Experienced Advice For A College Football Job Interview
FirstDown PlayBook has taken time this winter to work with football coaches on some things outside of the X’s & O’s. Anyone familiar with our profession knows that it is job season. For this reason, we decided to focus on best practices when it comes to a successful college football job interview.
In January we conducted a fantastic six member panel designed to help high school coaches prepare for a head coach interview. The response was very positive, so we decided to follow up with a panel focused on college coaches. College football coach job interviews can be very different from a high school head coach interview. Particularly if you are a young football coach.
The objective of this second panel? To draw on the professional advice from an experienced panel regarding best practices when preparing for and participating in a college football coaching job interview. This panel brings a lot of experience on both sides of this. The guests have been the interviewers and also the interviewees.
FirstDown PlayBook’s Charlie Coiner moderated the discussion with this experienced panel.
- Fran Johnson: Offensive Coordinator, Texas Wesleyan University
- Matt Rahl: Head Football Coach, Presbyterian College
- Scott Roussel: Owner, Coaching News Network – Football Scoop
- Rusty Wright: Head Football Coach, UT Chattanooga
Any young college football coach has a ton of questions as they prepare to interview in front of a head coach or a college football staff. How should a young football coach prepare? What will be expected (and not expected) of them in the actual interview? What is the correct way to handle communication after the job interview?
All of these things and much more are discussed in this college football interview panel. There is a lot to be learned from college head coaches and coordinators who are right in the middle of this process as we conducted the panel. They all reference actual experience with what worked for them and what has impressed them as head coaches and coordinators.
Additionally, the perspective of Football Scoop owner Scott Roussel is outstanding as he has watched the high school football and the college football job market now for nearly two decades. His advice to young football coaches comes from years of reporting on success stories as well as avoidable mistakes.
Watch the full recording to learn more.
