Troy defensive coach faces former team

NEW ORLEANS — Randy Butler was 45 minutes away from Hattiesburg, Miss., on a recruiting trip, when he got the call that changed his and his family’s life.

After 15 years as an assistant at Southern Miss, it was all over. Head coach Jeff Bower had been let go two days after the regular season finale. Butler also played at Southern Miss, making it harder.

Sunday, at the Louisiana Superdome, he’ll be on the same field with the Golden Eagles, but on the other side. A few months later, Butler was hired by Larry Blakeney as the defensive ends coach and recruiting coordinator.

“It’ll be an emotional game,” Butler said. “There’s kids on that sideline that I recruited and coached. I care about them, but this is my team and we’re going to try to beat their ears off and they’ll try to beat our ears off. All the other stuff, being fired from there, you’ve got to let that go. Revenge, it’s not there.

“It’s a ball game. It’s not about me. It’s about our players and their players.”

Butler’s experience recruiting the state of Alabama helped him land the job at Troy, where he quickly picked up where former recruiting coordinator Brian Turner left off, as Troy has potential for another strong recruiting class in 2009.

On the field, junior defensive ends Brandon Lang and Cameron Sheffield were first team all-conference selections and should be picked early in the 2010 NFL Draft.

“Every year, it seemed like you would always run into him recruiting,” Blakeney said. “He did a great job with the Southern Miss program handling their recruiting. He’s what we needed — he’s coached defensive ends and on the offensive side. He’s very familiar with the game, but on the recruiting end, it was a great get.”

Butler recruited the likes of NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Adalius Thomas and former USM star quarterback Jeff Kelly, but several Golden Eagles were close to him.

“Yeah, man,” USM running back Damion Fletcher said. “Ol’ Coach Butler. That’s my boy; I really like him a lot. He’s a cool guy. Everybody likes him. We’d always mess around at practice. We’d move from station to station and I’d pretend to accidentally run into him and he’d push on me.”

Wednesday, when the teams arrived in New Orleans, Butler got a surprise phone call from Fletcher and teammate Shawn Nelson, who were in the Marriott hotel lobby and wanted to see their old coach. Butler said he saw eight-to-10 Golden Eagles on the first night.

“It was good to see them,” Butler said. “I miss them. When you care about kids and you try to help them, it meant a lot for those kids to call me and say ‘Hey, we’re in the lobby and we want to see you.’ That meant a lot to me.”

Butler said it was hardest on his two daughters, who were 3- and 1-year-old when he started at USM in 1993. His oldest daughter started school at Southern Miss last year but withdrew and will enroll at Troy next semester. His youngest daughter is a junior at Charles Henderson.

The trips to Hattiesburg are still there, and one will come after the New Orleans Bowl, when his family will spend some days before Christmas with his wife’s family. Butler said he also went on a canoe trip with former teammates just south of Hattiesburg. It was hard not to be bitter early, but Butler said he’s put those feelings aside.

“I just want to go win the football game,” Butler said. “I profess to be a Christian and the first month after Coach Bower was let go, there was a lot of strong feelings. I had to let that go. There’s not a day that goes by that you don’t think about that when you’re there for 15 years and you’ve got family there.

“I hope I helped that program a little bit. I think I did.”

Bitterness aside, it was still a shock when he got the call that, after 14 straight winning seasons at USM, it wasn’t enough.

“In this profession, you’re supposed to help kids grow socially, athletically, academically and spiritually and we did that, and you’re supposed to win some games along the way and we did that,” Butler said. “People say that’s the way coaching is, but you feel like when you do what you’re supposed to do, you know…

“Again, I harbor no ill feelings. I’ve moved past that. I’m tickled to death to be here. I love working with Coach Blakeney and his staff and I really like the kids I coach.”

Quarterbacks focused on rehab: Sophomore quarterbacks Jamie Hampton and Tanner Jones are in New Orleans, but only as spectators. The two had season-ending knee surgery on Nov. 14 and could return to practice in March.

Rehab lasts four to five hours a day.

“They’re telling us we’re a little bit ahead, and I hope we stay that way,” Hampton said.

Hampton, who started the first five games, is likely to redshirt next year to fully recover from the injury. Jones redshirted in 2006.

“They’ve told me that, and it’s not set in stone but it looks like that’s going to happen,” Hampton said. “Whatever’s best for the team. I don’t know if I’ll be ready to go, and Levi (Brown)’s done an outstanding job (at quarterback). It doesn’t really matter to me; it’s what the coaches want.”

Hampton looks at the bright side when it comes to missing all that time after playing full-time.

“Stuff comes through your life, and you have to battle through it,” Hampton said. “You have obstacles you have to overcome. You have to look at the bright side and not the down side. I can get bigger, faster and stronger and that’s the way I look at it.”

Assistant coaching news: North Alabama has contacted Troy for permission to speak to assistant Kenny Edenfield about its vacant head coaching position, head coach Larry Blakeney said Thursday. Edenfield coached at UNA for six years before coming to Troy this year.

Special teams/outside receivers coach Shayne Wasden has been linked to an assistant job at Auburn under new head coach Gene Chizik, but that’s all Internet rumors. Blakeney has not been contacted by Auburn for permission to speak with Wasden.