By Steve SilverThe Daily Northwestern
After spending six seasons as a defensive coach at Louisiana Tech, first-year linebackers coach Randy Bates has spiced up Northwestern’s practices with his Cajun flair.
At the end of every practice, Bates directs a mosh-pit chorus of screaming and dancing Wildcats before leaping into the group – and the 46-year-old coach never escapes without at least a hat or a shirt being torn off in the pile of players.
“That’s all him,” junior linebacker Chris Malleo said. “His shirt came off one day, and he was doing somersaults into it. It just goes to show how much he cares about the players, getting in there and mixing it up with the guys.”
That is precisely Bates – a seasoned football coach who has found a way to connect with his young players.
The infectiously calm and mild-mannered Bates seems as simple as he is complex. He’s a man that just as easily carries on a conversation about disguising blitzes as one about eating “mud bugs.” A man that has traveled to eight different schools to coach the sport he loves. And a man that considers his players part of his family.
“He is a funny guy,” senior linebacker Nick Roach said. “He is one of those guys that is what he is. What you see is what you get.”
Bates even invited NU’s linebackers to his house to eat dinner and meet his wife and three daughters earlier this season.
“I love gumbo,” Bates, an Ohio native, said about a taste he developed while living in Louisiana. “When the players came over that’s what we had. It’s hot and spicy and they’re not used to it. So my wife (made) it really spicy.”
But behind Bates’ warm, laid-back tone, he can be a stern enforcer on the playing field.
Bates is a retired naval lieutenant who spent three years at the Naval Academy, from 1989 to 92, in Annapolis, Md. He said his time with the Navy has helped him relate to his players and coach more efficiently.
“It’s a very similar situation here academically and football wise, because those were great students also,” Bates said about his players at the Naval Academy. “Other than the fact that these guys aren’t going into the military, (NU) is a very similar school.”
This season NU’s linebackers have recorded four sacks and one interception. Roach (59) and junior Adam Kadela (43) are the team’s top two tacklers.
Despite having three upperclassmen starters, Bates has had to overcome a late start to familiarize himself with NU’s defense. Bates joined the team on July 25, to fill the vacancy left by Fitzgerald when he was promoted to head coach after the death of Randy Walker.
“There is not a guy in our program that has as much passion as Randy Bates,” said Fitzgerald, a former NU linebacker and linebacker’s coach. “I think (Bates) is doing a great job. It’s not easy coming into a program (with) the timing that he had to come into and the circumstances. Typically the hardest position to coach is the position the head coach used to coach. But he is doing a great job.”
But Bates does not complain or use his late start with the team as an excuse for his players’ performances. He actually said his players were the ones who helped acclamate him to his new job.
NU’s defense as a whole ranks 92nd in the nation – a mark improved from last season, but still not where Bates believes the Cats should be.
“I think they have done well,” Bates said about the linebackers. “I think the injuries have hurt us more than anything. We’ve been really banged up and that can hurt us here off and on … I give them a lot of credit because they have fought through some pretty tough injuries and all three of our starters have literally been injured most of the season.”
Although Bates and the rest of the coaching staff still are searching for their first Big Ten victory, he said he has been anxiously awaiting the Cats’ showdown with his alma mater, Ohio State, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education.
“It’s hard to look ahead, but it will be exciting,” Bates said about the Nov. 11 game against the current No. 1 team in the nation. “It will probably be more exciting for everybody on my wife’s side of the family because they all graduated from there. And my wife is mad at them because they are all coming here to root for Ohio State. But you know they are not allowed to come over to the house if they are wearing anything scarlet and grey.”
Yet no matter who the Cats play, Bates can always be found chest-bumping the linebackers or jumping into a sea of purple-clad players at the end of every practice.
Reach Steve Silver at [email protected].
