EKU tabs Walt Wells as new Head Coach

[EKU05]

Article (https://ekusports.com/news/2019/12/9/former-assistant-walt-wells-chosen-as-ekus-new-football-head-coach.aspx)

There are going to be EKU people who love this one and some who don't. I'm going to play it down the middle and see what happens, but I'm hopeful.

[Derby City Duke]

I wonder how much his connection to the Kidd days factored into the hiring decision.

Seems to have made all the right stops at the FBS level.

We'll have the family plan season tix again next year (wife '84 grad, daughter '21 grad -- at this point anyway).

[EKU05]

From what I understand, this search was led by Louis Diaz the chair of the EKU Board of Regents who payed under Coach Kidd, and there was basically no chance the next coach wasn't going to have some connection to that era.

The other hot name was Appalachian State Assistant Head Coach Shawn Clark who was an assistant at EKU under Danny Hope and Dean Hood. It seems like he may now be in the running to get the HC job at App which is his Alma Mater.

The other attractive thing about Wells for some is that he was with WKU during their transition to FBS which is still something EKU has a lot of interest in pursuing if the dominoes start to fall again.

[BlackNGoldR3v0lut10n]

I first heard about it on FootballScoop a few days ago and I thought this was a joke, right? I say this because I first read an article of couple of years ago about Brett Kendrick, ;a Tennessee lineman who played at the Kentucky game while being concussed. Here's a brief excerpt from the article:

At halftime other linemen recognized that Kendrick was woozy, but Kendrick didn’t want to let his team down and didn’t approach trainers to notify them of his injury. That was because offensive line coach Walt Wells, who multiple sources believe had to know Kendrick was concussed, repeatedly exhorted Kendrick, “We need you to go!” and pointed out that Kendrick’s back up had not made the trip to Lexington.

And this is the article: https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/tennessee-investigating-coaches-kept-player-concussion-game/

[Buzzcut]

I was disappointed by this selection. As far as I am concerned, Danny Hope should have gotten the head coach position. He clearly has a proven history of results with the program, including a playoff appearance in 2007. I understand that his previous decision leave to the program to take the head coaching position at Purdue may have ultimately sealed his fate on this, however, at this point, EKU needs someone to right the ship now, rather than later.

[EKU05]

I was disappointed by this selection. As far as I am concerned, Danny Hope should have gotten the head coach position. He clearly has a proven history of results with the program, including a playoff appearance in 2007. I understand that his previous decision leave to the program to take the head coaching position at Purdue may have ultimately sealed his fate on this, however, at this point, EKU needs someone to right the ship now, rather than later.

FYI, it was Hope's decision to not pursue the head coaching job at this time. He didn't feel he could commit the number of years he thinks the next head coach needs to. You can hate on the Wells hire if you want, but you can't fault the selection process for not choosing Hope. He wasn't interested.

[Buzzcut]

FYI, it was Hope's decision to not pursue the head coaching job at this time. He didn't feel he could commit the number of years he thinks the next head coach needs to. You can hate on the Wells hire if you want, but you can't fault the selection process for not choosing Hope. He wasn't interested.


Interesting. My son played football for Hope and stays in contact with him and his wife. His impression was that Hope was very much interested in the job. I guess life circumstances changed things. Certainly no hate involved - I certainly wish Wells all the best - we all want the Colonels back to their former glory.