Former defensive coordinator William Inge may have left the university for the larger market of the NFL, but he made sure to have a hand in who would be the man to replace him. That's where Lou Tepper comes in.
Inge and Tepper have had a long relationship. Tepper attempted to recruit Inge to come play for him at Illinois, and although Tepper was unsuccessful, the two had remained in touch ever since and always made a point to meet at conventions within the coaching industry.
Their paths crossed once again this winter, meeting to discuss "X's and O's" for a few hours before Inge stood up, grabbed his phone and told Tepper to sit still. As a diabetic, Tepper was concerned about his blood sugar, but decided to wait it out. It turned out to be a pretty good decision for him.
The man on the other end of the Inge's phone was head coach Jeff Quinn. Quinn was still searching for a man to replace Inge, and Inge insisted that he had just found his replacement in Tepper.
Weeks later after successfully making it through Quinn's interviewing process, Tepper is now the man at the helm of the Bulls' defense, anxiously trying to get a feel for the team, and prepare for next season, after just arriving in the city of good neighbors on Monday.
"We've got 17 things on our agenda, and right now we're on number two," Tepper said.
Tepper comes to Buffalo attempting to finish off that agenda with his wife of 44 years, and his high school sweetheart Karen, who he jokes has been in football longer than he has, as the daughter of his high school football coach.
"She was 15 at the time," Tepper said. "I don't know how or why he let her date me. But we were under the microscope and it was a bit uncomfortable."
Over the course of Tepper's coaching career, Karen has been the only constant as Lou has held a number of different positions across the country.
"I've coached in a couple of conferences that don't exist anymore," Tepper said. "I was in New Hampshire when they were in the Yankee Conference."
New Hampshire is where his career started on the defensive side of the football, from 1968 to 1971. Tepper then moved to William and Mary ('72 to '77) before stepping up to the Division I ranks at Virginia Tech ('78 to '82), back when they were an independent school without conference affiliation.
"That's until we recruited [NFL Hall of Fame defensive end] Bruce Smith," Tepper said. "Once we recruited Smith and he won the Outland trophy, that put Tech on the map. No one in the ACC wanted to play us."
Following his time in Blacksburg, Virginia, Tepper headed west to be the defensive coordinator at Colorado ('83 to '87), taking over the Buffaloes when they ranked dead last in total defense two years in a row.
"They were the doormat of the old Big Eight," Tepper said. "The year before I got there they gave up 80 points to Nebraska and 80 points to Oklahoma. My thought was, ‘Hey, I can't do worse than this; I've got to be an improvement.' We went from 120th my first year down to 101st, we made great progress, then 81st, then 17th, then down to 11th. Five years later Bill [McCartney] won the National Championship [at Colorado]. So that was a great experience for me."
Following his time at Colorado, Tepper went to Illinois to be the defensive coordinator in 1988, a position that he held until accepting the head coaching position in 1991. In over five seasons as the Illini's head coach he posted the best winning percentage of any Illinois coach in the past 20 years leading the team to a 25-31-2 record, until he was let go in 1997.
After the '97 season Tepper had an opportunity to head to the NFL with the St. Louis Rams and coach under close friend Dick Vermeil. Tepper decided to turn the opportunity down however, due to wanting to remain closer to his family.
"Professionally it was a no brainer, I should have gone to the Rams," Tepper said. "But my son (Matthew) was in his senior year as a player at Taylor University. It's an NAIA school in Indiana."
Still under contract from Illinois, Tepper decided to take a year off, but not from coaching entirely. Tepper joined the staff at his son's Alma Mater to help out, and be with his son.
"I was probably the highest paid volunteer in America that year," Tepper said. "I had a linebacker with the Cowboys let us house sit his home in Indianapolis, and would drive 40 minutes every day to coach at Taylor. It was the best year, and the year I wrote my book."
His book, Complete Linebacking, is a 328-page tell-all about the art of being a good linebacker. Tepper should know having coached three Butkus Award winners (for top linebacker in college football), Alfred Williams at Colorado, and Dana Howard and Kevin Hardy at Illinois.
Following his stint as a volunteer Tepper returned to the Division 1 ranks as the defensive coordinator in the elite South Eastern Conference for LSU ('97 to '99).
After his time at LSU, Tepper got back to head coaching and accepted a job at Edinboro, going 40-26 and leading the team to two Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference titles in the Division 2 ranks.
In his final stop before joining the Bulls' staff he coached at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from '06 to '09.
The 66-year-old Tepper admits his situation is a bit unusual: being hired by Quinn after having no previous interaction with the head coach is a rarity in the college football coaching industry.
"Because of my, I'll say maturity, if you don't know Lou Tepper, and just got my résumé passed across your desk, your liable to think I'm using a walker," Tepper said.
Although he may be 66, Tepper is still very active. As an avid racquetball player, Tepper is hoping to win the over-70 National Championship someday.
He's still four years away from hitting the 70 mark, but he's got plenty to occupy his time before then, taking over a Bulls' defense that surrendered just under 30 points per game last season.
Having just arrived in Buffalo this week, Tepper still hasn't fully assessed his team yet. In fact, he's still meeting the Bulls, but Tepper plans on having them ready to compete for a Mid-American Conference title come Fall.
Email: sports@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Paul Hokanson/UB Athletics
Photo: Paul Hokanson/UB Athletics
