A school of new coaches will fill in vacancies at Miami University this year. Headlining the group is the Red and White's proverbial "big fish" in head football coach Mike Haywood. Miami athletic director Brad Bates was also able to lure in a new women's cross country/track and field coach in Kelly Phillips and a plethora of assistants including: Gary Grant (soccer), Jason Reese (volleyball) and Lisa Wasser (field hockey).
Haywood has already made plenty of noise. The former University of Notre Dame offensive coordinator has a very impressive résumé and is starting to shake the national image of Miami University football after a horrific 2-10 season last year.
"One of the things that we can keep emphasizing is the cradle of the coaches," Haywood said. "We just have to make a run by winning games and getting the fans more involved. Getting the alumni involved and supporting their university."
The coach has already shoved RedHawk football into the spotlight by lining up a Southeastern Conference opponent for the season opener. The new whistle blower will march his inspired RedHawk team into Paul Brown Stadium to face off against the University of Kentucky Wildcats on Sept. 5. The game will also be shown on ESPNU.
Coach Haywood has worked under the tutelage of coaches Mack Brown (Texas) and Nick Saban (Alabama). However, under his most recent stint with the Fighting Irish (2005-08), he helped a young player blossom into one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. Haywood and current Cleveland Brown Brady Quinn proved to be a deadly combination, comprising an Irish offense that set several records and proved to be one of the most explosive and productive in the prestigious program's long history. The staffs that he worked on helped make him into the coach he is today.
"They gave me a great foundation," Haywood said. "They taught me how to deal with adversity in coming into a program and how to take over a program that may not have been at the heights of the tradition of the university previously. The information and knowledge I have obtained from them to build a program back up to the glory days."
But football will not be the only program on the rise.
The women's cross country and track teams are also in new hands. On July 9, athletic director Brad Bates handed the baton to Kelly Phillips. Phillips has plenty of experience, working her way up the coaching ranks for over a decade. She also leaves a Purdue program that she guided to consecutive President's Cups, given to the team with the highest grade point average. While coaching she has helped guide 36 student athletes to NCAA Championships in both cross country and track and field.
Coach Lisa Wasser is one of the noted assistants coming to Oxford. She joins the field hockey staff under head coach Jill Reeve. The team went 14-7 last year and finished second in the Mid-American Conference but looks to build on its success with the addition of Coach Wasser. The University of Louisville graduate started every game during her four-year career as a Cardinal and earned Big East honors. She leaves Wilkes University after helping them reach a top-20 national ranking and looks to build on that success at Miami.
"It's a growing program that I am getting into at the right time," Wasser said. "We are on the rise. My primary goal is to make my contributions to the program. We are going to be a contender for the national championship in the near future. I bring in the knowledge of what it takes to be a Division I student athlete. Recruiting wise, I have a lot of connections and that is going to be really helpful in bringing those girls to this program."
Soccer assistant coach Gary Grant and volleyball assistant Jason Reese will also begin their run as RedHawks this August.
