Every so often in college football a program tries to blaze a new trail with a title that hasn't been done before.
Two recent examples come to mind. It happened at Arizona when they named Matt Dudek (now at Michigan) their General Manager. Shortly after Geoff Collins landed the Temple head coaching job, he named college football's first S.W.A.G cooridnator - standing for specialist with advanced graphics. Sure other programs have creative directors and social media people that likely carry similar duties, but Temple was the first to have a S.W.A.G coordinator
Alabama State may have just added themselves to that short list by naming Michael Medcalf their "flexibility coach."
Head coach Donald Hill-Eley announced a few hires recently, noting the following about Medcalf in their press release:
Eley also announced the addition of Michael Medcalf as the flexibility coach. He comes to the Hornets with over thirty years of arts related leadership, administrative and professional experiences. Medcalf has served in a variety of leadership positions, but particularly in academia as the director of Alabama State University's BFA/Dance Program.
"We have always had strength and conditioning," he said. "We have always built the body and strengthen the body, but we wanted to be able to do other things with speed and flexibility. It is a very physical game, and to be able to generate power, you need flexibility. It is important as well to help avoid certain injuries."
It certainly makes some sense to have someone on staff knowledgeable in that area, and while every strength staff devotes time to flexibility, Alabama State is hiring someone with a dance background in hopes of helping them gain an edge.
Will this start a new trend?
Would love to hear your thoughts @CoachSamz or doug@footballscoop.com.