The offensive line rarely gets the credit and recognition they deserve, but they are arguably the most important part of a football team. Bob Connelly, who spent the past four seasons coaching the offensive line at UTEP, joined Todd Graham’s staff on Dec. 16.
This will be Connelly’s third stint in the Pac-12 as he previously coached with UCLA and Washington State.
The State Press sat down with Connelly to discuss his move to Tempe and his thoughts on next year’s offensive line.
The State Press: You used to play football, but what do you like about coaching? What’s different from this side of things?
Bob Connelly: Going into the coaching profession is the next best thing to playing. Your playing days are going to be numbered, and the day that happened, I had the opportunity to visit with the head football coach that I played for in college, Eddie Vowell.
I played at East Texas State out of high school. He came and grabbed me, thought I would be a good football coach and asked if I would come out and help him. So, I graduated with my bachelor’s then went right into coaching with him. I went right from playing to being a graduate assistant at East Texas State, and the rest is history.
I’m very interested in touching the lives of the high school athletes, bringing them in and watching them develop over the four or five years and growing into young men and making proud fathers, proud husbands and winners in life.
SP: You used to be a player. Do you feel that gives you any sort of advantage or that it helps you relate to the kids versus someone that’s just been on the sidelines their whole career?
BC: Yeah, I think it does. The kids, once they learn that you have played, especially being a former offensive lineman coaching the offensive line, they have a little more respect for you as a coach when they know you’ve been in the trenches and have done the same things you’re asking them to do.
It gives you credibility more than anything and obviously it helps you as a coach.
SP: Is there any specific aspect where you feel that being a former player is a really big asset to you in your relationships or is it just everything as a whole?
BC: Personally, I’m a people person and my approach in coaching is family-based. It’s about having a good relationship and developing the trust and the belief system in those guys to let them know that this guy genuinely cares for me and has my best interest in his heart. That’s who I am.
I tell the guys, from the time I’m in the living room in their homes to the time they get here, my approach as their coach is their success is my success and their failure is my failure. We’re not here to fail. That’s the approach I take as the position coach, as I’m a prideful person.
As I said earlier, I’m a competitive person. I want to win at everything we do and that’s about winning at life, being accountable on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The easy, fun part comes on Saturday.
We have a lot expected of us. We’re not the average student. When you are a Division I college athlete, you have aspirations to be All-Conference and All-American and win Pac-12 championships and to compete in the classroom and have a great deal of success academically.
You can’t do that if you’re average. I’m not here to allow them to be average. I’m here to push them in every aspect of their lives and my goal and my objective is for them to be as successful as they possibly can be. Under my watch, I’m going to demand that they’re doing everything we ask of them — and then some.
SP: Why ASU? What enticed you to this job and what ultimately brought you to Tempe?
BC: From having previously coached in the Pac-10, now the Pac-12, two times at Washington State and UCLA, I’ve always felt like this is a job you should be able to be very, very successful at. I think the location is exceptional. I think they have great facilities. The unique thing about the area, or the geographic location being in the state of Arizona, being in a 4.5 million populated area and only having one major school to draw from, I think is a unique situation … I’ve always felt like you should be able to win at Arizona State, and when coach Graham called and offered me the opportunity to come on, I was fired up. I was ecstatic.
SP: In 2005, you were a rivals.com top 25 recruiter. What do you think makes a good recruiter? What do you try to do to build relationships and get people to commit to you?
BC: I think the number one thing in recruiting is relationships. The first thing I’m going to do as a recruiter is find out who has the most influence on that student athlete. In the society that we grow up in today, obviously there is a wide variety of socioeconomic families that we’re dealing with.
The most important thing you have to find out is, is it the high school coach, is it the position coach, is it a principal, assistant principal, a mother, a father, an auntie, an uncle or a mentor?
Once you identify the most influential person in their lives, I think it’s developing the trust and that relationship not only with the student athlete, but with that person who will help them with their decision making process when that time comes … It’s about developing the trust and providing the stability in both the athlete and the family so that they can feel very comfortable and confident knowing that we have a model of success that they can come to at Arizona State, and they know that their child or their brother or their son is going to be taken care of academically and athletically.
SP: In his signing day press conference, Graham used the word “excited” about five million times. For the offensive line, the biggest coup may have been Evan Goodman, but what are your thoughts on him and the signing class as a whole?
BC: I think we hit our needs. Obviously it’s tough to fill the seven that we lost, and obviously we fell a little short numbers-wise, but the quality of kids that we were able to get, I feel very good about. Evan Goodman (is a) top-50 recruit, and all the accolades that he’s been able to acquire in his high school career I hope will carry over when he gets here. I feel very good about all three (Stephon McCray and William McGehee) of those guys.
Who can play sooner? Time will tell. All the guys will be given the same opportunity when they get here to show what they can do. I don’t ever talk to recruits about redshirting. I want those guys to work their tails off mentally and physically to come in the best shape they’ve ever been in. I want them to mentally and physically prepare like they’re going to start. The redshirting takes care of itself. If they’re good enough to play next year and help us win, they’ll play. If they aren’t, then we’re going to know that and they won’t play. It’s my job to put the five most dependable guys on the field.
SP: You lost Garth Gerhart, center and captain of this team, but what are your thoughts on the people you do have coming back?
BC: I’ve had an opportunity to meet the guys. I think they’re very eager to get into the new system. They seem like they’re embracing the new staff, the new policies (and) the new rules. I haven’t had any issues with the guys. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them. I’ve talked to them more on phone than in person (because of recruiting).
I feel like they’re all motivated. They’re all excited. With change brings opportunity. I think there are some guys that haven’t played a lot in recent years and the change has rekindled some energy and motivation in them … I think our No. 1 issue going into this spring camp is going to be solidifying the center position.
Kody Koebensky is the guy that’s played there the most. He’s a guy that’s going to have to come in and really develop. He has some fundamental issues as a center (that) he needs to work on. The center-quarterback exchange out of the gun hasn’t been one of his better things.
We’re going to make a swap from defensive line to offensive line. Mo Latu is going to move over. He was a highly rated center coming out of high school. Brought him here last year and he’s been on the defensive side of the ball, but he’s going to be vying for the center spot. Then we have Devin Goodman, Evan’s brother, so we have those three guys.
SP: Graham and Norvell both want to run this “high-octane,” fast-paced offense. How much different is it playing offensive line in a no-huddle, rather than in a traditional pro set? How much more athletic and better-conditioned do you need to be?
BC: I think the biggest difference is going to be the pace of the game. It falls into my philosophy anyways. Personally, I’m not a “bigger is better” coach. I like my guys to be leaner, more athletic. I like guys that can move, protect the passer, pull on power, counter schemes, get out there on perimeter run plays and cover up safeties and linebackers.
I’m more of an athletic philosophy as an offensive line coach mindset as opposed to a big, earth-moving, slower-footed, bigger body mass guy.
I’ve never been part of a true no-huddle scheme. We’ve done some tempo things in offenses that I’ve been a part of and it’s really not been a big, big thing. You’re going to get what you emphasize. When we go out and develop them and show them what the expectations are going to be, (they will see) what it’s going to take in a 60-minute game. Our goal is to get 80-plus snaps a game, if that’s the case with the tempo of what you’re doing. Obviously, you’re going to have to be a well-conditioned athlete.
It’s new to me (and) it’s new to them to an extent, but I don’t see it being a big problem because I’m not going to allow our guys to be overweight and not in shape. I think the guys that we have will be capable of doing what we ask them to do.
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
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