For Hatcher, an offer should follow this call

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For Hatcher, an offer should follow this call

By Michael A. Lough

Telegraph Staff Columnist

We've been here before. Chris Hatcher sure has.

An offense-challenged major program - particularly one in the southeast - needs help or to make a change, and Hatcher's name surfaces.

It did in 2001 when Florida State lost a coordinator and quarterbacks coach to a big office in the Butts-Mehre Building in Athens. Who did Bobby Bowden talk to about working with the QBs?

Hatcher.

And when the Seminoles resembled Muddle State a couple years ago, Hatcher's name surfaced on the list should Grandpa Bobby do something or should somebody leave.

Even last January, an analysis in the Florida Times-Union opined that Hatcher was a nifty fit in Tallahassee.

So the name of the former Mount de Sales standout cropping up after Tuesday's resignation of Florida State offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden is about as surprising as a block-in-the-back penalty on a punt.

After a pair of incompletions in trying to get Hatcher on Wednesday, I wondered if his phone hadn't exploded by dinnertime, for good grief, Hatcher's name has been connected to FSU for most of this century.

Every year, Hatcher visits Macon for the summer Peach State Pigkin Preview put on by the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and for the Macon Touchdown Club.

Every visit, he gets pulled aside and asked about the rumors, and every year he says nobody's called him, and asks the questioner if he's heard anything.

This time, Hatcher will get a phone call and he will hear a "dadgum" in there somewhere and he'll make a trip to Tallahassee for more than a tour of the state capital.

He's the popular choice, it appears, and a fairly logical choice. He has the NCAA Division II version of the Heisman in his den, he's coached others to the same Harlon Hill Award, and has a finalist this year. He's been an assistant in the toughest D-I conference in the land and been successful, and been a head coach in the toughest D-II conference in the land and been more successful.

He's taken dissatisfied and struggling major-college quarterbacks and won with them, and VSU won a national championship with a displaced Seminoles quarterback.

One major misconception about Hatcher is that he's all about the pass. Hatcher respects the run substantially more than people think.

Take Nov. 27, 2004, as an example.

Valdosta State trailed ranked rival Albany State 24-0. After a quite succinct halftime speech - "brief admonition" is more like it - the Blazers ran 13 straight times to score twice and begin the comeback. They rushed for 95 yards in the third quarter alone.

Two running backs teamed for more than 2,000 yards that season, to go with a 3,000-yard passer. The Blazers finished 38th of 145 teams nationally with 193 yards a game.

There's very little he hasn't dealt with as a coach or player. His personality fits, and wouldn't FSU like it's next head coach.

Yes, some of us can and will look ahead to the day when Grandpa finally steps down. Is it so hard to fathom that his successor could sound very much at home using the word "bumfuzzled" while describing the opposing defense's reaction to the home team's offense? And if you've ever talked to Hatcher, you know "golly" is very much a genuine part of his vernacular.

Nonetheless, Hatcher's potential future employer has a few games left, and protocol is that the process remains a publicly quiet one until the season's over.

Quiet, but busy. And perhaps finally with an inevitable conclusion.

Michael A. Lough is a columnist for The Telegraph. Reach him at 744-4626 or e-mail mlough@macontel.com