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Aug. 28—Lot of ways a story about Jason Eck can go. Most of them unpredictable.
How’d the son of a long-time college basketball coach get caught up in this football racket?
Why’d he pull an about-face on his mother’s wishes that he go to law school in favor of getting into coaching?
And what can a person learn from the nomadic existence of a coach, having served under 12 head coaches in his 22 years as an assistant?
(Well, mom tried to warn you!)
But first, the most obvious observation.
Jason Eck … whoa … big dude.
He was an offensive lineman at Wisconsin and looks the part. Even when former Big 10 linemen reach Eck’s age (47) they tend to remain prodigious.
So, the question asked of John Stiegelmeier, the head coach Eck served under for six seasons at South Dakota State: Did he think Eck’s imposing physical presence helps him communicate his message to his Idaho Vandals players?
Some players, after all, might suspect Eck could still block them into next week if he needed to prove a point.
The premise was superficial, but Stiegelmeier’s answer was insightful, and probably exposed the core of Eck’s early success in Moscow.
Stiegelmeier explained that Eck’s commanding presence was not a function of his physical stature, but his authoritative and authentic nature.
“His presence is a head coach’s presence,” Stiegelmeier said. “When he speaks to the team, he’s sincere and he’s real. He can be either serious or happy-go-lucky, and both are natural to him. He obviously cares for the student-athlete, and that is really the start to it all for a coach.”
Eck’s 16 wins in his first two seasons at UI (including two FCS playoff appearances) were the most in a two-year span for a Vandals coach since Chris Tormey’s 16-win stretch in 1998-99.
Eck actually predicted this. When he was hired in December 2021, Eck called Idaho a “sleeping…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/idaho-football-coach-jason-eck-020200679.html
Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
Publish date : 2024-08-29 02:02:00
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