Ball State University football coach Stan Parrish had a rough first appearance, but his job as the leader of the program didn't really start until after the game.
A team losing its head coach is hard enough. Add the fact that Brady Hoke was the defensive coordinator and the clear leader of the team, and you get a combination that made it impossible for Ball State to beat the University of Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl.
Based on what I had seen throughout the season, I thought the Cardinals could rally and hold with Tulsa, perhaps winning in the end, but we all saw how dumb of a thought that actually was. Ball State wasn't Ball State, and there was nothing Parrish could do.
He took over a team already reeling from the loss in the Mid-American Conference Championship Game that was now also faced with the loss of its head coach. On top of all that, Parrish had roughly half as much time to plan for Tulsa as Tulsa had to plan for Ball State. It was a no-win situation.
Knowing that now, it becomes obvious that Parrish's first job as head coach of Ball State is signing a recruiting class. A lot of recruits made commitments to Ball State during the early commit stage of recruiting but could still opt to go to different schools. Now Parrish must convince them to stay with Ball State even though the coach they committed to play for is in California.
While Parrish is doing this, he also has to continue to recruit for 2010 and fill his coaching staff. Simply put, Parrish has so much on his plate that it is overflowing.
Can Parrish do it? The answer is yes. He was Ball State's head recruiter under Hoke. In other words, almost all of the recruits (maybe all of them) have already spoken to Parrish and know what he is all about.
There are 18 recruits listed on Scout.com for Ball State, and if Parrish can get even 15 of them to sign on the dotted line, that should be considered a success.
The main recruits to worry about are those on the defensive side of the ball - players like middle linebackers Jacob Green and Alex Andrus. Both players may very well have chosen Ball State because they wanted to play for a defensive-minded coach who was a good linebacker in his own day. In order to keep the defenders, Parrish should make his decision for defensive coordinator quickly.
If I was in a recruit's position, I wouldn't sign a letter of intent with any team who still didn't have a defensive coordinator. I would be concerned about signing and ending up with a coach who I didn't know or work well with. I would be thinking about how someone could get hired who I don't think will be successful.
If I was a recruit who played a defensive position, I wouldn't sign with Ball State until someone was hired to run the defense. And if that person wasn't hired soon, I would start looking at the other schools who recruited me.
Parrish has a lot to do in the next month or two and how well he does those things could very well determine whether the program stays a winner or falls back to perennial loser. He accepted the job and no doubt knew what came with it. Now he just has to do it.
Write to Levin at ltblack@bsu.edu
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