BOSTON — A quick glance at Twitter could tell you who is already on Walt Bell’s staff at UMass.
Already several coaches have changed their profiles and bios on the social media site to reflect their new positions at UMass. But the school has not officially announced any of the hires and there are still several key positions still void on Bell’s 10-person staff.
Bell said he has a general idea of who will fill out his staff, but is waiting on a few factors, including the coaching cycle to slow down and the bowl season to end to see if those coaches will still come to Amherst next season.
“I’m purposefully trying to be very patient,” Bell said Tuesday before a donor event at the Colonnade Hotel. “To me, it’s not about I need 10 guys right now. It’s about making sure we have the best 10 guys when our kids come back to school.
“If you have just 10 names, you’re going to have problems,” Bell added. “Obviously, we’re pretty much done on the majority of them, but it’s always going to take two or three more names than you think it is. That’s just the way it works, that’s how our profession is.”
When Bell signed on to be the Minutemen’s next coach, the university also increased its salary pool for assistant coaches by $300,000 to $1.5 million. Although it was a seemingly minor point in the negotiations to some, Bell said it was critical to making sure his program would have the resources to be successful in the future.
“(It’s about) the ability to hire the guys you want to hire, but give them a reason to stay,” Bell said. “Sometimes that’s financially, so that’s a huge commitment from (athletic director Ryan Bamford), and I’m very appreciative of that, and it’s a huge reason why I was so excited about this job. I know I can hire and keep great coaches.”
Bell said assistant coaches are more important in this era of college football than ever before because of the advances in the game. He said the picture of the head coach being the “czar of everything” is largely untrue and that a lot of pressure falls on the assistants to help the coach manage the student-athletes and recruiting responsibilities. That includes making sure players are successful academically and socially, two important parts of their life that Bell believes makes players successful on the field.
The importance of creating and maintaining a good staff is a large reason why Bell is being patient about who he hires. And now with recruiting largely in a dead period, Bell can focus on another critical building block in his program’s foundation.
“The most important thing you have on your staff is great assistant coaches,” Bell said. “… There’s so much that goes into being an assistant, and if you do a poor job hiring as a head football coach, it now becomes your job. If we’re going to win games and we’re going to recruit at a high level and do what we need to do — accrue talent and develop that talent, not just physically but all the things I mentioned earlier (academics and social life) — it takes a great staff.”
Bell understands the weight of filling out his staff and how important that will be to setting the tone for his tenure. He said the people he has hired so far all believe in the same vision he has for UMass football and that he has to scrutinize every hire a bit more because of how it will reflect upon him.
“The one good thing is that the staff of guys I have hired, will be announced to be hired, we’re all of like mind and like tribe,” Bell said. “Obviously when you’re a first-time head football coach, every hire that you make, you’re putting your life in their hands. You’re putting your life as a profession in their hands as assistant coaches. So obviously you take pride in who you hire and there’s a lot of importance there.”