New WR Coach

[isuquinndog]

Ghaali Muhammad-Lankford is the new WR coach.

https://twitter.com/RedbirdFB/status/1082376340093976576

 

[fourthandshort]

interesting bio from his SEMO coaching profile .... welcome to Redbirds Nation coach !!!!

Ghaali Muhammad-Lankford starts his third year as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Southeast Missouri in 2018.
Muhammad-Lankford guided First-Team All-Ohio Valley Conference tailback Marquis Terry in 2017.

Terry had an outstanding season in his first year with the Redhawks rushing for over 1,000 yards. He ran for 1,076 yards and seven touchdowns on 239 carries and averaged 4.5 yards per attempt in 11 starts. Terry led the OVC with 97.8 yards per game and is the only player in the league with over 1,000 yards. He ranked 13th in the Football Championship Subdivision in total rushing yards and 16th in rushing yards per game. Terry ran for over 100 yards four times with a season-high 184 vs. Eastern Kentucky (Sept. 30). He also caught 20 passes for 109 yards out of the backfield.

In 2016, Muhammad-Lankford coached Second-Team All-OVC tailback Will Young.

Young was Southeast’s top rusher with 838 yards on 163 carries. He averaged 5.1 yards per attempt and scored six rushing touchdowns. Young ranked third in the conference in rushing with 76.2 yards per contest and had four 100-yard games.

Muhammad-Lankford joined Southeast’s staff on Feb. 2, 2016.

He previously worked as an offensive graduate assistant at Missouri, where he assisted then-wide receivers coach Pat Washington with all daily coaching responsibilities. Muhammad-Lankford helped create game plan ideas for weekly opponents and assisted with recruiting among other duties.

Before Missouri, Muhammad-Lankford helped coach the running backs at the University of Wyoming in the same capacity during the 2013 campaign. He coached the kick returners, coordinated game plans for the running backs, assisted with all special teams, created scouting reports and managed the scout teams during practices. In addition, Muhammad-Lankford was in charge of the running back meetings, drills and signaling to running backs on gameday.

A native of St. Joseph, Muhammad-Lankford played four years (2009-2012) at Wyoming. He was the Cowboys leading rusher before suffering a season-ending injury in 2011. A year later, Muhammad-Lankford led Wyoming with 106 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and four fumble recoveries as a linebacker his senior season.

Muhammad-Lankford received his undergraduate degree in communications at Wyoming in 2013 and is working on his master’s in positive coaching.

 

[MadBird]

Don't mean to dog the guy, but you know, we go from an ex-Big 10 assistant to an Ohio Valley assistant. That's a little bit of a let down. I respect his Wyoming experience, and hope he gets the job done. In Spack we trust!!

 

[fourthandshort]

Don't mean to dog the guy, but you know, we go from an ex-Big 10 assistant to an Ohio Valley assistant. That's a little bit of a let down. I respect his Wyoming experience, and hope he gets the job done. In Spack we trust!!

Mad .... I'm hearing the MN guy was coaching with 1 foot out the door from very early in his time here. Guessing he took job only because he needed a gig and had zero intent on doing his job, much less staying here. It's fine that he wanted higher level job, but who takes a job and a paycheck and "phones it in" in year 1 ???

If true, I'll take somebody on his way up and who wants to be here over that crap.

 

[MadBird]

Don't mean to dog the guy, but you know, we go from an ex-Big 10 assistant to an Ohio Valley assistant. That's a little bit of a let down. I respect his Wyoming experience, and hope he gets the job done. In Spack we trust!!

Mad .... I'm hearing the MN guy was coaching with 1 foot out the door from very early in his time here. Guessing he took job only because he needed a gig and had zero intent on doing his job, much less staying here. It's fine that he wanted higher level job, but who takes a job and a paycheck and "phones it in" in year 1 ???

If true, I'll take somebody on his way up and who wants to be here over that crap.

Well, I agree, it wasn't like our WR corps had a breakout year, well, Edgar did. Anyway, like I say, in Spack we trust.

 

[Adunk33]

Don't mean to dog the guy, but you know, we go from an ex-Big 10 assistant to an Ohio Valley assistant. That's a little bit of a let down. I respect his Wyoming experience, and hope he gets the job done. In Spack we trust!!

Mad .... I'm hearing the MN guy was coaching with 1 foot out the door from very early in his time here. Guessing he took job only because he needed a gig and had zero intent on doing his job, much less staying here. It's fine that he wanted higher level job, but who takes a job and a paycheck and "phones it in" in year 1 ???

If true, I'll take somebody on his way up and who wants to be here over that crap.

:text-+1:

Wasn't Anderson out of coaching until we hired him? I'm thinking he rented one of those nice First Site apartments on campus and signed a 1 year lease.

 

[fourthandshort]

With a full off-season with QB and new WR coach, maybe we'll see some WRs emerge by next fall. Edgar was very pleasant surprise, especially for RS FR. I thought JR transfer Haley showed promise at times, just tended to disappear. But some of that is probably on the lackluster pass game and former WR coach. Maybe we'll see a much more consistent SR Haley next fall. There's a reason position coaches exist .. they need to develop, challenge, and nurture their position groups .. some kids need a coach to help them find themselves. With pass game issues and former coach phoning it in ... we were fortunate to have Schnell and Edgar perform as well as they did.

My guess is our WRs might be better than we realize ... just need some development and reps.

 

[Reggie Redbird]

Don't mean to dog the guy, but you know, we go from an ex-Big 10 assistant to an Ohio Valley assistant. That's a little bit of a let down. I respect his Wyoming experience, and hope he gets the job done. In Spack we trust!!

Mad .... I'm hearing the MN guy was coaching with 1 foot out the door from very early in his time here. Guessing he took job only because he needed a gig and had zero intent on doing his job, much less staying here. It's fine that he wanted higher level job, but who takes a job and a paycheck and "phones it in" in year 1 ???

If true, I'll take somebody on his way up and who wants to be here over that crap.

I’ll also mention Anderson was out of work as a D1 coach for a year when he was hired. So ultimately isn’t FCS > zilch. I didn’t see any B10-level WR talent transferring here to be with him either.

 

[fourthandshort]

Takes a really selfish guy to pull that sh-t on a team trying win games !!!!

 

[TIMMY]

Young hungry coach who wan'ts to move up the ladder. I'll take that any day.

 

[MadBird]

I'm not sure what's going on in this thread, why are people dogging ex-coach Anderson? He came, he left. He came from FBS, had a chance to go back to FBS. We've had lots of assistants like that, here for a year. Wasn't Beathard out of work when Spack brought him back? No one dogged him for being out of work.

I have no particular reason to defend the guy, but I don't get why he's getting dumped on.

 

[StLRedbird]

4th, why the comments about Anderson phoning it in? I don't recall any scuttlebutt like that during the season, but my memory ain't what it used to be.

 

[fourthandshort]

I probably made too much of this .. but I had heard some rumblings about this a bit ago but left it alone. But knowing now he in fact took another job kind of fit what I heard. Then couple other posters reminded me/us that he was out of work (coaching anyways) for a year before Spack gave him a chance. Certainly easier to find another job when already have one. That thought irked me even more. But in hindsight, I might have made too much of this giving circumstances. A little late .. but I'm going to leave it alone from here.

 

[MadBird]

See, now unlike the hoops board, we just let this drop, as we should. No big deal here, one way or the other!

 

[fourthandshort]

so, since I derailed this thread ... Coach Ghaali Muhammad-Lankford, welcome to Redbird Nation ... very glad to have you here.

IMO, our WR group could use some help .. chicken vs egg debate as to why our WR group has been lagging rest of team lately. Only seem to have 1 or 2 good ones on roster each year. Used to have 3-4 good ones every year. So it hurts us worse lately when we lose one to graduation or injury ... got to get back to building some depth. I think it is partly recruitment and partly development, but partly on inconsistent pass game too.

But as skill positions go, we do much better at RB it seems. You could stock 3 or 4 MVFC teams with all the good RBs we've lost in post Coprich era .. mostly because they want to see field more or sooner. But can't seem to find or develop enoughh good receivers like we did in 2014 & prior .. we lost several senior WRs from 2014 team. Luckily we had QB Roberson, RB Coprich, and then WR Warrum to keep teams honest in 2015 .. but we have had no real depth in WR group since 2014 team.

So, you have nowhere to go but up .. wish you well. But it's not all on WR group ... QB play has been inconsistent since 2014 season as well, Roberson played 2015 with fractured throwing hand and was not himself. Kolbe was very solid in 2016, but fell way off in 2017.

Partly a chicken vs egg debate, I guess ... but our WR group needs development for sure .. welcome !!!!

 

[MadBird]

And you know, we have put some WR's (receivers in general) into the pros, it's not like we have no history to build on, or have a traditional ground oriented program that never airs it out. Laurent Robinson, Cam Meredith, O'Shaughnessy. It's a while ago, but didn't' Clarence Collins get some USFL paydays, or something like that? Tyrone Walker was in some camps. Anthony Warrum had a nice career.

Anyway, one thing I remember was that Spack gave Anderson some points for getting E.St.Louis WR Eric Rogers to come to ISU last year, and on paper he looked like a good get (6'4 guy, state champion), but he never really contributed as a freshman. Wonder if he stays at all, and if so, if he finds his way next year?

Whatever it takes!

 

[JHBird]

And you know, we have put some WR's (receivers in general) into the pros, it's not like we have no history to build on, or have a traditional ground oriented program that never airs it out. Laurent Robinson, Cam Meredith, O'Shaughnessy. It's a while ago, but didn't' Clarence Collins get some USFL paydays, or something like that? Tyrone Walker was in some camps. Anthony Warrum had a nice career.

Anyway, one thing I remember was that Spack gave Anderson some points for getting E.St.Louis WR Eric Rogers to come to ISU last year, and on paper he looked like a good get (6'4 guy, state champion), but he never really contributed as a freshman. Wonder if he stays at all, and if so, if he finds his way next year?

Whatever it takes!

I was just about to say we need a 6'4" guy with speed. Thanks for pointing out that we have one on the roster. Says he was redshirted in 2018. Rogers could surprise us like Edgar did last year. (When you said 'State Champion' I was hoping it was in the high hurdles, not football!) Too bad, huh?

 

[fourthandshort]

And you know, we have put some WR's (receivers in general) into the pros, it's not like we have no history to build on, or have a traditional ground oriented program that never airs it out. Laurent Robinson, Cam Meredith, O'Shaughnessy. It's a while ago, but didn't' Clarence Collins get some USFL paydays, or something like that? Tyrone Walker was in some camps. Anthony Warrum had a nice career.

Anyway, one thing I remember was that Spack gave Anderson some points for getting E.St.Louis WR Eric Rogers to come to ISU last year, and on paper he looked like a good get (6'4 guy, state champion), but he never really contributed as a freshman. Wonder if he stays at all, and if so, if he finds his way next year?

Whatever it takes!

add difference makers like Ayed Salem (c' 09, 92 catches SR year) and Marvon Sanders (EMU transfer played 2 years in Walkers shadow). And with how much Schnell took lead role, I would put him in elite category too .. I had him pegged wrongly as a nice role player 2 years ago. But he really stepped up his last 2 years as our goto guy that other teams had to game plan for. But other than some promise shown in 2016 season (Kolbe SO season with SR Warrum - 60 catches, JR Gibbs - 49, and SO Schnell - 59), there's been very little depth since 2014.

 

[Total Red]

Anyway, one thing I remember was that Spack gave Anderson some points for getting E.St.Louis WR Eric Rogers to come to ISU last year, and on paper he looked like a good get (6'4 guy, state champion), but he never really contributed as a freshman. Wonder if he stays at all, and if so, if he finds his way next year?
Whatever it takes!

I was just about to say we need a 6'4" guy with speed. Thanks for pointing out that we have one on the roster. Says he was redshirted in 2018. Rogers could surprise us like Edgar did last year. (When you said 'State Champion' I was hoping it was in the high hurdles, not football!) Too bad, huh?

I haven't really researched it but I can't off the top of my head think of a WR that came in and did really well as a true freshman. My hope is that the staff sees a high ceiling for Rogers if he's given time to develop and therefore the right decision was made to redshirt him. We would all like a veteran 6'4 225 WR with 4.4 speed to transfer in but realistically that isn't going to happen too often. That's ok. If we just have WR's that run good routes and catch everything they can get their hands on we'll be fine. We had a couple of WR's that did play as true freshman in Taylor Grimes and Austin Nagel. I'm cautiously optimistic that they can continue to develop and be the kind of reliable receivers we need working in conjunction with returning starters Edgar and Haley.