Graham named head football coach

By Amber Obermeyer | Thresher Editorial Staff

Todd Graham, the former defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at the University of Tulsa, was named Rice’s head football coach Jan. 1. Graham replaces Ken Hatfield, who resigned Nov. 30 after the football team completed its season with a 1-10 record.

Last week, Graham named former University of Texas quarterback Major Applewhite, who was previously the quarterbacks coach at Syracuse University, as his offensive coordinator. Paul Johnson, formerly the defensive line coach at the University of Alabama, was named defensive coordinator. (See graphics, page 20.)

In addition to coaching three years at Tulsa, Graham was the defensive coordinator at West Virginia University and the head coach at Allen High School, located north of Dallas. In his first season at West Virginia and his first season at Tulsa, his teams had the most improved records in Division I.

This year, Tulsa won the Conference USA championship and defeated Fresno State in the Liberty Bowl. Athletic Director Bobby May (Will Rice ‘65) said he was impressed by Graham’s coaching record.

“He has helped choreograph turnarounds everywhere he’s been — at the high school level, at West Virginia and most recently at Tulsa,” May said.

May declined to comment on the terms of Graham’s contract.

Graham said he enjoys the rebuilding process and looks forward to the challenges he will face.

“I left a great job at West Virginia, and people thought I was crazy and had lost my mind to go to Tulsa,” Graham said. “My deal is that I’m … a builder. I enjoy it.”

Graham differs from Hatfield significantly in his coaching philosophy. Hatfield was one of the few remaining coaches in Division I to run the 1960s-era option offense, in which most plays involve the quarterback, fullback or halfback carrying the ball. Graham said his offense will likely feature four wide receivers and a quarterback throwing from the shotgun. The spread offense, Graham said, is more attractive to recruits than the option.

“I tell people all the time that the reason we’re going to throw the football is when you go out in the front yard with your kid, you don’t hand it off to him — you throw it to him,” Graham said.

And while Hatfield was offensive-minded, Graham said he will focus on defense.

“We’re going to play great defense, we’re going to play a great kicking game, we’re going to take care of the football on offense, we’re going to be entertaining to watch and our kids are going to play hard,” Graham said. “Those are the priorities, in that order.”

Graham’s background is also a contrast to Hatfield’s. Hatfield came to Rice in 194 late in his career and was a nationally prominent coach after stints at Arkansas, Air Force and Clemson. Graham, who is 41, has spent much of his career coaching at a high school and Tulsa, which also has a small enrollment.

President David Leebron said Graham’s experience at another private school made him an attractive candidate.

“We thought that since he was coming from a small private institution, he understood what we were about,” Leebron said. “He really seemed to embrace the values of Rice, including our desire to have genuine student athletes.”

Graham said he thinks he fits well at schools with high academic standards.

“There are things here that fit me to a T,” Graham said. “One of the things I believe I have the talent for is coaching smart kids — I felt like [having smart players] realy helped us in Tulsa.”

In the last three years, 8 of Rice’s 14 varsity teams have won at least one conference championship, while the football team has a combined record of 9-25 during that span.

“My goal and my passion is … to bring a winner here,” Graham said. “Anything less than being Conference USA champions and bowl champions is unnacceptable for me. … I say that, and I always see those funny looks in the faces, … and that’s fine. But two or three years from now, we’ll have all these things changed.”

Will Rice College junior Mike Falco, a running back on the football team, said he and other players are impressed with Graham.

“He’s a motivational guy, and he’s an inspiring guy,” Falco said. “He’s trying to make a lot of changes that people at Rice never thought possible. He’s not complacent with mediocrity, and all that is really exciting for us.”

Falco said the team’s locker room will be renovated, othat ff-season workouts have changed and that uniforms will likely change. He said he thinks small changes like these will have an impact.

“The aesthetic changes are almost a representation of how the playing is going to change,” Falco said. “It shows the direction that Rice football is going in the future — in 10 years this is going to be a notch program. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be.”

Search process

After Hatfield resigned, a search committee of about 10 people was formed, and it was composed of a mixture of faculty members, administrators, Athletic Department staff, head coaches of other varsity teams, Board of Trustees members, former players and student-athletes.

May said the committee considered about 70 candidates and interviewed about five.

Graham was interested in the job in early December but did not have much time to prepare for the interview because he was preparing for Tulsa’s Liberty Bowl game. However, Graham said he thought this situation resulted in a candid interview.

“I felt like I connected with [the search committee], and when I came out of the interview, I was really excited,” he said.

After Rice offered Graham the job, Tulsa offered him a substantial raise to remain its defensive coordinator.

“It made me feel good that they thought that much of me, but to me it was just a no-brainer,” Graham said.

Graham said he would have taken the Rice job even if the head coaching position at Tulsa had been on the table because he grew up in Texas and has fond memories of football in the Southwest Conference.

Leebron said he thinks most other universities probably do not have search committees including faculty and administrators, and he was encouraged by Graham’s interview.

“He’s excited by our students, and he enjoyed his interaction with the search committee, which might have been a somewhat unusual process,” Leebron said.

New scheme

Graham said he has spoken with some players about switching positions in the new offense, including redshirt freshman Tommy Henderson, who will move from running back to slot receiver. However, most position changes will be determined in spring practices, he said.

Falco said he is willing to change positions in the new offense and that he thinks most other players probably feel the same way.

“In a perfect world, I would see myself as a slot receiver and third-down guy,” Falco said. “But I would even play defense — it wouldn’t really matter as long as we were winning. In general, most people are willing to change for the greater good of the team.”

Graham scouted the Owls’ offense as defensive coordinator at Tulsa, and he said junior halfback Quinton Smith, sophomore quarterback Joel Amstrong, freshman receiver Jarrett Dillard and freshman quarterback Chase Clement stood out to him in preparing to play Rice.

“I was scared to death of Quinton Smith — he’s as good a running back as there is in Conference USA,” Graham said. “Joel is as good an athlete as anybody in Conference USA, and Jarrett Dillard is as good a receiver. I thought Chase was an outstanding throwing quarterback. But they ran several different defenses, and that was the thing that hurt them the most — they weren’t able to be consistent on defense.”

At Tulsa, Graham ran a 3-3-5 defense, meaning it consisted of three linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs.

“The hardest thing … to recruit in Conference USA is defensive linemen, and we only [had] to have three,” Graham said.

Graham said he will evaluate Rice’s personnel more before deciding on specific offensive and defensive schemes.

For the 18 scholarships available next year, Graham said his main priority in recruiting is to find fast players to play skill positions on offense and defense.

Financial challenges

In 2002, the Athletic Department had a deficit of $10 million, and the football program had a deficit of $4 million. However, May said he thinks it is possible for football eventually to break even financially.

“It will take a few years to get to that level,” May said. “We’ve had a few good years but we haven’t had the sort of consistency that would create ongoing interest on the part of football fans in Houston, which is the group we need, because we don’t have enough of just Rice football-connected people.”

Success in football would give the Athletic Department greater financial flexibility, May said.

“If we can reestablish football and continue this momentum, then it’s going to alleviate a lot of the financial pressures that have surrounded the overall program, because football is the one sport that can really generate funds through ticket sales, merchandising and all the different revenue streams that relate directly or indirectly to football,” May said.

May said he thinks Graham’s personality will positively contribute to fundraising efforts.

“He’s very good with people, he communicates very well, his enthusiasm is contagious and that all is very meaningful as you go out, meet people and ask for help,” May said.

May said the Athletic Department is in the process of assessing deficiencies in facilities, such as the scoreboard and the sound system, at Rice Stadium, but that the department will have to pursue outside resources to fund these projects.

Football facilities were cited by fans and critics as a reason for Rice’s decline in football, but Graham said the university’s facilities are more than sufficient.

“When I brought my coaches [from Tulsa] here, they were impressed with the facilities compared to what we had at Tulsa,” Graham said. “Kids sign with coaches. I really believe that — it’s about building relationships.”

Student relations

Graham said he hopes to visit every college to invite students to attend practices and games.

“I want to involve students, and I want them to know this is their football team,” Graham said. “I want that student section to be packed and give us a home-field advantage, and then we’ll work on getting everybody else in there.”

Graham said having many students attend games is one of his first priorities.

“I will be involved on campus — if I have to referee intramural basketball games, I’ll do whatever I have to do,” Graham said.

The football players also have a large role in getting students to come to games, Graham said.

“Winning football games creates a great energy on campus, but who wants to go cheer for someone who’s going to not even speak to them?” Graham said. “That’s not to say that’s what they’ve been doing, but that’s a big deal to me, and we are going change that.”

Graham said he thinks a large part of getting students to attend football games is having football players attend other events.

“Our kids are going to support other sports, they’re going to support the student body, and I want to know if they’re not — my door is open to students.”

January 20, 2006

The Student Newspaper of Rice University

Graham named head football coach

Search process

New scheme

Financial challenges

Student relations

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