For the uninitiated, Rob Ash was Drake's head football coach from 1989-2006. 125 wins and 4 PFL championships later, he resigned to take over the program at Montana State ---where he won 70 more games and went to the FCS playoffs in 4 of his 9 years. Montana State dumped him after a 5-6 season in 2015. He was a known candidate for at least one FCS head coaching job in 2016. He was on the staff at Arkansas for a year, but has since settled into a job with a firm called Championship Analytics (listen to podcast here, including discussion of the Drake program at 5:00). At age 67, I think he still wants to coach. Drake should sign him up for at least five years as our next head coach. He would not be the first coach to return to his former position. Chris Ault, Mike Riley, Bill Snyder, and others have done it. Ash would return to a school where he is the all-time football wins leader. Not sure Ash ever would have left Drake if president Maxwell had not publicly hinted that the football program might be dropped. But that's another story. There are many candidates who might be successful at Drake. Ash is a proven commodity. He wins, and he gets players who excel academically. He is smart and well-spoken. His specialty is offense, and that's where Drake needs a bit of help. While Ash was at Drake, the Bulldogs recruited RBs Scott Phaydavong and Willie Cashmore... and put together the best passing offense in the league. Rob is a native Iowan. If anyone can be coaxed back to Midwestern winters, it could be him. Ideally, Drake would retain as many defensive coaches as possible. Coach Ash would provide the missing piece for the Bulldogs' next PFL championship (and first playoff appearance).
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