Rose brings 18 years' experience to UT

3/2/2005

Tim Rose, a veteran coach with 18 years of experience as a defensive coordinator at the Division I-A level, has officially been named to the staff at the University of Toledo.

Rose replaces Lou West, who accepted the head coaching position at Indiana State after four years as the defensive coordinator at UT.

"The older you get the more you realize that coaching is really a privilege," the 63-year-old Rose said yesterday from the Larimer Center where he was meeting with the rest of the UT staff. Rose, who will serve as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for Toledo coach Tom Amstutz, said the Rockets, the defending champions in the Mid-American Conference, offered him all of the essentials.

"When you examine jobs, you look for three things: the guy you'll work for, the people you work with, and if you'll have a chance to win," Rose said. "Anybody who says anything about Tom Amstutz says that he's a great guy to work for. I already know some of the staff and they are real pros, and I knew the players were going to be tough kids if they are anything like the Toledo teams I knew in years past."

Rose, who served as the defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech for the 2004 season, worked in that capacity at Miami from 1978-82, and was the head coach of the then Redskins from 1983-89. He is a native of Cleveland, where he graduated from St. Joseph's High School.

"I'm excited to be a part of this program," Rose said. "Tom has had tremendous success the past four years, and the program overall has been very successful for the past 35 years, going back to Frank Lauterbur and those great teams."

In addition to his time at Miami, Rose has coached at Memphis (1992-95), Cincinnati (1995-96), Minnesota (1996-97), Boston College (1997-98), East Carolina, Eastern Michigan (2003) and last season at Louisiana Tech.

Rose is going to be looked on to bring UT help where it needs it most, since its defense has been the soft spot in the program in recent years. During the past 13 seasons, five of Rose's defensive units finished the season ranked in the top 20 in the country. Rose said he expects a challenge since the MAC now has so many teams with high-scoring spread offenses.

"I know the league has changed dramatically since I left Miami, and it's gone from being a defense-oriented conference to one that is heavily offensively oriented," Rose said. "That's the trend throughout college football, and it has a lot of defenses on their heels. We have to be creative and face the challenge."

Rose, who earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Xavier University, said he likes what he sees at UT.

"I think this is a great environment where a strong winning tradition is in place," Rose said. "And from what I've seen of the players, these guys are focused and they wear that championship mantle well."