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Kenny Dillingham - OC Oregon

The Alabaster Yak

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I think Dillingham is an underrated candidate because of his age, but he’s had a fairly meteoric rise in the sport. High School OC to Memphis OC and then P5 OC/QB at Auburn within 5 years, moves to FSU as OC/QB for two seasons and is now OC/QB at Oregon where the Ducks are 3rd in the country in total offense and 5th in scoring. Has basically taken Bo Nix and given him a new career.

Good interview with Feldman here and you can tell he will be a HC soon, if not in 2023.
 
Sign me up. I'm so impatient with the lack of any future coaching updates that I'll take almost any news at this point.
 
Grimes is still the #1 coordinator option, IMO, but Dillingham might be #2 for me.

The more I read about him, the more I think he's going to be a stud somewhere in the near future. Learned under Mike Norvell at Memphis and FSU, Malzahn for a year at Auburn and is now under a defensive HC, running his own show at Oregon and is killing it. Mentions having a great relationship with Adrian Klemm and how they've wanted to work together for years, and I imagine he has other close relationships and connections among good coaching circles that would allow him to put together a good staff.

Obviously a high risk, high reward hire for CU, and he might fit the Walters category of just not having enough clout to demand changes, but if CU could get out of its own way with the transfer stuff, I think he would be a great hire.
 
Grimes is still the #1 coordinator option, IMO, but Dillingham might be #2 for me.

The more I read about him, the more I think he's going to be a stud somewhere in the near future. Learned under Mike Norvell at Memphis and FSU, Malzahn for a year at Auburn and is now under a defensive HC, running his own show at Oregon and is killing it. Mentions having a great relationship with Adrian Klemm and how they've wanted to work together for years, and I imagine he has other close relationships and connections among good coaching circles that would allow him to put together a good staff.

Obviously a high risk, high reward hire for CU, and he might fit the Walters category of just not having enough clout to demand changes, but if CU could get out of its own way with the transfer stuff, I think he would be a great hire.
That offense is good but this one is tough for me, he’s just 32 years old. He sounds confident in that interview, but he sounded like a 32 year old kid at times honestly. Maybe this is a sign I’m getting old, but he was born in 1990 and used the phrase “boughten in” multiple times which offends me from a grammar perspective.
 
That offense is good but this one is tough for me, he’s just 32 years old. He sounds confident in that interview, but he sounded like a 32 year old kid at times honestly. Maybe this is a sign I’m getting old, but he was born in 1990 and used the phrase “boughten in” multiple times which offends me from a grammar perspective.
Totally get that and he's probably too risky for CU almost exclusively because of his age. Like Garrett Riley (33 years old), I think he's probably a year or two away.

I will say that he's been coaching since he was 17 years old and got his first legit CFB position coach job when he was 27 as QB/TE coach under Norvell at Memphis. Norvell thought enough of him after one season to promote him to OC/QB at 28, at which point, Gus Malzahn thought enough of him to bring him to Auburn as OC/QB at 29 years old, and then Norvell brought him back to FSU. Then, defensive coach Dan Lanning and the blank check he received to build a staff at Oregon chooses him of all people to run the offensive show in Eugene.

I just think that kind of rise within the sport is very unique and he is clearly very well thought of.
 
McVay was 31 when hired by the Rams - Shanahan was 38 when hired by the 49ers (I know not 32 but still within the same realm)

Should be more focused on qualifications rather than age - especially when you're in the spot that CU is in. Better to go down swinging than what we did with Dorrell.
 
McVay was 31 when hired by the Rams - Shanahan was 38 when hired by the 49ers (I know not 32 but still within the same realm)

Should be more focused on qualifications rather than age - especially when you're in the spot that CU is in. Better to go down swinging than what we did with Dorrell.
Lane Kiffin was 32 when the Raiders hired him and Josh McDaniels was 33 when the Broncos hired him so it can end disastrously too.

Someone is going to take a shot on Dillingham and Riley and one or both may be home runs, but I don’t think CU is currently in the position to take that type of risk.
 
Lane Kiffin was 32 when the Raiders hired him and Josh McDaniels was 33 when the Broncos hired him so it can end disastrously too.

Someone is going to take a shot on Dillingham and Riley and one or both may be home runs, but I don’t think CU is currently in the position to take that type of risk.
CU is in the exact position to take that risk - CU has nothing to lose at this point. What's the worst case - worst team in the country? Well, already saw that under Dorrell and Embree.
 
McVay was 31 when hired by the Rams - Shanahan was 38 when hired by the 49ers (I know not 32 but still within the same realm)

Should be more focused on qualifications rather than age - especially when you're in the spot that CU is in. Better to go down swinging than what we did with Dorrell.

Pro football is a completely different sport. Those guys had other people making personnel decisions.
 
CU is in the exact position to take that risk - CU has nothing to lose at this point. What's the worst case - worst team in the country? Well, already saw that under Dorrell and Embree.
CU can't afford to fail on this hire.
 
CU is in the exact position to take that risk - CU has nothing to lose at this point. What's the worst case - worst team in the country? Well, already saw that under Dorrell and Embree.
We can’t afford it financially and we can’t afford to continue being a disaster at the same time we’re in conference limbo. We need more of a sure thing even if the ceiling isn’t as high.
 
We can’t afford it financially and we can’t afford to continue being a disaster at the same time we’re in conference limbo. We need more of a sure thing even if the ceiling isn’t as high.
Those "sure things" are likely to have multiple other options - risk it for the biscuit
 
CU is in the exact position to take that risk - CU has nothing to lose at this point. What's the worst case - worst team in the country? Well, already saw that under Dorrell and Embree.
CU has everything to lose. This hire absolutely has to be a hit. Not a guy who will win a natty, but it has to be a guy who can get this team to regular bowl games. Our margin for error is nonexistent.
 
CU has everything to lose. This hire absolutely has to be a hit. Not a guy who will win a natty, but it has to be a guy who can get this team to regular bowl games. Our margin for error is nonexistent.
What CU has to lose is what it's been for the last 17 years minus a season, maybe 2.
Hiring a coach with no other options got us Dorrell and Embree - maybe let’s try something different.
The pool that CU is likely to be swimming in with coaches are riskier options. It's odd how the narrative on the website is how bad the CU job is but when talking about potential HC's people seem to remove that narrative.
 
What CU has to lose is what it's been for the last 17 years minus a season, maybe 2.

The pool that CU is likely to be swimming in with coaches are riskier options. It's odd how the narrative on the website is how bad the CU job is but when talking about potential HC's people seem to remove that narrative.
We’d lose more than 1 or 2 seasons because we can’t afford to buyout another failed staff early in their contract.

I don’t think you’re reading the same website because everyone here seems pretty measured about our options. Guys like Grimes, Herman, Bronco, Walters, and others may have other options but they’re not completely pie in the sky either. Shooting only for the guys no one else wants is the worst idea imaginable.
 
We’d lose more than 1 or 2 seasons because we can’t afford to buyout another failed staff early in their contract.

I don’t think you’re reading the same website because everyone here seems pretty measured about our options. Guys like Grimes, Herman, Bronco, Walters, and others may have other options but they’re not completely pie in the sky either. Shooting only for the guys no one else wants is the worst idea imaginable.
I wasn't saying we'd lose 1 to 2 seasons, I was saying that the downside is CU being the CU that is has been for the last 17 years.

I don't see much of a difference between Dillingham & Grimes/Walters.
 
I wasn't saying we'd lose 1 to 2 seasons, I was saying that the downside is CU being the CU that is has been for the last 17 years.

I don't see much of a difference between Dillingham & Grimes/Walters.
There's a world of difference between Dillingham and Grimes. I think Dillingham is in the same category as Walters and Garrett Riley. Young, up and comers who are on the short list of candidates for a ton of schools, but are probably a year or two away.
 
I wasn't saying we'd lose 1 to 2 seasons, I was saying that the downside is CU being the CU that is has been for the last 17 years.

I don't see much of a difference between Dillingham & Grimes/Walters.
Grimes began coaching P5 football when Dillingham was in the 5th grade, has a national championship ring as an assistant coach, but you don’t see a difference between the two?
 
There's a world of difference between Dillingham and Grimes. I think Dillingham is in the same category as Walters and Garrett Riley. Young, up and comers who are on the short list of candidates for a ton of schools, but are probably a year or two away.
Grimes is a bit older for sure but both have a good background at big time schools & Dillingham just skyrocketed into jobs which is impressive
 
Grimes began coaching P5 football when Dillingham was in the 5th grade, has one national championship ring as an assistant coach and was in another title game, but you don’t see a difference between the two?
Dillingham at 32 has coached at Florida St, Auburn, and now Oregon & is killing it at Oregon under a defensive head coach.

Biggest difference I see between the two is age but Dillingham going from a GA in 2016 at Memphis to Auburn's OC in 2019 is impressive.
 
Dillingham at 32 has coached at Florida St, Auburn, and now Oregon & is killing it at Oregon under a defensive head coach.

Biggest difference I see between the two is age but Dillingham going from a GA in 2016 at Memphis to Auburn's OC in 2019 is impressive.
The biggest difference you see is age? Yikes, ok.
 
Grimes is a bit older for sure but both have a good background at big time schools & Dillingham just skyrocketed into jobs which is impressive
From the standpoint of being able to design an offense, gameplan and call plays, I agree, but Grimes has a lot more experience in coaching and in life, that potentially (likely?) gives him a higher likelihood of succeeding as an actual HC
 
From the standpoint of being able to design an offense, gameplan and call plays, I agree, but Grimes has a lot more experience in coaching and in life, that potentially (likely?) gives him a higher likelihood of succeeding as an actual HC
Definitely could - Grimes is my #1 choice but Dillingham to me given his trajectory intrigues me.
The biggest difference you see is age? Yikes, ok.
Age is obviously going to impact experience but Dillingham has been a very fast riser & I doubt that's just him falling upwards.
 
Age is obviously going to impact experience but Dillingham has been a very fast riser & I doubt that's just him falling upwards.
Age impacts experience, but that experience is a major differentiator between the two. Grimes has done it now for longer and at more successful stops including helping to win a national championship. Dilligham has been a part of one AAC conference championship at Memphis and a couple bad Auburn and FSU teams before this season. Being a fast riser doesn’t make someone ready to take over this s**t show at CU.
 
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