Couretsy of The Detroit News & Terry Foster -- Sept. 5, 2013
Success Stories, Opportunities Kept Football Coach Paul Winters at Wayne State
DETROIT -- Running back Joique Bell officially begins his third NFL season with the Lions on Sunday when they play the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field. However, the opportunity to play in the NFL is not his greatest gift from Wayne State head coach Paul Winters.
It is a degree.
"He came into our living room and he told my mom, 'I don't care if he plays in the NFL,' " Bell said. "He was going to make sure I got a degree. He is an inspirational coach and a man of character."
The words brought a smile to Winters' face.
"I think it makes you proud because he gets it," Winters said. "You preach that to everybody that comes through the doors. And the guy who gets it makes it to the NFL so there is no excuse for the guy that does not have a chance at the NFL not getting it. We are only going to have one Joique Bell every 10 years if we are lucky. But we can have 20 graduates every year."
Why does Winters remain at Wayne State, two seasons after winning every major Division II coaching award and guiding his team to the national title game?
One of the reasons is he likes it here and success stories like Bell's makes it easy to stay. But there were a lot of other factors involved in why he did not bolt to Division I Akron to coach at his alma mater. Here is his story.
Winters wasn't in a good mood the day he said yes to Wayne State and Detroit, and no to Akron, following the 2011 season.
Missed plays and a blocked field goal still played in his head from Wayne State's national championship loss to Pittsburg State hours earlier in Alabama. Winters simply wanted to hole up in his Detroit home and chill for a few days.
But he wasn't allowed to because Akron officials insisted on talking to him just hours after he returned from the national title game. Their impatience is a major reason Winters remains on the sidelines for the Warriors' season-opener at 7 p.m. Thursday at Carson-Newman. Going back to the title game does not consume him, but he did love the taste of success.
"I want to do it again and again and again," Winters said. "The experience for our young people was incredible. It is an experience you can't buy. It is kind of funny. Jim Tressel made a lot of money at Ohio State but he made a lot of memories at Youngstown State playing for national championships every year."
Winters stayed because he sees a campus that is growing and getting better every day. He sees better athletes coming into his program and that excites him.
"We don't talk about it every day but it (the national title run) is in the back of your head," he said. "One of the reasons I was not in a hurry to leave is we have some special kids on offense that I want to coach. We might be the most talented offense that we have ever had."
Akron needed to come at the perfect time with the perfect package and perfect approach to wrestle him from Detroit. The school didn't come close.
"It was a classic example of not understanding people," Wayne State athletic director Rob Fournier said. "It is still a people business and sometimes when you break it down, it all comes down to that fundamental building block people fail to understand."
On the evening of Dec. 17, 2011, Winters sat up front on a charter flight from Florence, Ala., to Metro Detroit after his team's 35-21 loss to Pittsburg State.
He simply wanted to return home, meet with his team in the afternoon and get some rest.
No such luck
Instead the phone rang Sunday morning. Akron athletic director Tom Wistrcill and board of trustee member Ralph Palmisano were driving up to Detroit for a meeting with Winters at Greektown's Fishbones. They didn't want to leave Detroit without a new head coach. The coach, however, did not necessarily want to leave.
Meanwhile, an unsigned contract extension from Fournier sat in his office drawer.
Winters and Akron talked for two hours and Winters was given a memorandum of understanding. All he had to do was sign the papers and he'd become a Division I coach. Akron wasn't just any school or any city. It was home. Winters is the school's seventh all-time leading rusher (2,613 yards) and was voted the Zips' Most Valuable Player in 1979. He served two coaching stints at Akron, the last run from 1994-2003 as running backs coach and then offensive coordinator.
Once upon a time this was a dream job for Winters. It wasn't that Sunday afternoon.
"I was kind of frustrated. I never got a chance to sit back and think about these last five weeks (in the playoffs)," Winters said. "It was finally a chance for me to relax and I get a phone call the first thing the next morning. I didn't want to talk about Akron. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I just wanted to wind down."
The next morning, Winters and the Akron officials met for breakfast at 42 Degrees North in the Renaissance Center. Winters told the men he was staying in Detroit.
He felt immediate relief. Winters knew he'd made the right decision.
"I felt good about it because I was exhausted. I just wanted everybody to leave me alone," Winters said. "I felt too much pressure for these people to understand what I was going through. So I felt good because these people are not going to bother me anymore. I can live my life. Now did I feel twisted? Yeah. There are a lot of reasons to go back. I have family back home and a lot of memories."
Meanwhile, rumors were swirling that Winters was leaving. It worried Fournier when Winters walked into his office the next day wearing a suit and tie. It looked like a news conference suit.
"Is there anything you want to tell me," Fournier asked Winters.
Winters paused.
"Well, it looks like I'm staying," the coach said.
He pulled the contract out of his suit jacket and signed on the spot.
"I've got everything I need here," he said.
