Jim Gush new LB Coach

[TheReal_jayD]

 

[UNTLifer]

Bio off of the McNeese St. website:

Big 12 Conference coaching veteran, Jim Gush, comes to McNeese as the defensive coordinator after spending the previous two seasons at Navarro College, the second as head coach.

Prior to Navarro College, Gush, a 36-year coaching veteran, coached six seasons at Baylor University, where he was an assistant linebackers coach and defensive recruiting coordinator.

He joined Baylor’s staff in January, 2011, and was reunited with former defensive coordinator Phil Bennett whom he had worked with previously for 12 seasons at SMU, Kansas State and Iowa State.

Gush arrived in Waco from Stony Brook where he spent two seasons as assistant head coach for defense. As defensive coordinator at Stony Brook, his 2010 defense led the Big South in interceptions (17) and turnovers forced (26). In 2009, Stony Brook led the Big South in scoring defense, allowing a conference-low 15 touchdowns in six games. Senior linebacker Tyler Santucci was named 2009 Big South Defensive Player of the Year and four players earned All-Big South honors in 2009 and two in 2010.

Prior to Stony Brook, Gush spent six seasons (2002-07) as SMU’s defensive coordinator. In addition to his coordinator duties, he also served as the position coach with the linebackers for one year and defensive backs for five seasons. The Mustangs led Conference USA and ranked 24th nationally against the run in 2006 under Gush. He coached Joe Sturdivant to All-CUSA accolades at safety in 2005 and 2006 and coached Vic Viloria to first-team All-WAC honors in 2002.

He coached from 1999 to 2001 at Kansas State, where he served as linebackers coach and the Wildcats ranked among the nation’s top four in total defense all three seasons and made three bowl appearances with a 28-10 record. In 2000 Kansas State ranked fourth in the nation in total defense, while in 1999 the Wildcats were second in total defense and led the nation in pass efficiency defense. During the 1999 season, Gush coached Butkus Award runner-up and consensus All-American Mark Simoneau, who was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

Prior to Kansas State, Gush spent 12 seasons at Garden City Community College in Kansas, three as head coach and nine as defensive coordinator. He compiled a 29-7 win-loss record in three seasons as head coach and led Garden City to top 10 finishes each year – No. 7 (10-2) in 1996, No. 4 (10-2) in 1997 and No. 7 (9-3) in 1998. In 1997, Gush led GCCC to a Jayhawk Conference championship and a berth in the Red River Bowl, the national championship game. His 1996 squad played in the Real Dairy Bowl and his 1998 team won the Valley of the Sun Bowl. Garden City CC produced a first-team JC All-American every season Gush was a coach there and played in the Jayhawk Conference Championship game in 10 of his 12 seasons with the Broncbusters.

Gush began his collegiate coaching career at Albany in 1983 where he coached defensive backs. He moved to Iowa State in 1984 as a graduate assistant on Bennett’s defensive staff serving as special teams coordinator and assistant defensive backs coach before moving to Garden City.

A 1981 graduate of Bucknell University with a B.S. in economics, Gush was a four-year starter for the Bison and also served as a student assistant. He earned his master’s degree in higher education from Iowa State in 1986.

A native of Elmira, N.Y., he and his wife, Anne, have two children, Stephanie and Jordan.

[MeanGreenATO]

So, it's been a long time and I don't follow UNT football like I did when I was in school, but... 

I like Seth personally, but does anybody else find it strange that Littrell keeps hiring people off of Briles' final Baylor staff? Gush joins Tate Wallis and Phil Bennett in that regard. And Gush hasn't been able to land an FBS gig until this one, which kinda seems suspect. 

[Cr1028]

20 minutes ago, MeanGreenATO said:

So, it's been a long time and I don't follow UNT football like I did when I was in school, but... 

I like Seth personally, but does anybody else find it strange that Littrell keeps hiring people off of Briles' final Baylor staff? Gush joins Tate Wallis and Phil Bennett in that regard. And Gush hasn't been able to land an FBS gig until this one, which kinda seems suspect. 

I don’t find it strange at all. They didn’t seem to have trouble finding employment elsewhere after Baylor so what is the problem? 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Cr1028

[Uncle]

17 minutes ago, MeanGreenATO said:

So, it's been a long time and I don't follow UNT football like I did when I was in school, but... 

I like Seth personally, but does anybody else find it strange that Littrell keeps hiring people off of Briles' final Baylor staff? Gush joins Tate Wallis and Phil Bennett in that regard. And Gush hasn't been able to land an FBS gig until this one, which kinda seems suspect. 

I don't see anything into that. Seth knows Bennett from when he played at Oklahoma.

Bennett is putting a staff together of guys that coached with him or played under him.

[UNTLifer]

[MeanGreenATO]

48 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

I don’t find it strange at all. They didn’t seem to have trouble finding employment elsewhere after Baylor so what is the problem? 

As someone very familar with that Baylor case, the school investigation essentially shielded the assistants from any public blame even though it's foolish to think none of them knew what was going on. And as I said earlier, Gush hasn't been able to get an FBS job until this one. Same went for Wallis. 

[UNTLifer]

4 minutes ago, MeanGreenATO said:

As someone very familar with that Baylor case, the school investigation essentially shielded the assistants from any public blame even though it's foolish to think none of them knew what was going on. And as I said earlier, Gush hasn't been able to get an FBS job until this one. Same went for Wallis. 

As someone with family in the Waco area, they have said from Day 1 that this was an institutional issue and the Briles and staff were scapegoats.  Take that for what it's worth.  There is a great article/interview with Bennett in the Fort Worth Star Telegram where he addresses it.

[El Paso Eagle]

11 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

As someone with family in the Waco area, they have said from Day 1 that this was an institutional issue and the Briles and staff were scapegoats.  Take that for what it's worth.  There is a great article/interview with Bennett in the Fort Worth Star Telegram where he addresses it.

There are some people who will never be OK with a Baylor ex hire and that's their choice. It seems these days if someone doesn't agree with someone it does not matter the reason and instead on moving on they take every chance to tell everyone how wrong that person is and push the narrative that they should never be allowed to work again. 

[MeanGreenATO]

I figured people on here wouldn't really care that much, but the ties to Art Briles should be mentioned at the very least. Will be curious to see if Seth talks about the vetting process and if they were different from the ones with Wallis. 

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

1 minute ago, MeanGreenATO said:

I figured people on here wouldn't really care that much, but the ties to Art Briles should be mentioned at the very least. Will be curious to see if Seth talks about the vetting process and if they were different from the ones with Wallis. 

Some of us do care - but will always get downvoted into oblivion. No worries though. I highly doubt they talk about the vetting process, being that we didn't ever hear about the Tate Wallis hire snafu at all. I called that a very generous "ho hum" hire and people didn't agree with their downvotes. All good though. At the very least we are not Liberty (yet). 

[guttix]

The Mean Green need to clean house and reinstall Todd Dodge.

[Cr1028]

58 minutes ago, MeanGreenATO said:

As someone very familar with that Baylor case, the school investigation essentially shielded the assistants from any public blame even though it's foolish to think none of them knew what was going on. And as I said earlier, Gush hasn't been able to get an FBS job until this one. Same went for Wallis. 

Shielded them from blame for what? Since you are well versed in the case, what, if anything, did they do specifically that anyone has a  level evidence needed to proceed in a criminal trial? Everyone says rape, rape enablers, they should’ve kicked kids off the team, so on and so forth but what specifically did a single one of them do that was a criminal act? Or even a NCAA violation worthy of a show-cause penalty?

[MeanGreenATO]

re: @Cr1028, Baylor's investigative report said "football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct." But since the report didn't name any of those coaches except Briles, it's impossible to know who's directly at fault. The link to that report for anyone interested: https://www.baylor.edu/thefacts/doc.php/266596.pdf

[Cr1028]

20 minutes ago, MeanGreenATO said:

re: @Cr1028, Baylor's investigative report said "football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct." But since the report didn't name any of those coaches except Briles, it's impossible to know who's directly at fault. The link to that report for anyone interested: https://www.baylor.edu/thefacts/doc.php/266596.pdf

Are there no police in Waco anymore? Why would a victim go to the football coaches before the police? Why would the onus be on the coaching staff?

I feel like I’m living in bizarro world. No I don’t want him to go to jail, I just want him off your football team. That doesn’t make sense to me at all..

[TheReal_jayD]

3 hours ago, MeanGreenATO said:

So, it's been a long time and I don't follow UNT football like I did when I was in school, but... 

I like Seth personally, but does anybody else find it strange that Littrell keeps hiring people off of Briles' final Baylor staff? Gush joins Tate Wallis and Phil Bennett in that regard. And Gush hasn't been able to land an FBS gig until this one, which kinda seems suspect. 

Slow news day in cincy? 

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

12 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Are there no police in Waco anymore? Why would a victim go to the football coaches before the police? Why would the onus be on the coaching staff?

I feel like I’m living in bizarro world. No I don’t want him to go to jail, I just want him off your football team. That doesn’t make sense to me at all..

I guess you are choosing to ignore that Baylor has a long history of forcing players/students to not to go the police and to report to the staff/coaches first. Patrick Dennehy style. It's just how it works down there. 

It is a bizarro world and Sam Ukwuachu is in prison now ... not just off the team. 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by SteaminWillieBeamin

[El Paso Eagle]

1 hour ago, MeanGreenATO said:

I figured people on here wouldn't really care that much, but the ties to Art Briles should be mentioned at the very least. Will be curious to see if Seth talks about the vetting process and if they were different from the ones with Wallis. 

It has been mentioned. On this board ever time a coach who was at Baylor at the time is mentioned there is divide. There are many here who seem to believe anyone who coached at Baylor during that time should never be allowed to coach again.

As far as vetting, is that on Seth or the HR department? Do Department heads vet the new professors and then get questioned if one of them has troubles? 

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

1 minute ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Do Department heads vet the new professors and then get questioned if one of them has troubles? 

They do. 

However, I think the divide is there because there was no real justice for the staff or coaches. They lost their jobs and went to work elsewhere that was not a prestigious, but they didn't get any real trouble. So I think that shielding or public acknowledgment rubs some the wrong way. 

It isn't hatred for the guys. Well, some of them. I would never ever touch Briles. 

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by SteaminWillieBeamin

[El Paso Eagle]

Just now, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

They do. 

They do the vetting for all hires or are blamed when one gets in trouble?

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

19 hours ago, El Paso Eagle said:

They do the vetting for all hires or are blamed when one gets in trouble?

Of course they vet hires. HR is there to make sure their degrees are real and they have a good credit scores.

Edited January 29, 2021 by SteaminWillieBeamin

[El Paso Eagle]

Just now, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

Of course the vet hires. HR is there to make sure their degrees are real and they have a good credit scores.

So, you’re saying the department head call previous employers and references? Highly doubt they let the person interviewing and making the decision to hire also verify the background. But again, you are in the group who believes all things Baylor Coaching are bad.

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

8 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

So, you’re saying the department head call previous employers and references? Highly doubt they let the person interviewing and making the decision to hire also verify the background. But again, you are in the group who believes all things Baylor Coaching are bad.

I guess you don't get it. 

HR makes sure they don't have a criminal record. They make sure their credentials are real. They ask the former employer very high level questions (date of employment, titles, etc). The former employer cannot prevent a future employment and avoids legal trouble by not answering questions on ethics... 

The HIRING person is responsible for the judgement of character on recommending the hire. Obviously. 

[Cr1028]

34 minutes ago, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

I guess you are choosing to ignore that Baylor has a long history of forcing players/students to not to go the police and to report to the staff/coaches first. Patrick Dennehy style. It's just how it works down there. 

It is a bizarro world and Sam Ukwuachu is in prison now ... not just off the team. 

I don’t see how the football coaches could possibly prevent a coed or her parents from going to the police. As for Ukwachaku, he is where he should be and that has nothing to do with the Baylor coaching staff and everything to do with the choices he made as a legal-aged adult.

[Green Crazy]

I think they're just trying to make it feel as homelike as possible for when Littrell gets fired and we go get Briles. 🙂