DeJuan Rogers, latest Belleville head coach, leaving for a DII job
More dysfunctional football program, MSU or Belleville?
P.S. This is Bryce Underwood's high school.
https://footballscoop.com/news/sources-d-ii-program-set-to-hire-head-coach-of-state-champion-program
I would consider this a step up in pay and prestige to become a D II college coach. How is this coach’s promotion a sign of program dysfunction?
I'm not sure about pay, it might be about the same. But it is 100 percent a step up in prestige to be an assistant coach at a good D-2 program rather than a head coach at a high school, even a very good one. If the guy has any ambitions beyond being a lifer high school coach, this is about the only way to start down that road.
He is leaving Belleville, a powerhouse HS program in Michigan, to become the DBs coach at DII Tiffin. I have never even heard of Tiffin. But it's "college" so it must be a step up. Ok.
HS coaches in Michigan public schools don’t make that much. They get a stipend that is not nearly reflective of the work they put it. It’s a labor of love.
Tiffin is a solid small school, and there isn't anything wrong with working your way up if your long term goal is to be a college or NFL coach. It's hard to jump from HS directly to a D-1 assistant job.
Will be interesting to see what the turnover does to the Belleville program.
It is a little weird though that a guy coaching a powerhouse HS program can only land a D-II assistant job. Chris Partridge and Ron Bellamy were hired from the HS ranks to our staff.
I don't know Dejuan Rogers's history, but Partridge was not exactly plucked straight from high school. He was a former college coach at Lafayette and the Citadel, who then went back to coaching high school, and then got hired for an off-the-field position at Michigan.
Ron Bellamy was a Division I football player who played for the Miami Dolphins who then went to coaching high school.
Both of those guys had a lot of fairly high level experience before becoming FBS assistant coaches.
Partridge took an off-field role at UM before working his way onto the coaching staff. And also coached three years in the FCS ranks before returning to Paramus.
Bellamy also wouldn’t have been offered a spot on the Michigan staff if he didn’t happen to be an alum. Wilcher, with a similar background but longer stretch of success, took an off-field role at MSU instead of a coaching position somewhere. Now why Michigan went to Bellamy and not Wilcher, I couldn’t tell you. But the connection to the school was likely the biggest factor in getting Bellamy in the door.
Needless to say, it takes a lot more than coaching a high school powerhouse to land a big time college job. In this case, it’s important to note that he’s only been leading that powerhouse for one season. He didn’t build it, he hasn’t maintained their success while molding the program in his image. He took over on an interim role and won a state title. Great, but you have to prove yourself a lot more than that.
I’m sure if he put his resume in at some P5 schools he could get an analyst/DPP role and try to work his way up that way similar to the path Partridge took. But he’s far from the only high school coach to take DII or FCS jobs and eventually work their way up to FBS
Chris partridge is an exceptional case and was the head coach of a dominant hs football powerhouse. Belleville isn’t there
Bellamy is an alum
Super Bowl Champ Nate Washington went to Tiffin.
Michigan’s new QB coach, Kirk Campbell, used to coach at Tiffin. Coaching in college, at any level, is an easier stepping stone to better college jobs than coaching at great high school programs.
People in Tiffin probably never heard of Bellville either.
Yeah, agreed. He should wait for Bama to offer him the OC position.
The notion that something cannot be a step up because you personally have not heard of it is borderline narcissistic.
The fact that you have never heard of Tiffin says more about you than it says about Tiffin.
BTW, all my pots and pans are coated in Tiffin.
Has she given her cat a name yet? If not, I vote for Lane Tiffin.
Right. Especially since it's so close to Ann Arbor.
Wasn't the knock on Belleville players that they weren't coached very well? If true, this might be a (slight) upgrade for the coach, but a downgrade for the team. 🤷♂️
That is an old narrative - Belleville has won 2 straight state championships (one under Crowell and one under Rogers) and are currently on a 25 game winning streak.
Now that's DYSFUNCTIONAL. Hopefully they'll get things together, in the near future.
It might be an old narrative, but it's also a sticky one. Is their on-field success due to good coaching or just because they have out talented other teams? I can't say I follow HS football enough to know the answer, but the fact that many highly rated Belleville recruits tend not to pan out in college would support the latter argument.
They've had one issue with the previous coach. The next guy gets a quick promotion. They've sent scores of kids to D1 programs and currently have the best football player in the state. How is this considered dysfunctional?
Rumors of cheating, ie skirting the rules to lure players from around the state, have hovered over Belleville for years. They finally came down on them last year and forced the school to boot the HC. And now the interim HC is being pushed out (sorry, no, I do not believe the DB coach job at Tiffin is a step up from the HC job at Belleville). Looks to me like Belleville is cleaning house. JMO.
“Looks like Belleville is cleaning house, JMO”.
the Internet in a nutshell. Forming opinions based on nothing and then not seeing how that’s a problem. Take this behavior back to Facebook.
The best kind of speculation is irresponsible speculation!
They literally just took the interim tag off of him like two months ago. Why would they do that and then push him out?
Horrible take
He went from being a high school coach to a division 2 position coach. It’s a huge step up in pay and responsibility.
good for him and good luck
Yes, when I found out Crowell was giving his players rides to practice, I was bummed out, burned up, furious, hot and bothered, huffy, ireful, and just plain mad. How could he do such a thing? Oh the humanity!
Crowell was giving his players rides to practice
IIRC, the issue was that Crowell was contacting kids from OTHER schools and giving them rides to HIS practices. Not giving his own players rides.
Because Crowell and Harbaugh didn’t see eye to eye, a few loud posters took Harbaugh’s complaints and the smoke from it and formed a bunch of idiotic conclusions based off of them that aren’t in line with reality. I don’t really have a problem with Harbaugh thinking Crowell didn’t develop players as well as he thought he should have because he knows more about football then I ever will, but out of that a small group of people started to think all Belleville players are overrated, the program underperforms, the coaches are incompetent, etc.
Just chalk it up to standard internet behavior in the 21st century.
The reason people think all the kids are overrated is because at the next level, none of them have panned out yet.
I just hope that whoever takes over now is not anti-Michigan.
^^^ This ^^^ Has taken us a while to re/build the bridges between Belleville and Harbaugh.
MrW - Is this an attempt at “dumbest OP of the week”? If so, it’s a decent effort!
OPs take is horrendous. Somehow leaving a HIGH SCHOOL job for COLLEGE, is considered a sign of dysfunction.
Surprised he couldn't leverage into a better job, such as an assistant coach at a D1 program. In today's world of recruiting you would think he could of packaged himself a better job than going small town D2.
He was an interim coach this year. They just took the interim tag off of him. So he has very little head coaching experience.
The dude was INTERIM coach for PART of the season. It’s not like he was the Bill Belichick of HS football.
Guy took over and won a championship during a difficult time for the program. He has many good D1 prospects on his team, with a little savvy he could leverage a better job. Hell, teams are hiring players moms and sisters now a days. This isn't the days of John Beilein climbing the ladder every step until you become head coach.
Ok, fine. He has no savviness. D1 schools were contacting him but he didn’t take the calls. He had no idea he could have done better.
It's actually refreshing to see someone trying to gain experience instead of instant unqualified promotions to be honest. I'm just not use to seeing it anymore.
Ferris State's coach is suspended for the teams first future playoff game. That's a nice opportunity for some up-and-comer to get some HC experience:
How long until IMG snatches that kid up?
Silly...one's coming, one's going.
Congratulations on the promotion coach.
Feel like I have seen this movie before. Everyone is ready to bury Staee and they pull a 10-2 season out of their ass.
Why are we discussing one of the biggest cheating teams in the state? Most of the team is made up from kids not even close to the city of Belleville. They won because of talent and talent alone. I'm looking forward to them floundering after all of this!
I will say in their defense it is complete bull shit Crowell got suspended since every Private school in the state cheats and tampers beyond belief especially what OLSM does now. Cass and King aren't any better!