You mean guys like Sherko who helped win national titles? He likes big farm boys from the hinterlands because they make good offensive linemen. There is a lot of physical talent in South Florida, but the Oline-play at the HS level is trash.
I think your comment contradicts itself. The fact that guys went to the league at all is a testament to Kehoe's tutelage. And there were a LOT of them. Shit, half the lineman I played with ended up in the NFL. And my love of Kehoe stems from my first hand personal experience with him, and that of dozens of other linemen.
In what weird-ass world are we going to say that Ereck Flowers (who left as an underclassman, btw) going in the first round of the NFL draft is some kind of black mark on the guy who put him there?
It's just inexplicable. The hate for Kehoe and especially Swasey is inexplicable.
You're right: the strength coach is important, because he's the backdoor around the NCAA's 20 hour limit and around the idea that any of this shit is "voluntary." So it's NOT his fucking "credentials" that make him important. The actual weight program is probably the least important part of his job.
When I played, Swasey was the first person you saw in the morning. He set the tone for the day, he chewed on the guys that needed chewing, he boosted the guys that needed boosting. He's the guy you take your problems to. You spend more time with him than you do with anyone else, and I would urge any recruits who take visits to places to make it a point to talk to the strength coach because that guy is basically dad for the next 4-5 years of your life.
But if you understand that, then the venomous, bilious hatred of Swasey by the internet fans should repulse you the same way it does me, because all THAT stuff is where Swasey excelled. That's why so many former players were so upset about his ouster that it turned into a fucking ESPN story. When does that ever happen?
But naw, the fucking fans probably know better than all the guys who played for Swasey. Why listen to what Santana Moss or Edgerrin James or Ed Reed has to say when we have fucking Keith the birthday boy to set us straight?
If you truly understand the role of the strength coach to a college football team then the Swasey hate has to go.