Another Shoop?

John Shoop


One of the top online coaching news sites says John Shoop, brother of former Columbia Head Coach Bob Shoop, is in the lead to get the job opening at Cornell.

Shoop has spent most of his career working hard to climb the coaching ladder in the NFL. But for the last five seasons he was employed, he was the offensive coordinator at North Carolina, (2007-2011). Shoop has been out of work for the last year.

Shoop has an impressive resume, but if I were Cornell A.D. Andy Noel I'd approach with real caution. 

First off, Shoop has never been a head coach before and no matter how small the school they come from former head coaches tend to fare much, much better in the Ivy League. 

Second, Shoop is kind of a journeyman who clearly still has a lot of NFL aspirations. The Big Red is starving for some stability after going through several coaches in the last decade or so. I don't see Shoop as someone who is likely to stick around long if he gets a decent NFL job offer.

On a historical note, I don't think two brothers have ever both reached the position of head coach in Ivy football. Of course, we all know about Joe and James Jones coaching at Columbia and Yale, respectively. 

Incidentally, Bob Shoop has been the defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt for the last two seasons.

Switching Back to Football

Several times over the last few years, I've bemoaned the fact that the best football players from my home area of Long Island are making the move to play only lacrosse in college. 

Well, reports say that at least one Long Island high school football star, Babylon's Steve Loudon is making the switch back to the gridiron and will play WR for Brown this fall. 

Hopefully this will start a trend as I'd like to see Columbia do more recruiting on the Island in the future.