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2022-23 Coaching Carousel

The before the storm update.



Open Jobs:


University of Colorado Golden Buffaloes: I have already broken the organize by conference rule, but the departure of the worst CU coach ever, or even appearing in our worst nightmares, merits an exception. I won't recount all the news here, I refer you to @The Alabaster Yak 's "Official CU Head Coach Search" thread. Suffice it to say, everybody and their brother has an opinion, two of the more popular choices: Jeff Grimes, Bronco Mendenhall are drawing alot of bandwidth in that thread. Others include: Pat Fitzgerald, Jamey Chadwell, Ricky Rahne, [insert Dave Logan quip here], Blake Anderson and Tom Herman. Who will pants RG in contract negotiations this time? We will see as Dr. Phil and RG begin the process of figuring out how the landscape of CFB has changed since the Bush I administration. UPDATE: The Auburn rumors about RG have no legs. So, RG will be making the hire (yikes), blind pig and the acorn time for Buff faithful. It appears, Bronco, Herman are the leaders, Fuente and Grimes as maybes, or some hack nobody has heard of if RG decides to wet himself again.

PAC 12-

ASU- Our friends in Tempe have tossed Herm aside. (h/t Jens) Matt Rhule (h/t ITB) a scary possibility. Dennis Dodd via (h/t Serenity) plucks Dowell Liggins as a name. In any event, a new Head Devil is on the way. UPDATE- Dillingham? (h/t slider) Mickey Joseph? (h/t slider).

B1G-

kNU- The big one. Our favorite corn cob, Scott Frost, had his job drug out the door and down the stairs like Lawrence Phillips' girlfriend. (h/t Jens) Mickey Joseph is interim (h/t White Rabbit). Who will be the next savior of the polyester red clan? Well, Matt Campbell (h/t ITB and yak), Bill O'Brien (h/t yak and chase), Luke Fickell (h/t chase), Lance Leipold, Chris Klieman, Mark Stoops (h/t yak), Jamey Chadwell (h/t Pacman) and (h/t offgridgopher) checks in with the crazy notion our own Eric Bieniemy would arrive in corn nation to set things right. This one should be fun. The level of corn delusion has them hiring everyone from Urban Meyer to Nick Saban. UPDATE- Monken, the Jeff variety, (h/t ahoelsken) a possible name

Wiscy- Paul Chryst out (h/t Jens) Jim Leonhard interim. Along with Leonhard, Lance Leipold, Matt Campbell, Dave Aranda, DAve Doeren, Matt Rhule, Chris Peterson, and Dan Mullen are names (h/t yak). My money is on Leonhard.


CUSA-

UAB- Bill Clark quietly resigns due to health issues.


ACC-


GT- Geoff Collins is out (h/t nik and SewallBeach). Pete Thamel, via (h/t nik) names nearly everyone east of the Mississippi, and some to the west of it, as names: Chadwell, O'Brien, The Flying Monken brothers, both of them, Troy Calhoun, Bill Clark, Bronco Mendenhall, Chris Huff, Al Golden, etc. UPDATE- Bill O'Brien, Jamey Chadwell and the unretired Bill Clark are names (h/t nik)


SEC-


Auburn- Harsin is out. (h/t Yak), so are Kiesau and the OL coach former Buff Brad Bedell (h/t slider). Who is the next coach lined up to be hired, fired and paid in short order? Well, we have Kiffin (h/t Duff), Lanning, (h/t nik), but a not so fast on Lanning issued by (h/t Sewall), Freeze, Rhule and O'Brien round out the list of possible future former Auburn HC's.


Other Conferences I don't care to Discriminate Between-


Charlotte- Will Healy is out after embarrassing loss to MikMac's fighting FIU whatevers. (h/t DeNiro)

USF- Jeff Scott is out (h/t Sewall) Former CU AC Dan DaPrato the interim (h/t nik)


Possibles-

Louisville- Scott Satterfield not working and playing well with others. (h/t ahoelsken)

UT- Steve Sarkisian has put his Armenian love casita up for sale in Austin (h/t BuffsRising) and may be on the Big Cigar's hit list (h/t LesGoodman) UPDATE: Sark may have bought himself a reprieve with an absolute curb stomping of the Okies in the RRS (h/t Creebuzz)

aTm- Jimbo Fisher has not won 12 games yet this year and the Aggies may be willing to mount a buyout large enough to purchase Zimbabwe to be rid of him. (h/t Jens) UPDATE- Jimbo continues to underperform

West Va- (h/t yak) says they may be making a move, so I'll go along with that. UPDATE- Gordon Gee says no change until the end of the year, but lookout after that.

Mizzou- That App St. magic may not have followed Drinkwitz (h/t yak)

Stanford- Maybe Shaw has run his course? (h/t yak)

Other news-

Cal- Wilcox sacrifices a couple of AC's Musgrave, the OC and the hilariously named OL coach, Angus McClure.

Hugh Freeze- Freeze extended, (h/t FoBuffs08)

Stay tuned.
 
Last edited:
manhattanbuff said:
This is why urgency on CU’s part is a thing. If you take someone off of the market, you can avoid the disasters we’ve seen before when people get antsy. Right now, it looks like the music could be ending soon without too many good openings. It’s best not to tempt fate.
Click to expand...

100% this. Unexpected things are going to happen.

Right now, CU is one of 3 P5 jobs open west of the Mississippi. But there are almost assuredly going to be at least 1-2 more that are unexpectedly open:
  • Stanford?
  • Cal?
  • Oregon or Baylor if Auburn decides to get weird and hires Lanning or Aranda
  • I'd bet money that A&M fires Jimbo (yes, even with that contract) if they lose out.
  • Kansas if Liepold gets hired away

The point is, CU needs to get **** done soon. The longer they wait, the shorter the odds are that they get Sarkisian'd again and have to hire KD 2.0.
 
Denver_sc said:
100% this. Unexpected things are going to happen.

Right now, CU is one of 3 P5 jobs open west of the Mississippi. But there are almost assuredly going to be at least 1-2 more that are unexpectedly open:
  • Stanford?
  • Cal?
  • Oregon or Baylor if Auburn decides to get weird and hires Lanning or Aranda
  • I'd bet money that A&M fires Jimbo (yes, even with that contract) if they lose out.
  • Kansas if Liepold gets hired away

The point is, CU needs to get **** done soon. The longer they wait, the shorter the odds are that they get Sarkisian'd again and have to hire KD 2.0.
Click to expand...
Point of clarification: CU was never in a position where it had to hire KD.
 
manhattanbuff said:
BUT we have the same Athletic Director who felt like KD was the best choice after being rebuffed by legitimate candidates.
Click to expand...
I've been trying to make sense of it for years. The same guy who ran MM out because expectations were higher, hired Mel Tucker (might have been Ryan Day if Urban hadn't suddenly retired), and targeted Sark as MT's replacement... then hired Karl Dorrell. Not just hired him, but gave him a contract at a pay rate you'd expect CU to offer an in-demand coach which also built in fully guaranteed money to make termination something Phil D would never approve.

How does it get to that from where it was?

My only explanation is that Phil had tied his hands on budget, forcing retention of assistants and making no commitments of support, so RG gave up. KD was a hire that screamed, "Here's a Buff who will never cause scandal and never leave. It's what my boss wants, he'll work under these limitations, and I'll be able to retire without ever having to hire another HC for football."

Any other ideas on what RG might have been thinking? Because I don't buy RG thinking that KD was the best hire to give CU an opportunity to win championships.
 
Denver_sc said:
100% this. Unexpected things are going to happen.

Right now, CU is one of 3 P5 jobs open west of the Mississippi. But there are almost assuredly going to be at least 1-2 more that are unexpectedly open:
  • Stanford?
  • Cal?
  • Oregon or Baylor if Auburn decides to get weird and hires Lanning or Aranda
  • I'd bet money that A&M fires Jimbo (yes, even with that contract) if they lose out.
  • Kansas if Liepold gets hired away

The point is, CU needs to get **** done soon. The longer they wait, the shorter the odds are that they get Sarkisian'd again and have to hire KD 2.0.
Click to expand...
Cal's not opening. They don't have the money. FTX going bankrupt is also a problem for them.
 
Buffnik said:
I've been trying to make sense of it for years. The same guy who ran MM out because expectations were higher, hired Mel Tucker (might have been Ryan Day if Urban hadn't suddenly retired), and targeted Sark as MT's replacement... then hired Karl Dorrell. Not just hired him, but gave him a contract at a pay rate you'd expect CU to offer an in-demand coach which also built in fully guaranteed money to make termination something Phil D would never approve.

How does it get to that from where it was?

My only explanation is that Phil had tied his hands on budget, forcing retention of assistants and making no commitments of support, so RG gave up. KD was a hire that screamed, "Here's a Buff who will never cause scandal and never leave. It's what my boss wants, he'll work under these limitations, and I'll be able to retire without ever having to hire another HC for football."

Any other ideas on what RG might have been thinking? Because I don't buy RG thinking that KD was the best hire to give CU an opportunity to win championships.
Click to expand...
I have posted repeatedly: difficult events and sudden changes at work test people’s toughness and focus. The higher the stakes, the higher the pressure. Tscheck doesn’t think it’s possible for people to crumble under pressure. I do. I think Rick George was dealt a challenging scenario. Instead of thinking clearly about his options in the heat of the moment, he panicked. I don’t look for reasons to alleviate personal responsibility for poor work performance in highly compensated employees. He had a job. He failed at several stages to do that job well. After failing miserably, he took an annual pay raise and an extension via a new contract.

Your theory above does not match the reality of what’s happened in the last 24 months.
 
The Alabaster Yak said:
Georgia Tech, Nebraska, and ASU all fired their coaches before CU and Wisconsin fired Chryst the day after CU.
Click to expand...
The difference between those and CU is that at all of those places except ASU, the interim coaches are serious candidates for the opening. Sanford is not (or I guess I should say should not) be a serious candidate for the CU vacancy.

In addition, those are all (excepting possibly GT) viewed as more desirable jobs than CU. They're (probably) less at risk to a future job opening impacting a candidate's interest.

This is like sales- if CU has their candidate, they should be aggressively driving this deal to a close as quickly as possible.
 
manhattanbuff said:
I have posted repeatedly: difficult events and sudden changes at work test people’s toughness and focus. The higher the stakes, the higher the pressure. Tscheck doesn’t think it’s possible for people to crumble under pressure. I do. I think Rick George was dealt a challenging scenario. Instead of thinking clearly about his options in the heat of the moment, he panicked. I don’t look for reasons to alleviate personal responsibility for poor work performance in highly compensated employees. He had a job. He failed at several stages to do that job well. After failing miserably, he took an annual pay raise and an extension via a new contract.

Your theory above does not match the reality of what’s happened in the last 24 months.
Click to expand...
I'm fully on board with this theory. Things got hard (perhaps really hard) and instead of trying to do the best thing for CU football, RG did the easy thing. The key fact is Karl's contract. RG could have paid him peanuts but instead just handed him Sark's contract. You don't get paid more than the governor to pull that kind of bull****.
 
manhattanbuff said:
I have posted repeatedly: difficult events and sudden changes at work test people’s toughness and focus. The higher the stakes, the higher the pressure. Tscheck doesn’t think it’s possible for people to crumble under pressure. I do. I think Rick George was dealt a challenging scenario. Instead of thinking clearly about his options in the heat of the moment, he panicked. I don’t look for reasons to alleviate personal responsibility for poor work performance in highly compensated employees. He had a job. He failed at several stages to do that job well. After failing miserably, he took an annual pay raise and an extension via a new contract.

Your theory above does not match the reality of what’s happened in the last 24 months.
Click to expand...
I think there are elements of what you and @Buffnik have stated here that are correct.

RG has been a highly respected and highly effective sports executive. Even in his earlier years at CU he was solid. You don't all of the sudden become bad at your job.

What can happen though is that effective people can find themselves in a position where it isn't worth bothering to put out the effort.

I hate to say this but unfortunately a lack of effectiveness seems to be a trend whenever Phil DiStefano is involved.

Dr. Phil is all about not rocking the boat that he is in. Doesn't matter is anything good happens as long as he doesn't have to deal with anything negative.

It's very easy to see when Mel Tucker was pushing for some of the accommodations that are common in running a successful P5 program Dr. Phil saw them going someplace that he didn't want to have to deal with and he cut things off, even things that had been promised earlier.

Then when RG told him that in order for a new coach to succeed he would need those same accommodations Phil said no. At that point to avoid conflict RG went along with hiring KD knowing that he wasn't going to get to hire anyone with ambitions, anyone who would push the envelope to win, even if it meant doing the same things that every other school is doing and things that while not available to non-athletes aren't really any kind of violation or cheating. Things like transfer rules, available majors, academic support, etc.
 
MtnBuff said:
I think there are elements of what you and @Buffnik have stated here that are correct.

RG has been a highly respected and highly effective sports executive. Even in his earlier years at CU he was solid. You don't all of the sudden become bad at your job.

What can happen though is that effective people can find themselves in a position where it isn't worth bothering to put out the effort.

I hate to say this but unfortunately a lack of effectiveness seems to be a trend whenever Phil DiStefano is involved.

Dr. Phil is all about not rocking the boat that he is in. Doesn't matter is anything good happens as long as he doesn't have to deal with anything negative.

It's very easy to see when Mel Tucker was pushing for some of the accommodations that are common in running a successful P5 program Dr. Phil saw them going someplace that he didn't want to have to deal with and he cut things off, even things that had been promised earlier.

Then when RG told him that in order for a new coach to succeed he would need those same accommodations Phil said no. At that point to avoid conflict RG went along with hiring KD knowing that he wasn't going to get to hire anyone with ambitions, anyone who would push the envelope to win, even if it meant doing the same things that every other school is doing and things that while not available to non-athletes aren't really any kind of violation or cheating. Things like transfer rules, available majors, academic support, etc.
Click to expand...
The last paragraph is not accurate though. If that were true George would not have bothered trying to hire Sarkisian. We were on the 1 yard line with Sarkisian and had the contract drawn up. I just think they ran out of ideas and lost patience when Sark backed out. Let’s not forget that Rick George is a bit of a dumb ass. You don’t follow people on Twitter like Boebert, Gaetz, Trump Jr and Jim Jordan without having some moron in you.
 
steviet said:
The last paragraph is not accurate though. If that were true George would not have bothered trying to hire Sarkisian. We were on the 1 yard line with Sarkisian and had the contract drawn up. I just think they ran out of ideas and lost patience when Sark backed out. Let’s not forget that Rick George is a bit of a dumb ass. You don’t follow people on Twitter like Boebert, Gaetz, Trump Jr and Jim Jordan without having some moron in you.
Click to expand...
We will never know for sure.

Were we really on the 1 yard line or was PD racking up personal fouls moving us back out to mid field. I know that Sark was interested, did he lose that interest when he realized that Dr. Phil was going to make success impossible.

When Sark said no did RG just decide it wasn't worth bothering anymore?

And yes his follows on SM show that his political beliefs lean a lot more MAGA than just about anyone here would be comfortable but he would be far from the only person who is competent at their job and off base politically.

This is not a defense of RG. Bottom line is that he didn't find a better coach than KD for that hire and he gave a stupid and unnecessary contract. Nobody, (absolutely nobody) was going to offer KD anything close to that contract.

What I have absolutely no question of though is that anything that Dr Phil is involved with ends up worse than it would have been without him. Did his level of incompetence finally wear down RG?

Don't forget how many people thought that Mike Bohn was the problem in Boulder. His results since moving on would indicate that he wasn't given the opportunity here to succeed.
 
steviet said:
The last paragraph is not accurate though. If that were true George would not have bothered trying to hire Sarkisian. We were on the 1 yard line with Sarkisian and had the contract drawn up. I just think they ran out of ideas and lost patience when Sark backed out. Let’s not forget that Rick George is a bit of a dumb ass. You don’t follow people on Twitter like Boebert, Gaetz, Trump Jr and Jim Jordan without having some moron in you.
Click to expand...
Solid take. You should find a way to post takes like this for a living.
 
If Ole Miss has to find a coach, they almost always hire super christians. I'd expect Gus Malzahn (UCF) to be a name on their hot board.
 
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