Wisconsin Whitewater head coach Lance Leipold new head coach at Buffalo

[DoubleE]

http://footballscoop.com/news/lance-leipold-will-next-head-coach-buffalo/

[ValleyTalk]

Can you say risky? Buffalo is rolling the dice in a big way...

D3 to FBS. Wow.

[paladin]

Risky ? Try plain stupidity.  Buffalo will be a laughing stock. Watch the program over the coming years. Even in the MAC, they will struggle to win.

[edpuskas]

Risky ? Try plain stupidity.  Buffalo will be a laughing stock. Watch the program over the coming years. Even in the MAC, they will struggle to win.

Yes, it's a long way from D-III to FBS and maybe Lance Leipold makes it and maybe he doesn't.

But not knowing how to recruit? I'd say that will be pretty far down on the list of reasons if he flames out there. Recruiting is about hitting the road, selling your program in high schools and in parents' living rooms and getting people to buy into what you're selling. It's about having personality and building relationships. Some people are good at it. Others struggle with it. Nobody knows if Leipold can or can't do it. Buffalo is betting he can.

Jim Tressel did it extremely well at YSU and Ohio State. And yet, there were more than a few people who said the same thing about OSU after he was hired there that you just said about Buffalo.

[paladin]

ED, ask around. Big difference in recruiting at the D-III level  and recruiting at D-I. D-III is phone calls and letters/post cards as D-III doesn't have the budget to recruit as D-Is do.  The AAU trail and campus ( organized) visits make up a lot of D-I activity, entertaining and wowing the athletes. D-III sends them off to hang around the players  lives. LOts of $$$$$$$$$$$ and attention at D-Is.  Night & day. Interests and  interaction    with parents also key.  Needless to say, if it was easy, many a successful D-III coach would be promoted to D-I. Rarely happens. And for good reasons.

[edpuskas]

ED, ask around. Big difference in recruiting at the D-III level  and recruiting at D-I. D-III is phone calls and letters/post cards as D-III doesn't have the budget to recruit as D-Is do.  The AAU trail and campus ( organized) visits make up a lot of D-I activity, entertaining and wowing the athletes. D-III sends them off to hang around the players  lives. LOts of $$$$$$$$$$$ and attention at D-Is.  Night & day. Interests and  interaction    with parents also key.  Needless to say, if it was easy, many a successful D-III coach would be promoted to D-I. Rarely happens. And for good reasons.

I don't doubt that the way it's done is different. I'm just not ready to say the guy automatically can't do it. Buffalo may well regret the decision. We'll see.

I think, in general, too much is made of the supposed gap between coaching levels. I know a guy who was a D-III assistant, then a coordinator at the same level. Then a position coach in what is now FBS. I look up a few years later and he's an NFL coordinator, and a couple years later, a head coach in the league.

If you can coach, you can coach. If you can recruit, you can recruit. If you can do both, you'll be successful.

[ysufan0505]

It's Buffalo so good luck to him.

[DavedS]

Ditto!--he will definitely need it--stranger things have happened though,I'm still amazed @ ISUb's turnaround.

[Kandrase]

I disagree on the skepticism of his ability to succeed at the next level.

Actually his experience recruiting at the non-scholarship level could give LL a pretty big advantage.

Think about it, for his entire recruiting career so far has had to recruit guys based solely on selling the idea that his program will be successful and that the player will fit into his system etc.

D3 coaches like Liepold have had to learn to sift through mediocrity and find guys who were special that nobody at higher levels noticed, having that kind of skill and having to rely only on your sales pitch and the value of your program can be nothing but good for a coaches ability to recruit. Adding money to that mix just gives a great recruiter another tool to sweeten the pot IMHO.