New LB Coach Hired: Glenn Spencer

Glancing at his coaching background, Spencer had some great seasons with OK State 10+ years ago. I'm sure he'll be plenty motivated to coach a defense that just has to be decent in order to propel an elite offense toward an ACC Championship and maybe CFP run.

In 2006, here was our coaching staff:

Head Coach Jim Grobe 2001
Wide Receivers Tim Billings 2006
Fullbacks / Tight ends Tom Elrod 2003
Defensive Ends Keith Henry 2001
Defensive coordinator / Secondary Dean Hood 2001
Linebackers Brad Lambert 2001
Offensive coordinator / Offensive line Steed Lobotzke 2001
Defensive tackles Ray McCartney 2001
Assistant Head Coach / Running backs / Kickers Billy Mitchell 2001
Quarterbacks Jeff Mullen 2001

In 2007, it was the exact same. After 2007, Mullen and Hood left for better jobs, and we replaced them with Russ and Knorr for 2008. In 2009, there were no changes. In 2010, there were no changes. For 2011, Lambert left for Charlotte and Galloway was hired. 2012 finally saw some shake-up with Russ, Henry, and Billings departing and three new assistants arriving.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the hire, but thrilled that Clawson is not getting complacent and won't wait for three straight losing seasons before addressing deficiencies in the coaching staff. Our defense stunk last year, and we'll have three new coaches on that side of the ball.

Good post, OGB. Grobe didn't fire/demote/allow to leave young coaches and replace them with more experienced coaches. Clawson has done that three times in the last two months. Hemphill --> Lambert, Crawford --> Adams, Jones --> Spencer.

We were desperate for Grobe to do with Lobo what he did with Hemphill.

IIRC, Spencer's wife, Janine Edwards has worked WF games in the past. In addition to college football, I believe she worked horse racing for ESPN:

Re: recruiting, the coaches who have been let go/moved on may have been young, but all 3 had zero experience recruiting at the major college level. For all 3, Wake was their first Power 5 job.

The 3 guys who have replaced them all have experience recruiting at the power 5 level, as did/does Paul Williams.

I do not think that is a coincidence.

TimmyClutch said:

Generally, I am a proponent of finding someone young and hungry who is trying to prove themselves over someone who has been there and done that and is on the downslope of their career.

Clawson and Lambert probably feel that an experienced hire is what they need at the moment, but not having many younger coaches who can relate to recruits could come back and hurt us.

Click to expand...

What I am seeing is coaches with DC experience being plugged into every coaching position on D that we can. That can't be a bad thing.

Need new blood on the defensive side whether it be young or old.

PhDeac said:

Good post, OGB. Grobe didn't fire/demote/allow to leave young coaches and replace them with more experienced coaches. Clawson has done that three times in the last two months. Hemphill --> Lambert, Crawford --> Adams, Jones --> Spencer.

We were desperate for Grobe to do with Lobo what he did with Hemphill.

Click to expand...

Had he done only this, he might have been able to retire from Wake Forest at his choosing. I like and respect Jim Grobe. He appears to be a good person. But, his employer and fans deserved more loyalty than retaining a marginal OC at all costs.

I am glad to see Clawson is not hesitating to do the work necessary to improve the defense. Trusted he would. I am still hoping for an impact transfer or two.

There were some posters who were skeptical that Clawson would make bigger moves. This proves he knew it the D was unacceptable for another championship run this season.

Everyone should be pumped for next season.

Hemphill, Crawford, and Jones had no P5 coaching experience before coming to Wake. Clawson took a shot at some young guys with a similar background to his own. Didn't pan out so he made changes.

In the process of retooling, Clawson kept Cohen and Williams (CB). Cohen had 2 years at Rutgers. Williams had 7 years at Miami, and Illinois as DB coach and one year at Texas as an analyst. Both had long careers coaching FCS and G5 before that.