AMHERST — Family might be the most important priority in Walt Bell’s life.
But it wasn’t a slam dunk that the first-year UMass football coach would hire childhood friend Luke Paschall on his staff when he took the UMass job. Instead, it was more like an alley-oop with Paschall’s talents as a special teams coordinator serving as the pass for Bell to throw down in hiring him as the Minutemen’s wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator.
“I love my family, but I love winning more. There’s no love in competition, if he wasn’t good at his job, I wouldn’t hire him,” Bell said. “He’s the best football coach that I’ve ever worked with.”
Bell and Paschall have a history that dates back to the fifth grade in Tennessee where they both grew up. The two played high school football together in Dickson, they were teammates at Middle Tennessee State and were on staff together at Arkansas State, North Carolina and Oklahoma State as they rose up the coaching ladder. In the UMass release on Jan. 11 that formally announced Paschall’s hiring, he called Bell his brother, the same term Bell uses when referring to Paschall.
Bell said he’s been waiting on this opportunity since he and Paschall shared the field as players when the discussions about this moment first began between the two of them.
“It was really important that he come here,” Bell said. “He made a great sacrifice to come here, he had a lot of other opportunities than this one, especially with how good he has been on special teams. We have talked about this day, and I was lucky enough to get there first, but we have talked about this day. It’s important to him that we’re successful and it’s important to him that I’m successful.”
STAFFING UPDATE – There has been some movement in Bell’s staff over the past few days, but the new coach is close to filling out his group of 10 assistants in Amherst.
UMass has announced six assistants officially — Paschall, defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, tight ends coach Jon Bills, offensive line coach Jim Jackson, running backs coach Fredi Knighten and safeties coach Jason Tudryn, a Northampton native and former Minuteman. Bills will also serve as the team’s recruiting coordinator.
In addition to the six who have already been announced, Micah James has signed on as the co-offensive line coach according to his Twitter profile. Cedric Douglas will coach the defensive line while Tommy Restivo replaces David Duggan as UMass’ linebackers coach, according to both of their profiles on Twitter. Duggan left last week to become Arkansas State’s defensive coordinator.
That leaves one more spot available for Bell and he could go in a variety of ways with the move. He currently doesn’t have anyone listed as the quarterbacks’ coach and he also doesn’t have anyone designated as the offensive coordinator.
LONG LEASH FOR DIALLO — When Samba Diallo has been thrust into the starting lineup this season, he’s made a large impact for the men’s basketball team.
In the freshman’s first career start, which came Dec. 7 at Providence, he grabbed 10 rebounds and played stellar second-half defense to help UMass overcome an 18-point halftime deficit. On Jan. 9 Diallo was asked to start again when Jonathan Laurent went down with an ankle injury, and proceeded to haul in a career-best 12 rebounds at Saint Louis.
Although he has made five other starts this season, those two stick out because of how effective Diallo has been on defense. He has continued to be a disruptive force when he’s on the floor, but his best games have come when coach Matt McCall has been able to give him playing time to play through his mistakes. And when he does make a mistake – like he did in the closing seconds of UMass’ loss to Dayton on Jan. 13 – McCall said that is just the sign of a young player who is continuing to mature within the system.
The most important thing for McCall is that Diallo is a selfless player who is putting forth maximum effort whatever his role may be in a game.
“Samba has been at his best when I’ve given him that rope to make some mistakes,” McCall said last week. “Samba is another guy who’s not wrapped up at all about scoring, doesn’t care about scoring, just wants us to win. He understands the process and the things that go into it, and he brings that tenacity every single day. Does he make mistakes on offense? Yes, but I can live with it because of how he plays on the other end of the floor and him playing hard, he makes up for a lot of his mistakes.”
UMASS FALLS IN POLLS — UMass hockey fell back down to No. 2 in both national polls after splitting its weekend series with Northeastern. The Minutemen picked up just four of the 50 first-place votes and were firmly entrenched behind St. Cloud State, which received the other 46 votes. UMass received seven first-place tallies in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll for a 482 points, 21 behind the Huskies.
