BRIDGEPORT - It's not often that a fourth-year head coach like West Virginia State's Jon Anderson or a fifth-year head coach like University of Charleston's Pat Kirkland can be considered elder statesmen in any football conference. Yet, this year in the Mountain East Conference, they're among the wily veterans.
Four of the 11 football teams in the MEC enter the 2016 season with new men at the helm. Concord promoted defensive coordinator Paul Price to head coach after former head coach Garin Justice became the offensive line coach at Florida Atlantic. Notre Dame College promoted defensive coordinator Mike Jacobs to head coach after Billy Rychel became the offensive coordinator at Savannah State. Dane Damron took over at UVa-Wise after former head coach Dewey Lusk resigned, and Del Smith took over at West Virginia Wesleyan after former coach George Shehl resigned.
The prospect of the unknown is in play for both the MEC's new coaches and its established ones. The established coaches must solve the puzzles of new schemes, new formations and new strategies from the first-year mentors. And for those first-year coaches, everything they're dealing with is new.
The unknown is as much of a conundrum for first-year coaches as it is for the veterans, said Smith, a former Bobcats linebacker.
"You can watch as much film as you want," Smith said. "But sometimes, you don't appreciate people's skill sets until you see them in person. It's not intimidating, but the majority of your staff is made up of guys who didn't compete against these teams last year. It's hard to establish the bar to where you stack up."
For Price and Jacobs, it's not so much a new landscape as it is a new job in a familiar landscape. Price has been a part of either the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference or the MEC since he started playing at Wesleyan in 1979. He's been at Concord for eight seasons.
Knowing the lay of the land is a boost, Price said. He knows what a season-long campaign in the MEC is like from beginning to end. He's been part of winning programs in the WVIAC and MEC. He remembers, though, that it might be the same team, but he's in a much different job.
"I just can't take a defensive position group and coach defense," Price said. "If I take my eyes off of anything, you know what that can be like."
At least in the case of Price and Jacobs, being a new head coach didn't frighten the other MEC coaches away from picking their teams high in the conference preseason poll. NDC tied for fifth with Fairmont State in the 11-team poll. Concord was picked to finish third behind Division II playoff participant Charleston and D-II runner-up Shepherd.
The coaches felt UVa-Wise and West Virginia Wesleyan would deal with some growing pains. Wise tied with Urbana at the bottom of the MEC, while Wesleyan was picked to finish ninth.
Price said he was surprised at being picked third, but none of the Mountain Lions' five losses last year came by more than eight points and CU returns a four-year starter at quarterback in Brian Novak.
"That 2014 season (where Concord made the national semifinals) is long gone for us," Price said. "But I think people might still remember it. And people might say, 'We might have beaten them by a field goal last year, but they still did some good things.'"
For the rest of the league, it will take some time to get used to the new schemes and ideas that will come from those first-year coaches. It could make a difference in a season opener like Wesleyan's game at Shepherd, where the Rams have no prior game film to view. Some coaches and players in the MEC like the variety. They don't mind solving a new scheme and being kept on their toes.
"I think it's fun from week to week, how much each team's scheme changes," West Virginia State quarterback Matt Kinnick said. "It keeps it interesting."
If there's a piece of advice that Anderson, as a newly minted MEC veteran, could give those first-year head coaches, it would be to stick to their convictions. If they believe in a philosophy, they shouldn't deviate from it just because the wins aren't rolling in the first season.
"We had a plan and we had a way we were going to do things," Anderson said. "And we stuck to that, even when the results weren't coming the way we wanted. We believed in what we were doing.
"They're all smart men," Anderson continued. "They all got the opportunities they got through what they've accomplished. I'm sure they'll all do well."