Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Aggie football defensive coordinator: speculating on a model candidate

One name to keep an eye on for the New Mexico State football defensive coordinator post? One might be Bob Slowik, a former college assistant coach who has a long history in the NFL.

Of course it's pure speculation. But it's also reasonable during a search that's had few clues on potential candidates.

For one, Slowik would be an outstanding candidate for the position. He also fits certain criteria for the job that would likely be appealing for the Aggie football program as a whole.

Of course, there likely has to be a connection between the any candidate and head coach Doug Martin, and Martin and Slowik have a history at the same college program: while Slowik was linebackers coach at East Carolina from 1990-91, Martin worked at ECU from 1992-2002 (they each worked with or under former ECU head coach Steve Logan).

Slowik is also in the market for work, as he was most recently linebackers coach with the Washington Redskins, a team that just let go of head coach Mike Shanahan.

It's believed the next Aggie defensive coordinator will have some NFL coaching experience and Slowik certainly does - he's spent over 20 years as a coach with the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos and Redskins.

Martin has also spoken about getting an assistant coach that makes not just the Aggie players better, but fellow assistant coaches on staff better. In other words, a coach that has experience working with multiple personnel groupings. And Slowik has that as well, as a defensive backs coach at multiple stops as well as coaching linebackers last year with the Redskins. He also has 10 years experience as an NFL defensive coordinator.

Granted, there would need to be work done to bring such a candidate in. For one, there are some other NFL openings and college vacancies that must be filled, and New Mexico State is at the point where the program needs wait on outstanding candidates as opposed to being seeked out by such individuals.

Such could also play a factor in why the process has taken some time, and why not much information has been revealed to this point.

Follow me on Twitter @TeddyFeinberg

No comments: