Tony Levine to WKU

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nsmike

nsmike

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Football Scoop is reporting that, former Gopher Tony Levine, has accepted an offensive assistant/special teams coordinator position at Western Kentucky. I believe that prior to being elevated to HC he held a similar position at Houston.
 


I won't be shocked if his coaching path brings him to the U at some point down the line. He is still reasonably young (43) so he has time to work back up the ladder into head coaching roles again. He is almost certainly someone that would view coaching at the U as a "dream job" since he is from here and played here.
 

Yes, good news for Tony. It's too bad things didn't work out at Houston but hopefully he gets the chance to lead another program some day.
 

Best of luck to Tony. Years ago when he was a student I sent him an email (after that Wisconsin game where he chased down Jason Suttle after an INT). He responded with a nice message.
 


Gotta wonder if Houston would have done as well as it did this last season if Tony had remained the coach??? Those who pushed for his removal obviously point to this season as vindication of their decision. But remember when Tony Dungy got fired from Tampa? Looking backwards, most people give Dungy credit for Tampa's Super Bowl win the year after he left. But only after seeing what he did at Indy, and how Gruden led Tampa back towards mediocrity were most people able to make that assessment.

I think Tony has to be given the credit for getting this year's Houston team to Houston.
 

KillmeNow said:
Gotta wonder if Houston would have done as well as it did this last season if Tony had remained the coach??? Those who pushed for his removal obviously point to this season as vindication of their decision. But remember when Tony Dungy got fired from Tampa? Looking backwards, most people give Dungy credit for Tampa's Super Bowl win the year after he left. But only after seeing what he did at Indy, and how Gruden led Tampa back towards mediocrity were most people able to make that assessment.

I think Tony has to be given the credit for getting this year's Houston team to Houston.
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Herman deserves credit for doing a great job in Houston this year but he did it with Levine's players for the most part.
 

You can divide coaches into groups. Mine are:
1) Mostly clueless- Brewster- literally don't know the fundamentals of anything including recruiting
2) Great recruiters, don't coach, they are as good as their coordinators- Mack Brown, James Franklin, Ron Zook
3) great at half the game- need a great coordinator for the other half of the team. Mason, Wilson, Charlie Strong, Kevin Sumlin, probably TC which is okay because he knows it.
4) Great at fundamentals but can't get over the hump for some reason, frequently facilities, budget: Cal Stoll, Murray W, maybe Gutey, Joe Tiller, Joe Salem.
5) Good coaches and good people but just not tough enough for P5 football: Wacker,
6) Guys who are great at fundamentals for the whole program, building, hiring and motivating: Alvarez, Ferentz, Kill, Dungy in profootball, Randy Walker, Fitzgerald, Dantonio, probably most really successful coaches including Bielema ( I did not say they were great people although some listed are, and some just really know what makes good FB teams work).
7) Guys born on third who think they hit a triple; all of the Michigan coaches after Schembechler, all of the USC coaches after John Robinson except Pete C., most of the Notre Dame coaches in my lifetime other than Parseghian and Holtz.
8) Geniuses who can do everything: Saban
9) Nut cases who think rules should be different for them: Harbaugh, maybe Meyer
10) Chronic cheaters; Anyone who coached in the old South West conference successfully, anyone who succeeded previously at KY, Mississippi St, Auburn, Tennessee.
 

corcoran1 said:
Brewster- literally don't know the fundamentals of anything including recruiting.
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So the 2008 and 2009 squads must have been just so supremely talented that they willed themselves to two bowl appearances.
 



corcoran1 said:
You can divide coaches into groups. Mine are:
1) Mostly clueless- Brewster- literally don't know the fundamentals of anything including recruiting
2) Great recruiters, don't coach, they are as good as their coordinators- Mack Brown, James Franklin, Ron Zook
3) great at half the game- need a great coordinator for the other half of the team. Mason, Wilson, Charlie Strong, Kevin Sumlin, probably TC which is okay because he knows it.
4) Great at fundamentals but can't get over the hump for some reason, frequently facilities, budget: Cal Stoll, Murray W, maybe Gutey, Joe Tiller, Joe Salem.
5) Good coaches and good people but just not tough enough for P5 football: Wacker,
6) Guys who are great at fundamentals for the whole program, building, hiring and motivating: Alvarez, Ferentz, Kill, Dungy in profootball, Randy Walker, Fitzgerald, Dantonio, probably most really successful coaches including Bielema ( I did not say they were great people although some listed are, and some just really know what makes good FB teams work).
7) Guys born on third who think they hit a triple; all of the Michigan coaches after Schembechler, all of the USC coaches after John Robinson except Pete C., most of the Notre Dame coaches in my lifetime other than Parseghian and Holtz.
8) Geniuses who can do everything: Saban
9) Nut cases who think rules should be different for them: Harbaugh, maybe Meyer
10) Chronic cheaters; Anyone who coached in the old South West conference successfully, anyone who succeeded previously at KY, Mississippi St, Auburn, Tennessee.
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Brew's a bad example at number one, he can recruit, that's been proven in all of his stop's as an assistant. Sure he's at FSU but you can't be a bad recruiter and be rated number one. He was clueless about the rest of his job, but he did bring in some talented guys that later thrived under Kill
 

bemidjigopher said:
Brew's a bad example at number one, he can recruit, that's been proven in all of his stop's as an assistant. Sure he's at FSU but you can't be a bad recruiter and be rated number one. He was clueless about the rest of his job, but he did bring in some talented guys that later thrived under Kill
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Agree that #1 is not a fair place to put Brew or for that matter pretty much any D1 head coach because you don't get there by knowing nothing. He wasn't ready to be a head coach but the guy was not clueless about the game of football. Topic has been beaten to death but the blame for the Brewster debacle falls on Maturi for hiring him in the first place. If you altered #5 from tough enough to ready Brew would fall right in that category with Wacker.
 

corcoran1 said:
7) Guys born on third who think they hit a triple; all of the Michigan coaches after Schembechler, all of the USC coaches after John Robinson except Pete C., most of the Notre Dame coaches in my lifetime other than Parseghian and Holtz.
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I don't know if this list was just a stream of consciousness, but:

Michigan: Moeller - took him 23 years as an assistant to be a head coach; Carr - took him 27 years as an assistant to be a head coach; Rodriguez - started as student assistant at WVU, made stops at Salem, Glenville State and Tulane before big break with Clemson; Hoke - began coaching career in HS, assistant at Grand Valley, Toledo, Oregon State, then position coach at Michigan before head coaching job at Ball State

Notre Dame: Willingham - I don't know if it's possible to be the first African American head coach in any sport at Notre Dame and be classified as born on third; Weis - arrogant as hell, but he started from nothing. Pretty amazing career trek until being hired by the Irish; Davie - took 20 years to be a head coach; Kelly - 13 years as head coach of Grand Valley - 17 years there overall

USC: Hackett - Eight different coaching stops before USC head coach; Helton - 20 years as an assistant before first head coaching job
 

WKU's formal annoucement stated that Levine would coach Tight Ends along with being the Special Teams Coordinator.
 



bemidjigopher said:
Brew's a bad example at number one, he can recruit, that's been proven in all of his stop's as an assistant. Sure he's at FSU but you can't be a bad recruiter and be rated number one. He was clueless about the rest of his job, but he did bring in some talented guys that later thrived under Kill
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Brew was not a good recruiter here. I don't understand folks who think he was, but the reason they think so typically rhymes with trankings. He got commitments from kids that were rated highly - however, some were not good, some never made it to or stayed on campus, and <B>very few </B>fit together. His recruiting at the U of M was Horrible (capital H intended).
 

Spoofin said:
Brew was not a good recruiter here. I don't understand folks who think he was, but the reason they think so typically rhymes with trankings. He got commitments from kids that were rated highly - however, some were not good, some never made it to or stayed on campus, and <B>very few </B>fit together. His recruiting at the U of M was Horrible (capital H intended).
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Go back and look at the classes Brewster brought in, most of the players he got commitments from had at least one and in the majority of cases multiple power 5 offers including many from other Big Ten schools. Brewster went after kids and got commitments from kids that other Power 5 schools wanted. Kill and Mason made their living on finding the guys a step below that line. Where things fell apart for Brew is once he got them here they weren't able to capitalize on them. Kill (both sides of the ball) and Mason (offense) had clearly defined plans and systems so they were able to recruit to a type of player that fit their system. Brew was looking for the best available players and figuring he could make them fit, which as we all know he couldn't.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Go back and look at the classes Brewster brought in, most of the players he got commitments from had at least one and in the majority of cases multiple power 5 offers including many from other Big Ten schools. Brewster went after kids and got commitments from kids that other Power 5 schools wanted. Kill and Mason made their living on finding the guys a step below that line. Where things fell apart for Brew is once he got them here they weren't able to capitalize on them. Kill (both sides of the ball) and Mason (offense) had clearly defined plans and systems so they were able to recruit to a type of player that fit their system. Brew was looking for the best available players and figuring he could make them fit, which as we all know he couldn't.
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I agree with some of this, but not the assumption that just because other Power 5 schools wanted the kid that he was a good get. It doesn't mean he was a good fit for our team or with the other pieces that were here. That is my problem with Brew as a recruiter. Maybe he is great at getting guys he targets, appears he is, but as an assistant someone is likely telling him who to go for. When he was deciding who to go for he appeared, IMO, to have no clue how to recruit a team that would be here and play well together. Maybe it is the identifying of who to recruit that I feel he was Horrible at.

Anyway, this is an old tired topic.
 

per Sid:

• Western Kentucky has hired Tony Levine, the former Gophers wide receiver and St. Paul native who posted a 21-17 overall record and 14-10 conference record for the University of Houston but was fired despite reaching back-to-back bowl games. Levine will coach the tight ends and special teams at Western Kentucky.

http://www.startribune.com/taylor-should-keep-wolves-staff-intact/368417811/

Go Gophers!!
 

per Shooter:

New Western Kentucky tight ends-special teams coach Tony Levine, 43, the ex-Gopher from Highland Park, was fired as head coach at Houston despite a 21-17 record and two bowl appearances over three years. He has had assistant stops at Louisville, Louisiana Tech, Auburn, Texas State and the Carolina Panthers.

http://www.twincities.com/2016/02/1...taylor-satisfied-with-his-17-37-timberwolves/

Go Gophers!!
 

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