ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
MEMO: slightly different version ran in the New River edition.
TED CAIN HAS HELPED turn around struggling programs before at Furman and N.C. State.
Ted Cain was introduced Monday morning as VMI's new football coach. He immediately was asked what led him to take the job.
``The chance to be a head coach in the best [NCAA Division] I-AA conference in the nation is a challenge I look forward to,'' Cain said.
``Challenge'' is a good word for what Cain faces in his first year of a five-year contract. VMI has not had a winning season since 1981. All-America running back Thomas Haskins has completed his eligibility. And the Keydets' assistant coaches have been off the recruiting trail for a month.
One person who discussed the VMI vacancy with members of the school's search committee said recently, ``VMI has a lot more to worry about than finding a football coach.''
In Cain, however, the Keydets have a coach who has proven he can overcome the challenge of producing a winning college football program. The first time it happened was 1977, when he joined the coaching staff at his alma mater, Furman.
``Furman had gone a long period of time without winning,'' Cain said. ``We kind of helped improve that program.''
The Paladins won six Southern Conference championships and went 69-23-2 in the nine years Cain was a Furman assistant.
``In 1986, N.C. State had not been to a bowl game in recent years,'' Cain said. ``We felt like that was a challenge to improve at that level.
``I see VMI as a football program that is on the rise. It's really an opportunity I couldn't pass up.''
Cain can only hope this job begins as well as his only previous stint as a head coach. Cain in 1977 was Furman's head junior varsity coach. The Paladins opened at Clemson and beat the Tigers' JV squad 27-7.
``I brought the team back and I couldn't go to sleep,'' he said. ``I replayed every offensive and defensive snap in my head.''
During Cain's 10-year tenure as N.C. State's offensive coordinator, the Wolfpack set numerous school records for touchdown passes and passing yardage. He has hired one of his old quarterbacks, Preston Poag, to coach VMI's quarterbacks, and one of his former N.C. State offensive linemen, Brent Bagwell, also will assist on offense. Both will serve as restricted-earnings coaches. Kevin Sherman, a Radford High School and Ferrum College graduate, will work with VMI's receivers after working with quarterbacks and receivers in 1996.
``I think [Cain] will install an offense here which will be very successful,'' said Gen.Josiah Bunting, VMI's superintendent.
Cain introduced the rest of his coaching staff while making his introductory remarks. All of this past season's full-time assistant coaches and two restricted-earnings assistants have been given contracts through next season.
Although an outsider taking over a staff of assistants who already are in place is unusual, Cain said he feels very comfortable with the staff and thinks it will be to his and the program's advantage to retain people who have worked in VMI's system.
Cain will have plenty of help trying to continue the progress made under former coach Bill Stewart, who resigned Dec.12. Bunting, for example, handed Cain a Sports Illustrated article on the merits of the ``press'' defense when the coach entered the Marshall Library Reading Room for the news conference.
Bunting first met Cain three weeks ago, when Cain took a preliminary visit to the Lexington campus. ``He was my first choice right off the bat,'' Bunting said.
``I believe the VMI program is literally on the verge of what's been accomplished at Army and Northwestern,'' Bunting said of those school's improved football fortunes. ``We have 19 of 22 starters back, and Bill Stewart left a valuable legacy of good kids.''
Cain will get a chance to meet those ``kids'' at 4 p.m. today when he talks to the team for the first time. Junior tailback Jabarr Bean and sophomore fullback Charles Houk, a student member of the search committee, attended Cain's Monday news conference.
``He brings a lot,'' Bean said. ``He knows how it is to be on top.''
That's where Cain wants to take the Keydets.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP N.C. State assistant Ted Cain (left) ``was my firstby CNBchoice right off the bat'' to become VMI's new football coach, said
Superintendent Josiah Bunting. color