Posts
Position:Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
Experience:3rd Year
Alma Mater:Arkansas, 1985
This Bond--as in Northern Illinois University offensive coordinator John Bond--prefers to stir things just right and leave the opposition shaken.
In his first year with the Huskies he steered the One-Back attack to single-season school records in points (421), touchdowns (53), first downs (261), and total offense yards (5,265). The 43-year-old Bond boasts 22 seasons of experience, starting with two years as a student coach (1983-84) and a year as a graduate assistant (1985) under Lou Holtz and Ken Hatfield at the University of Arkansas.
Bond arrived in DeKalb from Army after the final four seasons of an eight-year partnership wih Todd Berry. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at Army (2000-2003), the same dual capacity he held at Illinois State University (1996-99). In between, Bond served as runningbacks coach under Jesse Branch at Southwest Missouri State University (1986-90), three months in the same capacity for Jim Strong at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (1991), QB coach for David Lee at the University of Texas-El Paso (1991-93), and QB boss plus passing coordinator for Todd Knight at Delta (MS) State University (1994-95).
Bond's high-octane Redbird attack set or tied 50 school or conference records in three years as offensive coordinator. Illinois State reached the NCAA 1-AA playoffs twice (1998-99) and won the Gateway Athletic Conference title (1999). In 1999, he was a finalist for the American Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year Award. Bond coached ISU All-America QB Kevin Glenn (1998) and all-league WR and current NIU receivers boss Marquis Mosely (1997).
At West Point, Bond installed a One-Back system that set 35 school records. In 2003, he was the recipient of the Mike Campbell Top Assistant Coach Award by the All-America Football Foundation. At Southwest Missouri State, he tutored the runningbacks on back-to-back Gateway Conference champs and 1-AA playoff entries (1989-90). A former Razorback QB, Bond was a member of the 8-4-0 Gator Bowl team under Holtz (1981), suffered a career-ending injury, and then served as a student coach on the 7-4-1 Liberty Bowl (1984) unit and grad aide on the 10-2-0 Holiday Bowl (1985) elevens for Hatfield.
As a prep at Rogers (AR) High School, Bond was a two-sport man, lettering in football (3) and track (2). An All-State quarterback as a senior, he played for his father, Gary "Blackie" Bond, who coached for 32 years and was enshrined into the state's high school federation Hall of Fame. In 2003, Bond was inducted into the RHS Hall of Fame.
He received a bachelor of science degree in physical education from Arkansas in 1985. Bond is married to the former Jennifer Wilder of Bloomington, IL. The couple has two daughters, Mackenzie Rae, 3, and Mallory Grace, 1.
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You know, the more I thought about the possibility of Dan Reeves or Larry Coker, the more I dismissed it after this quote from Chan Gailey the other day:
Don't look for a dramatic change in the Yellow Jackets' offensive system. Continuity will help the team build on what it accomplished last fall and make the best use of the personnel on hand, Gailey said.
"That person has to have the understanding, here's where we are," Gailey said.
You're not going to bring in a guy like Dan Reeves or Larry Coker and make a comment like that prior to their arrival. It would basically disrespect their own accomplishments at the highest levels.
Having said this, it appears that 007 (J.Bond) is a good hire - at least on the surface. Some notes:
- Coached the nation's leading rusher last season in Garrett Wolfe
- Wolfe was 2nd in the nation in rushing in 05 and 5th in 04 as a soph.
- His N.Illinois team in 2004 was a top 20 offense (rushing, scoring, total o)
- At Army he set over 35 school records with a wide open offense
- Having said that, Army was 7-51 while he was there. Of course he didn't coach the D
- Worked for Ken Hatfield and Lou Holtz (but we won't hold it against him)
- Has been a recruiting coordinator
- Has been a QB coach
- Was an all-state QB himself
- His father was a coach for many years and a state hall-of-fame coaching member
- He appears to be able to adapt an offense to the talent of the players
- He has developed single back running attacks as well as wide open passing attacks
- Has had 24 years of coaching experience, but none at a "major" college
- Interestinly, Miami U interviewed him but chose our own P.Nix instead.
- Is 44 years old, so a "young" up-and-comer maybe?
- From the Hive, he has coached against Ohio St, Iowa, Mich, Maryland, Iowa St and N.Wester and averaged over 23 points against them combined.
Now, any coach that has a job will face criticism, and he's faced some of his own last season:
In Bond's second year, the Huskies netted a school-record 5,329 yards and scored 52 touchdowns.
However, the Huskies fell short of expectations in 2006. Northern Illinois, picked to win the MAC Championship by the conference media, ended the season with a disappointing 37-7 loss to TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl. The Huskies ended with a 7-6 mark after starting the season with a promising 3-1 start.
Bond received plenty of criticism for his play-calling late in the season. Wolfe led the country in rushing, but the Huskies weren't able to capitalize on Wolfe's talents.
The Huskies amassed just 60 yards against TCU's highly-ranked defense on Dec. 19. Even with Wolfe dominating NIU's offensive totals - registering 90 percent of its rushing yards, 46 percent of the total yards and 52.7 percent of the touchdowns - the Huskies lacked firepower and weren't able to combat opponents stacking the box.
In addition, fans of NIU over on their boards were generally frustrated and don't seem upset to lose him (much like a decent portion of our fan base with Nix).
So you can't win 'em all I guess.............. However, I have to say that this seems like a solid hire. Of course the proof will be "in the pudding" as they say, so we'll see what happens during the spring for starters. Early word is that the offensive players are pretty happy with the choice.
So welcome aboard Mr.Bond. With the Tenuta D and another 5 points a game from your new offense, we will dominate the ACC my man!!!!