Hoping to revamp the WAC’s least productive offense, SMUhead coach Phil Bennett announced several new teamacquisitions.
On Dec. 19 Bennett welcomed three junior college players to SMUand the football team.
The players, 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound Bobby Chase, a widereceiver from Blinn College; 6-foot-3-inch, 190-pound Tony Eckert aquarterback from Tyler Junior College; and 6-foot-2-inch, 210-poundJerad Romo a quarterback from Antelope Valley Junior Collegeenrolled at SMU for the spring 2004 semester.
In his first and only year at Blinn, Chase, a native of Irving,caught five passes for 40 yards. In high school, Chase was rated atwo-star prospect by Rivals.com. As a high school senior, he caughtalmost 60 passes for over 800 yards. Chase boasts a 4.5 second40-meter dash and will enjoy three years of eligibility at SMU.
“He’s a big guy and that’s what we need at thereceiver position,” Bennett said.
Eckert, who spent two years at TJC, led the Apaches to theirfirst 10-win season since 1969. As a sophomore, Eckert completed135 passes on 210 attempts for 2,359 yards. He threw 24 touchdownpasses and just 10 interceptions.
Romo comes to the Hilltop from AVC in Lancaster, Calif. There hecompleted 125 of 206 passes for 1,731 yards while throwing 10touchdown passes and two interceptions all in his sophomore year.Romo’s quarterback efficiency rating for his sophomore yearwas an impressive 145.34 in leading AVC to a 5-5 record.
“I think Romo’s arm is stronger, but Eckert has themost wins for his junior college at quarterback since 1969,”Bennett said.
With the signing of two more quarterbacks, the team now haseight quarterbacks on its roster.
“We have to have competition at quarterback,” saidBennett. “It’s been our Achilles’ heel for thetwo seasons I’ve been here.”
To manage these quarterbacks and lead the revamped offense,Bennett hired former University of Cincinnati offensive coordinatorRusty Burns. Bennett has also confirmed the hiring of new offensiveline coach, Ronnie Vinklarek.
In his two seasons at Cincinnati, Burns assisted in leading theBearcats to the 2002 Conference USA Championship. Burns’spread attack led C-USA in both total offense (397.5 yards pergame) and total passing offense (260.6 yards per game) in 2002.
Burns has coached at six other universities in his 25-yearcareer. Burns previously held the titles of offensive coordinatorand quarterbacks coach at Wyoming (1991-2001), offensivecoordinator at Springfield College (1978-1979), Connecticut(1980-1988), Cincinnati (1989-1991, 2002-2003) and Memphis(1996-1998) and as assistant coach at Georgia Tech (1992-1994).
Vinklarek brings 24 years of coaching expertise to SMU.Vinklarek started coaching at the high school level, where he spentnine years. Next, he moved on to become offensive line coordinatorat Houston University (1988-1993), Valdosta State (1997), theNFL’s Buffalo Bills (2001-2002), and Middle Tennessee (2003).He also spent 2000 as the defensive qualitycontrol/linebackers/special teams coach for the TennesseeTitans.
In Houston in 1988, Vinklarek’s offensive line was facedwith the daunting task of protecting former Heisman Trophy winnerAndre Ware. That year, Houston also went to the Aloha Bowl inHonolulu.
“Rusty and Ronnie both have vast experience in coachingand will give us an opportunity to have a better offense,”Bennett said.
Other coaching shifts include: former offensive coordinatorLarry Edmondson moving to wide receivers coach, former widereceivers coach Clarence James moving to running backs coach, andformer running backs coach Jerry Bennett moving to tightends/inside receivers coach.
2003 offensive line coach Blake Miller and 2003 tightends/inside receivers coach Johnny Ringo will not be returning forthe 2004 season.
“Our new coaches came from offenses that put a lot ofpoints on the board so hopefully, we can do the same,” junioroffensive tackle Eric Neal said.
“Every football program has the same goal: to wingames,” Romo said. “[This team] has a great coachingstaff that has a real determination to turn thingsaround.”
The offensive acquisitions and coaching shuffle could provide amuch needed spark to an offense that was ranked at the bottom ofthe WAC and all of the 117 NCAA Division I football teams. Theoffense averaged just 260.67 yards per game.
“We’re looking to score points,” Bennett said.”We only scored 11 touchdowns last season.”
“There’s a lot of changes going on, but I’mlooking forward to a great season,” Romo said.”We’re going to work hard, and I’m lookingforward to playing Division I football and winninggames.”
