Coaching? Ash wrote the book

By JIM CNOCKAERT Chronicle Sports Writer

Just a suggestion: Area bookstores might want to stock a few copies of Rob Ash's book on coaching football.

Not that Ash's "Coaching Football Technical and Tactical Skills" is on some best-seller list, but the book provides some insight into how Montana State's new head football coach will approach his job and the challenges that come with it.

That's the one question that lingered after Monday's introductory press conference at Bobcat Stadium, the one that won't be answered until the Bobcats start playing some games this fall: Can the man coach?

There was no doubt that MSU athletic director Peter Fields, weary of the recent scandals surrounding the football program, would hire a coach committed to recruiting players who are students first and who understand that they are ambassadors for the university. All four of the coaching candidates addressed those issues last week during their open forums.

Ash made it clear again Monday that he will not recruit any athletes who he and his coaches believe cannot cut it athletically and academically at MSU, and he added that character assessment will always be critical component of the program's recruiting philosophy.

"A kid has to be the right person," he said.

Ash said he accepted the job because it is the right opportunity at the right time. He said he believes the MSU job is a step up from the one he had at Drake, noting that he would have never accepted Fields' offer otherwise. He said he believes MSU tradition, as well as its booster and fan support, will be key elements to future success. And, he reiterated several times, he's inherited a strong football team that will be the foundation of it all.

"We do not have to make sweeping changes here because we do not need to do that," he said. "We have an opportunity to take the principles that I bring to a program that has a good foundation, and see what we can do."

It all sounds great. But it still doesn't answer the question: Can Ash coach?

His success at Drake suggests he can. He won 125 games in 18 seasons there, and he coached the last 14 of those in Division I-AA without being able to offer scholarships. He's had just five losing seasons in 27 overall, and just two since arriving at Drake in 1989.

But MSU is a much different challenge, and he knows it. He has less than two months to assemble a coaching staff (he already has a bunch of messages from interested coaches on his cell phone), to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his players (he'll spend a lot of time watching video from last season), and to begin putting offensive and defensive plans into place for the start of practice.

Need another reminder that he's not in Iowa any more? It looms at the end of the summer: a season opener at Texas A&M.

How's he going to get all of that done? Here's where Ash's book comes in handy.

First, he knows what he's looking for in assistant coaches: They have to be teachers. It's not enough to understand football's nuances, he writes. He wants guys who can communicate those things to players.

"The athlete must gradually gain a sense of how each skill feels - how he has to move and think - to perform successfully," Ash writes in his introduction. "As a teacher, you have to search for ways to help athletes gain that sense, that feeling of how to perform skills, and you must understand that different athletes often perceive the same skills in different ways."

Former Bobcat Tom White, a member of the committee charged with narrowing a large field of applicants to 11 semifinalists and four finalists, said he was impressed with Ash's ability to adapt his system to his players. His Drake offenses traditionally were productive, but not always in the same way. Running or passing was emphasized, White said, depending on the team's strengths that season.

Ash said he will do the same thing with the Bobcats: "Every system is based on certain fundamentals. I have concepts in my head, but you have to tailor that to your personnel. Maybe when I'm watching tape, I'll see people who can play and it might sway me. That's what I have to find out."

That noted, Ash does not believe his players will have a steep learning curve once training camp begins in August. His Drake offense provides an explanation: The Bulldogs kept things simple - running a small package of plays out of a variety of formations - but consistently beat opponents with better execution.

"We don't look at any situation as a problem," he said. "We only look at solutions."

Again, his book provides some insight: Those solutions start with Ash and his staff.

"You cannot be an effective teacher until you can accept responsibility for the performance of your athletes and team," he writes. "If you hide behind the tired excuse that your athletes just can't play, you will never be motivated to find the teaching strategy that will produce improvement. But if you adopt the following credo - "The team will reflect everything the coach has taught the players, or eveything the coach has allowed them to do" - you will understand that every player can improve.

"You have a responsibility to find a way to teach, or motivate, the athlete to improve his skills."

Can Rob Ash coach?

Only time will answer that question.

But MSU fans have a better sense of how he plans to try.

Reader Comments