Charley Molnar passes first test at opening press conference
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FOXBOROUGH - Motivational speaking can be a bit of a tightrope.
If it comes off at all oversold or disingenuous, it looks phony. Being a salesman is good. Being a used car salesman is very bad.
But in his first appearance as the coach of the University of Massachusetts football program, Charley Molnar walked that line effectively, getting the most out of his first impression.
The Notre Dame offensive coordinator's energy appeared genuine and more than a little infectious. He's never been a head coach before, but he came off as a polished speaker. Even during the question and answer session, Molnar stayed on message like an experienced campaigner. And while he seemed honored and excited to have the job, he came off very confident that he was the right man for it.
Whether Molnar can actually design a game plan or teach strategy is still unknown. It will be almost a year until people have a chance to start judging that part of his coaching ability. From now until Aug. 30, 2012, when the Minutemen open next season at Connecticut, Molnar's public job is to promote the program and he looked up to the task.
Molnar's enthusiasm is going to play well at meet-and-greets and alumni functions. Fans are going to want to follow this guy. They'll squint at their televisions while watching Molnar complete his Notre Dame tenure in the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 29 and dream of what UMass' offense could look like down the road.
Those dreams of the future will be important because the present comes with some challenges as the team goes through the natural growing pains that come with the transition.
Molnar's task is tough. He's got to turn a fledgling Bowl Subdivision school into a conference contender. He has to court a new fan base in eastern Massachusetts while keeping the western Massachusetts supporters interested enough to drive across the state for five Saturdays every fall.
He's got to hire a staff quickly to start recruiting while evaluating his current roster effectively enough to determine what areas of the team those yet-to-be-hired assistant coaches need to focus on.
To win in the Mid-American Conference, a team better be able to put up points. Anyone that's turned on a midweek MAC game on ESPN knows that scoring 40 points in no guarantee of victory. Molnar, whose specialty is offense, will try to keep up despite inheriting a team that lost all three starting receivers, its top running back and No. 1 tight end. UMass returns two quarterbacks who saw considerable action and neither displayed much consistency. Still, Molnar was undaunted.
"Right now we're going to win with this group of guys," he said. "These are my guys now. This is my football team. These are the guys I'm going to fight for and battle for and I expect them to do the same."
How soon can his guys win is anybody's guess. He won't have a chance to win a game for over nine months. But on Thursday, Molnar won the press conference and that's a pretty good start.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.
