The Leading Authority of the NFL Draft

The Mid-America Football Conference (MAC) has for years served first-time head coaches the opportunity to succeed before leaving for some of the biggest college programs in the country.

In 1963, a coach by the name of Bo Schembechler spent five years coaching at Miami (OH), his alma-mater where he played his college football, before taking over for the Michigan Wolverines posting a 234-65-8 record with only Joe Paterno and Tom Osborne reaching 200 career wins in fewer games.

Ex-Florida head coach Urban Meyer’s first job at Bowling Green in the MAC was his foundation to go to Utah and then to Gainsville, where he would win two of the schools three National Championships in only six seasons with the Gators. Turner Gill (Kansas State), Brady Hoke (Ball State), Butch Jones (Cincinnati Bearcats) and Al Golden (Miami Hurricanes) are a few more noteworthy college coaches who began their head coaching careers in the MAC. Brian Kelly (Notre Dame) jumped into FBS coaching (then Division I-AA) in the MAC after starting his head coaching career at Grand Valley State.

“Broken Windows” theory was developed by Professors Wilson and Kelling nearly 25 years ago and I became aware of it when I read Rudy Giuliani’s book ‘Leadership’. The mayor of New York City used ‘Broken Windows’ ideas to aid in him in decreasing crime in the Big Apple.

The piece from the book ‘Leadership’ I’m referring to is this:

"Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars."

Are you wondering – what does a first-time head coach from the MAC have anything to do with the ‘Broken Window’ theory?

The Field House on campus at Kent State is where they hold their Pro Day and two years ago the atmosphere was short of ideal. Not much separated the players from on-lookers. Not necessarily how one would envision the assortment of prospects showcase their skills in front of the watchful eye of NFL scouts. Jump forward to this past March, the Field House shared nothing in common with the previous memory. Right off the bat, media in attendance needed to sign-in, this wasn’t open to the public and any Tom, Dick or Harry. There was a fence acting as a partition for athletes and coaches from the crowd. Similar to the ‘Broken Window’ theory of fixing the small things that build into finer things, this was my first impression of Kent State’s new football coach Darrell Hazell. Taking care of those little things changes how players, students, alumni and opponents view the Golden Flashers moving forward.

On December 20^th the Kent State Golden Flashes may have struck gold on another coach given his first head coaching opportunity in the MAC in Darrell Hazell. Hazell, 46, spent the past seven seasons as a member of the Ohio State University coaching staff and has accumulated 25 years of coaching experience on the collegiate level. Most recently Hazell was an assistant head coach and also coached the Buckeyes' wide receivers. During his time in Columbus, Hazell developed a number of All-Big Ten players, including six of whom currently play in the NFL.

Two years ago that pro day reminded me of a building with broken windows leaving any first time visited to look at this program as not up to snuff as the saying goes. Hazell changed that in nearly four months on the job there were no broken windows on this last Pro Day in fact it looked reminiscent of the way former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel ran his Pro Day in Columbus for the Buckeyes. The day is important and Coach Hazell addressed that to players by the way he handled the event and I can tell you by speaking to players that in fact they agreed that Coach Hazell was doing it right.

This all leads us to Saturday when the Golden Flashes take on Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide and are ranked number two in the country in the preseason polls. Odds aren’t in the favor or Kent State returning home victorious but the same could have been said for James Madison over Virginia Tech last season and not many people in 2007 had Appalachian State beating Michigan.

“We’re going down to win a football game,” Hazell address the media on Monday during the Kent State press conference for the season opener. Who am I to argue?

”I don’t see it that way,” Hazell responded when asked about the likelihood they may return from down south with a 0-1 record adding, “we are more concerned with what we do.”

“At some point and time they believed.”

Hazell has been there, he knows from being on the winning side, how hungry underdogs would creep up on Ohio State when they were considered heavy favorites.

“Your teams play on different emotional levels depending on your opponent. Sometimes they don’t reach that peak,” Hazell added. The head coach knows that his staff and his players must adjust to the adversity early in the game if they plan on competing in the forth quarter.

Many milestones await this young, energetic, well-versed coach from Cinnaminson, New Jersey having yet to give his team its first half-time pep talk. Hazell has is taking his first steps towards making a name for himself and provide Kent State with an identity.