New FAU defensive backs coach Dick Hopkins (right) jokes with cornerback Tavious Polo in the Oxley Center on Tuesday. (FAUOwlAccess.com photo)
Could be a steal
New FAU defensive backs coach Dick Hopkins nearly ruined Schnellenberger's dream season, but joins his coaching staff more than 25 years later.
Originally published on
2/16/2010
by
Chuck King
> Earlier: Hopkins named DB coach
> Earlier: Sources expect Hopkins to be new DB coach
New FAU defensive backs coach Dick Hopkins nearly made too much of an impression on Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger.
While serving as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator on a rainy late October afternoon in 1983, Hopkins’ Bearcats stymied the University of Miami’s potent offense, nearly ending the Hurricanes’ run to their first national championship.
Cincinnati’s stellar play led Schnellenberger to believe the Bearcats were stealing signs.
“They were onto our ‘check with me’ and were getting to the hole before our running backs could get to the hole,” Schnellenberger recalls.
Not one to forget such things, Schnellenberger revisited that game when interviewing Hopkins for the vacant assistant coaching position.
“He accused me of stealing the signals, and he was right,” Hopkins said with a booming laugh on Tuesday from his new office in the Oxley Center. “We found their signal caller and we knew basically what the play would be.”
If any hard feelings existed, they’ve long since subsided. Schnellenberger’s Hurricanes defeated Cincinnati 17-7 en route to the national title. Hopkins? Well, he is excited to now be working for a man he considers to be one of the best in the business.
Hopkins, who replaces Kirk Hoza, met his new players on Monday. So far he’s only reviewed tape of one FAU game – last year’s season-opening loss to Nebraska – but he likes what he saw.
“They’ve got good foot speed here,” Hopkins said. “We have kids that are very talented. We just have to make them play hard all the time.”
Hopkins landed the job after a phone call from new FAU defensive coordinator Kurt Van Valkenburgh, whom he’s known for more than 20 years but has never worked with. He spent the past season as Duquesne’s defensive coordinator, one of 11 collegiate stops prior to FAU.
“Kurt and I are very similar - we are both fundamentalists,” Hopkins said. “We like to do a few things really well, not a lot of things pretty good. You want to be, No.1, technique sound. I’m a big technician. All that X and O stuff – it doesn’t matter how much we know, it’s what the kids can absorb.”
Embedding proper fundamentals – proper coverage techniques and tackling - goes hand in hand with what Hopkins considers to be his other primary function.
“You have to make them play hard, but they have to play right,” he said.
Hopkins has yet to break down FAU’s roster. That, he figures, will come with time.
Although that time is dwindling. The first day of spring practice is only six weeks away. He doesn’t expect to make any adjustments to the depth chart prior to the start of spring drills. Once those practices start, though, everyone’s job is on the line.
“I don’t want to know what happened last year about the kids,” Hopkins said. “I don’t want them to have any marks against them. It’s a clean slate – that’s the way I always start.”