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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4 55 JaMarcus Shephard, WRs He dripped sweat, spit fire and yelled into someone's face. And it was only fan event to announce Purdue's signing class. No matter the circum- stance, Shephard is dialed up. A Fort Wayne native ecstatic to return to his home state, Shephard's personality should help Pur- due in recruiting as well as, the team hopes, inspire a young receiving corps as position coach and passing game coordinator. "Coach Shep, he's real energetic. He brings juice to the team, not just the receiver corps, but to the whole team. He just fires the guys up," said former Western Kentucky receiver Jared Dangerfield, who played for Shephard for two years. "Especially as a former player, he knows how to get the team hyped up, and he loves football. You can tell it. Coach brought that attitude to practice. He's loud from warmups until the end of prac- tice, until after practice. On the field, it's always encour- agement. He's just trying to get you to finish. He wants you to be the best player you can be." Tony Levine, TEs Though Levine will work with tight ends, his expertise may be on special teams, of which he'll be the coordi- nator for every unit. That's where his attention to detail shows up, former players said. His intense film study and nit-picking of opponents helped WKU morph from what special teamer Drew Davis called "middle-of-the-road" into one of the nation's best units. Levine understands the value of each opportunity — there are only a handful of chances to do things the right way — and drills players to grasp that, too, WKU captain Marcus Ward said. "He looks at everything," Ward said. "In some meet- ings, we would watch film and he would show us film from his previous special teams, some of the things he used to do, we used to ooh and aah sometimes. We'd never seen that before. He's kind of like a mastermind, to be honest. There was no game this year where we didn't win the special teams battle that I can remember. His results, his product speaks for itself. He's just an all-knowing guy as far as special teams goes." Nick Holt, LBs Passion may be Holt's best attribute, as he uses that fiery approach to push players to play as hard as they can. "I like a coach that's on 'go' and wants you to get things done," said T.J. McCollum, a former WKU linebacker who's now at Purdue. "I love playing for him. He's one of the best coaches I've ever had." For more on Holt, see Page 38. Dale Williams, OL At his various coaching stops — mostly recently last season at WKU and in seven years at Florida Atlantic — Williams devel- oped a reputation as being a straight-forward coach who won't sugar coat but also doesn't use ranting and raving to get his point across. And he uses that approach to get the most out of his players, which will be key at Purdue, where Williams is charged with rebuilding an offensive line that lost three full-time starters and doesn't have many experienced players to fill those spots. But former FAU lineman Andy Czuprynski doesn't seem worried about how Williams to respond to such a challenge. "He's hands down the best coach I've had the opportunity to be coached by," Czuprynski said. "He knows what exactly you can do. He knows his players limits. He's a calm guy, but he will also get fired up, almost in a sense-of-humor-type way. That's good. It makes practice go by easier when you have a relaxed coach like that."