Mark Weber is a little bit Ron McBride with a sprinkle of Lance Reynolds.
He seems to have a little Roger French "old school" in him, and at times he sounds a little like BYU's conditioning coach, Jay Omer.
He is shorter than the man he replaced, Jeff Grimes, and isn't the starry-eyed, radio-voiced philosopher Grimes appeared to be.
He's no novice. One could definitely label him a "salty dog" in his college football profession, where the actual bark carries a lot of weight.
Weber, who coached Outland Trophy winner Kris Farris when at UCLA, is the latest Bronco Mendenhall staff hire. He comes from a varied background, which is common in college football. It's the life of a nomad, moving from coast to coast, using a vine of coaching friendships to swing from one stop to another.
Today, he's holed up in a Provo hotel as his wife and daughters prepare to wait out the school year and sell their home near Chapel Hill, N.C. No worries. When North Carolina released its head coach after the seventh game this past season, Weber was just months into a two-year contract seeded with BCS money. He'll collect Tar Heel dough for the next 16 months while drawing a salary from BYU.
He can afford room service, and he is prepared to drop anchor for awhile.
For the Cougars, it is a critical hire. BYU's offensive line corps is experienced and deep. But, if left unattended, much momentum could be lost.
Offenses may hinge on the do-or-die talent of quarterbacks, but great offenses are built in the trenches.
After going 11-2 last season, BYU can't afford to gamble and lose.
This is Weber's 12th coaching move. The man he replaced, the Colorado-bound Grimes, has moved eight times. Gary Crowton, who left the Chicago Bears in 2001 for BYU, has already held three jobs in six years now that he's left Oregon for LSU — his 18th move.
What's up with coaches? How do they live this life of a Bedouin?
When the BYU job opened up, the first person Weber called was Dave Kragthorpe, his most trusted professional friend.
"Dave told me when he coached at BYU, it was the best job he'd ever had," Weber said.
Kragthorpe was LaVell Edwards' first offensive line coach when it all started in early 1973. On Monday, Weber's first day of spring drills, Kragthorpe walked through the gate and on the sidelines where he waited for practice to finish so he could talk to Weber and Mendenhall — men he'd hired before.
Weber started at L.A. Valley College in 1979 before Kragthorpe gave him a job as a graduate assistant at Idaho State. Then it was on to Snow College, where he replaced Reynolds. He made stops at Eastern New Mexico, West Texas State and Missouri Western. He was at Oregon State for four years — again with Kragthorpe and Mendenhall. His other stops were at Nevada and UNLV right after Robert Anae left the Rebel program. Then it was on to Fresno State. UCLA had him seven seasons before the 2006 one-season stop on Tobacco Road this past fall.
"It was such a unique situation at North Carolina," said BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe. "We were lucky to get him."
Weber can advise Mendenhall's staff on how it's done in the Pac-10 and ACC. He's already been assigned to recruit the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley of California, where he had contacts as a UCLA and Fresno State coach.
Weber called his accepting the BYU job a no-brainer with a twist.
"It's kind of interesting how my path has crossed almost every coach on Mendenhall's staff," said Weber. "I know these guys. That makes a big difference in this profession. It's not where you coach, but who you coach with."
Weber says what he'll bring to the Cougars is an emphasis on technique — and work.
"Grimes did a great job with these linemen," he said. "But everyone can learn more, improve and get better."
One thing he's already ordered is a chute, a covered slot teaching device once used by French but abandoned since the 1990s. It helps linemen keep their bodies low through their blocks.
After a week of drills, getting his hands dirty and inspecting BYU's program up close, Weber said "it is very evident" the Cougars have talent spread across the roster.
"It is a program operating at a very high level right now," Weber said. "Bronco does a great job setting up the expectation of what he wants, communicating it, and then executing it on the field. This is a very good football team with an excellent staff."
Weber joins Jaime Hill, Patrick Higgins and Brandon Doman as Mendenhall's initial hires as a Division I coach.
They've got personalities as diverse as you could imagine.
Other than a previous contact here, or a path crossed there, the hires don't really fit any other pattern to the outside eye.
Perhaps that's how Mendenhall likes it behind closed doors, where puzzle-figuring is best left to a broad knowledge base.
At a school where folks appear to be kind of cloned, football could use some of that.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com