Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504100024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Long
The photos are familiar. The walls on which they hang are not.
The views in Phil Elmassian's new office range from the grinning, clean-domed visage of his football mentor, Hank Norton, to the snow-capped Cascade Mountains rising over Lake Washington.
Elmassian's cross-country move isn't about where he's been. It's about where he's going. If his life and coaching career are indications of his destination, tag his baggage ``Somewhere.''
Two months ago, Elmassian left the defensive coordinator's job on Frank Beamer's staff at Virginia Tech to become the Huskies' secondary coach. To some it was a stunning move; to others strange.
To Elmassian, 43, it meant leaving a part of the country where he had spent most of his suitcase-toting coaching days that began at Ferrum. To his wife, Diane, it meant leaving her hometown. She will move next week, some 2,600 miles from Blacksburg, to the couple's new home in suburban Redmond.
Elmassian's departure was felt on the Richter scale in Blacksburg, where with a new defensive scheme - Washington's attacking eight-man front - the Hokies had played in back-to-back bowls for the first time in school history, had 17 victories in his two seasons and have 10 defensive starters returning next season.
Then, perhaps it's appropriate Elmassian and his often-volcanic style now reside in the same state as Mount St. Helen's. But there was nothing steamy about his exit at Tech.
``I was offered the job here; it was mine to turn down,'' Elmassian said. ``And when that [offer] happened, I had to ask myself, `Where do I want to be five years from now?'
``It was what Washington was, is and can be again. It wasn't what Tech was or is. If I ever decide to leave because of the program I'm in, then I'm struggling with the program. Hey, Frank has it going at Tech. Seventeen wins, second in the Big East last year. Second!''
In 21 years as a college assistant, Elmassian has been in enough bowls to portray Snap, Crackle or Pop. There's another one he'd like to visit, though, a prize he'd like the opportunity to help win.
``Here's a program that's geared to going to the Rose Bowl, to winning the national championship,'' Elmassian said. ``If we're playing for a national championship, I could care less what my title is. I just want to be part of it. If we're coming off a Rose Bowl win, I could give a damn who's the coordinator.
``I'd rather be part of a national championship program as a secondary coach than be a head coach a lot of places. I don't even know if I want to be a head coach, period. A lot of jobs are what I call `coach-killers.'''
So, Elmassian has taken about a $20,000 pay cut from the $85,000 he would have received at Tech. ``My wife calls me `the volunteer coach,''' Elmassian said.
Elmassian made trips to Washington each of the past four years - while he was an assistant at Syracuse and then at Tech - to learn and study the Huskies' defense. He is speaking the same language as head coach Jim Lambright and defensive coordinator Randy Hart - even if Elmassian is the only one wearing a white shirt and tie to the office.
``It's a great professional opportunity,'' Elmassian said. ``The program is coming off probation, but in those two years Jim's guys won 14 games and beat Miami last season, down there. How many people do that [one in the past 60]? We play Notre Dame, Ohio State, Southern Cal, UCLA ...
``It's different. Washington recruits nationally. We might call a prospect in Dallas and Notre Dame, [Texas] A&M and Miami are in there, but we can get a visit.
``Can Virginia Tech do that? No. Neither can Virginia. Nor can a lot of schools. I'm not saying those schools don't play good football. I'm not saying Pac-10 football is better than Big East football.''
Elmassian said he knows some Hokies are saying he left the program for a second time.
``I didn't leave the last time,'' he said of his move from Tech to UVa in 1987. ``I was fired. We were fired.
``It's funny, I came to Tech to work for Bill Dooley then, looking for security. I left Minnesota and took a $10,000 cut in pay for security. I was having personal problems and professional problems.
``We win nine games, get the only bowl win in the history of the program up to then, and we're gone. ... It goes to show you never know. For instance, what if Frank leaves Tech to go the NFL, to San Diego with Bobby Ross, which certainly was possible. Where are we then?''
At Tech, Elmassian said he felt like he ``squeezed four years of work into two.
``The last two years there, we, as a team, did just about everything we could have done. We lost one game we shouldn't have, at Syracuse, this year.
``We, the defense, didn't play. We were poorly prepared. There were two or three times, if I were Frank, I would have fired me - the Boston College [loss in 1993], for poor performance and preparation.''
He was not, as has been reported by some media, offered the defensive coordinator's job at Georgia Tech before he moved to Washington. When he has moved - a lot - in his career, it has been mostly because someone asked.
``I don't like to play games,'' Elmassian said. ``I told Frank before I came out here to talk to them that unless there was something I didn't know about, I was taking the job.
``I can say that in my two years at Tech, I never cheated the program. I gave them what I had. I did what Frank wanted me to do. I've never felt guilty about leaving.''
After the Huskies' first workout last week, a regular practice visitor told Lambright he thought the new assistant coach's in-your-face style ``was interesting.''
Lambright grinned, and said he told the man, ``Yes, I said I thought there was a lot of energy wasted out there. ... We do like what Phil brings to us.''
The Huskies are like the Hokies in that they're hoping Elmassian's arrival will produce more than louder practices. He promises he will be back in Virginia - to recruit. As for when and as for where his career is going, not even he knows.
He is a mover and a shaker. Besides those photos that have gone miles with Elmassian, success must be stuffed in his baggage, too.
by CNB