Cullen Bolsters Defensive Staff At Illinois
August 31, 2005 | Football
- Freshman lineman Eric Block(concerning his home town of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
Aug. 31, 2005
He has been in Amherst, Mass., Richmond Va., Baton Rouge La., Bloomington Ind., and Oxford Miss. He has coached college football for 15 years as a defensive line coach and a defensive coordinator and has coached six future NFL players along the way. With a resume like that, you would think Joe Cullen wouldn't be thrilled being the graduate assistant at the University of Illinois.
You couldn't be more wrong.
"Coach Zook has been great and he has made the transition very easy," said Cullen from the Illinois football recruiting lounge as he gets ready for practice just days away from the season opener. "Coaching is coaching, and to have an opportunity to be a part of a staff like this and to have the chance to coach again with a good friend in Curt Mallory is a great opportunity for me."
Now having a few months under his belt in Champaign, Coach Cullen can see that things in Champaign are beginning to change.
"Looking at Coach Zook, you can just see the energy and you can just tell that great things are about to happen, and Illinois isn't that far away. Just a few years ago they won 10 games and went to the Sugar Bowl, so I think if everyone believes and works hard, good things aren't too far away."
The motto throughout the summer has been `I Believe' and that has changed things in Champaign.
"The players are believing and the staff is believing," said Cullen. "If we keep thinking that way and keep pounding that rock, good things are going to happen."
"He gets after us out here, said senior defensive tackle Ryan Matha. "He's probably working harder than anyone else out here. He's always an up-tempo, high-energy guy. He's a great coach. He brings a lot of knowledge and experience; he's taught us a lot of things, some techiques that we didn't know before.
Cullen was a 1990 graduate of the University of Massachusetts and was a four-year starter for the Minutemen. During his career, he started 45 straight games, was a three-time All-Yankee conference selection, and won team MVP honors in 1989. Since the end of his playing days, it has been all coaching for Cullen, and most of that time has been spent coaching defensive lines.
In Champaign, he is teaming with defensive line coach Tom Sims, and he has some extremely talented young players to work with.
"Derek Walker and Xavier Fulton are two guys we are really counting on," remarks Cullen as he prepares to stop the Rutgers offensive attack. "Xavier played as a true freshman, and those two have really progressed and bought into what Coach Sims wants them to do.
We also have inside guys like Ryan Matha who have worked hard and pushed themselves to become the leaders of the defensive line."
And true to Coach Zook's team coaching philosophy, there hasn't been any friction between Sims and Cullen.
"Coach Sims has been fantastic and he is a great defensive line coach. To have the opportunity to work for him and with him is exciting, and it helps to have two of us out there."
The feeling is mutual between the two.
"Having Joe out here is like having another defensive line coach helping out," said Sims. He brings a lot of intensity and experience, and I'm really glad to have him."
After all those stops around the country, his career has led him to Champaign and in the week of his first game as an Illini coach, its easy to see that things have worked out.
"It's been great moving to Champaign and settling in. Coach Zook and the rest of the staff have welcomed me, and I also had a chance to sit down with Coach Guenther to talk about the situation and he was also very hopeful, so it is just a great situation for me."
