Here is his coaching record at Marietta. Never heard of the guy so I guess I'll have to wait and see the presser. If Twitter is anything to talk about apparently he was a pretty good coach. Similar feel to Fox in terms of engagement with fans with better numbers to show for it albeit he coached at the D3 level. Can he pull off what McCollum is doing to this years Drake MBB team?
I don't know of this coach specifically, but Waddle has been a very successful head coach and assistant coach in highly competitive D3 environments. Marietta is in the same conference as super power Mount Union, which during any given season can probably beat most of the Pioneer League schools and has sent a healthy sprinkling of players to the NFL.
Waddle did a gut rehab-level turnaround of the Marietta program, though note that he was given a chance to do so even after 4 initial losing seasons. VU might have to demonstrate a level of patience with Waddle that Coach Fox was not afforded.
The exciting thing about Waddle is that with his record, his next-level opportunities would include schools offering a much better overall situation than VU. However, he's opted to come to a school that, despite a lot of high quality student-athletes and coaches, has never built a genuine winning football tradition. This guy likes a challenge.
Fox May have wanted more pay or staffing and Hosmer wants to slash costs.who knows.
Pasted, with edits, from another thread so it wouldn’t get lost.
So far…. not that impressed with Hosmer’s vision for a “bold change” for Valpo FB.
Overall, he has a loosing D3 record. It took him eight years to turn their program into a consistent, 8 game winner. His DNA is defense (that’s fine but we have already established that tradition and RJ was a big piece of that), Where is his ability to run an offense that can excell againt better size and talent in programs that are bigger and have more funding? He just recently had two good years, the rest, meh.
Granted, he has HC “experience,” and from what I’ve heard the others in the mix were young, lightly experienced OCs. But……this was the result of a “national” search? Really?
I will reserve judgment. I sincerely hope he can rise to the challenges of DI PFL football in less than 6 years. It took him more than that long in DIII.
Pasted, with edits, from another thread so it wouldn’t get lost.
So far…. not that impressed with Hosmer’s vision for a “bold change” for Valpo FB.
Overall, he has a loosing D3 record. It took him eight years to turn their program into a consistent, 8 game winner. His DNA is defense (that’s fine but we have already established that tradition and RJ was a big piece of that), Where is his ability to run an offense that can excell againt better size and talent in programs that are bigger and have more funding? He just recently had two good years, the rest, meh.
Granted, he has HC “experience,” and from what I’ve heard the others in the mix were young, lightly experienced OCs. But……this was the result of a “national” search? Really?
I will reserve judgment. I sincerely hope he can rise to the challenges of DI PFL football in less than 6 years. It took him more than that long in DIII.
I know we cannot talk about taking a chance when Fox wasn't given one, but lets look at our friend Scott Drew in his first couple seasons as the Baylor head coach. Its like the notion that the basketball team would be immediately successful with the hiring of Powell. When you rebuild, you really "rebuild" especially a program such as VU. He has proven to be a successful rebuilder at the D3 level. Here's to seeing if he can do the same here. I home his alleged demeaner would prove to make some guys rescind their transfer waivers, but I guess we will have to see about that
An observation about non-scholarship DI FCS vs, DIII. There are only two leagues in FCS who do not offer FB scholarships — the Ivy League and the PFL. Despite erroneous comparisons to DIII, both the Ivys and the PFL recruit from the same bucket - and that bucket is not the same as the typical DIII bucket. The Ivys have the draw of their prestige and get some really good FCS talent. Valpo goes after lower level FCS talent who would be preferred walk-ons at FCS schools. We also compete for talent against DII scholarship schools. Generally, DIII schools recruit the best of what’s left. Waddle, going from DIII to FCS, will have to make a big adjustment. That’ll be years one and two of his tenure. We will be rebuilding big time.
But wait you say. How about Abell at Davidson where he went from DIII Washington & Lee to 1-10 Davidson and produced seven consecutive winning seasons immediately? The difference was he was a consistent winner and brought to Davidson a very unique, productive winning offensive scheme that no one could stop.
@rezynezy Scott was a good coach going from a winning Mid-major program to a SWC religious Upper Major. He didn’t jump from DII. No equivalency at all.
I will reserve judgment. I sincerely hope he can rise to the challenges of DI PFL football in less than 6 years. It took him more than that long in DIII.
I hope it is quicker as well but I look at Marietta as possibly higher up the food chain in terms of quality of play. I'll again mention that the fact that 3 coaches went up a level or two out of the PFL may play into a coach such as this desire to move to the PFL from Div III.
I will think positively and hope for the best, but I do worry about the focus on turning around a perceived lower level program and how it will translate to wins at Valpo. That sounds awfully familiar to Carlson, though I am going to be positive and hope for a Landon Fox + offense hire here.
Marietta won 13 games in the 6 years before Waddle including 0 the year before so they were bad before he took over. 4 bad seasons then one losing season in the last 8. In the last 25 years they have 8 winning seasons and he has 6 of those.......
The Ohio Athletic Conference is the creme de la creme of D3 football, led by Mount Union but including a lot of other good football schools, including Marietta. These programs are run at a highly competitive level. They develop players over 4 years, and many of their best remain for the whole time, rather than chasing the transfer portal. They maintain JV squads that play short season schedules. The difference often shows on the scoreboard, where OAC teams frequently post huge win margins over non-conference opponents.
So...fingers crossed that Waddle is more like a Homer Drew hire than a Dale Carlson hire.
Have reserved comments. I think this hire had more to it than on the surface. I imagine Waddles ability to retain players at a school like Marietta was attractive.
from what’s been whispered on the back end both his defensive and offensive coordinator are coming with. This means this is the first staff with a winning (albeit short lived) track record that Valparaiso has hired since my 14 years following the program.
There are doubts about scheme but Reed Florence coached a functional offense at Marietta and Waddle has shown the ability to coach defense at a non scholarship level at both Wittenberg and Marietta
i think we give it a full year or two. Their system is not gimmicky on offense to rack up yards. Those comparing to Carlson don’t understand what kind of train wreck that was. I think 4-6 wins in the first few years should be expected.
very interesting hire to say the least. On the surface the resume does not stack up with the the last two hires. But he flipped a program without money and scholarships and I think that’s exactly what Valparaiso is trying to pull off.
Here’s to seeing how it works. We may know more after the recruiting cycle on competence
I know Paul said on the app formerly known as twitter that if the OC and DC are coming with. Expect a lot more air yards. Hopefully he can convice some members of this year's squad not to enter the portal
Based on stats...it appears the offense would be pretty balanced run vs pass. The last 3 years PPG went from 25 to 35 to 40.
