Howard Mudd has retired. We will do an article later this week wishing Howard well as he rides off into the sunset in his pimped out golf cart. With Mudd retiring, last year's assistant offensive line coach Pete Metzelaars will step in and assume the duties of o-line coach. With Pete taking over those duties, the Colts have made yet another coaching hire by snagging former Kansas State head coach Ron Prince to take over Pete's old job as assistant line coach.
From 2006-2008, Prince ran K-State's program. After he left K-State, he ran the special teams for Al Groh's Virginia program. When you search for "Ron Prince" over at SB Nation's K-State blog, Bring on the Cats, the comments about his tenure as head coach there are certainly not rosy. In fact, I found one article rather interesting in that the author seemed to indicate that Prince preferred slimmer, faster offensive linemen to larger, bulkier players. Such a philosophy is one the Colts have employed with their o-line since Howard Mudd became line coach in 1998.
Other comments about Prince were not... well, they were not all that flattering:
And people wonder why Ron Prince is now the SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR AT VIRGINIA! THAT MORON WASTED AN ENTIRE YEAR OF ELIGIBILITY FOR [ATTRAIL] SNIPES, A TALENTED, SPEEDY RECEIVER, SO HE COULD PARTICIPATE IN F*%$#@& PUNT COVERAGE!!!?! SON OF A %$#@&!!!!!!
In another article, BotC criticized Prince's ability to manage the team's roster:
If you want to see the primary example of why Ron Prince was considered to be a poor roster manager, look no farther than the running back position.
In 2008, Kansas State didn't have a single rusher break 500 net rushing yards. The leading rusher last season, Lamark Brown (412 yds, 5TD), has been moved back to his original position, wide receiver. The second leading rusher, Josh Freeman (404 yds, 14 TD), will be fighting for the starting QB position this year in Tampa Bay. Even Logan Dold, the third running back on the list (333 yds, 3 TD), has been moved to safety. This leaves senior Keithen Valentine as the most statistically successful running back on the roster (129 yds, 1 TD).
Prince compiled a 17-20 record at K-State, which doesn't look as bad as the K-State bloggers seem to suggest his coaching tenure was. While I appreciate and enjoy reading other fan's perspectives on certain coaches, I take such opinions with a grain of salt. Texas fans think Vince Young is a premiere QB. Florida fans think Tim Tebow is Jesus. Notre Dame fans cheered the hiring of Charlie Weis.
You see my point? College football fans have no perspective.
What does seem a little sketchy about Prince is that there was some controversy when he was fired from K-State. Apparently, there was a buy out involved that the university sued to have the agreement made "invalid." Prince and then-former Kansas State AD Bob Krause agreed to some kind of buy out of $3.2 million. K-State did not seem to like this buy out, and sued. Prince counter-sued, saying the department knew of the buy out. The situation looks like it was a mess, and likely this is one of the reasons why Prince seems so toxic to K-State fans.
Prince is a young guy (40), and from 2001-2005 he was the offensive coordinator at Virginia. His current job with the Colts seems to his first foray into the NFL. How he will mesh with the Colts and their veteran o-line remains to be seen.