ODU's Wilder now the coach with the answers

NORFOLK

Three years ago, Old Dominion football head coach Bobby Wilder was the guy asking all the questions. Now, it seems, he's the guy with most of the answers.

At least, that's what Larry Coker thinks.

Remember Coker? He surprisingly stepped in as head coach of the vaunted Miami Hurricanes in 2001. He then rattled off a record 24 consecutive victories to start his college head coaching career and was an overtime loss to Ohio State from winning back-to-back national titles.

Now, Coker is starting over at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a school with 29,000 undergraduates that is starting a football a program from scratch.

Looking for pointers from someone who has "been there and done that," Coker visited ODU this week to take notes and pick Wilder's brain. The Monarchs, who went 9-2 in their initial campaign last fall, are considered by many the model start-up program.

Still, the 45-year-old Wilder saw the humor in having the 61-year-old Coker jotting down pages of notes as he asked Wilder for the blueprint to ODU's start-up success.

"There was a point when we were talking where I thought, 'Wait a minute, shouldn't I be the one asking him questions?' " Wilder said.

Not according to Coker.

Coker's team is set to begin play in 2011. The plan is for the Roadrunners to leap from start-up Football Championship Subdivision program to Football Bowl Subdivision member in 2013.

Coker sees a college football landscape that promises change in the near future. W ith four Conference USA schools - Houston, Rice, UTEP and SMU - in Texas, that might be the conference the Roadrunners angle for. San Antonio will play its home games at The Alamodome, a 66,000-seat stadium. The RoadRunners recently signed a three-game deal with Arizona, with the series beginning in 2013.

But to get to that point, Coker needs a plan. And Wilder gave him one.

Coker was most interested in Wilder's approach to ODU's first year of practice when the Monarchs played no games. Wilder explained how he gave the team a week off in September, October and November to limit burnout from too much practice. It also gave ODU's coaches the opportunity to hit the road recruiting.

"These are things I just hadn't thought of," Coker said. "This program is a lot closer to where we want to be than I thought. And to talk about all the different aspects that go into starting a program has been good for us."

The "us" Coker referred to is San Antonio's 12-person travel party which came to Norfolk this week.

They flew on a private jet owned by Jim Bodenstedt, a Roadrunners booster who has made his mark as owner of a chain of Taco Bell and KFC restaurants in and around San Antonio.

Included in the travel party was athletic director Lynn Hickey and most of Coker's coaching staff. Coker was flanked for most of his time at the practice Wednesday by San Antonio director of football operations Shane Elder and equipment manager Mike Villa. Both seemed to be soaking it all in.

The group toured Foreman Field Wednesday afternoon, then attended the end of ODU's final spring football practice.

ODU plays its Blue-White game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Foreman Field. The game is open to the public.

"The football stadium here is great," Coker said. "Even better is that ODU filled it with fans and has great support. I'm very impressed with the facilities."

Wilder met with Coker for four hours earlier Wednesday.

"I have a great deal of respect for him and for him to make this trip speaks volumes," Wilder said.

"The guy has a 60-15 career record. He doesn't need to learn any football from me.

"So I've got to give him major props for thinking outside the box and looking to us for some clues as to how to start a football program from scratch."

Rich Radford, (757) 446-2463, rich.radford@pilotonline.com