Former Richmond Coach Reportedly Joining JMU Staff (Updated)
Update: JMU announced that Scott has been hired and he’s going to coach the tight ends.
Last week, the Richmond Times Dispatch broke the story that Latrell Scott was a candidate to join the JMU coaching staff. Tonight, Phil Orban, the Sports Director from WRIC-TV 8 in Richmond, is reporting that Scott has been hired. Scott succeeded Mike London as head coach of the Spiders after the 2009 season. Richmond went 6-5 under his leadership in 2010. It was his only season at the helm. He resigned 8 days before the 2011 season kicked off after being arrested and charged with DWI.
Despite the unfortunate end to Scott’s tenure at Richmond, I think there is a lot of upside to this move. The man made a mistake and it cost him dearly. He paid the price for his actions though and is ready to resume his career. Assuming that Matthews and his staff have done their due diligence and they are confident Scott is not a risk, I think this is a good hire. Bringing in a guy with head coaching experience to help on the offense could pay big dividends. And dare we speculate that bringing Scott in specifically to work with the receivers and tight-ends means that the Dukes are going to (gulp) pass more? The smart money is still on Mickey going with the “run to set up the run” offense whether we like it or not. He did give the playcalling duties back to Jeff Durden and brought in a former head coach to work with him though. Maybe Mickey will actually surprise us and air it out a bit.
His experience will help the wide receivers, but I don’t think that’s all there is to it. I looked around to see what Scott’s reputation as a recruiter was, and in each of his moves- from RIchmond to Tennessee, to UVA, and back to Richmond- he’s lauded as a great recruiter. JMU’s coaching losses this offseason have potentially affected recruiting, and this seems like a move to bolster that.
That’s a great point Todd and something that I completely missed. I’ve been particularly impressed with Ulrick Edmond’s recruiting, but it never hurts to bring on another strong recruiter. Like you said, it’s especially important with some of the turnover on the staff this off-season.
I could have broken this story a week ago. This is old news around campus. The spiders are pretty much laughing at us.
First of all, who cares if the Spiders are laughing? However, I don’t know what they are laughing about. A guy went from being head coach of their program to a WR coach for JMU’s. Either UR had made a bad hire a year ago, JMU got a guy with upside, or being head coach of their miserable program equates to a position coach in the JMU program. The joke appears to be on them.
Todd nailed it. The recruiting is gonna be his biggest impact. I’m all for getting a solid offensive coach, especially with how stagnant things can get from time to time, but his reputation as a recruiter is only going to help us in the long haul. That’s a scary thought too, since we’ve already had such great recruiting over the past 12-18 months.
It’s great we are getting such a great recruiter for the Dukes, like sunchase said we have already been getting top recruiting classes so this will just make us better. The only bad part to this situation are his off the field problems. With the problems the CAA is going through and all the conference realignments going on, it is a good gamble to take with the chance to join a weaker FBS conference. With all the steps the JMU program is taking to get better, the future looks bright for the Dukes as long as everything stays on track and injuries do not plague a very talented team. If anyone wants to read more I have started a sports blog covering JMU, Philadelphia, and New York. http://sportsx3.wordpress.com/