Getting Adjusted
February 20, 2008 09:36 AM | General
February 20, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – New West Virginia University wide receivers coach Lonnie Galloway has been involved with some outstanding football programs and he believes the challenge of working for a BCS conference school was just the next logical step in his coaching career.
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| New receivers coach Lonnie Galloway can continue to call himself a Mountaineer.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“It was a great opportunity,” Galloway said recently. “Coach (Jerry) Moore and Coach Stewart are good friends and to be able to come up here and to get into a big tradition as far as college football, great atmosphere … Coach Moore spoke highly of Coach Stewart and Coach Stewart spoke highly for Coach Moore so I knew I was going to go and work for a great man.
“The biggest thing is going to work and feeling comfortable going to work and being able to do your job - that was a lot of the reasons for coming,” Galloway said.
The Eden, N.C., native was a four-year starting quarterback at Western Carolina where he passed for 5,545 yards placing him second on the school all-time passing list. After a year of football in the Arena League, Galloway made coaching stops at Elon and East Carolina before spending the last three seasons for Jerry Moore at Appalachian State.
The Mountaineers won three consecutive national championships and posted a 39-6 record during Galloway’s three seasons in Boone, N.C.
“People say, well, it’s the I-AA level but football is football. We did beat Michigan and Michigan did beat Florida,” Galloway said. “If you can get your guys to go out and buy into your system it doesn’t matter who you are playing. Obviously anyone in America never thought we would beat Michigan last year. The biggest thing for us here is that they’ve beaten Oklahoma and they’ve beaten Georgia. The talent is here. We’ve just got to continue to work.”
Galloway says he takes a professional approach in dealing with his players.
“I’m able to get along with people pretty well. I told them, ‘If you want to be treated like college students I will treat you like college students. If you want to be treated like kids I’ve got three little kids at home so I know how to do that also.’ If they go out and work everyday in the practice field there won’t be any problems,” Galloway said. “They’ve won here so the guys are not going to be like, ‘All right let’s see what I can do?’ They want to go out and continue to win and that’s our whole goal as coaches.”
Galloway believes it is important for the team to start with a clean slate when spring ball begins on March 14.
“The biggest thing we’ve got to preach to them is ’07 is ’07. It was good and hopefully the momentum and the spirit will carry on as far as in the workouts and spring ball but nobody is going to remember what you did a few years ago,” Galloway said. “A lot of people don’t even know who won the national championship game five years ago. Unless I start thinking about it I can’t tell you.”
Galloway brings a wealth of spread offensive experience with him having coached in a similar system at Appalachian State. He was also involved with some spread principles the two seasons he worked at East Carolina.
“We did a lot of the same things but we did a little bit more,” Galloway explained. “We used the tight end more than just in the running game. We threw it a lot more. As far as the way we called it all of that was the same. Some of the terminology was different.”
Galloway actually came up and visited with the West Virginia staff last year to observe practice and watch tape.
“In spring ’07 I was on the staff and we came up and watched some practice. At East Carolina with Coach Stockstill I know one of the formations they used here was Rio and we used it at East Carolina,” Galloway said. “I’ve been around a form of the spread offense for the last four or five years.”
Galloway’s recruiting territories will include some non-traditional areas for West Virginia.
“We each have a part of West Virginia and then I have Atlanta, Jacksonville and the panhandle area of Florida,” Galloway said.
Having been the last coach to be added to the staff Galloway is still finding his way around town.
“I can get from the hotel to the building and to Chic-fil-A. I hadn’t even tried to drive out to Best Buy or those places yet,” Galloway laughed. “All my friends back home ask me what the difference is between Boone and Morgantown. I said Morgantown is bigger. It’s just a bigger Boone. It’s the same type of atmosphere, same fans that are really excited about Mountaineer football.
“I can say that both ways.”
Galloway expects to have his family moved up to Morgantown before the end of spring drills.
“Coach Stewart let us go home after signing day for a few days and I have three little kids so they were like, ‘Daddy where have you been? When are you coming home? When are you coming back?’ We’re going to get everybody situated up here during spring ball,” he said.
