How many college assistant coaches can you have anyway?
The question has been floating around for years, ever since Duke basketball starting adding positions to its staff – positions that didn’t have the words assistant coach in them. It got comical when the Blue Devils stood for the national anthem in front of their bench and the suits along the baseline numbered more than the three assistant coaches legally allowed by the NCAA.
Here is what they were called: academic support director and campus relations coordinator; sports performance coach; assistant director of athletic rehabilitation, who wasn’t the trainer; two content development specialists. Some sat at the end of the bench and some just behind the bench, which is allowed for certain staffers.
Now football has begun to add advisers beyond the ten assistant coaches and four graduate assistants. Alabama started was the first to do it a few years ago, and now three ACC schools have them including Carolina, Virginia Tech and N.C. State. I guess those programs that can afford it hire them for duties specified in NCAA Bylaw 11.7.3.
The rules say advisers “aren’t allowed to directly coach the players during practice or participate in on-field activities. On game day, they are allowed to stand on the sideline, wear headsets and perform duties like tracking stats or managing the offense’s play count. . . and aren’t allowed to offer any tactical adjustments.”
The Tar Heels have three “senior advisers” to Mack Brown, all experienced former college coaches — Sparky Woods, Darrell Moody and Kenny Drowning. Woods is definitely on the sidelines wearing a head set and “advising” Mack during games.
“They come up to me and say, ‘Here’s what I saw in practice. Here’s what I think needs to happen,’” Brown said. “I go to Sparky every time and say, ‘What does the book say to do? Does it say to go for it, does it say not to?’ It’s just the voice of experience.”
Woods, Moody and Browning all have the same title, “Senior Advisers to the Head Coach” and have a combined 32 years at UNC. They can’t do hands-on coaching but their six eyeballs are most valuable when watching players practice and during games.
Brown, 68, jokes wants he wants some coaches as old or older than he is, but don’t be kidded. There’s wisdom in them words.
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