Eric Wolford is a former head coach at Youngstown State and most recently has been offensive line coach at South Carolina. He has a wealth of collegiate coaching experience but also spent two seasons (2015-16) in the NFL as an assistant line coach with the San Francisco 49ers.
That made me wonder how he thought his time in the NFL made him a better college coach, or if it did. That’s the question I asked him during his first UK press conference after his hire last week by coach Mark Stoops.
Wolford had a two-part answer.
“One, when I was the head coach at Youngstown State I was there five years, you learn to appreciate assistants who handle their business,” Wolford said. “Meaning, they take care of their recruiting, their position players, handle their grades, not in trouble off the field and developing them as young men.”
Then he got to the part about what he learned in the NFL, and his answer might surprise you.
“When I had the opportunity to go to the NFL and sitting through two drafts I found out real quick that there are a lot of things college guys don’t know that NFL guys are looking at. Can they play multiple positions?” he said.
“First night of my career, I’m all excited and we’re playing the Minnesota Vikings. How many offensive linemen were suited up to play? Seven, and five were starters. You have to train guys to play multiple positions. You can’t just be a center. I learned that in the NFL.”
He learned other things, too.
“ I also learned about taking care of your body, finding the right kind of guys. These NFL teams follow these players (on social media) when they’re a sophomore. You think it’s a beautiful blonde girl but guess what, it’s not,” the new UK assistant coach said.
“It’s somebody working in the 49ers office seeing if you want to get together and party this weekend. They know everything about you. You’ve got to let your players know that.”
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