New Football Coach Speaks To President's Advisory Council

New Limestone College head football coach Mike Furrey took a break from a recruiting tour on Saturday, June 4, to drop by a meeting of the President’s Advisory Council for a 30-minute discussion about how he intends to build the Saints’ program.

Furrey, the former wide receivers coach at Division I Marshall University and a former player in the National Football League, told the group of about 50 that the word “respect” will be front and center in everything they do.

“First, when you look in the mirror, you have to understand that you are a respected individual by yourself. That’s where it begins for our players,” Furrey said. “Second, when you go out in the community you will respect everybody. You will respect your professor when you go to class. You will respect everyone on this campus. You will respect your coaches when we’re at practice. And you will respect our fans when they come to our games.

“Once you respect yourself and respect other people, then I believe you get the greatest gift back and that’s the feeling that people respect you,” he continued. “That’s what I want in our program. When we walk off the field, I want people to look and say ‘They are not rebuilding. They haven’t reloaded. They haven’t restarted. But they have built a heck of a program because we have a lot of respect for the way that they played.’”

Including Furrey and the assistant coaches he is bringing on board, the Saints will have a staff with several years of NFL playing experience.

“I have been very blessed with the path that God has provided me with, including allowing me the opportunity to play in the NFL,” Furrey explained. “Our staff at Limestone will have many years of combined NFL playing experience. That’s important to me because not only do I want our players to see what these guys have done, but I want them to see the type of character they have that has allowed them to get there.

“We won’t promise our kids we will get them to the NFL – that’s between them and the man upstairs,” he added. “But we will promise that our kids will get the very best teaching – not coaching – and mentorship. We will recruit the moms and the dads and the family more then we will recruit the student-athletes. We will make sure those parents understand that our kids are coming here and getting involved in our program so that one day they can become better husbands and better fathers. If we can put 11 of those guys out there at the same time with those qualities, we’ll be alright. We will be just fine.”

The football players, he said, will also make Limestone proud both on and off the field, “You will not touch the field in the program that we set unless you are being a great ambassador for Limestone College. You have my word on that. We’re very enthusiastic and very excited. We’re going to have a lot of fun. Our players will be proud to wear Limestone on our jerseys and represent this College on Saturdays.”

Furrey was joined at the meeting with new assistant coach and former NFL player Roy Roundtree, along with Drew Anthony and Jared Powers, who were both members of the former staff and coached the Saints through spring practice. Anthony served as the interim head coach prior to Furrey’s hiring last month. Roundtree, Furrey noted, will coach wide receivers and will be Limestone’s Recruiting Coordinator and High School Relations Coordinator.

“These guys have done an outstanding job since I have been here,” Furrey said of Anthony and Powers. “It has been refreshing to walk into a situation where existing coaches stayed on staff and there have been no hiccups. Both of these guys have been outstanding.”

Furrey outlined the guidelines his staff is putting into place to make sure the Saints excel in the classroom. Players at or under a certain grade point average will be required to attend study hall six hours per week.

He also noted that he is establishing a “Breakfast Club” each morning to make sure that players at or below a designated GPA will eat breakfast with an assistant coach to make sure they are up and ready to go to class afterwards.

“If you choose not to go to class after Breakfast Club, you will take a tractor tire on Saturday morning and you will carry that tire over your head across this campus,” he said. “And I’m going to do it with them – and they will not want me back over there. It’s something I’ve done in the past and it works.

“I have been fortunate to get to play and to coach, but I still needed a degree,” he continued. “The first thing we will do is make sure our kids are pushing toward that degree.”

Furrey said that each Friday, the attendance records of all players will be checked to make sure they are going to class. “They will be in class. The best way to be successful is to have a great relationship with your professor. And to do that, you need to be in class.”

In the coming months, Furrey will begin establishing what he calls a “Mom’s Program” for his players away from campus.

“Families from our community will adopt our players,” he explained. “They can bring them home for dinner, take them to church, and kind of give them a family atmosphere outside of campus. The players will be reinforced there with the same verbiage that they are hearing here from us. And those families will come to our games, too, and help build our fan base.”

And what did Furrey say about his goals for success on the field?

“From a winning standpoint, (Athletics Director) Mike Cerino said it’s a two-year plan,” he said with a smile. “But we’re on a September 3rd plan.”

The Saints open the 2016 season on that date as they travel to Shaw University in Raleigh, NC.