 hole and the 3 hole. Pass blocking? How tough can it be?
Essentially, Murray will coach four players at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. His real value is in recruiting, mentoring and team bonding as much as anything. He is a big personality. More so, his name is still known to high school recruits. As recently as 2014, Murray delivered one of the great seasons in NFL history, rushing for 1,845 yards and catching 57 passes. He retired from the NFL a year ago.
His away-from-the-game impact is that he was an accomplished student as an Oklahoma All-American, and four times a Big 12 All-Academic team player, earning a communications degree with a double minor in African-American studies and business.
That should turn the heads of parents of would-be ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ prospects.
Over the years, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has employed two ex-Wildcats who were accomplished NFL players: secondary coach Randy Robbins and defensive line coach Joe Salave’a. Until Murray was hired, the most successful NFL player to coach at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ was secondary coach Johnnie Lynn, part of Dick Tomey’s first ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ staff; Lynn remained in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to the Desert Swarm years and then coached 24 years in the NFL.
The most high-profile college player to coach at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ was Josh Heupel, who, like Murray, was an Oklahoma Sooners standout, finishing second in the 2000 Heisman Trophy balloting. Now the head coach at Central Florida, Heupel began his full-time coaching career at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ in 2005, leaving a year later to go back to OU where his career skyrocketed. While back in Norman, Oklahoma, he coached a young DeMarco Murray.
More to the point of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s coaching staff, the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ football community might’ve reacted with more enthusiasm if Kevin Sumlin had announced a change in the way ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ will coach senior quarterback Khalil Tate.
In 2018, Sumlin and offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone implemented a scheme that didn’t take advantage of Tate’s skills. We’ll probably never know how much of that was on Tate — was it questionable play-calling or Tate’s inability to execute the plays? — but either way the UA needs to seize the opportunity and maximize Tate’s abilities in 2019. That’s coaching that matters immediately.
Winning the reeling Pac-12 South Division is no one’s idea of an impossible mission in 2019. The addition of Murray and the potential for him to relate to NFL-hopeful players like Tate should only improve ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s chances to get to a Rose Bowl.
