Coach Lambert takes the podium after his introduction as the Niners first head football coach.

After years of waiting, months of speculation, and weeks of message board flaming over who our football program’s first head coach would be The Niner Nation finally has an answer:  Brad Lambert.  Coach Lambert was officially introduced to his new collegiate family in a press conference held today at Halton Arena on the campus of UNC Charlotte.

Coach Lambert comes to Charlotte from Wake Forest University where he has served on Jim Grobe’s staff for 10 years, the last three as Defensive Coordinator.  Lambert’s first announcement as HC was that he has hired an Offensive Coordinator, Jeff Mullen, formerly of West Virginia University and Wake Forest University.  Lambert and Mullen coached together on the Wake Forest squad that went to the 2006 Orange Bowl on the shoulders of Quarterback Riley Skinner, who was in attendance today along with several other former players including Aaron Curry and Stanley Arnoux.

Lambert was quite impressive in his opening press conference.  Many citizens of The Niner Nation were pleading for a big name hire such as Chuck Amato to “energize” the fan base and make a splash in the community.  While virtually unknown outside of college football circles before today, Lambert’s passion and excitement for the game and for the program has the ability to breathe new life into the Charlotte 49ers Athletic Department, despite whatever the nay-sayers that anonymously post comments on Charlotte Disturber blogs would have you believe.  I was there.  I felt the energy in the room.  Lambert will be just fine here.

Still don’t believe me?  Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzsxZe4XLm8 and tell me you wouldn’t go to battle for our coach.  I certainly would.

We at GTG.net are excited and cannot wait to see what our new coach is capable of both on and off the field.  Lambert will have a great amount of work to do over the next 900 days and change.  First and foremost, he will have to be a salesman of the program; to recruits, to the public, to the FSL holders, and to the media.  As of now, consider me sold.  Welcome to Charlotte, Coach Lambert!

Coach Lambert giving his first of many autographs as Niners head football coach.

One more thing that must be said about today’s (otherwise stellar) press conference:  Nothing like a good ‘ole Freudian Slip by CHP Dubois.  At the 18:15 mark of this video:  http://www.fansonly.com/schools/ncch/allaccess/?media=233420 CHP announces that he and Judy will “officially be retiring from the front lines of UNC football.”  CHP would have you believe that name confusion is not a problem. Denial is more than just a river in Egypt, CHP.

-Oddjob