Finding people who endorse Lamar University’s hiring of Ray Woodard as the perfect choice to restart its football program is not difficult. After considerable research, in fact, a writer started to wonder if there’s anybody in football circles who doesn’t know, like and respect the 6-6, 275 pound pride of Corrigan-Camden.

He came highly recommended by a couple of his former NFL coaches — Dan Reeves and Gary Kubiak. Dallas Cowboys head coach Wade Philips knows him well enough to think he’s a great choice.

High school coaches in Southeast Texas, led by Memorial’s Ronnie Thompson and West Orange-Stark’s Dan Hooks, are convinced LU athletic director Billy Tubbs pull off the football equivalent of a slam dunk by hiring him.

He also gets high marks from a former University of Texas teammate, Todd Dodge, who beat Woodard to a head coaching job at the college level by one year.

Long time Bum Phillips assistant John Paul Young, who is part of a search firm that matches coaches with schools, gives the Woodard choice two thumbs up. His familiarity with Woodard includes having coached him with the Kansas City Chiefs and hired him in the Arena League and NFL Europe.

“I am so happy they went with him,” said Young. “If they had used us, we couldn’t have picked a better guy or a better coach for Lamar. One of the things we told Billy Tubbs was that he didn’t need a Dennis Franchione or one of those big name guys who would have just been passing through.

“What Lamar needs is somebody who can recruit and is willing to get down in the trenches and work, and Raymond will do that. I’ll tell you something else. He knows the difference between a player and a should be. He just has a knack for recognizing if a kid can play, and that is so important.”

Give Tubbs credit early on for realizing he’d come across a potential diamond-in-the rough in Woodard.

“What started out as a token interview turned into a, ‘Hey, this guy is really sharp,’ ” said the Lamar AD. “I was very, very impressed with him. Very impressed. He impressed me a lot more in the interviews than some other coaches with flashier resumes.”

The moral to the Woodard hire could well be don’t judge a book by its cover. He doesn’t have a blow-you-away resume as a head coach, although his Navarro College championship team made quite a statement last year. But he seems to have so many other qualities that go into the making of a successful head coach.

“Here’s the thing,” Tubbs said. “Resumes don’t tell you about personalities. There are a lot of good coaches you don’t know about who just need a chance. With Ray, he’s qualified in all the areas we are looking for. Plus, it really gets your attention when somebody like Dan Reeves has such positive things to say.

“But what it came down to was this: “He’s one of us. He fits this area, as opposed to bringing in somebody with higher credentials who has no network in this area. It’s about networking and Ray has great networking ability. Area high school coaches had nothing but good things to say about him.”

Memorial’s Thompson is at the forefront of that group. Thompson was a University of Texas assistant when Woodard showed up as a rare Longhorn junior college recruit from Kilgore. Even though Ronnie was coaching running backs and Woodard was a lineman, there was an instant rapport. Now it’s a healthy respect.

“Ray is exactly what Lamar needs,” Thompson said. “He has an attitude and personality that separates him from a lot of people. He’s a great recruiter. The time he spent in junior college will be invaluable. He’ll be able to go and out get players. He’s just the kind of guy you gravitate to. I’m really excited for Lamar.”

Echoing Thompson is Dodge, his former star QB in Port Arthur who is coming off a tough first year as head coach at the University of North Texas.