Pick your Top 3 Candidates

[boydbuff]

We can only hope an announcement is made this week. W/ so many coaching names being thrown around, thought it would be interesting to aggregate our top 3 candidates.

 

[Ralphandler1]

The Jim Fassel thing intrigues me. Not sure the odds but that would be an amazing hire that would bring experience and likely a great ability to recruit young players. I love Bob Diaco too but not seeming to get much attention at this point

 

[boydbuff]

Personally I like quite a few of these candidates and all of them are a major step up from Water Bottle & Co.

However I went with Mullen-obvious although doubtful he'd come, MacIntyre and Mason. MacIntyre because of the turnaround he pulled off in 3 years, like his recruiting approach and Mason because Pac 12 experience, runs one of the best defenses in the country, and icing on the cake is any remaining doubts about race get eliminated. Bohn, et. al. want progress and a competitive product on the field. Period.

 

[boydbuff]

The Jim Fassel thing intrigues me. Not sure the odds but that would be an amazing hire that would bring experience and likely a great ability to recruit young players. I love Bob Diaco too but not seeming to get much attention at this point

I thought about putting Fassel in there but it seemed that the overwhelming majority of ABers thought he was a no go and according to media, there was not much interest from Bohn, et. al. Totally agree about Diaco but if we are going to pick a DC I'd prefer Mason b/c he knows the Pac 12 and could help more quickly get recruiting off the ground.

 

[buffwings]

Mullen, Kirby, and Diaco; either one would bring excitement to the program and boost recruiting. CU may need to announce facility improvements very soon in order to salvage any kind of a recruiting class instead of waiting until Spring. The HC will need all the help he can get.

 

[FlatironsBuff]

Tough one. I mean, Strong, Golden, and Mullen if we are dreaming. If not, then Smart, Stanfords DC, and Wilcox. Still dreaming? Then of the ones being talked about, Mullen, MacIntyre, DeRuyter. Actually have hope the Mullen deal is real....why else would Bohn not have DeRuyter it MacIntyre at least interviewed? Tells me he us still after big game and is getting interest back.

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[boydbuff]

Very interesting early results. Categorized:
Go Big or Go Home (HCs at top tier BCS schools)
Dan Mullen just ahead of Al Golden

Strong Cred Coordinators
Kirby Smart well ahead of a pack of 3 other DCs (Mason, Wilcox, Diaco)

Up and Comers
MacIntyre (surprisingly #1 ranked of all candidates at the moment) well ahead of DeRuyter

 

[CarolinaBuff]

I don't get the infatuation with MacIntyre. I realize he turned around SJSU but that's much easier to do at a smaller school and he's only had 1 good year. And Beyond his experience at SJSU there isn't much at the big-time college level.

 

[Buffalo Brad]

If I am picking my top two, hands down Golden 1 and Mullen 2

 

[BuffSurveyor]

If it's not Mullen, then the next CU Football Coach will be a Coordinator looking for an opportunity.

 

[boydbuff]

With 44 voters contributing, Mullen is the clear leader followed by a tie for 2nd between MacIntyre and Golden

Given the combined probability of Mullen and Golden is probably less than 10%, seems MacIntyre is the front runner amongst candidates we have a real shot at.

This leads me to a followup question. What are the odds that our HC can't be found amongst the 9 listed options?

I am certainly OK with MacIntyre but he's not the splashiest pick of course. Anyone with inside info at all care to chime in on the probability that someone not on the list could be our next HC?

With the little I know, I'd say it is probably 80-90% likely our HC is from the list.

 

[Alfred91]

It's probably McIntyre - I'd love it to be Dan Mullen, but why the hell would he leave the SEC for Boulder?

I know someone said he wasn't interested, but if we were going the coordinator route, I'd really like to take a long look at Wilcox.

 

[Finest]

Writing in Pat Narduzzi.

 

[buffaholic]

I don't get the infatuation with MacIntyre. I realize he turned around SJSU but that's much easier to do at a smaller school and he's only had 1 good year. And Beyond his experience at SJSU there isn't much at the big-time college level.

That statement would appear to be without basis.

* First 5 years under Bill Parcells. Pretty important.
* DC in a BCS conference, improving Duke's defense with measurable improvement.
* 3 years of improvement at SJSU against some big time programs.

This year alone:

3 point loss AT Stanford
Beat SDSU
Beat CSU
Beat Navy
Beat BYU
Beat Louisiana Tech (coached by Dykes, Cal's new coach)

What do you mean "that's much easier to do at a smaller school"? Of course it isn't. It's relative. It takes good coaching for small schools to beat small schools just like it does for BCS schools to beat BCS schools.

To get SJSU to 10-2 is nothing short of spectacular. OK if he beat 10 teams like New Mexico State, fine - I'd agree with you. He didn't. He almost beat Stanford at Stanford.

MacIntyre is not my first choice (see Golden or Mullen or some other successful BCS splash hire). But he's right there with the Utah State coach in terms of what he's done. I repeat, a 3-point loss at Stanford and 3 scores against Utah State).

 

[CVilleBuff]

I don't get the infatuation with MacIntyre. I realize he turned around SJSU but that's much easier to do at a smaller school and he's only had 1 good year. And Beyond his experience at SJSU there isn't much at the big-time college level.

He's turned a school that was actively discussing shutting down their football program into a top 25, 10 win team in 3 seasons. That's extremely impressive. I get that competition in the WAC is weak, but given numerous things stacked against SJSU, I'm not convinced it was an easy thing to do. It would be nice to see a couple more years of him getting 9+ wins, but given the rebuilding task CU requires, he's a solid candidate. Do I agree with him getting more votes than Golden? No. But I find his 3 years as a HC better than DeRuyter's 1...

 

[1989Buff]

That statement would appear to be without basis.

* First 5 years under Bill Parcells. Pretty important.
* DC in a BCS conference, improving Duke's defense with measurable improvement.
* 3 years of improvement at SJSU against some big time programs.

This year alone:

3 point loss AT Stanford
Beat SDSU
Beat CSU
Beat Navy
Beat BYU
Beat Louisiana Tech (coached by Dykes, Cal's new coach)

What do you mean "that's much easier to do at a smaller school"? Of course it isn't. It's relative. It takes good coaching for small schools to beat small schools just like it does for BCS schools to beat BCS schools.

To get SJSU to 10-2 is nothing short of spectacular. OK if he beat 10 teams like New Mexico State, fine - I'd agree with you. He didn't. He almost beat Stanford at Stanford.

MacIntyre is not my first choice (see Golden or Mullen or some other successful BCS splash hire). But he's right there with the Utah State coach in terms of what he's done. I repeat, a 3-point loss at Stanford and 3 scores against Utah State).

Agreed. My top 2 were Utah State's (supposedly not coming) and SJSU's coach. Coordinators are bigger crap shoots than current Head Coaches (and the jump is large in terms of job requirements). I don't think the Justin Wilcox hype is warranted yet (and I live in Duck country and hear about him a lot).

There's no question the ranks of tomorrow's great head coaches can be found in today's coordinators. But they are harder to pick out at this point in their careers than current head coaches (and picking out the ones among THOSE HEAD COACHES who would do well in Boulder is no walk in the park in terms of difficulty either!). I see no reason to make this search any harder than it already is. Let's pick someone who's already done this SOMEWHERE...and hope they can do it here too.

Mac at SJSU seems to be the anti-Hawkins when it comes to qualifications and back ground (including coming from a coaching family) that should keep this from being another situation where the real credit for the coach's success belongs to his coordinator (Peterson in the case of Hawkins...along with the coach Hawkins succeeded). Mac2 has already turned a historically AWFUL (there's no way to emphasize this enough) program with almost NO school and public support around. That's a huge thing to me looking at our current situation.

I think I like the coach at Logan's demeanor better...but there's no arguing with Mac2's resume right now (in terms of people we can realistically get to take the job at CU). His major downside, IMHO, is he looks exactly like Mike Bohn!:rofl:

 

[White_Rabbit]

To add on to what you guys said about SJSU, apparently they didn't even allow use of 85 scholarships for awhile due to awful APR. I believe this year is the first time SJSU has had 85 players on scholarship. Imagine trying to play college football like USC has been, except without the talent part.

 

[CarolinaBuff]

I just don't see this 10-2 record being as impressive as it looks on paper. Half of their wins came against downright bad teams (granted 1 of which we lost to) and even the good teams they beat like Navy, USU, La Tech aren't the same competition you get week-in and week-out at the BCS level. I would have more confidence in someone who has more experience at the BCS level even if only at the coordinator level (and no I don't count Duke) than a coach has had success in one of these smaller FBS conferences. Yes, SJSU is a pretty good little team but come on, he had 1 good year - in the WAC.

 

[1989Buff]

I just don't see this 10-2 record being as impressive as it looks on paper. Half of their wins came against downright bad teams (granted 1 of which we lost to) and even the good teams they beat like Navy, USU, La Tech aren't the same competition you get week-in and week-out at the BCS level. I would have more confidence in someone who has more experience at the BCS level even if only at the coordinator level (and no I don't count Duke) than a coach has had success in one of these smaller FBS conferences. Yes, SJSU is a pretty good little team but come on, he had 1 good year - in the WAC.

I think if you were arguing apples to apples I might be on board with you (head coaches against head coaches). But you are arguing head coaches to coordinators. Those are two different jobs. It's not as though great coaches aren't pulled from the lower conferences all the time...they are. Jim Tressel was coaching Youngstown State, for goodness sake.

I can't, in good conscience, say that we shouldn't go after a coordinator...because there are good ones out there. But it's dang hard to judge what they do (and how responsible for the success they are) compared to a head coach's record (although, as we learned from Hawkins, good coordinators can mask a less than stellar HC too).

I guess the way that I look at it is if we hadn't been through the Embree experience, I might be willing to cut coordinators some more slack (not that anyone is asking ME about any of this of course!:lol. But the fact that we had a whole staff of people who had never been head coaches anywhere made a big difference I think. Add to that the fact that anyone (HC or coordinator) is going to find a VERY unique set of challenges in Boulder, and I feel like you just add that much MORE to the plate of a coordinator trying to make the step up to the head coaching responsibilities...already a tough jump... (and they are going to wonder why their new job is so much tougher than the HC they learned under at the powerhouse school they formerly worked at!).

Not to beat a dead horse here (because, as I have said many times, I was wrong about Hawkins...so take my thoughts with a grain of salt :doh but I think it might help us all if we hire a coach who was accustomed to working for a football program with little support, a multi-year losing record and meager talent. To me, that's the SJSU coach. The only thing he hasn't done is played our schedule. But he's played some of the same teams we have played...with less talent than we have...CLOSER than we have. What might he do with better talent? (hoping he could also phone up Bill Parcells if need be to fly in for a little butt kicking when needed!:lol::asskicking: opcorn

 

[RuffBuff]

Granted I'm ignorant on hiscoaching resume other than a google search, but what is the entusiasm over Al Golden?

 

[Finest]

Youngstown State is a factory for coaches just for the record...