COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

Before we get to the coaching jobs that are now open, we must point out a column this morning by Neill Woelk in the Boulder Daily Camera.  Neill Woelk probably knows more about University of Colorado athletics and what is really going on at CU than anyone else on the planet and it was kind of surprising to read in Neill’s column this morning that….

“Barring a complete and total turnaround — one bordering on miraculous — it doesn’t seem like a good bet that Dan Hawkins will be around for a fifth season at Colorado.

Actually, I’m not even sure a dramatic reversal in CU’s final two games would save Hawkins. In the last three seasons, the Buffs have slowly but steadily declined in too many areas.  The evidence simply leans too heavily in the direction of a change, no matter what happens against Oklahoma State and Nebraska.

That’s too bad. I wanted Hawkins to succeed — but not for the reason folks may think.”

That Dan Hawkins might be on the verge of getting fired at Colorado is a surprise to us because the folks we talk to in Boulder, mainly alumni and boosters, have told us that they didn’t think that CU had the money to both fire Hawkins and bring in a new head coach, especially considering they would need to hire a coach that has a least the rep that Hawkins had when he arrived in Boulder.  If Dan Hawkins is about to be fired then that would open up the best job to date during the 2009 season and there will certainly be a lot of top head and assistant coaches that would like a chance to turn CU into a winner.

Neill Woelk lists Mike Shanahan as possibility for CU, which we find laughable since we cannot imagine Mike recruiting anyone that required him to leave his office.  The other names mentioned by Woelk in his column are:  Phil Fulmer, Tommy Tuberville, Brent Venables, Kevin Sumlin, Turner Gill, Troy Calhoun, Jon Embree, Eric Bieniemy, and Dave Logan.

That is an interesting list of names and although we can’t imagine Fulmer and Tuberville coaching at Colorado stranger things have happened.  Both
Fulmer and Tuberville were successful in the SEC and Tuberville coached at A&M under RC Slocum, so maybe Colorado might look towards a very experienced head coach, but can CU afford either of those men?  Maybe they wouldn’t be asking for “SEC” type money, but still CU will certainly be on a budget if they have to buyout Hawkins and that makes us think they will look for a coach with a track record but without a high price tag.  What is without a high price tag?  We would guess that since Hawkins is making about $1.2 million a year that CU would be pressing to go above $1.5 million a year, and in today’s coaching world that is not the kind of money that would attract the top candidates…..unless they really wanted the Colorado job, which might be the case for some coaches now out of work.

If we were hired at Colorado and were tasked with firing Dan Hawkins and then hiring his replacement we would look for a very particular coach that would bring a very particular attitude to CU.  For those that were around the Colorado football program during the Bill McCartney era, 1982 – 1994 (and we used to travel to Boulder a good bit then on business), there was an almost “SEC” feel about the CU football program then.  During the Gary Barnett and into the Dan Hawkins eras, Colorado has lost a good bit of their toughness and that lack of toughness has clearly showed up on the football field.  Since it looks to that the Big 12 conference might be swinging back to a more defense-orientated tougher league, we would more than likely try to hire someone that could bring a toughness back to CU that would be extend to both sides of the ball and throughout the entire program.  We just don’t know if a finesse approach will ever work in a place like Boulder, Colorado where the weather can be iffy at times and trying to go around people instead of right over them might not be the best way to go.  Of course, if you bring in a new coach that is going to ask a lot of the Colorado players, kind of like what Urban Meyer did when he got to Utah and Florida, then there will certainly be some major push-back from the current Buffs and that would probably have to be taken into consideration when considering which coach to hire. 

Still, Dan Hawkins is still the head football coach at Colorado and the Buffs still have two games to go and we are still not convinced that CU even has the money to both fire Hawkins and hire a new head coach staff and staff.

 

Well, we guess we can say that the coaching changes in major college football are now in full swing for the 2009 football season because as of November 17, 2009 we now have 4 jobs open:

Memphis – Tommy West fired

Western Kentucky – David Elson fired

UNLV – Mike Sanford fired

San Jose State – Dick Tomey retired

We would rank those jobs in terms of attractiveness to a potential new coach in the following way:

1.  Memphis – Even though Tommy West is right about the amount of work that needs to be done both by the new head football coach and the University of Memphis to strengthen the Tiger football program, we believe Memphis can have a very strong football program and that they can become a major power in Conference USA.  Memphis plays in a large, albeit old stadium in the Liberty Bowl and there are enough good football players within a 3-hour drive that are not being signed by the major schools that a strong program can be built at Memphis, but that rebuilding will have to be led by a very proactive football coach.  Memphis is a very unique town in that most of the large fortunes were not made in the past 50 years, the CEO of Fedex Fred Smith is an exception to that rule (By the way our very first call if we were hired at Memphis would be to call Fred Smith and I am sure Fred would take that call.  Fred is not an idiot and he will not throw good money after bad, but we believe that Mr. Smith would support a Memphis football program that he thought was going to be a winner and have a very positive impact upon Memphis and if Fred Smith supports you then that would open up a lot more doors in the area), and it does take a very unique person that can move between old money and new money, the Memphis alumni base that is scattered around the southeast and could also find a way to energize the Memphis student body.  There are some coaches out there that are both very competent coaches (the first requirement that is often overlooked in coaching searches) and would have the ability to energize the Memphis community.  There have been various reports out of Memphis on coaches getting interviewed, but the latest list seems to include:

Terry Bowden (North Alabama HC), Gunter Brewer (Oklahoma State OC), Bud Foster (Virginia Tech DC), Mike MacIntyre (Duke DC), Eddie Gran (Tennessee asst. coach), Larry Porter (LSU RB coach), and Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee HC). 

All of the above coaches have the potential to be very good coaches at Memphis and they would all probably be on our master list if we were doing the hiring at UM, but we would expand the list even more and interview or at least have vetted 10 to 12 coaches to make sure that we got a look at a very comprehensive list of potential coaches.  The “right” new head football coach is out there for Memphis, but it will take a very discerning eye to find the “right” coach for what is a very unique job.

2.  UNLV – Although everyone here at Coaches Hot Seat enjoys our trips to Las Vegas, we doubt that any of us would ever choose to live in the area of the world, mainly because generally folks that live in the San Francisco Bay area don’t usually like living in the desert.  UNLV the school is a very major player the Las Vegas area and although we do think there are great challenges both within and outside with the UNLV football program, we believe that the right coach can win at Vegas.  The former great USC coach John Robinson gave the UNLV job a great try for 6 seasons between 1999 and 2004 and he was only able to put up 1 winning season and 1 .500 season and an overall 28 – 42 record.  It is very easy to surmise that if a coach as good as John Robinson can’t win at UNLV then nobody can, but we don’t know about that and just like Memphis we believe that if UNLV found the right fit then that coach could build a consistently winning football program in Vegas.  What kind of coach is the right fit for UNLV?  Well, a coach that embraces Las Vegas for one and someone that is not afraid to get out in the community and mix it up with the big hitters that own the casinos and the government folks that have such a large say in the affairs of Las Vegas.  Former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian is probably an extreme example of what we are talking about, but there is a lot of showmanship and glitz about Vegas and a coach that embraces that culture will have a lot better chance in getting the community behind his football program than a coach that is always hiding out in the UNLV coaches’ offices.  Too bad that Jerry Glanville has struggled at Portland State (9 – 24 in his third year at PSU and may get fired for that poor record), because someone like Jerry Glanville would be great at UNLV.  Even someone that doesn’t have the personality of Jerry Glanville could do well at UNLV, but at a minimum the next head football coach at UNLV must be able to sell the program to the big hitters in Vegas, the UNLV alumni and boosters and most importantly to the general public.  Hell, if you throw in a suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and a limo that will ferry us around town we might just apply for the job!

3.  San Jose State – As strange as it sounds, Dick Tomey did a very nice job in his 5 years at San Jose State putting up a record of 24 – 33 (.421) because as Tomey pointed out at his news conference on Monday, SJSU is a very tough place to win football games.  Yes, we agree completely that San Jose State is a tough place to win games at, but we also believe that with the right coach SJSU could become a significant player in the WAC conference.  No, a coach will never be able to beat Pac-10 teams on any kind of regular basis in out-of-conference games, but there is no reason in the world that San Jose State which has a very strong talent base to drawn from in Northern California cannot be a competitive team in their conference.  San Jose is one of the largest cities in California and San Jose State has a nice downtown campus that must have several million people living within 50 miles and the place has some of the best weather in the world.  Yes, Stanford and Cal dominate the Bay area, and UCLA and USC dominate the LA area but there are still plenty of very good football players in California that are heading to MWC and other WAC schools and there is no reason in the world that a great recruiter couldn’t come into SJSU tomorrow and start to make some inroads with California football players.  If we were doing the hiring at San Jose State we would probably look for a young, hungry coach that had a real passion for recruiting and a coach that knew the large metropolitan areas of California very well.  Yes, San Jose State is a tough place to coach and win football games at, but if we were a young, hungry coach we would jump at the chance to make our mark on a school like SJSU.  The folks doing the hiring at San Jose State should keep in mind that there are only 120 I-A head coaching jobs and that they have one of them and they should leverage the fact that they are offering something that is very precious in the college coaching business, the opportunity to coach at the highest level of the game and a chance for someone to make a name for himself.

4.  Western Kentucky – What we know about the Western Kentucky football program you could probably write on one side of napkin, but it is very clear that David Elson got fired because he just didn’t win enough football games as they moved into I-A football.  Elson had a nice record before they moved to I-A, as do a lot of coaches that are involved in such moves, but WKU now needs a coach that can take it to the next level and although we are very sure that WKU will be a very difficult place to win, what a great opportunity for a coach to come in and prove himself by building a program that is right now at the bottom.  There have been a lot of names thrown around for the WKU job, but we haven’t yet seen a list of who WKU might really be considering.  Below is the list of potential new head coaches at WKU that we have compiled from media reports:

Jeff Brohm, FAU QB coach

Jim Chaney, Tennessee OC

Romeo Crennel, Former Cleveland Browns HC

Darryl Drake, Chicago Bears WR coach

Tony Franklin, Middle Tennessee OC

Eddie Gran, Tennessee Asst. coach

Chris Hatcher, Georgia Southern HC

Don Martindale, Denver Broncos LB coach

Guy Morriss, Former Baylor/Kentucky HC

Paul Petrino, Arkansas OC

Randy Sanders, Kentucky WR coach/OC

Willie Taggart, Stanford RB coach

Trooper Taylor, Auburn Asst. HC

That list will probably only get longer as WKU starts interviewing potential candidates.

 

Now let’s get to the Post-Week 11 Coaches Hot Seat Power Playoff Poll:

Coaches Hot Seat Power Playoff Poll, Post-Week 11

1. Texas*

2. Alabama*

3. Florida#

4. Boise State*

5. Cincinnati*

6. TCU#

7. Georgia Tech*

8. Pitt#

9. LSU#

10. Ohio State*

11. Oregon*

12. Oklahoma State#

13. Stanford#

14. Iowa#

15. Wisconsin

16. Clemson

17. Penn State

18. Virginia Tech

19. Rutgers

20. Oregon State

*Conference Champs

#At-Large Teams

Other Conference Champs

CUSA/SB – SMU*

MAC – Central Michigan*

We now use the above Power Playoff Poll to seed a 16-team college football postseason playoff tournament, although we would prefer that a committee similar to the committee for the NCAA basketball tournament be used to pick the 7 wild card teams and then seed the 9 conference champions and 7 wild card teams in the postseason tournament.  Below are the First Round Games if the season had ended after Week 11.

First Round Games – Friday/Saturday December 18-19, 2009

Texas – Big 12 Champion

Central Michigan – MAC Champion

 

LSU - #4 At-Large Team

Boise State – MWC/WAC Champion

 

Pitt – #3 At-Large Team

Iowa – #7 At-Large Team

 

Oklahoma State – #5 At-Large Team

Florida – #1 At-Large Team

 

TCU – #2 At-Large Team

Oregon – Pac-10 Champion

 

Stanford – #6 At-Large Team

Georgia Tech – ACC Champion

 

Cincinnati – Big East Champion

Ohio State – Big Ten Champion

 

SMU – CUSA/Sun Belt Champion

Alabama – SEC Champion

 

Imagine for a moment that a group of Candy Asses were not running college football…..Yes, we know it is hard to get those Candy Asses out of your mind, but just wipe those Candy Asses from your brain…..Yes, that’s it, a world where the Candy Asses are gone and college football is actually run by REAL MEN (No, the Candy Ass BCS Boys are NOT REAL MEN!) that realize that there is only one way to win a national championship and that is on the field of play.  OK, here we go…. You are at work on Friday, December 18 and you know that when you get home on that Friday night that you will be able to watch the first 2 games of the 8 games of Round 1 of the National Championship Football Tournament.  Since in the First Round of this proposed postseason tournament the higher seeded team hosts the lower seeded team and on Friday, December 18 the first game to kick off is….

First Game

Oklahoma State vs. Florida, Gainesville, Florida at The Swamp!

Second Game

TCU vs. Oregon, Eugene Oregon at Autzen Stadium!

Wow 2 great games to kick the postseason tournament off!

After watching those two great games you wake-up Saturday morning to ESPN GameDay broadcasting from….

Cincinnati, Ohio which will be the site of one of the great games of the First Round:

Ohio State vs. Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio at Nippert Stadium!

The rest of that first Saturday of First Round games would be….

Central Michigan at Texas

LSU at Boise State

Iowa at Pitt

Stanford at Georgia Tech

SMU at Alabama

Now is there really an American citizen that would take the Candy Ass BCS, which is nothing but a bunch of meaningless exhibition games over a 16-team playoff tournament?  If so, go immediately to a full-length mirror and look at your ass…It’s BRIGHT RED isn’t it?  Thought so!  You are a CANDY ASS!

After the First Round games there would be 8 teams left/4 games to be played in Round Two and those games on Saturday, December 26 at four regional sites around the country…  Let’s just assume that the favorites all won their First Round games and look at what the Second Round Games would look like….

Second Round Games (assuming favorites won all games in the First Rounds, which we all know wouldn’t happen in the real world)

Texas vs. Boise State

Pitt vs. Florida

TCU vs. Georgia Tech

Cincinnati vs. Alabama

Wow!  Now those are some great, and legitimate football games…………but then you start to get woozy and you realize that actually a bunch of Candy Asses are running college football and that they have created a system in the BCS that would be laughed out of every Pee-Wee football league in the country forget about major college football.  Yes indeed, if you tried to find a bigger group of Candy Asses than the BCS Boys you would have to go far and wide and even these this particular group of greedy morons would be impossible to match!  Stupid, Greedy and a Candy Ass?  Yes, that is the BCS Boys to a TEE!

Of course, this BIG GAME week in the San Francisco Bay Area as the Cal Bears travel to play Stanford on Saturday night on The Farm.  BIG GAME week is already underway but tomorrow, Wednesday 18 November the Guardsmen 60 th Big Game Luncheon is behind held at the historic Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.  Here is a video on the Fairmont Hotel which is a fixture in the City:

 

 

And for all fans of the BIG GAME and the great game of college football here is the 1982 BIG GAME finale…note John Elway at QB!

 

 

Those Damn Cheating Cal Bears!

Tags: Uncategorized // 5 Comments »