Why coaches who know Paul Randolph call him a ‘home run hire’ for Oklahoma State football

Paul Randolph, pictured last April when he was Indiana’s defensive line coach, recently accepted the same position with Oklahoma State. Randolph’s ties to Oklahoma run deep.

STILLWATER — Not long after he arrived for his new job as a defensive graduate assistant with the Arizona State football program, Ray Brown suddenly found himself sharing his coaching dreams with a man he’d just met.

It was 2014 and Brown had just left a one-year stint as a grad assistant at Washington State, his first season at the Division I level. He hadn’t been a standout player. He had to work his way up from the D-II coaching ranks.

Brown was essentially a no-name at the Power Five coaching level, yet this veteran coach — who wasn’t even Brown’s direct superior — seemed genuinely interested in helping Brown find his way. Not just for the sake of the Sun Devils, but for the sake of his coaching future.

That’s when Brown realized Paul Randolph was a different kind of coach.

“Paul pulled me under his wing and was like, ‘Hey, what do you need? How can I help you?’” Brown said, referencing their first meeting at ASU. “He was so concerned with being able to help, it was unbelievable.

More: Oklahoma State football early enrollees have arrived. What to know about the newcomers.

New OSU defensive line coach Paul Randolph “can go anywhere around the country and do a phenomenal job, but he’s gonna fit Oklahoma State perfectly.”

“It really stood out that he cared about me on the front end, not caring about what my title was or what I had done. It was just, ‘Hey, I’m gonna care about you as a person.’”

Brown and Randolph were together at Arizona State for the 2014-15 seasons, then went their separate ways, but they’ve stayed in touch.

And Brown couldn’t help but share his excitement when he heard of his mentor’s…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-coaches-know-paul-randolph-130109824.html

Author : The Oklahoman

Publish date : 2024-01-21 13:01:09

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