Trent Miles rattles off a long list of players that Tim Lappano has coached in his career — Calvin Johnson, Garrison Hearst, Ricky Watters and Drew Brees — as he explains why he convinced Lappano to join his Georgia State staff as wide receivers coach.
“A few weeks has helped our team tremendously,” Miles said. “I don’t know how long we will be able to keep him, but one week with him is better for our guys than five years with someone who knows half of what he knows.”
Lappano then goes into the “because” of his decision to join Georgia State in March as a wide receivers coach, after he was let go by the Detroit Lions in a coaching shuffle after coach Jim Schwartz was fired.
An assistant the past five seasons for Detroit, where he coached Johnson, Lappano joined Miles’ program because he has several ties to coaches on the staff. He and Miles coached together at the University of Washington. Lappano helped Luke Huard, now Georgia State’s quarterbacks coach, get a graduate assistant position with the Huskies. J. D. Williams, who coaches Georgia State’s defensive backs, also was an assistant at Washington when Lappano was there as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2005-08.
“I wanted to be around people I knew,” Lappano said of his decision to come to Georgia State. “They are good coaches No. 1 and good people No. 2. I thought it would be an easier transition to be with guys I had worked with.”
It’s an interesting juxtaposition after leaving Johnson, considered the best wide receiver in the game and perhaps history, to teach the three scholarship wide receivers enrolled at Georgia State. Lappano also worked in high-profile jobs at high-profile colleges, such as offensive coordinator at Purdue, Oregon State and Washington State, and he coached running backs for the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.
Over the years, Lappano has developed some interesting teaching methods.
In one drill that he uses, Lappano will hold a tackling shield in front of a receiver. Standing a few feet away, with the tackling shield between them, someone will throw a football at the receiver. At the last second, a graduate assistant will pull away the shield, giving the receiver a split second to see the ball and then to catch it. It’s not a drill that wide receiver Robert Davis said he had been put through before, but he likes it.
“It’s really difficult because the ball is right on you,” he said. “But when you think you about it, in a game when you are running across the middle of the field and defender’s hands are in front of the ball, you have to focus on catching it and not taking your focus off the ball.”
Lappano also uses large trash cans as obstacles for the receivers to run around, shouting instructions such as “Nose over toes” as a reminder to help the receivers come out of their breaks faster. He will use tackling dummies and have receivers reach around the top, where they are expected to catch passes using only their hands.
“He’s one of those people that gets you really fired up to play, makes you want to excel,” Davis said. “He works us hard, but I can honestly I’ve become a better receiver.”
Lappano likes what he has seen from the group, despite its inexperience. Davis is the most productive of the returnees on scholarship after catching 44 passes for 711 yards and four touchdowns last season. He is joined by Lynquez Blair (six catches 44 yards), and Nate Minor, who sat out last season because of a knee injury.
“They give good effort and are coachable,” Lappano said. “They are trying to do it the way I want it coached. As long as I get that effort, I will give them everything I have as a coach.”
And if the players don’t do it the way Lappano has asked?
“If you do it the wrong way and continue to do it the wrong way, I’ll get after you a little bit,” he said. “But if you do something right, I’ll give praise. Everybody wants to give praise.”
