Coach Roper

#1
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Xanny

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#1
Kurt Roper is Tennessee’s newest assistant football coach. I’ve been listening but I never heard the applause.

Some who have not met Kurt, and wouldn’t know him if they saw him at Litton’s, frowned on the selection.

They wanted Kippy Brown or Jon Gruden or Vince Lombardi. Jerry Rice would have been nice.

I don’t know Kurt but I know his dad. And I believe in bloodlines, which means I count young Roper as a win for Tennessee’s football family. He has a royal pedigree. Bobby Roper was one of the finest football coaches I’ve known in more than half a century of knowing football coaches.

Let me tell you about Kurt’s dad. He played for Frank Broyles on some really good teams at Arkansas (when John Majors was an assistant coach for the Razorbacks).

Paul “Bear” Bryant baptized Bobby Roper into coaching as a graduate assistant at Alabama. After that, he went his own way, to Wichita State, The Citadel, Virginia, to Iowa State with Majors and Pittsburgh with Majors. He was defensive coordinator for Majors’ national championship team.

When Majors returned to Tennessee, Roper came as defensive coordinator. He didn’t have as much talent to coordinate as at Pitt but Roper worked every bit as hard, maybe harder. He had an absolutely great rapport with players.

Roper got up close and personal in coaching linebackers. One spirited afternoon, he got too close in a goal-line drill. He was rolled for a full flip, got up leaking a few drops of blood and immediately hugged the hitters who knocked him upside down. I don’t remember who did it. Could have been Greg Jones, Danny Spradlin or Craig Puki — or all three.

None of the coaches who came with Majors from Pittsburgh lasted long at Tennessee. Roper learned in a strange way that it was time to go. I told him.

Accidentally.

On a beautiful May day in 1980, Majors promoted Frank Emanuel to defensive coordinator. I received a timely phone call from an unimpeachable source and managed to get the story into the afternoon News Sentinel before the boss told Roper about his demotion.

This was very unsettling for coach Majors. By the time he called the newspaper, I had departed for Louisville to inspect Kentucky Derby colts. He called Louisville.

I hadn’t arrived. He finally found me near dawn of the next day. He told me exactly what he thought and hung up. He thought of something else he wanted to say and called back – six times. I am not making this up.

There was no debate. I got in only a few words edgewise. No, I was not deliberately trying to complicate his life. Yes, I was happy for Frank Emanuel and no, I certainly wasn’t trying to hurt Bobby Roper’s feelings. Somebody else took care of that.

Alas, a good man was lost in the wreckage. Roper went away, to Oregon State (with Joe Avezzano) and eventually to Texas A&M (with Jackie Sherrill).

I do believe in Tennessee thoroughbreds. I never considered it an accident that Ralph Chancey was a fullback and captain in the late 1940s and Steve Chancey was a winner in the early 1970s; that Norbert Ackermann was center and captain in 1940 and Bert Jr. grew up to be a center, exceptional student, outstanding official and a remarkable businessman.

I noticed that middle guard Steve DeLong was a Tennessee captain, an all-American, winner of the Outland Trophy, in 1964 and linebacker Keith DeLong was a Vol captain and all-American in 1988. Ken, brother and uncle, wasn’t bad as tight ends go. Do you think all that just happened?

Scattered throughout the wonderful years of Volunteers are dozens of very special family connections, none more famous than the Majors brothers, John, Bill and Bobby.

John is a legend, perhaps the most famous name in Tennessee football history. As he went out the door, an all-American tailback, deserving of the Heisman Trophy, in came Bill. The cast around him was not as good but this Majors never complained. He had the heart of a lion. Can’t say for sure but Bobby might have had the most athletic ability of the three.

There was a crowd of colorful Canales from Memphis and identical twins Reggie and Raleigh McKenzie from east Knoxville. The punting Colquitts come to mind as do kickers Fuad and Carlos Reveiz. I’ll save the quarterbacking Clausens until we see what Jimmy does.

It could be the Lowe boys from Fountain City started the family trend in 1914. Chink was first, all-Southern and captain, to be followed by Andy, two-time captain J.G. and Ted.

J.G. was my favorite, a great historian, a meaningful news source. I still have a document he gave me about the early years of the Volunteers.

Abe Shires was a great tackle on the sensational teams of 1938, 1939 and 1940. Little brother Pat was Tennessee tailback in ’52.

Royal bloodlines? Jim McDonald, Ohio State great, served for a season as Tennessee’s head coach. Son Jim was a very good defensive end. Quarterback Daryl Dickey saved the 1985 season, was MVP in the Sugar Bowl and added greatly to his father’s fame and popularity.

Is Kurt Roper a chip off the old block? Probably. Do you suppose he learned some football from his father?

Most likely. Is it possible he can fill the need at Tennessee? Bet on it.

(Marvin West invites reader reaction, good or bad, to westwest6@netzero.com)


http://hallsnews.com/columns/west.htm
 
#2
#2
Thanks for the history lesson, but it still says nothing about what HE can do as a coach.
 
#3
#3
All that sounds great. We shall see.
I really don't believe CPF will EVER hire an impressive coach because it would overshadow (threaten) his position.
Of course if there aren't some MAJOR changes in 06 he may not have a position.
 
#4
#4
(RealVol @ Jan 24 said:
All that sounds great. We shall see.
I really don't believe CPF will EVER hire an impressive coach because it would overshadow (threaten) his position.
Of course if there aren't some MAJOR changes in 06 he may not have a position.
Click to expand...

RealVol, do you ever have anything else to say? :dunno:
 
#5
#5
I read that whole thing and still don't feel any better about Roper. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes. :unsure:
 
#6
#6
Try this one on. Not quite so flowery. From a FoxSports Blog on jan. 20.

IS PHILLIP FULMER'S FOOTBALL CAREER AT TENNESSEE ON THE ROPES?
Jan 20, 2006 | 8:01AM | report this KNOXVILLE -- The selection of Kurt Roper to join his Tennessee staff was, no doubt, Phillip Fulmer's decision -- albeit in consultation with new Associate coach David Cutcliffe who knew Roper best. However, Roper was far from Fulmer's first choice. After failing to land Kippy Brown or any other top-flight coach in the NFL or from another major college program and after being turned down by a few others, there really was no one else who wanted to come to Tennessee. Why has a job on this staff become so unattractive to a quality assistant coach?


Fulmer seems to feel that Roper can contribute to the success of the Vols, despite hiring him from perhaps the worst staff in the Southeastern Conference at Kentucky. Time will tell if this is true, but he appears to be another in a long line of hires that Fulmer has made of coaches with weak resumes and limited experience in achieving championship results at the big-time college football level. Roper's only strength seems to be that he brings youth to the staff to better attract recruits.

Look for Georgia's Mark Richt to make a strong play to hire Trooper Taylor, once recruiting season is over. Many well-heeled Georgia alumni, who are supplementing Rodney Garner's salary with the Bulldogs with private money, have been urging Richt to go after Taylor -- a good recruiter and a good friend of Garner's. Richt has resisted doing so at this time, due to ethical considerations, but once signing day is over this is a move that may definitely be made -- especially due to the lack of running game production that Georgia had from its current running backs coach this year. Will UT up the ante to keep Trooper? Larry Slade has been rumored for months to be retiring after recruiting season is done, as well, and reportedly told some of his defensive backs that Kentucky would be his last game on the Vol staff.

It appears that the reshuffling of the staff will include Taylor moving from running backs coach to wide receivers coach, if he stays, and that Roper will coach the running backs. Trooper appears happy with the move, and apparently Fulmer hopes he can motivate the receivers to do a far better job than they did under Pat Washington.

In the meantime, it appears Tennessee is heading toward its worst recruiting year in Fulmer's career. Unless he has a lot of silent commitments in his hip pocket, he will have to have the strongest closing of any recruiting season in his career to avoid being out of the Top 15 nationally in terms of talent signed -- the first time that has come close to happening since he has been head coach. This would be a crushing blow to a coach who directs so much of his year-round efforts toward that aspect of his job and is considered by his peers to be, perhaps, the best recruiter of any head coach in America.

Fulmer has hired former quarterback Rick Clausen, who nearly quit the team last season and has several public rifts with Fulmer in the media, as one of UT's new graduate assistants. This, apparently, is a reward to the Clausen family for giving the Tennessee family two of their sons and it may also be to give Tennessee a chance to salvage the recruiting of Jimmy Clausen, the last of the Clausen clan from California. Fulmer, obviously, realizes that there have been some problems with the recruiting of quarterbacks of late, as the last few have not panned out as planned (James Banks and Brent Schaeffer, in particular). Without a proven QB in camp as spring practice rolls around, this is a critical need that may again go unfilled with top talent. By the way, Clausen replaces former Vol Jay Graham, a graduate assistant in 2005, who has been hired as an assistant coach at UT-Chattanooga.

Fulmer does not appear to realize that 2006 is a watershed year for his career. From his recent comments to the media, he appears to believe the 2005 season made him the victim of the “Perfect Storm”. He had the audacity to ask UT athletic director Mike Hamilton for a contract extension, despite turning in a losing record with some of the best playing talent in college football, resulting in the worst flop of any program nationally. He did not want to fire Jimmy Ray Stephens as offensive line coach, mainly because Stephens was coaching as Fulmer had instructed him to do.

Fulmer has indicated his lack of insight as to his own program’s problems. He has repeatedly rejected the advice of many of his good friends, who have been telling him for several years that the program was on a downhill slide. To be truthful, he’s been told his assistant coaches were not serving his best interests. His assistants, however, were generally coaching exactly as Fulmer directed and approved. Mike Barry, who has two National Championship rings from two separate major universities, was perhaps the only assistant Fulmer has ever hired who ever disagreed with him, and he got fired as a result of it.

The big question to be answered in 2006 is whether the Volunteers can go from such a low level of production in 2005 to a level acceptable to its boosters and supporters in just one year. Settling for Kurt Roper appears to indicate that Fulmer still does not smell the coffee, and that he may be the one on the ropes himself and may not know it. After being turned down by several others, he was desperate to get a new wide receivers coach in place in order to salvage recruiting before it was too late.

All of the coaching moves that have been made at UT in this off-season have been in consultation with newly-rehired Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator David Cutcliffe. In fact, it might be argued that Cutcliffe has made all of the new hires himself, instead of Fulmer. So does the blame or credit for Roper's hiring really go to Fulmer or Cutcliffe? It is an open question as to whether Cutcliffe can steer the Big Orange ship back to prosperous times.

Roper, who coached under Cutcliffe for the entire time Cutcliffe was head coach at Ole Miss, was hired in his first full-time job after having been a graduate assistant with Cutcliffe under Fulmer at Tennessee in the late 1990s. He spent last year at Kentucky and all of his experience is in coaching quarterbacks, with the exception of prior time at UT, when he worked with defense and special teams. He is the son of longtime football assistant Bobby Roper, a star player at Arkansas in the 1960s who came to Tennessee from Iowa State and Pittsburgh with Johnny Majors in 1977. He later moved to Oregon State and other stops in the 1980s.

The entire UT administration, from president John Peterson and athletic director Mike Hamilton on down, needs to understand that 2006 is as serious as a heart attack for the athletic department. Donors will not allow their grandiose athletic projects to die on the vine. Hamilton, to his credit, appears he will do whatever he has to do with Fulmer, if for no other reason but to save his own job.

Hamilton has proven that he can take the heat from some well-heeled alumni who wanted to give Buzz Peterson another year as men's basketball coach and his hiring of Bruce Pearl for that position has given him a lot of political capital to spend, but he must do so wisely. There are a lot of people who give a lot of money to the UT, which has one of the nation's largest athletic budgets at $70 million annually. But they can and will withhold those donations in a New York minute if the football program doesn't make massive improvements this year.

One final note: Some strong rumors going around Cherokee Country Club, on the banks of the Tennessee River and Fort Loudon Lake in Knoxville these days are that Jim Haslam is preparing to buy the Tennessee Titans' NFL franchise from owner Bud Adams. This appears to be a move toward developing more of a political power base in Nashville, as Bill Haslam prepares to move from being Knoxville's mayor to running for governor once Phil Bredesen's second term is up. The torch appears to be being passed from Haslam to John "Thunder" Thornton as Tennessee's most powerful booster. Thornton was named one of the Top 10 college football boosters nationally this past week by ESPN.
 
#8
#8
I think that it is 99.9% opinion, like most articles. Of course, you never know who someone's sources are and they may actually know something that the rest of us do not.
 
#9
#9
(Xanny @ Jan 24 said:
Kurt Roper is Tennessee’s newest assistant football coach. I’ve been listening but I never heard the applause.
Click to expand...

If Roper hadn't taken the job, there was a chance nobody with any credentials would have taken it. everyone else turned it down. Big surprise. :crazy: :fool:
 
#10
#10
yeah, but it sounds like a farily well informed opinion...but still opinion....
 
#11
#11
As I said earlier Fulmer will never hire an impressive coach, he's to fearful they might over shadow him...

It is impressive he hired Rick Clausen to be an assistant. ha!
 
#12
#12
Volunteerhillbilly, I just found out that the article you posted from the foxsports blog was written by none other than....drum roll please..... a guy that writes for TRiCities Sports .com – he lives in Knoxville – his name is John Mark Hancock!

We all know the "predictions" he has made concerning UT F'ball this year. I would definitly put this in the "opinion" category.
 
#14
#14

It sounds like some of the typical negative posts we get on here and then you throw in the reliability factor and it's no surprise he would predict the worse case. I also wouldn't be surprised to find out Hancock is a regular poster on this board. :boredom:
 
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