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Thursday, January 24, 2008

As expected, Bowen made coordinator

By Ryan Wood

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Lawrence native and former Kansas player Clint Bowen was named defensive coordinator at KU, replacing Bill Young, who's headed to Miami

Kansas University's football coaching staff officially made another transition Wednesday, when the poorly kept secret of Clint Bowen's promotion to defensive coordinator was announced.

Bowen will replace Bill Young, who will be defensive coordinator at Miami. KU coach Mark Mangino, as familiar with Bowen as anybody, was quick to give the 35-year old Lawrence native a promotion.

"Clint has played a big role in the success of our defense," Mangino said in a statement. "He has a great rapport with the players and is an outstanding teacher of schemes and fundamentals. There is no doubt Clint will continue to develop our defense."

The question is, how much more shuffling - or hiring - will need to be done this offseason?

Bowen will continue to coach the safeties, meaning Kansas has an opening for a defensive-line coach, which Young vacated. In addition, the loss of assistant Tim Beck earlier this month to Nebraska means that there is an opening for a wide-receivers coach on KU's staff.

Losing assistants is nothing new to Mangino. He had to hire four new assistants last year - offensive coordinator Ed Warinner, linebackers coach Steve Tovar, cornerbacks coach Je'Ney Jackson and special-teams coordinator Louie Matsakis. Linebackers coach Dave Doeren left for Wisconsin after the 2005 season, and several changes were made after the '04 campaign, too.

Published reports indicate that both Beck and Young will make more money at their next stops, and both are going to programs with significantly more tradition.

But unique factors contributed to their departures, as well:

¢ Young, who spent six years at KU, spoke of his desire for a new opportunity to re-energize the twilight of his long career. At 61, he likely won't be coaching much longer.

"It's a new challenge," he told the Journal-World last week. "Sometimes as a coach, you need that."

¢ Beck, meanwhile, will work under new Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini and alongside defensive coordinator Carl Pelini. Beck actually grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, just down the street from the Pelinis.

"Knowing (Bo) and growing up with him, it's something I'm excited about," Beck told the Omaha World-Herald. "We've talked about it ever since he was at Nebraska the first time."

This time of year, many coaching staffs are experiencing turnover. In fact, Missouri is one of the few Big 12 programs that has kept its entire staff together so far, though the Tigers' situation is rare because it hasn't experienced any turnover in Gary Pinkel's seven years in charge. All aides were given raises recently after the Tigers won the Cotton Bowl.

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Comments

Greenielivz (anonymous) says...

I played Clint's backup at the free safety position during the '91-'92 season at Butler County Community College. Even though i wasn't really friends with Clint at BCCC, he took time to mentor me. If it wasn't for his coaching on the field helping me to be a better player I never would have seen ANY game time. He will do a great job for the team. Following that season we both transfered to KU, Clint to continue playing football and me just to be a student.

Congrats Clint! Well deserved and thanks for giving me my shot.

Jason
J'95

January 24, 2008 at 6:53 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

mvjayhawk (anonymous) says...

The defense will be just fine under Mr. Clint, thank you. Nice job on the promotion...you earned it. And with the pass rushing ends we have coming in with the next recruiting class....our defense is only going to get better.

January 24, 2008 at 7:50 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

beebe1 (anonymous) says...

Oh, I don't know. Who was responsible for the problems in 2006? Young was the head defensive guy. Did we get any improvement in 2007 from the genius turning out, or Clint Bowen's promotion to co-Defensive Coordinator? At least in 2007, someone figured out that the "Prevent Defense" only is applicable to a couple of plays a game -- like the last minute heave for the end zone! This year, the DBacks were where they belonged.

January 24, 2008 at 11:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

number1jayhawker (anonymous) says...

djkc28

Yes DC Bill Young is still a defensive genius, but Bowen has been groomed by Young for the last two years to take over.

So are you a kstate or a mizzou fan?

January 24, 2008 at 12:47 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kranny (anonymous) says...

Talent and experience is what wins games, not Defensive Coordinators. Bowen will do fine because he is a good recruiter and has learned from Young and many others.

January 24, 2008 at 12:57 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

milehighhawk (anonymous) says...

Young was a Great d-coordinator, but I personally think that the other "G-words" (genius and guru) get tossed around far too often when discussing coaches.

Keep in mind that this "genius" gave us the 119th rated pass defense in 2006. (Also see Charlie Weis's experience at Notre Dame for further problems in labeling someone a genius or guru).

It is too bad that we lose him, but I'm pretty confident that Bowen learned a great deal under him. You won't notice any difference next year.

January 24, 2008 at 2:08 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jimmy_Dean (Alan Halvorsen) says...

Coachs don't win ball games players do. djkc you got everything figured out dont you?

January 24, 2008 at 4:31 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KUglow (anonymous) says...

Yep, that's right, without Young we lose to VT. Man, Young sure looked good flying down the sideline and high stepping into the end zone when he picked off that ball in the Orange Bowl. Not bad for a 61 one year old man.

Good coaches get you in the right spot on the field. Players still gotta make the plays.

January 24, 2008 at 5:36 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

actorman (anonymous) says...

You guys who are responding to djkc obviously haven't followed this board much. He's a s**t-stirrer from way back and his no real interest other than to piss people off. You can't take a single thing he says seriously.

January 25, 2008 at 6:59 p.m. ( | suggest removal )