ARTICLE ON KENT AUSTIN

Austin takes circuitous route back to UM
Rick Cleveland • rcleveland@clarionledger.com • December 30, 2008 rs ago when Billy Brewer was the Ole Miss football coach and Kent Austin was a record-breaking Rebels quarterback who wanted to play in the NFL.
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Skeptical, I asked Brewer if Austin had NFL potential and Brewer answered, "I don't know if he can play quarterback in the NFL but he might someday own an NFL team."
Austin was a straight-A business administration honors student, a top NCAA post-graduate scholarship winner and a potential Rhodes Scholar.

Law school was a possibility. Business job offers were plentiful. The St. Louis Cardinals drafted him in the 12th round. There was a very real chance he could become a Rhodes Scholar.
The last career option - in his words "the very last thing on my mind" - was becoming a football coach.

"Not even on the radar screen," Kent Austin, football coach, said here Monday afternoon at a Cotton Bowl press conference.
Austin's career path back to his alma mater has to be one of the most unique among NCAA offensive coordinators.

Here's the CliffsNotes version: He passed on the post-grad scholarships and the Rhodes candidacy to try to play in the NFL. He lasted one season with the Cardinals, then moved to the Canadian Football League, where he became one of the most productive quarterbacks in league history, guiding two different teams to CFL championships.

After a 10-year playing career, he retired in 1996 to put that business degree and intellect to use in the telecommunications business.
Somewhere in there, his high school football coach, Carlton Flatt, asked him to come work with his quarterbacks and wide receivers as a volunteer high school assistant coach.
Austin did.

The team reached the state championship game. Shelley Austin, Kent's wife, told him she hadn't seen him so happy and enthused about work since his playing days. "You should coach," she told him.
Austin made a couple of calls and was hired right away by the CFL Ottawa Renegades in 2003.
Success happens

A year later he was the offensive coordinator of the Toronto Argonauts, who naturally won a CFL championship. In 2007, he became the head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who naturally won the league championship. Austin was the CFL coach of the year.
And then came the call from out of the (red and) blue. It was Houston Nutt, and he wanted Austin to consider leaving the CFL head coaching job to become offensive coordinator at his alma mater. The two didn't even know each other.

We'll let Nutt explain that part.

"David Lee, my offensive coordinator at Arkansas, kept telling me about Kent Austin and what a great offensive mind he was," Nutt said. "When I took the Ole Miss job and David decided to go to the (Miami) Dolphins, he told me I ought to call Kent. So I did."
Lee had recruited Austin to Ole Miss back in 1981, and, Austin says, has been like a "second father to me."

Lee not only convinced Nutt to try to hire Austin, he convinced Austin to listen to Nutt's offer.
Remember, Lee was convincing Nutt to hire a coach who had never recruited a college player and a guy who was used to calling plays on a 110-yard field with 12 players. Remember, Lee was convincing Austin, a head coach of a championship team, to consider a lesser-paying job working for a man he didn't know.

Naturally, it has worked out beautifully.

Under Austin's tutelage, Jevan Snead has progressed splendidly as a quarterback. The balanced Ole Miss offense has accounted for 399 yards per game, the fourth-most in school history, and 370 points, the third-most in Ole Miss annals.
There were several factors that entered Austin's decision: The chance to return to his alma mater; the opportunity for his three children to attend U.S. schools; and Lee's insistence that he would love working for Nutt.

And then there's this: The low temperature in Saskatchewan Monday was minus-1 degrees and it felt like minus-15. The high in Oxford was 60.
"Sometimes, I tell Kent we need to work inside because it's so cold, and he looks at me like I'm crazy," Nutt says, laughing.
Nutt actually believes Austin's experience on the wider, longer CFL field has helped him as an American college coach.

"Kent really knows how to spread the field with the right spacing," Nutt says. "We're running pass routes that nobody else in college football was running until this year. Now some people are copying us. I've already seen other teams starting to do it."
Snead says Austin's teaching has been invaluable, both in the physical and cerebral parts of the game.

"He's really helped me with my mechanics and footwork," Snead says. "In the film room, he's taught me how to watch film, what to look for."
Austin pooh-poohs such talk.

"Jevan's success and improvement is a credit to Jevan," Austin said. "He just needed to play. He just needed the experience of playing. You know, Fran Tarkenton told me a long time ago that the thing about quarterbacks is you don't really learn everything you need to know to play the position well until you're too old to play it. There's a lot of truth to that. It all comes from experience."
No agenda

With his CFL championship track record and his success at Ole Miss this season, Austin is sure to get looks from schools seeking head coaches.
Nutt expects it and says he has no doubts Austin will become a head coach, probably sooner rather than later.
Austin?

"I had no agenda when I came here, and I told Houston that," Austin says. "I came with just one thing in mind and that was to do what I was asked to help improve this football team."
In Austin's case, consider that mission accomplished.
Reach Rick Cleveland at rcleveland@clarionledger.com
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coachgt wrote:
I apologize... I ran through the available characters without having mentioned the most significant feature about Coach Austin's persona. I'm sure that Ole Miss fans have, by now, become familiar with the coach's absolute refusal to accept accolades for team success, deflecting such to others. As a coach, he is absolutely dedicated to the team ethic.... it is a true commitment, not mere posturing. Above all, my brief experience with Coach Austin has convinced me of his unimpeachable integrity as a coach and as a human being.Sorry to have prattled on so long.... I just wanted your readers to have an opportunity to appreciate the gem that they have at the U of M.12/30/2008 3:58:44 PM I apologize... I ran through the available characters without having mentioned the most significant feature about Coach Austin's persona. I'm sure that Ole Miss fans have, by now, become familiar with the coach's absolute refusal to accept accolades for team success, deflecting such to others. As a coach, he is absolutely dedicated to the team ethic.... it is a true commitment, not mere posturing. Above all, my brief experience with Coach Austin has convinced me of his unimpeachable integrity as a coach and as a human being.

Sorry to have prattled on so long.... I just wanted your readers to have an opportunity to appreciate the gem that they have at the U of M. coachgt
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OrbisUnum wrote:
As an Ole Miss fan, I feel like we're really lucky to have Kent Austin. He really is a credit to the football program and a classy guy. It would suck to lose him to another team but if it's a promotion to head coach then more power to him. Go Rebs...Beat the he-ll out of Texas Tech!!!!!!!!!!!12/30/2008 3:54:36 PM As an Ole Miss fan, I feel like we're really lucky to have Kent Austin. He really is a credit to the football program and a classy guy. It would suck to lose him to another team but if it's a promotion to head coach then more power to him. Go Rebs...Beat the he-ll out of Texas Tech!!!!!!!!!!! OrbisUnum
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coachgt wrote:
I have coached amateur football in Canada for some 35 years. Among many experiences has been the opportunity to serve as a guest coach during the past two training camps of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL. As such, I had the rare good fortune to spend time with Coach Austin during his one-year tenure as head coach of that team. I suspect that the good people who care about Ole Miss football are just now beginning to become aware of the truly great prize that has dropped into their collective lap. I spent the time that I was gifted to spend witnessing Coach Austin's coaching intrigued, impressed, inspired. Added to his sweeping insight as a coach are truly unmatched abilities as a teacher. He didn't merely instruct players how to perform certain skills in order to make plays successful... he led them to an understanding of the play as a complex interplay of movements and forces. He is a brilliant offensive innovator... I wish that I could continue to learn from him.12/30/2008 3:52:10 PM I have coached amateur football in Canada for some 35 years. Among many experiences has been the opportunity to serve as a guest coach during the past two training camps of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL. As such, I had the rare good fortune to spend time with Coach Austin during his one-year tenure as head coach of that team. I suspect that the good people who care about Ole Miss football are just now beginning to become aware of the truly great prize that has dropped into their collective lap. I spent the time that I was gifted to spend witnessing Coach Austin's coaching intrigued, impressed, inspired. Added to his sweeping insight as a coach are truly unmatched abilities as a teacher. He didn't merely instruct players how to perform certain skills in order to make plays successful... he led them to an understanding of the play as a complex interplay of movements and forces. He is a brilliant offensive innovator... I wish that I could continue to learn from him. coachgt
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yankeegohome wrote:
Didn't realize how smart Austin was.....sounds like a good pickup for Nutt and Ole Miss. Also, good luck Ole Miss fans in your bowl game....make MS proud.12/30/2008 1:29:38 PM Didn't realize how smart Austin was.....sounds like a good pickup for Nutt and Ole Miss. Also, good luck Ole Miss fans in your bowl game....make MS proud. yankeegohome
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