Some of y’all are dismissing hiring a current coordinator because “we need someone with head coaching experience”. But there are plenty of schools who hired coordinators who turned out to be great coaches. Kirby Smart at Georgia is probably the best example. Dabo wasn’t even a coordinator when Clemson hired him, he was a WR coach. Venables is doing well in his second season at Oklahoma. Dan Lanning at Oregon was Georgia’s DC, Ryan Day at Ohio State was an OC who got promoted. Also, some head coaches struggle when they go from one level to another. Example one, Billy Napier. Also Rich Rodriguez when he went from WVU to Michigan. Butch Jones going from Cincinnati to Tennessee is another example. Head coaching experience is not an end all-be all. A coordinator with a history of success at a good program (like Mullen when we hired him in 2008) would be just fine.
Head coaches from smaller schools often don’t pan out
- Thread starter FlotownDawg
- Start date
Head coaches from smaller programs- slightly better than a crapshoot.
OC/DC from larger programs- slightly better than a crapshoot.
Head coaches from larger programs- slightly better than a crapshoot.
Examples can be easily found to support or disagree with the above 3 comments.
OC/DC from larger programs- slightly better than a crapshoot.
Head coaches from larger programs- slightly better than a crapshoot.
Examples can be easily found to support or disagree with the above 3 comments.
Exactly. There are can't miss mid-major coaches who crap the bed. There are guys that come out of nowhere to be great. No job is the same and a guy may be successful in one job and not so much in the other. I think there's something to having someone with head coach experience just because there's so much more involved with the job than on the field stuff. Jomo was a great example of someone who had a lot of x's and o's bonafides but he had no clue how to run a program.
Right. I thought he was sure fire. Then later found out Fordham was the only school that had scholarships. Of course they dominated. Its always variables
It’s about finding what your program really needs at that specific point in time. None of these guys are perfect candidates but quite a few have something valuable they can offer us.
Mullen was young and hadn’t been a head coach but he was a huge jolt of energy after our program was lifeless for almost the entirety of the 2000’s.
Leach hadn’t been in the SEC in 20 years but he brought back our toughness after we’d lost a lot of it under Moorhead.
We need a lot of things right now. It’s up to Selmon to find someone who can remedy a lot of what is ailing us.
Mullen was young and hadn’t been a head coach but he was a huge jolt of energy after our program was lifeless for almost the entirety of the 2000’s.
Leach hadn’t been in the SEC in 20 years but he brought back our toughness after we’d lost a lot of it under Moorhead.
We need a lot of things right now. It’s up to Selmon to find someone who can remedy a lot of what is ailing us.
On this statement, you don't know who will be a win, mediocre or flop. You can say so and so had success here or there. But ultimately reading all the threads about coaches, it seems for everyone who puts up a home run hire suggestion. There are others who can roast that hire with their facts. This is always so entertaining, I'm looking forward to a hire who stays for a decade or more and isn't looking for next job every November!Innovative coordinators under the best of the best head coaches seem to have the best success rates. Dabo and Kirby had Saban, Mullen had Meyer. Those guys give a good foundation as to how to run a program. With our limitations, I would still prefer an OC
Coaches of small programs often get lucky and have one or two really good players that skew the record and make them look way better than they really are. Smaller school coaching hires are a crap shoot for sure.
The main thing I look for is culture:
1. If you already have an established culture and identity, can they build on it? And how?
2. If you are lacking an identity, can they establish one for you? What’s the plan to do?
Right now we find ourselves in category number two, unfortunately. We are wandering aimlessly at the moment and need someone to re-establish us, and then then potentially elevate from there.
1. If you already have an established culture and identity, can they build on it? And how?
2. If you are lacking an identity, can they establish one for you? What’s the plan to do?
Right now we find ourselves in category number two, unfortunately. We are wandering aimlessly at the moment and need someone to re-establish us, and then then potentially elevate from there.
And this is why I am glad it’s a guaranteed winner in Stoops
The examples you used were Georgia, Clemson, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Ohio State. Probably not comparable to our situation.
Whoever we get needs to be able to rally the fanbase. Best two football coaches to do so in my memory are Jackie Sherrill, who will forever be loved for delivering donuts to a line around the hump awaiting a chance to get tickets to hoops, and Mullen. Both brought excitement, and did things on campus outside of the football complex to generate support for the football team.
Dabo never coached under Saban. And Saban's coaching tree also includes plenty of busts like Jeremy Pruitt, Will Muschamp, Derek Dooley, Jim McElwain, Mike Locksley and Billy Napier.
Oops on Dabo...
The rest weren't that innovative or didn't know what asparagus was
Yeah as mentioned above, listing off blue bloods doesn't exactly apply to our situation. The list of coordinators making the jump to HC and failing is a lot longer than your examples. There are so many factors to consider, but we've been burned twice now on hiring a coordinator with no FBS HC experience so that has to be a consideration. A lot of great coordinators just don't have what it takes to run an SEC program.
What made Mullen a great hire for us at the time with regards to his resume was not what he did at Florida, but rather what he did at Bowling Green and Utah. What he did there with the caliber of players he was inheriting and getting there paralleled more here at State. In other words he ability to develop and scheme lower caliber players and close the talent gap against our competitors. Parlay all that with teaming up with Meyer and learning other head coaching duties, along with what it takes in SEC, made him perfect for us. At the time his base single wing system was perfect for what he had to work with.
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Mullen and our marketing team did a good job of selling our fans on the fact that he was the guy that coached Tim Tebow. If you weren’t around back then, I can’t stress enough how popular Tebow was at the time. Being attached to Tebow meant A LOT for Dan’s reputation. The thought that we were going from the Croom offense to the offense that Tebow ran excited the heck out of people.
The starting point of every coaching search. Who knows until we do, always lots of hindsight to be had either good or bad. We'll certainly have plenty of those to tell us I told you so if it's not their guy and it doesn't work out.
I understand the perception you’re talking about. But perception and marketing only go so far. The real paralleled reality was not the marketing and selling of what he did with Tebow, but what he did with Josh Harris at Bowling Green and Alex Smith at Utah. That’s what made him perfect for us at the time on the actual field becuse those are the realistic type of recruits and players we can get regularly here at state. Tebow was a big time high school recruit.
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I am the future of Mississippi State football. Just wait 17 years from now and watch the magic happen
Sure, but the Tebow/Florida association made him an easy sell for our fans. I don’t think there would’ve been as much hype if we had hired him straight from Utah or hired him from UF but pre-Tebow.
Regardless of what the sell or hype was you’re talking about, I’m talking about what he actually did as a coaching job in actuality. Selling and hype only go so far until the rubber meets the road. His ability to coach, develop, and scheme his players to his system would have sold the fans soon enough. The proof is always in the pudding.
It really depends, some of the old MAC coaches like Solich or Tressel are just really good veteran coaches and you know they will be good, same with the Klieman.
I was at the Starkville Airport when Dan and Megan got off the plane. The crowd waiting for that guy behind the fence was absolutely raucous and fired up and pretty darn huge! There was just something about that guy similar to Bill Murray getting off the plane at the end of Stripes!
Something in common with those coordinators. Multiple years learning from a champion level program coach. Not many of of those guys around right now. Kirby's guys not so much. Monken? He went back to the pros. Saban? His better coordinators got good jobs. Pass on bill obrian. Dabo? Same for him as Saban. The better long term guys got hired away recently.
lebby hasn't been with those programs
Briles hasn't been with those programs learning how it's done to win a championship
lebby hasn't been with those programs
Briles hasn't been with those programs learning how it's done to win a championship
Personality certainly has a lot to do with it. Plus our fanbase was desperate for modern offense and had been watching Florida win titles with an exciting spread offense and not handing it to the back snd short passes
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