JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
MILLERSVILLE IS IN THE MARKET FOR A HEAD FOOTBALL COACH. AGAIN. HERE ARE THREE GUYS WHO SHOULD GET INTERVIEWS - PRONTO.
I really liked Joe Trainer, Millersville’s outgoing football coach. Straight shooter. Awesome X and O guy. Brutally honest with the media. Genuinely cared about his kids, especially when the going got tough. And it’s been a pretty tough three-year stretch at MU, which went 13-20 with Trainer calling the shots.
Trainer brought a terrific rep with him from Villanova, but face it, his hands were tied with the Marauders, who reportedly hand out somewhere around five football scholarships a year – compared with the 20-or-more often handed out by a majority of the PSAC schools.
Unfair advantage, what?
Anyhoo … That’s twice now MU has stepped outside the program to hire a head coach since the legendary Gene Carpenter retired (when’s the last time you heard the words, Marauder Pride, coined by Gene, by the way?)
You remember Kevin Keisel, right?
Nope. That project didn’t work, either.
Note to MU brass: You need to keep your next hire in-house. You need a Millersville guy. And I have three names for you to munch on:
Ron Rankin. Talk about a trouper. MU’s longtime assistant is now the interim head coach for at least the second time. You owe it to Rankin to give him an interview. And a second one.
Bob Forgrave. He’s the coach who helped resurrect Penn Manor’s program before jumping ship to Hempfield last year. He was a former associate head coach under Carpenter, so he knows his way around Biemesderfer Stadium, if you know what I mean. Forgrave is a stickler. He’s a no nonsense guy; the kind of guy this program could use right now. If there is a program in the PSAC that needs a kick in the shorts, it’s MU. And Forgrave is a good kicker.
Jim Shiffer. Another former association head coach for the Marauders under Carpenter. And he used to be Carpenter’s top local recruiter, so he knows Lancaster’s prep players. And he was the head coach at Mansfield before they dropped football, so he knows the drill in the PSAC. He’s also in the neighborhood; Shiffer, a Conestoga Valley grad, is currently employed at McCaskey.
Rankin. Forgrave. Shiffer.
Those should be your first three phone calls. No ifs, ands or buts.
