Part I of “The Chad Chronicles”
Okay here we go… Part I will feature the first 12 months under Chad.
***Reminder this was all from SMU’s side of the table, there might be conflicting information based on stuff from Clemson side***
Chad signed a 6-year $12 million contract with SMU, he signed such a small annual salary because he wanted money to sign quality assistants. At the time, it was very Dabo-esque of Chad to do this, instead of getting the 4 year $3.5 million per year SMU initially offered. Chad said he was here for the long haul and took the longer contract with less money to show it.
Rumors were flying around SMU that Chad would bring either Jeff Scott or Tony Elliot with him at the time to be the OC and Marion Hobby was the guy he wanted as DC. Hence the reason he wanted a heavy bag of $ to afford and OC/DC and get them to leave Clemson.
After the first week, rumors were still swirling that Chad was bringing “Clemson people” with him to SMU, but soon after they heard Hobby would not leave Clemson. There was quiet optimism that Jeff Scott would be joining Chad.
So, the initial staff (with Clemson ties) after the first week was:
OC- Jeff Scott
WR- Justin Stepp
QB- Tyler Carlton
OL- Dustin Fry
Obviously, Jeff Scott ended up getting promoted to Co-OC with Tony Elliot leaving Chad to then end up bringing along Joe Craddock as the “OC/QB Coach” even though Chad would be calling the plays.
The rest of the defensive guys he filled out where HS coaches or guys he had ties to while at Tulsa for 1 year. The staff wasn’t as expected after the first week, Van Malone ended up getting the nod at DC and was known as a good recruiter (turned out he wasn’t at SMU).
The staff wasn’t what Chad had pitched to SMU and what he was planning on bringing to SMU, but he assured to boosters and the administration that he still had the guys that he wanted. Everyone just assumed since Clemson was on the rise after 4 straight 10+ win seasons that even the GA’s were going to be quality up and coming hires…
Boy was that wrong, more on this later…
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So once spring practice rolled around, they held a golf outing in late spring to get a lot of the boosters/alumni to meet Chad and the other coaches. The thing that was notable out of that whole ordeal, was that Chad said he had better talent during his time at Lake Travis HS in Austin then he does at SMU at this very moment. He won back to back state titles (36-0) with Garrett Gilbert at the helm.
Side bar—June Jones left SMU's program in shambles… A few tidbits on how June Jones recruited/left the program.
1) June never evaluated prospects in person, if you wanted to meet June you had to come to SMU’s campus.
2) He was notorious for offering kids based on Senior film, would wait for them to send them highlights before he offered.
3) He would take 1-2 week vacations in the heart of January back to Hawaii with his wife instead of recruiting.
4) He would only have 1 OV weekend in January (the last weekend, because he was too busy)
5) He hired a guy to be the WR coach and actually threatened to fire him because he was making him and the rest of the staff look bad because he was “recruiting to much.” High schools would call and wonder why other High schools would get visited by this coach and they didn’t… true story.
So, based on what you can infer… SMU’s roster was filled with a bunch of no offer kids from other schools. So, all the alumni were told to temper their expectations for the 2015 season. They ended up 2-10 that year but showed promise on offense (thanks to June Jones landing Courtland Sutton and James Proche) and the defense on the other hand was a work in progress.
After that final game there was a quiet optimism within the football office and boosters within the inner circle with what Chad was doing regarding recruiting and what was coming back in 2016 with Matt Davis back at QB, 2 promising young RB’s and a highly underrated WR room.
That was before the wife of a coach on staff opened their mouth and exposed “Operation Rent” …
She was at dinner with a large group of friends/others and mentioned how it was unfortunate that they were renting a house compared to buying a house.
She wanted to redecorate and buy the house they were currently living in, but when questioned why they didn’t buy the house she said “because my husband’s boss told him and his staff that they shouldn’t buy anything because we aren’t going to be here long..”
One of the women sitting next to her turned out to be the wife of a prominent SMU booster…
***Part II of The Chad Chronicles will be released tomorrow***
Okay here we go… Part I will feature the first 12 months under Chad.
***Reminder this was all from SMU’s side of the table, there might be conflicting information based on stuff from Clemson side***
Chad signed a 6-year $12 million contract with SMU, he signed such a small annual salary because he wanted money to sign quality assistants. At the time, it was very Dabo-esque of Chad to do this, instead of getting the 4 year $3.5 million per year SMU initially offered. Chad said he was here for the long haul and took the longer contract with less money to show it.
Rumors were flying around SMU that Chad would bring either Jeff Scott or Tony Elliot with him at the time to be the OC and Marion Hobby was the guy he wanted as DC. Hence the reason he wanted a heavy bag of $ to afford and OC/DC and get them to leave Clemson.
After the first week, rumors were still swirling that Chad was bringing “Clemson people” with him to SMU, but soon after they heard Hobby would not leave Clemson. There was quiet optimism that Jeff Scott would be joining Chad.
So, the initial staff (with Clemson ties) after the first week was:
OC- Jeff Scott
WR- Justin Stepp
QB- Tyler Carlton
OL- Dustin Fry
Obviously, Jeff Scott ended up getting promoted to Co-OC with Tony Elliot leaving Chad to then end up bringing along Joe Craddock as the “OC/QB Coach” even though Chad would be calling the plays.
The rest of the defensive guys he filled out where HS coaches or guys he had ties to while at Tulsa for 1 year. The staff wasn’t as expected after the first week, Van Malone ended up getting the nod at DC and was known as a good recruiter (turned out he wasn’t at SMU).
The staff wasn’t what Chad had pitched to SMU and what he was planning on bringing to SMU, but he assured to boosters and the administration that he still had the guys that he wanted. Everyone just assumed since Clemson was on the rise after 4 straight 10+ win seasons that even the GA’s were going to be quality up and coming hires…
Boy was that wrong, more on this later…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So once spring practice rolled around, they held a golf outing in late spring to get a lot of the boosters/alumni to meet Chad and the other coaches. The thing that was notable out of that whole ordeal, was that Chad said he had better talent during his time at Lake Travis HS in Austin then he does at SMU at this very moment. He won back to back state titles (36-0) with Garrett Gilbert at the helm.
Side bar—June Jones left SMU's program in shambles… A few tidbits on how June Jones recruited/left the program.
1) June never evaluated prospects in person, if you wanted to meet June you had to come to SMU’s campus.
2) He was notorious for offering kids based on Senior film, would wait for them to send them highlights before he offered.
3) He would take 1-2 week vacations in the heart of January back to Hawaii with his wife instead of recruiting.
4) He would only have 1 OV weekend in January (the last weekend, because he was too busy)
5) He hired a guy to be the WR coach and actually threatened to fire him because he was making him and the rest of the staff look bad because he was “recruiting to much.” High schools would call and wonder why other High schools would get visited by this coach and they didn’t… true story.
So, based on what you can infer… SMU’s roster was filled with a bunch of no offer kids from other schools. So, all the alumni were told to temper their expectations for the 2015 season. They ended up 2-10 that year but showed promise on offense (thanks to June Jones landing Courtland Sutton and James Proche) and the defense on the other hand was a work in progress.
After that final game there was a quiet optimism within the football office and boosters within the inner circle with what Chad was doing regarding recruiting and what was coming back in 2016 with Matt Davis back at QB, 2 promising young RB’s and a highly underrated WR room.
That was before the wife of a coach on staff opened their mouth and exposed “Operation Rent” …
She was at dinner with a large group of friends/others and mentioned how it was unfortunate that they were renting a house compared to buying a house.
She wanted to redecorate and buy the house they were currently living in, but when questioned why they didn’t buy the house she said “because my husband’s boss told him and his staff that they shouldn’t buy anything because we aren’t going to be here long..”
One of the women sitting next to her turned out to be the wife of a prominent SMU booster…
***Part II of The Chad Chronicles will be released tomorrow***
