As a 14-year veteran, two-time Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl MVP, four-time Pro Bowl selection, and one of the greatest to ever play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Hines Ward’s resume speaks for itself. Yet, when it came to evaluating him as a candidate for ASU's next wide receivers coach, Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham was actually impressed by Ward’s humility and desire to prove himself as a coach, traits that led to his hire in Tempe.
“I always study people,” Dillingham said. “It's just what I do. And he started coaching about six years ago with the (New York) Jets, and I thought it was interesting, ‘okay, this is a tenacious player, he's starting to coach and really the bottom floor of coaching. So obviously, he wants to do it.’ And then coach (Matt) Butterfield, our Chief of Staff here, he was offered a job on his (Ward’s) XFL team, when he was the head coach. He (Butterfield) said, ‘He's an unbelievable person. He's a phenomenal leader of men.’ I said, ‘Okay, well, we need to interview this guy. Because if he's a great person, he's a great leader of men, then let's see if he can coach football.’
“We brought him in, and he was phenomenal in his teaching progressions. Phenomenally, in his vision for what it looks like. And the thing that really stood out to me most was anytime you hire somebody who's been successful, you say, ‘Okay, do they want this? Do they want the grind? Why do you want to work 100-hour weeks when you don't have to?’ And when I asked him that question, he said, ‘I love it. And I want to prove to people I can do it.’ When you watch him play the game, all he did was prove people wrong with his effort and physicality. That was his identity as a person. And then when he's in your office, and he says, ‘I want to prove people that I can be the best at this,’ you can feel it. And when you can feel the energy, feel the passion in any room he steps into, any family that feels that passion that I felt in that room, players are gonna want to play for him.”
When Arizona State announced Ward's hire as official, the new ASU wide receivers coach said in a statement:
"I am truly honored and excited to join Arizona State University football as the wide receivers coach. It's an incredible opportunity to share my passion for the game with the talented group of young men and help them reach their full potential. The culture and energy here in the valley is special, and I can't wait to be part of it."
Ward began his NFL tenure with the Steelers in 1998 when he was a third-round selection in the NFL draft. At the time of his 2011 retirement, Ward became Pittsbugh’s all-time leader in receptions (1,000), receiving yardage (12,083) and touchdown receptions (85), and was one of eleven NFL players then to have at least 1,000 career receptions. A few years later, the former NFL wide receiver was voted to the Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Honor.
Thanks to the Internet, it was extremely easy for any ASU wide receiver to not only look up Ward’s extensive resume but also see his impressive exploits on the field. With such a remarkable body of work, it was only natural for current Sun Devils to be in awe over their new position leader.
“Holy Cow!” Dillingham described the collective reaction of these players. “I was talking to ‘X’ (Xavier Guillory), and he was like, ‘Yeah, I had, like, nine of my family members call me about it.’ But the thing is, there's Hines Ward, the player, which is great because a lot of players can't coach, and a lot of players can be great coaches. My goal was to find the best football coach, and I believe I did that. Yes, his accolades helped him with the knowledge to become a great coach.
“But I truly believe after being around him a day and a half, being on a whiteboard with him, seeing teaching progression, seeing the passion for what he's about, the person he's about…he hit up somebody to ask about me. And the first question he asked was, “Is he (Dillingham) a good person? Well, the first thing on our board when you walk in is be a good person. So if he's asking about me, and that's his first question, then what do you think he values? That fits the culture that I'm trying to build here, and on top of that, he wants to be here. He doesn't want to move around. He wants to find some stability in this coaching world. And that's something I'm looking for.”
ASU offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo was naturally elated to have someone of Ward’s stature on his staff to impart his teachings, which stemmed from his wealth of experience in the wide receiver room.
“What an awesome, awesome deal for our young guys,” Arroyo remarked, “for our staff and for the program. Hines is the quintessential DNA of a pro, a guy whose got a character that fits the mold of what coach (Dillingham) is trying to build and kind of the family that I signed up for not too long ago as well. I'm pretty familiar with what it took to recognize what it is that makes a coach want to be around certain people.
“And I think that the process we went through with Kenny, me and him evaluating the long list of guys. There was a lineage of really respected, traveled young up and coming wide receiver coaches that wanted this job. It took us a while to get through it a little bit, but when his (Ward’s) name popped up, I think a guy who's been there, a guy who would connect, a guy with amazing standards, poise, who can give our guys the definition of consistency…at the end of the day it was what we're looking for, and I couldn't be more fired up.”
Dillingham admitted that a successful coaching staff is a genuine team effort. As a head coach, he needs to effectively delegate responsibilities to the various position coaches and trust that they can ultimately execute the head coach's vision and philosophy. Ward’s approach, spending time with the ASU staff shortly after he was interviewed for the job, proved in spades that he checked all the boxes Dillingham wanted to see addressed in this hire.
“Two nights ago (last Thursday), he texted me a big notepad of notes from a meeting that he just sat in with us and the team,” Dillingham recalled, “and it was lifers, little things intensity, family, education, response, success…and he talked about be a good person, make good decisions, have more fun working harder than anything in the country. It was all on this notepad. And he didn't take any notes on the scheme. He took only notes on the culture.
“When he sent me that iPad notes of the culture, that's a guy who gets it. He understands what wins. That's what wins. And that was what I took away when I met with them in person. I wanted a guy who would come in, and when he sat down, people looked at him and listened. Instantly. On top of that, he has to be able to teach, and when he taught me, I learned something. Right? I learned about different release techniques based off the width of a corner stance. So I've never heard that, and I learned it in a meeting from him. And I know when to apply it. And the fact that he could teach me something, and I would know when to apply it in an interview (with Ward), is a testament to his ability to coach.
“There is no doubt in my mind that he's going to challenge those guys to get the best out of them every single day because that's who he is in everything he does. He's going to bring the intensity, the note-taking, and the attention to detail because that's who he is. Every player is a reflection of their coach. So what that room is gonna look like is hopefully a reflection of him.”
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