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Quote:Wittke Enjoys Some Quality Time In Fayetteville
Former Hogs Assistant Probably Out At Northern Illinois

This article was published on Sunday, December 9, 2007 4:46 PM CST
By Grant Hall

FAYETTEVILLE--Two years ago, just after he had not been retained on Arkansas' football staff, Roy Wittke showed his servant's heart by serving food in the hospitality room of Bud Walton Arena during the Holiday Hoops Invitational Tournament.

Since then, Wittke has coached one year at Arizona State and one year at Northern Illinois.

But there he was over the weekend, signed up to serve again in Walton Arena during the Holiday Hoops, on behalf of the Fayetteville High basketball booster club.

Wittke's younger son, Jeff, a left-handed shooting guard, scored 15 second-half points for the Bulldogs on Friday in their only tourney win in three games, a 55-44 decision over much-improved Springdale.

Roy Wittke and his wife, Patty, got to see Jeff play all three games in the tournament -- a rare treat for them.

Patty lives in Phoenix, Ariz., as does son Brad Wittke, a sophomore at Arizona State, and daughter Bekah, a high school sophomore.
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Jeff went to school for a month in Phoenix and was slated to start for his high school basketball team, but just "didn't fit" there, Roy said, and wanted to return to his Fayetteville High classmates and teammates. Jeff lives with two families: those of Paula Hollenbeck, and Thad and Anita Hanna.

"We had to ask, 'Do we sacrifice being around Jeff, or does he sacrifice his senior year at Fayetteville?'" Roy Wittke said. "The experience in basketball here is second to none. We wanted what was best for him, and then maybe we gain back that time when he's in college."

The tough part is, Roy doesn't know where he's going to be next year.

After Arizona State went 7-5 and reached a bowl game in 2006, head coach Dirk Koetter was fired and offensive coordinator Wittke was not retained by new man Dennis Erickson.

So Wittke, who had coached many years at Eastern Illinois before being summoned to Arkansas by Houston Nutt in 2003, landed a job last year as offensive coordinator at Northern Illinois under veteran coach Joe Novak.

Unfortunately, Novak retired after a 2-10 season in which the team suffered injuries to 26 players.

"I've never seen anything like it," Wittke said. "We practiced twice a week in pads and twice in shells, but actually most of the injuries came during games. It was a miserable year. We lost Garrett Wolfe, who had been third in the nation in rushing the year before, but until the injuries we still had expected to have a pretty good year."

Novak, a longtime Northern Illinois coach, did not resign under pressure. He simply retired, following his first losing season in the last seven years. But that doesn't change things for Wittke, who anticipates that the new head coach at Northern Illinois will bring his own staff.

"They told us they're not going to hire from within," said Wittke, who will therefore not be considered for the head coaching job.

The good thing is that Wittke's contract runs through June 30 -- which gives him some time to network for his next job, while spending valuable, unaccustomed time with his family. But he is also still on the road recruiting for Northern Illinois, while its situation is unresolved.

Wittke, the quintessential family man, is in coaching for all the right reasons. His primary goal is making a positive difference in young people's lives -- the same as in being a parent.

When he had his introductory media conference at Arkansas, he talked about having already looked into the possibilities of helping coach his children's teams in the summer.

One of Roy's big thrills came when Jeff got to play a little as a Fayetteville High sophomore with Brad, then a senior, on the Bulldogs basketball team that won a conference championship. The year before, Brad helped Fayetteville reach the finals of the state tournament.

Wisely, Wittke declined to talk on or off the record about the circumstances surrounding his departure at Arkansas. It's not surprising that he would take the high road.

"We had a good three years here (2003-2005)," Wittke said. "And things have worked out for the best since then. I especially enjoyed working under Dirk Koetter."

Wittke did put in a good word for Arkansas interim coach Reggie Herring, with whom he worked in 2005.

"Reggie was great to work with, and he had the respect of the entire team," Wittke said. "He seems to be saying the right things now, urging the state to unite behind the team."

Wittke also had an interesting take on Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, who seemed ready to take the Arkansas job last week before negotiations hit a snag.

"Tom Kleinlein, who was our director of football operations at Arizona State, had also been the director of 'ops' during Grobe's first year at Wake Forest," Wittke said. "Tom raved about Jim as a human being. He said he was a first-class guy and a first-class coach."

Wittke has also heard good things about former Navy coach Paul Johnson, named Friday as the new man at Georgia Tech.

"Paul will throw the ACC on its ear," Wittke predicted. "His running attack is hard to prepare for. The only question is, can you develop a quality defense when you work so much on the running game?"

When someone mentioned Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow as a possible candidate at Arkansas, Wittke said, "Two things: he has as good an offensive mind as anyone, and he's a quality guy."

At Northern Illinois last year, Wittke succeeded offensive coordinator John Bond, who took a job in 2007 as offensive coordinator under Chan Gailey at Georgia Tech. Now Gailey is out and so, probably, is Bond, a former Razorbacks walk-on and graduate assistant from Rogers whose father, Gary (Blackie) Bond, coached Rogers High for many years.

The likelihood is that next fall, Wittke will be coaching at his fourth school in four years. The question is which one.

John Bond has been mentioned as a possibility to coach the new Rogers Heritage team, but may wish to continue in college football, where the pay is better, if not the security.

And so the coaching carousel goes.