2016-17 Football Coaching Carousel

mauf

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Any idea why Davis is such damaged goods? He ran a clean (and successful) program at Miami, and while he was less successful in Chapel Hill, he seemed to have things moving in the right direction before the program got brought low by a scandal that pre-dated his tenure at the university. I'm not saying I expected him to be in the running for the job openings at Texas or LSU, but I would've thought he could've landed a better job than FIU if he made it known that he was interested in coaching again. Hell, I would've loved to have him at BC.
 

jsinger121

@jsinger121
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Jul 25, 2005
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BC wouldn't hire someone with an image problem or was associated with a scandal even if they weren't directly involved .
 

Infield Infidel

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One reason Fleck is an elite recruiter is his ruthlessness: when he got to WMU he let go the entire incoming recruiting class so he could get his own guys. A lot of places you can't really do that, high school coaches will rip you, but WMU is a last ditch place so no one cared. I wonder if he'd be able to do that at a bigger school.
 

smokin joe wood

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Jul 19, 2005
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Kravitz's report of Fleck to Purdue is already being disputed (Pat Forde). If Orlando or Montgomery get the Houston job I don't see a better job for Fleck. Purdue is in the weaker Big Ten division and Fleck may want to stay in the Midwest - he has five kids with his first wife in Michigan.
 

Infield Infidel

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Oregon fired Mark Helfrich. Gonna be interesting to see what they do because they've had a lot of stability on their coaching staff. IIRC They have guys on staff who have been there since Rich Brooks and Mike Belotti was coaching.
 
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Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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Oregon fired Mark Helfrich. Gonna be interesting to see what they do because they've had a lot of stability on their coaching staff. IIRC They have guys on staff who have been there since Rich Brooks and Mike Belotti was coaching.
I know that everyone says he would never do it, but I would bet a few beers that this will be Chip Kelly's gig in a few months.
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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Nope. I think it will be either PJ Fleck or Willie Taggart.
I don't think so. Fleck is a weird guy who has basically had one excellent year at WMU, one pretty darned good year and then two mediocre/bad years. He has only coached one season at a university of Oregon's level, his season with Tressel at tOSU where he was a position coach. This is not a guy with a long track record of success, like Pederson had at Boise State, nor huge recruiting ties in a hotbed. I don't think he will pass the review of the Oregon folks, particularly the one guy in the room who matters, Phil Knight.

Taggart strikes me as slightly better than Heck due to his recruiting successes at USF and Stanford, but he doesn't really have a resume that blows you away. I don't know....I think Oregon are going to look for something shiny and gaudy with this move, but will be under fire for firing a guy who was part of the Oregon family. Bringing Chip back would work out for a lot of folks.
 

Infield Infidel

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Chip Kelly was OC at football-hotbed New Hampshire when Oregon hired him to be OC, I wouldn't put anything past them. If anyone anywhere is doing interesting stuff offensively, I think they got a shot at the job. They more or less have to get a high-power offense coach because they have a hard time recruiting power linemen there, but they can always dip into California skill position players.
 

cheech13

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Oregon's boosters and administration loved Chip Kelly's success, but not the man himself. I know they want to be a national title contender again at any cost, but given the less than amicable parting and Chip's utter disdain for college football, I'd say that's a bridge too far.

I think they'll look for the home-run hire but ultimately settle on someone competent, but less sexy, like a Bryan Harsin or Kyle Whittingham type.
 

RIrooter09

Alvin
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Jul 31, 2008
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Let's see how the next few weeks go for each of them. I feel pretty good that one of the two will happen, maybe even both.
I work with a recent grad who was a student manager at Oregon, worked closely with Mariota, Helfrich, etc. He's also got connections to some of the major boosters through his father. According to what he's hearing, Chip to OR is basically a done deal. Supposedly Phil Knight was in San Francisco negotiating Chip's buyout while the 49ers stayed in Orlando this week.
 

soxhop411

news aggravator
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Dec 4, 2009
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Bruce Feldman ‏@BruceFeldmanCFB 34s34 seconds ago
Breaking -- Source tells@FoxSports #Indiana will dismiss coach Kevin Wilson
I thought this was weird since they've had their most success in 20+ years, but apparently it's an off-field issue. Press conference at 6


It's a player treatment issue. And Glass (AD) is one of the most player friendly athletic directors out there. Remember he has a lengthy players bill of rights for every student athlete.

Dominique Booth
‏@3rzns
Won't be able to hold my tongue much longer

Brody Miller ‏@byBrodyMiller 4m4 minutes ago
Smith says team told him he had bruise in back. He went to a doctor and was told it was a blood clot. Wilson still pressured to play #ifub


Brody Miller
‏@byBrodyMiller
Former IU player Laray Smith tells the IDS that Wilson forced players to play through injuries #iufb


See here for the bill of rights
http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2014/06/27/iu-implements-bill-rights-athletes/11494425/
 

cheech13

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I work with a recent grad who was a student manager at Oregon, worked closely with Mariota, Helfrich, etc. He's also got connections to some of the major boosters through his father. According to what he's hearing, Chip to OR is basically a done deal. Supposedly Phil Knight was in San Francisco negotiating Chip's buyout while the 49ers stayed in Orlando this week.
Maybe you're friend has real connections, but this could also be tossed into the pile with "Phil Knight had a top secret meeting with Tom Herman before the Civil War" and "Phil Knight flew to Columbus to get Urban Meyer's blessing to hire Greg Schiano."
 

Clears Cleaver

Lil' Bill
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Aug 1, 2001
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The embarrassing Bob Diaco show may be coming to an end. He might be the worst head coach I've ever seen. And I went through the Paul Pasqualoni era

http://m.journalinquirer.com/mobile/sports/uconn-recruit-decommits-family-cites-uncertainty-about-diaco-as-school/article_ee4a0c88-b7dd-11e6-8db1-9b3dd4956192.html

Literally no game management skills. When to punt. When to use time outs. Team went 48 possessions without a TD. He has SEVEN recruits. His teams had 15 combined punt return yards the last two years because he doesn't believe in them. Worse, his kids quit on him after he blew a couple games early with stupidity. Navy in particular. 8,000 people at the last home game.

The thing is, Uconn has no money. None. They are a break even athletic budget with $25m in subsidies from the school and $10m in big east $$ that ends after next year. There's as good a chance Uconn downgrades football or drops it entirely as remains in the AAC. So it's a great job.
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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The Rhule hiring is a very good hire. I am friends with a family whose kid played under him the last few seasons and the experience has been nothing but fantastic. He has brought great success to that program and has left it in a great spot for the future. Already a rumor has blurted out about Al Golden coming back, which would be pretty cool if it happened. We'll see.
 

Infield Infidel

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If Golden goes back to Temple, it would be akin to Petrino going back to Louisville, in that the job now is bigger than when Golden was coaching Temple in the MAC.

IMHO Purdue did really well with Brohm. WKU has been top-20 S&P in 2015 and 2016
 

jsinger121

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Jul 25, 2005
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The Rhule hiring is a very good hire. I am friends with a family whose kid played under him the last few seasons and the experience has been nothing but fantastic. He has brought great success to that program and has left it in a great spot for the future. Already a rumor has blurted out about Al Golden coming back, which would be pretty cool if it happened. We'll see.
Looks like a great hire for Baylor even though he has zero connections in the state of Texas. But I'd expect that to change very quickly and run a clean program at Baylor that will continue to be good.
 

RedOctober3829

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Jul 19, 2005
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deep inside Guido territory
The Rhule hiring is a very good hire. I am friends with a family whose kid played under him the last few seasons and the experience has been nothing but fantastic. He has brought great success to that program and has left it in a great spot for the future. Already a rumor has blurted out about Al Golden coming back, which would be pretty cool if it happened. We'll see.
I was a student manager in college and Matt was an assistant coach at the school I went to. He was tremendous to work for then and has done what everyone thought he could do in his career.
 

ethangl

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Mar 28, 2007
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I respect the hell out of what guys like Ruhle and Ken Niumatalolo have done in places where I would have previously said winning is impossible. I am sure he is a great coach.

That said, the situation at Baylor is about as bad as it gets, on multiple levels: talent on campus, talent coming in, university leadership, the city itself, and so on.

Case in point: they have 58 players on scholarship. Now that Russell is done, they have one quarterback on scholarship. I'm not completely sure what their numbers are on the OL but I don't think they can make a two-deep with the scholarship linemen they have on campus. They had 14 commits last year.

So all that means they need an over-signed class, 30+ this year, and they have one commitment right now. Their class is about as good as UMass' right now. The ex-staff has not been recruiting the 2017 or the 2018 classes. Not at all. This is a disaster for anybody inheriting it, on par with a program dealing with major sanctions. Looking at 2018, they will be 12-24 months behind every other program with respect to relationships with the players, which isn't the end of the world, but they are starting from ground zero with the TXHS coaches too. Hard to spin that into a positive.

Ruhle's hiring is a signal that the right people are winning the struggle to win power within the board of regents. But Baylor has 34 voting members in its board of regents. There are people there who still want Briles back. I wouldn't bet on the leadership stability to last for long.

I honestly don't think anybody but a complete piece of shit can thrive or even last for very long in that place. I'll go on record here: they'll hire Lil Briles as soon as they can.
 

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
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I respect the hell out of what guys like Ruhle and Ken Niumatalolo have done in places where I would have previously said winning is impossible. I am sure he is a great coach.

That said, the situation at Baylor is about as bad as it gets, on multiple levels: talent on campus, talent coming in, university leadership, the city itself, and so on.

Case in point: they have 58 players on scholarship. Now that Russell is done, they have one quarterback on scholarship. I'm not completely sure what their numbers are on the OL but I don't think they can make a two-deep with the scholarship linemen they have on campus. They had 14 commits last year.

So all that means they need an over-signed class, 30+ this year, and they have one commitment right now. Their class is about as good as UMass' right now. The ex-staff has not been recruiting the 2017 or the 2018 classes. Not at all. This is a disaster for anybody inheriting it, on par with a program dealing with major sanctions. Looking at 2018, they will be 12-24 months behind every other program with respect to relationships with the players, which isn't the end of the world, but they are starting from ground zero with the TXHS coaches too. Hard to spin that into a positive.

Ruhle's hiring is a signal that the right people are winning the struggle to win power within the board of regents. But Baylor has 34 voting members in its board of regents. There are people there who still want Briles back. I wouldn't bet on the leadership stability to last for long.

I honestly don't think anybody but a complete piece of shit can thrive or even last for very long in that place. I'll go on record here: they'll hire Lil Briles as soon as they can.
This is a great post. I didn't know the acting coaching staff wasn't recruiting. Also consider that some players didn't transfer last summer because Briles's firing was so late, but might transfer now. And it's not likely that Rhule can flip a bunch Temple's recruits since all but one is from the northeast, and even if he did all but 3 are rated 2*.

I kinda thought someone less up-and-coming would take this job, Rhule's on the way up and he might get Al Golden'd
 

Infield Infidel

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ESPN is reporting Taggart to Oregon.
He walked into a tough situation at USF after Skip Holtz cratered the program. Taggart did well to survive two lean years and turned our offense into something that is hard to believe. He's also very adaptable, he came in with a Stanford offense, realized it wasn't working and morphed it into the "Gulf Coast offense" which was 3rd in S&P Offense this year. Runs through the tackles, run-pass read option with QB, and lots of bubble screens to get guys in space. We had something like 13 one-play TD drives the past two years. This year QB Quentin Flowers had 2500 yds passing, 22/6 TD/INT, and also 1400 yard rushing 8 ypc and 15 rushing TDs. RB Marlon Mack has 3 straight 1000 yard seasons.

If he gets the normal kinds of athletes that Oregon gets, including a mobile QB, they should be good. Special teams was good, but that said run defense was pretty bad. He can also sell a program, his recruiting was usually top 2 or 3 in G5 every year, and will of course get huge boost at Oregon.
 
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Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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This is a great post. I didn't know the acting coaching staff wasn't recruiting. Also consider that some players didn't transfer last summer because Briles's firing was so late, but might transfer now. And it's not likely that Rhule can flip a bunch Temple's recruits since all but one is from the northeast, and even if he did all but 3 are rated 2*.

I kinda thought someone less up-and-coming would take this job, Rhule's on the way up and he might get Al Golden'd
As you can imagine, there have been a lot of Temple reporters et al on sports radio here over the last few days. Everyone is pretty shocked that he took this gig, and the consensus was that because of the experience Golden had, and because of the way that Baylor has a huge mess in its immediate future, Baylor had to have given him a Bill O'Brien type deal when he went to PSU, where he is going to be given 2-3 years before they really start putting him under the microscope. We'll see.
 

ethangl

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Also consider that some players didn't transfer last summer because Briles's firing was so late, but might transfer now.
I think the passage of time and eligibility makes that even less likely than it was last year. The program's not on probation so the players are not free to do what they want without the usual penalties, a la Penn State. Ordinarily you'd have a lot of turnover (I think Charlie Strong might've gotten rid of a dozen players in his first year at UT), but Ruhle's going to be too shorthanded to do any of that.

There were rumors of a staff boycott before the Texas game (people said some mean things about Art, or something) and a player boycott after Linwood was suspended. I think keeping the old staff and installing a lame duck HC was a bad idea. Ruhle's in the position of having no choice but to win all those players over, the ones who quit on Grobe after the Texas game. Ordinarily they'd be the first to be run off. Not good.

And it's not likely that Rhule can flip a bunch Temple's recruits since all but one is from the northeast, and even if he did all but 3 are rated 2*.
Yeah, the standard practice is to let the player initiate that. I don't think proximity or location is really an issue at all. The players who chose to play for Ruhle over a P5 program would hopefully still have those other options available (and no reason to move to Waco Fucking Texas), and the others are not what Ruhle will need in the Big 12 anyway.
 

Infield Infidel

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Rhule got a seven-year deal, which is almost unheard of. (They didn't release a dollar amount since Baylor's a private school.) That's a lot of leash and makes the job more attractive, but if seven years is what it took to get a good if unspectacular hire, then it seems like other people turned it down and Rhule had a lot of leverage.
 

canderson

Mr. Brightside
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Jul 16, 2005
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Good for Charlie. He should do well there, they have a stacked cupboard ahd the program is akin to Louisville so it won't hopefully be too big for him like Texas.

Maybe he has finally learned how to hire good assistants.
 

Awesome Fossum

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Jul 20, 2005
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I'm surprised that Kiffin would take FAU instead of waiting another year for something more along the lines of Houston or USF.

http://footballscoop.com/news/fau-job-become-cold-war-college-football-superpowers/

Kiffin’s candidacy at FAU is being pushed supported by Nick Saban, sources told FootballScoop, in part so he is not available to become LSU’s offensive coordinator, as the Tide’s SEC West rivals have not-so-secretly placed him as their top priority to join Ed Orgeron’s staff. One source told FootballScoop, “Lane is in a spot where whatever he decides is likely to cause an issue either with Sexton or with Nick.”
(Sexton = Jimmy Sexton, the agent for both Saban and Kiffin)