BUTLER TWP — Butler football coach Jim Rankin is taking his time in assembling his staff.

The former North Allegheny coach was hired Feb. 22.

"I'm looking to have the staff in place by the end of June," Rankin said Friday. "I've got four or five really good coaches I'm ready to bring in there now, but there's still plenty to be considered.

"My choices have to be good ones. I'll weigh what the district has to offer the assistants and go from there."

Rankin, 62, is a head coach for the first time since 2004 at North Allegheny, but has served as an assistant at other schools in recent years.

He described the freshman and junior high head coaches as "the most worrisome" among his prospective hires.

"You need to have good men in place there because those guys are laying the foundation for your program," Rankin said.

He added that he's looking for a group of "hard-nosed men who can develop players and are not discouraged by anything happening on the outside."

Rankin has spent recent weeks working with players in the weight room.

Not wanting to interfere with teams presently in action, he said he will meet with the entire football squad once the spring sports season has been completed.

"I don't even know who's all on the team yet. But I don't need to know that now," Rankin said.

"We're getting 20 to 25 kids every day in the weight room and they're going at it hard. Their attitudes have been very good. What we need to have is consistency in that weight room, the kids coming all the time.

"A player tells me he can't make it one day because he had to go a birthday party. ... I don't know many birthday parties that start at 3 p.m. during the week," he added. "The best ability is dependability."

Rankin served as strength coach for Carnegie Mellon University athletics before coming to Butler.

"I prefer to be in the weight room," he said. "That's where good habits begin."

Butler, which hasn't had a winning football season since 1997, opens the 2010 season Sept. 3 at New Castle.