Michigan Monday: Coaches Play Contracts Like a Fiddle

We all know big time college coaches in football and basketball are hired to be fired.  It's the life and profession they picked.  

We also know that coaches when they have even a little bit of success can work the system like no other.  I truly believe when Les Miles retires he should start a Michigan scholarship fund for all the raises and contract extensions he has gotten from LSU due to "conversations" he has had with Michigan about their football openings.  

We all know the Les examples, but let's take a look two other examples that involve coaches at Missouri.   The first one was Purdue's head basketball coach Matt Painter who flirted with the opening at Missouri a couple of weeks ago.   Was Matt really considering leaving Purdue for Mizzu?  Of course not!  He just wanted a raise from Purdue and got one.  He was on vacation when this entire thing went down.  Not too bad to be near the pool, get a couple of calls and end up getting a big raise.   I hope he called the front desk and got his room upgraded. 

The second comes from Gary Pinkel, Missouri's head football coach.  He is quoted in this article (regarding why he didn't interview for the Michigan job) saying, “That was a really difficult situation just because I grew up in Ohio and my whole life I hear about Ohio State and Michigan. To have an opportunity like that is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime thing. For me it still boiled down to I just feel so much a part of Missouri now.”



“The reason I didn’t pursue it was because I feel so much a part of Missouri. I’m so committed personally to continue to build the opportunity I was given. And family, a combination of those things. So, I bowed out of it. I feel really good about it. I thought a lot about it. It got really close. But before I went to the interview, it was a matter of hours before when I decided I wasn’t going to pursue it and I wanted to stay at the University of Missouri. So, that’s kind of the conclusion I came to.”

Gary just signed a two year extension and is now under contract until 2017.   Shocker!  He didn't even talk to Brandon and still got an extension.  We don't know any details of the search but I'm willing to bet Gary's "people" reached out to David Brandon about interviewing for the open position in Ann Arbor.
 
These coaches and agents have some special talent when it comes to getting more money and extensions when they names are linked with any other jobs.   Bob Stoops should have Bill Gates money by now with all the jobs he has been linked to.

I'm not Hoking: The Big Ten Doesn't hire Big Name Coaches

I will be the first to admit that in early January, I made statements like: "You don't fire Rich Rodriguez to hire Brady Hoke".   At the time, that hire didn't make much sense to me.  Why would you bring in a guy that had limited success at Ball State and San Diego State to replace a guy that has lead his team to BCS Bowls and was one win/a QB's hand a way from the National Championship game?  Brady's name wasn't in the same class as a Jim Harbaugh, Les Miles, Urban Meyer, etc.

I will also have to admit that I was wrong and that Brady has impressed me so far in building his staff, keeping players (mostly Denard), and recruiting hard to finish the 2011 class and the momentum he has built for the 2012 class.  The proof will be on the field but so far so good.

That got me thinking about the Big Ten and hiring Big Name coaches.   I also thought back to when Minnesota fired Tim Brewster during the 2010 Season.  The Minnesota AD stood up in front of reporters and said he wanted to make a Tubby Smith type hire for his football program.   Which means he wanted a big name coach to run his football program.  They hired Jerry Kill from Northern Illinois.   Not exactly Vince Lombardi was it? 

So what about other Big Ten Programs?  Let's start with that school down south.

Ohio State:  Jim Tressel was hired in 2001 to replace John Copper.  Jim had spent a couple of years in the 80's coaching Ohio State's QB's and WR's but in 2001 was the head coach of Youngstown State for 14 years.   Jim was very successful at his current job but was he ready to lead the Buckeyes?  I think we all now know the answer to that question but could you imagine Michigan hiring the Grand Valley's Head Coach?  At the time that was a pretty risky hire that worked out well for the Buckeyes.

Purdue:  Back in 1997 Purdue needed a new coach after they had let go Jim Colletto and hired Joe Tiller from Wyoming.  Joe had spent 6 years at Wyoming with a 39-30 record and was coming off a good year where they finished 10-2 and #22 in the both polls.  Joe ended up at Purdue for 12 years and retired after the 2008 season and was replaced by Danny Hope who was on staff.   Danny had been on staff at Purdue for 1 year as the Assistant HC and OL coach.  Danny had spent 5 years as Eastern Kentucky's head coach before joining Purdue, he was 35-22 at EKU.

Indiana has tried to find lighting in a bottle with their head coaches.  Back in the day they had coaches with the names you might recognize like Lee Corso (41-68-2), Sam Wyche (1 year 3-8), and  Gerry DiNardo (8-27).  This year they have hired Oklahoma OC for the past 8 years Kevin Wilson, who doesn't have any D1 head coaching experience and has struggled to keep his staff together only being on the job for a few weeks.  Can any coach win at IU?  That is the big question. 

Iowa: Hyden Fry was a Big Ten legend when he retired.  He had been at Iowa from 1979 -1998 with a overall record of 143-98-6.   So in 1999 who did the Hawkeyes turn to?  Baltimore Raven's offensive line coach Kirk Ferentz.  Kirk's only head coaching experience at the time was two years as Maine's head coach.   Before hired at Iowa Kirk had spent 5 years as an OL coach in the NFL.   I would say this Risk = Reward as Kirk is one of the highest paid coaches in college football and has been rumored to been a candidate for a number of NFL jobs and Michigan's last two openings.  Recently, Kirk has had a number of off field issues with his players. 

Wisconsin:  Does any of these names ring a bell?  1986 - Jim Hilles, 1987-1989 - Don Morton?  Those were the two coaches before Barry Alvarez was hired.  Barry was Notre Dame's DC for 2 years before taking the Wisconsin job.  Barry had spent 7 years as Iowa's LB coach before moving to ND to coach the LB's for 1 year and then 2 as the DC.   Barry moved to Wisconsin's AD position in 2006 and Brett Bielema took over.  Brett was on Barry's staff for 2 years has his DC coming over from Kansas State where he was the DC for 2 years as well.  I guess Wisconsin likes those 2 year DC's.

Penn State: Does not hire new head coaches.  They have had the same head coach for 44 years.

Michigan State:  We all know that Nick Saban spent 5 years in East Lansing but his coaching success came after he left the Spartans.  Since Nick left the program in 1999 the Spartans have struggled to find it's next head coach.  Bobby Williams was there for 3 years, then John L. Smith for 4 and now Mark Dantonio.  Mark came to State from the University of Cincinnati where he spent two years has head coach with a 18-17 record.  Before UC Mark was the DC at OSU for 2 years and before that 5 years as MSU's DB coach.

Illinois has probably the closest "Big Name Hire" outside of Rich Rodriguez when they hired Ron Zook who was just fired as Florida's head man in 2007.   Illinois must like Ron's because Zook replaced Turner.  Ron Zook has had an up and down stint at Illinois with an overall record of 28-45 (really?) with one Rose Bowl appearance which was a 49-17 loss to USC.   Before Ron took over at Florida he was the New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator for 2 years.

Northwestern:  Sadly, Randy Walker (former head coach of Miami of Ohio) died unexpectedly in June 2006 of a heart attack.  At the time, Northwestern hired LB coach and recruiting coordinator Pat Fitzgerald as it's head coach.  We all know Pat was a famous LB for Northwestern but his coaching experience before joining NW included 1 year as Maryland's LB coach, 1 year as Colorado's LB coach, and 1 year as Idaho's LB coach.   Pat was NW's LB coach for 5 years before took the head coaching job.

Minnesota:  Had some famous named coaches that didn't stay very long.  Names all Michigan fans will remember like: Fitz Crisler 1930-31 he had a 10-7 record and  Lou Holtz for another 2 year stint from 84-85.  Lou went 10-12 in two years.  Recently, Glen Mason was the Golden Gophers coach for 10 years and a 64-57 record.  I guess Glen's record wasn't good enough and they hired Tim Brewster in 2007.  Before Minnesota Tim was the TE coach for the Denver Broncos, before that he was the TE coach for the Chargers.  His college experience came in 1998-2001 as Texas's TE coach and 87-89 as North Carolina's TE coach.  I'm not a coaching expert but it seems to be this guy is a good TE coach.   After Minnesota fired their good TE coach, they hired Jerry Kill from Northern Illinois who was 10-3 in MAC last year.  Jerry has been the head coach of Saginaw Valley State, Emporia State, Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois and now Minnesota.

So to net it out, it seems Big Ten coaches who are successful and who are not successful usually don't come from other Big Time programs as head coaches.   It also seems some of the more successful hires were assistant coaches (at some point) at the programs they now run.

We all know Bo was from Miami of Ohio and the rest of Michigan's hires were internal before RR.   So maybe the Brady Hoke hire was the perfect fit for Michigan now and long term (the proof will be in his win loss record) and maybe the reason Rodriguez didn't do well at Michigan was because a Big Name + Big Program + Big Ten = Big Problems.

A Tuesday Funny: Golden Gophers Coaching Search

I don't normally do this but this headline out of Minnesota made me laugh, so I wanted to share it:

If Gophers fire Brewster, Tony Dungy will be first on their list

I understand that Tony went to the University of Minnesota but do you honestly think he would head back to coaching for a chance to lead the Golden Gophers?  If they call, he doesn't have to answer. 

What Bill Parcells and Jon Gruden aren't options? I know everyone believes their program is the best job in the world, but there isn't even a 1% chance Tony would take that job.  He is well paid by NBC and I don't think he is interested in going out and recruiting every weekend.

The article also mentions, Marc Trestman who is currently coaching in the CFL.  That would be a better bet.   I will throw a wild card name out there, who would be a good fit and spent 6 seasons with the Vikings:  Brian Billick.  Having a guy with a Super Bowl ring would really help in recruiting. 

With Minnesota in Michigan's section of the new Big Ten Conference, maybe I should have kept that idea to myself.

Michigan isn't the only school that losses players due to a Coaching Change

Last year Michigan lost a few high profile players off it's team due to the retirement of Lloyd Carr. They lost a 5 star QB (Ryan Mallet) and an offensive lineman (Justin Boren) that would rather pay his own way at Ohio State, then face Mike Barwis in the weight room everyday. Justin even threw a blast as he was heading out the door at Rich Rod and staff by saying, "Michigan had lost it's family values". Which is funny because some may question that Justin choose to pay his own way at Ohio State so his lower rated brother could get a scholarship in Ohio State's 2009 recruiting class.

Anyway, this post isn't about Justin Boren, it's about player losses when a new coach takes over a program. Over the past two years, I have counted 11 Wolverines that have "left the program" for one reason or another: Zion Babb, Justin Boren, Artis Chambers, Avery Horn, Jason Kates, Ryan Mallett, Sam McGuffie, Quinton Patilla, Marques Slocum and the recent departures of Stephen Threet (Transfer Hall of Fame) and Toney Clemons.

There were 22 coaching changes in division 1 NCAA college football last year. Out of those 22 new jobs; 17 of them were hires outside the current coaching staff. So I thought I would take a look a few high profile schools (Tennessee, Syracuse, Auburn, & Washington) and see how many players they have lost so far this Spring.

We have all heard by now the "unique" coaching style that Lane Kiffin has brought to the Volunteers and none of us are surprised that he has lost the most players to date with 11. Lane is just going to be Lane and will continue to sign players with past rape charges and say "no thanks" to 5 star quarterbacks that had already verbally committed to his school. I thought Rich Rod got a lot of attention in his first few months. Lane has taken the media attention up a couple of notches. Keep up the good work Lane! The SEC needed some more coaches with strong personalities.

Next is Syracuse, where former Orangemen and New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Doug Marrone took over the reigns from current Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson. It seems Michigan and Syracuse worked some type of trade in the off season where Syracuse sent Michigan it's un-successful head coach and Michigan traded their un-successful defensive coordinator (Scott Shafer) to the Orangemen. So far the change in management in northern New York has caused at least 5 defections that we know of so far. We will see how the rest of the summer plays out.

Auburn who made one of the most controversial hires this past off season by hiring Gene Chizik, the former Auburn defensive coordinator and now the former head coach at Iowa State. Gene was an un-impressive 5-19 in two seasons leading Iowa State's rebuilding process. So did Aubrun get a guy on the verge of becoming one of the hottest candidates out there (if he turned Iowa State around in a year or two) or did they get a guy that really doesn't know how to be a head coach yet? Only time will tell, but being a good coordinator doesn't mean you will be a good head coach. Not everyone has leadership skills. So you ask, how many players have left the Auburn program so far? The list comes in at 4 at this point. Which is not too bad for a new head coach.

Maybe the most impressive job of keeping your players in tact is at U of W, where Steve Sarkisian replaced Tyrone Willingham and the win-less Huskies in 2008. Steve has manged to only lose 2 players, one to academic reasons and the other was to injury and not wanting to play football anymore. Those departures could be seen as a normal occurrence to any program across the nation. Well done Steve on keeping your guys in the boat, now let's see if they can all row in the same direction.

The moral of this story is that when you make a major change in leadership in college football or in any organization you are going to lose people. These changes could be good or they could be bad, but thinking that everyone is going to be happy with change is not realistic. Everyone will have their reasons, for Mallett and Threet it was because they didn't fit the system, for Boren it was because he didn't have Carr has his security blanket anymore.

I'm sure each player that leaves Kiffin's closet will have their reasons as well. I just hope for the boosters that are helping pay these million dollar salaries that these changes equal more wins and championships or these fellas are going to have a short lease.

Coach "In Waiting" For What?

The financial industry is no joke these days, but the running joke in the business world is: if you want to become a Vice President get hired by a bank. They will give you a title instead of paying you what your worth.

In what seems to be a new fad in college and pro football is the term "coach in waiting". Many successful programs have lost their top assistant/coordinators to other schools that had an open head coaching position. What coordinator doesn't want to be a head coach? They all do.

To stop the loss of their top guys, head coaches are now anointing their top coaches with the "coach in waiting" label. Recent examples include; Jimbo Fisher at Florida State, Will Muschamp at Texas, Jim Mora for the Seattle Seahawks, and yesterday Chip Kelly for Oregon.

What is strange about some of these anointment's is that the head coaches haven't announced their retirement or new jobs yet. There was a clear reason to name a "coach in waiting" when Mike Homgren announced last year that he was retiring after this year. You can also make a case for Florida State to name one with Bobby Bowden close to closing down his hall of fame career at FSU. But what is the deal at Texas and Oregon?

Mike Bellotti has been at Oregon for 14 years and will become the next Athletic Director at Oregon when he decides he is done coaching football. When asked yesterday, if he was going to move to the AD position after this season? Mike responded: "It could be a year, it could be more," he said. "I don't know."

The Texas example is even crazier then Oregon's. Mac Brown has 8 years left on his contract and doesn't have a time table of when he is going to hang it up: "I won't be a Bobby Bowden or a Joe Paterno," Brown said. "But I'll be here a long time and as long as it works for me. "For me, it's not any immediacy. I have eight years on my contract and plan on being here. It's exciting that Will would wait until the right time to move forward. Not many people would do that. I hope people don't think it's a twilight for me. It's a new beginning for all of us," he said. Seems to me the move was more to give Will a big raise ($900,000) and keep him away from the University of Washington job then really have him wait nearly a decade for the Texas head coaching position.

Some schools don't even care if a coach has the "in waiting" title when West Virgina went after Jimbo Fisher last year after their head coach left for Michigan. Jimbo seriously considered taking the job before staying with the Seminoles.

Here is my take, it's ok to want to protect your top guys, but don't try to lock them down when other schools come calling. The American way is to look at every opportunity and if you have a chance at a pay raise and the job you want, you should be able to go after it.

Most of these titles are done for recruiting purposes, kids need to be comfortable with their decision to commit to a certain program if the head coaches retires or moves on. So the kids are happy, but what about the alumni and University officials? Usually making a decision 5 years in advance doesn't make a lot of sense. Things can change dramatically, a certain "hot candidate" may not be so hot 5 years from now.

For Michigan fans it would have been a little scary if Lloyd Carr had announced a "coach in waiting" a few years ago. What will be very interesting in these situations is if Will's or Chips's dream jobs come open and that "dream" program comes a calling.

Ranking the BCS Coaches

TSN's Tom Dienhart ranks the BCS Coaches by division below. I argue a few of his selections and will give you the BigHouse Blog takes:

ACC:

1. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest.
2. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
3. Bobby Bowden, Florida State
4. Tom O'Brien, N.C. State
5. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
6. Al Groh, Virginia
7. Tommy Bowden, Clemson
8. Butch Davis, North Carolina
9. David Cutcliffe, Duke
10. Ralph Friedgen, Maryland
11. Jeff Jagodzinski, Boston College
12. Randy Shannon, Miami FL

BHB Notes: I agree with the top two, but Bobby Bowden has become a figure head and no longer can be considered a good coach. Butch Davis needs to be ranked over a first year coach. Here's my Ranking: 1) Grobe 2) Beamer 3) O'Brien 4) Groh 5) Johnson 6) Davis 7) T.Bowden 8) Fridgen 9) B. Bowden 10)Jagodzinski 11) Cutcliffe 12) Shannon

SEC:

1. Mark Richt, Georgia
2. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
3. Urban Meyer, Florida
4. Nick Saban, Alabama
5. Les Miles, LSU
6. Tommy Tuberville, Auburn
7. Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee
8. Houston Nutt, Ole Miss
9. Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt
10. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas
11. Rich Brooks, Kentucky
12. Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State

BHB Notes: Mark Richt is a good coach but he has no business being ahead of the other guys on this list. 2 guys below him are considered coaching "geniuses" and another just won the National Championship. Here is my list: 1) Myer 2) Spurrier 3) Miles 4) Saban 5) Richt 6) Tuberville 7) Fulmer 8) Nutt 9) Petrino 10) Johnson 11) Brooks 12) Croom.

Big Ten:

1. Jim Tressel, Ohio State.
2. Rich Rodriguez, Michigan
3. Joe Tiller, Purdue
4. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
5. Bret Bielema, Wisconsin
6. Ron Zook, Illinois
7. Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
8. Joe Paterno, Penn State
9. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
10. Tim Brewster, Minnesota
11. Bill Lynch, Indiana

BHB Notes: Can't argue with this list too much but there is no way Joe Tiller should be ahead of Kirk Ferentz who is considered NFL quality while Joe is heading to Florida for retirement. My list: 1) Vest 2) Snake Oil Salesmen 3) Ferentz 4) Bielema 5) Zook 6) Tiller 7) Little Brother 8) JoPa 9) Fitz 10) Brewster 11) Lynch

PAC 10

1. Pete Carroll, USC.
2. Dennis Erickson, Arizona State
3. Mike Bellotti, Oregon
4. Mike Riley, Oregon State
5. Jeff Tedford, Cal
6. Rick Neuheisel, UCLA
7. Jim Harbaugh, Stanford.
8. Tyrone Willingham, Washington
9. Paul Wulff, Washington State
10. Mike Stoops, Arizona

BHB Notes: This ranking seems pretty accurate. You can pretty much take 2 -6 and throw them up and see where they fall. Pete would be the #1 seed in the BCS coaching tournament.

Big East:

1. Randy Edsall, UConn.
2. Greg Schiano, Rutgers
3. Brian Kelly, Cincinnati
4. Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville
5. Jim Leavitt, South Florida
6. Dave Wannstedt, Pitt
7. Greg Robinson, Syracuse
8. Bill Stewart, West Virginia

BHB Notes: This one is pretty accurate as well. Greg Schiano is considered a better coach then Edsall but you can't argue what Edsall has done with poor talent. Kelly is also on the rise and it was a big surprise that a major program didn't pull him out of Cincinnati last year. Here is my List: 1) Schiano 2) Edsall 2A) Kelly 4) Wannstedt 5) Leavitt 6) Kragthorpe 7) Robinson 8) Stewart

Big 12:

1. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma.
2. Mack Brown, Texas
3. Mark Mangino, Kansas
4. Mike Leach, Texas Tech
5. Dan Hawkins, Colorado
6. Gary Pinkel, Missouri
7. Art Briles, Baylor
8. Mike Sherman, Texas A&M
9. Bo Pelini, Nebraska
10. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
11. Gene Chizik, Iowa State
12. Ron Prince, Kansas State

BHB Notes: This list is pretty accurate as well, how can you argue the top 2? Maybe Mike Sherman with his NFL experience and Bo should be higher but we will wait and see how they do in year 1.