ALLENDALE, Mich. — Scott Wooster has only been coaching at Grand Valley State for three season, but already, it has had an impact on him.
His alma mater and school he spent 11 seasons as an assistant coach, Wayne State, currently has an opening for head football, yet Wooster wanted to be the head man at GVSU.
"At some point, maybe that was the dream job. When coach Winters retired, that I would be the head coach at Wayne State. So, when I made this move, I kind of just shifted, hey, be the best offensive line/tight end coach in the country, around these terrific people, win a lot of football games, it didn't cross my mind until the opportunity presented itself with coach Mitchell."
Wooster's energy and enthusiasm were very apparent at Tuesday's introductory press conference. The players have known it for a while.
"The other rooms could feel the excitement when he was the," junior right tackle Jordan Davis said. "Even if DBs (defensive backs) want him, they see him less, so if they want him, you know his energy is contagious."
"If you look at it, coach Wooster has only been here for three seasons and he has already made an impact on my life," senior linebacker Abe Swanson said. "He has made an impact on the guys that are with him every single day like the offensive line."
It took Lakers athletic director Keri Becker and her team just five days to make the decision to promote Wooster.
The timing is important because of the current landscape of college football with the transfer portal.
"We had other programs reaching out to our guys, following them on twitter and all that kind of stuff, just kind of 'vulturing' in there, our recruits too, but our own locker room," Wooster said. "We just wanted to circle the wagons around those guys and make sure we stayed together."
"Anyone that sites here and listens to coach Wooster speak has seen him in action in his coaching, knows who he is and how he is as a coach," junior quarterback Cade Peterson said. "I think that made the decision easy for them once it came down to it and that quick turnaround is going allow us to keep everyone together."
The goal at GVSU has long been winning a national champions and Wooster did not shy away from that on day one.
"People say well, talk about the process. Yeah, we are talking about the process, and we are in the process," Wooster said. "We had workouts this morning with tremendous focus, energy, guys just flat out getting after it. As long as you're doing those things and embracing the process and going through the process, then it is OK to set that vision and create that belief and create that reality for ourselves."
It is very clear that most of the current roster is thrilled with the decision to hire Wooster as the eighth head coach at Grand Valley State.
Next step for the new guys in charge is securing that 2023 signing class, National Signing Day just eight days away, coach saying he is confident in keeping the guys already committed to GV.
