The Bill Lewis Coaching Tree Visits South Bend

This week presents a different type of matchup for Notre Dame defensive backs coach Bill Lewis. The former head coach at East Carolina and Georgia Tech had a bunch of current and former head coaches on his staff at ECU. Included in that was a young offensive coordinator named Mark Richt (now Georgia's head coach). Two other offensive coaches on his staff he'll see across the sidelines this weekend: Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski and his offensive coordinator, Steve Logan, who replaced Lewis at ECU.
"We took that program at East Carolina when it was struggling, turned it around and we won and then I left and Steve took over and over the next 10 years Steve took that program to the next level and kept it there," Lewis said. "That's not an easy program to do that with and Steve did a marvelous job and Jags stayed with him three or four years and then he moved on."
Logan is known as a quarterbacks guru in college and the master of wide-open offenses, having coached former NFL players Jeff Blake and David Garrard along with Canadian League quarterback Marcus Crandell at East Carolina and is currently working with Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan.
Lewis said even back in his years at ECU, Logan was just as innovative with an offense as he is now.
"I swear, if you'd let him throw the ball every snap, he'd throw it every snap," Lewis said. "He'd spread you from sideline to sideline and you'll see it this week. He'll use every inch of the field and he's got a quarterback that can throw the ball to every inch of the field that's there so he's in his element. Jags is an offensive line coach. I'm sure he's got to pin him down and say let's run the ball a few times.
"But Steve was extremely innovative back then and the whole time he was the head coach at East Carolina, they were very explosive offensively. He's special when it comes to that."
Logan and Lewis go back further than ECU. They were opposing coordinators in the SEC when Lewis was at Georgia and Logan was at Mississippi State. Lewis said when Logan was there, the Bulldogs couldn't stop them.
So when Lewis went to ECU, he brought Logan with him and also brought along Richt, then an assistant at Florida State, who stayed at ECU for a year before heading back to FSU. When Richt left, Lewis promoted the quarterback guru.
"He's a quarterback coach, that's what he is," Lewis said. "He loves to coach quarterbacks and to be involved in that part of the game. He's as good as anybody. He doesn't take a backseat to anyone when it comes to coaching quarterbacks and coaching offense."
And they'll all reunite again Saturday.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Brian]

I am an alumnus of ECU, and I was a student when Logan was in his final years as head coach. He is a good offensive coach, but he isn't the best leader in my opinion (and I wouldn't want him calling the shots in my offense). When I was at ECU, he had teams that were loaded with talent, but they constantly underachieved. Toward the end of his tenure, he seemed to give up on the team. It seemed like he wanted to get fired so he could sit at home and collect the remaining 3 years of his contract (which is what happened). It's taken ECU over 5 years to recover from the mess Steve Logan left behind. It also took a head coach with ties to ND to turn it around as well... Skip Holtz - son of Lou. I think BC can keep Logan. I think Coach Lewis and Brown will have a game plan to rattle the BC offense. GO IRISH!!!

[jim masterson]

Michael; Re: Coach Logan. He wants on his tombstone: Here lies a "Coach" that scored 60 against UMiami and lost!