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Pick your top candidates for DC!

Choose your favorite of top 4 candidates (according to Rivals)

  • Gibbs

    Votes: 19 17.0%

  • Pendergast

    Votes: 61 54.5%

  • Orlando

    Votes: 13 11.6%

  • Seto

    Votes: 19 17.0%
  • Total voters
    112
Buffnik said:
DJ Durkin is a guy that I like more every time I think about it.

He's done at Florida after coaching the bowl game on an interim basis.

It also looks like a couple dominos would need to fall in order for him to be available:

1. If Harbaugh takes the Michigan job, it sounds like Durkin is his guy. Durkin coached under Harbaugh at Stanford before becoming DC at Florida.

2. Texas A&M, as the speculation goes, is targeting Durkin to be its defensive coordinator.

So it looks like for Durkin to become DC at CU that we'd need Harbaugh to decide to stay in the NFL and Texas A&M to pull the trigger on someone else rather than waiting.

I find myself hoping that CU backs into Durkin as a #1 option. After that, I probably like Pendergast #2 and I vacillate between Gibbs and Seto as my #3.

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/12/florida_defensive_coordinator.html

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...for-vacant-texas-am-defensive-coordinator-job
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How much money would it take to land him. He seems like the hottest name out there of the guys we've been talking about. I know Rick George is committed to finding the funds, but seems like this might be beyond our price point. Great get if we could land him, though.
 
lawdogg said:
How much money would it take to land him. He seems like the hottest name out there of the guys we've been talking about. I know Rick George is committed to finding the funds, but seems like this might be beyond our price point. Great get if we could land him, though.
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I have heard that it would not be an obstacle to pay a million dollars a year for this coordinator hire.
 
One question I'd have:

Was Durkin the brains behind that defense or was Muschamp? Muschamp is a proven DC obviously. It's always clearer to judge a DC who gets it done under an offensive minded HC. It's something a program would want to be sure of before spending big $$$. We learned these things at the "D2 Danny School of hard knocks"....
 
buffaholic said:
One question I'd have:

Was Durkin the brains behind that defense or was Muschamp? Muschamp is a proven DC obviously. It's always clearer to judge a DC who gets it done under an offensive minded HC. It's something a program would want to be sure of before spending big $$$. We learned these things at the "D2 Danny School of hard knocks"....
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Dan was never a coordinator, so it's different.

Maybe we can liken it to Oregon and the Kelly-Helfrich situation. Conventional wisdom was that it was Kelly's offense and Helfrich was given very little credit. That seems to have worked out ok for the Ducks.

Besides, Durkin was named ST Coordinator at Stanford before he'd even turned 30. Sharp dude.

All this is likely moot if Harbaugh has agreed to coach Michigan. Durkin will follow him there and then be in line for a big HC job within 2-3 years if they are successful.
 
Buffnik said:
Dan was never a coordinator, so it's different.

Maybe we can liken it to Oregon and the Kelly-Helfrich situation. Conventional wisdom was that it was Kelly's offense and Helfrich was given very little credit. That seems to have worked out ok for the Ducks.

Besides, Durkin was named ST Coordinator at Stanford before he'd even turned 30. Sharp dude.
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Well it's not different in one respect. I think a lot of people thought Hawkins was in charge there and a little digging might have found out the truth!

A lot of guys who are under-studies prove out to be great coaches. But there was some risk that Helfrich might be awful. Oregon probably didn't need to take that risk on a guy who had never been a head coach. But it worked out.

I concede it's likely Durkin is a bright guy who would be a monster to any program. But you got to interview "critically". Show me! Bohn didn't evidently.
 
buffaholic said:
Well it's not different in one respect. I think a lot of people thought Hawkins was in charge there and a little digging might have found out the truth!

A lot of guys who are under-studies prove out to be great coaches. But there was some risk that Helfrich might be awful. Oregon probably didn't need to take that risk on a guy who had never been a head coach. But it worked out.

I concede it's likely Durkin is a bright guy who would be a monster to any program. But you got to interview "critically". Show me! Bohn didn't evidently.
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Bohn's no longer in charge. I trust that we have a professional as AD now and I'm not going to stress out that he (or MacIntyre) are going to make ignorant, rookie mistakes like we've seen at CU in the past. I get why most of us automatically go to the thought that CU will do whatever stupid or incompetent thing we can think of, but I don't think it's fair to the people currently running the show.
 
Buffnik said:
I have heard that it would not be an obstacle to pay a million dollars a year for this coordinator hire.
Click to expand...
If that is true, we are going to get a top 5-10 DC on the market b/c that is a big boy salary. I read and posted here or elsewhere that Pendergast's salary at U$C as DC was 900k
 
Buffnik said:
Bohn's no longer in charge. I trust that we have a professional as AD now and I'm not going to stress out that he (or MacIntyre) are going to make ignorant, rookie mistakes like we've seen at CU in the past. I get why most of us automatically go to the thought that CU will do whatever stupid or incompetent thing we can think of, but I don't think it's fair to the people currently running the show.
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I agree RG is a bad ass and HCMM has shown mostly improvement across the board and clearly knows what he is doing. Recruiting has been less than ideal and a few of his staff were questionable from the beginning (some of us expressed that concern that with the salaries we were offering we could have started with a better slate).

But he seems legit too and canning Baer shows a lot. We are in good hands now.
 
boydbuff said:
I agree RG is a bad ass and HCMM has shown mostly improvement across the board and clearly knows what he is doing. Recruiting has been less than ideal and a few of his staff were questionable from the beginning (some of us expressed that concern that with the salaries we were offering we could have started with a better slate).

But he seems legit too and canning Baer shows a lot. We are in good hands now.
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We are in great hands with Rick in charge.....he plays to win, and we are talking championships.
 
Buffnik said:
Bohn's no longer in charge. I trust that we have a professional as AD now and I'm not going to stress out that he (or MacIntyre) are going to make ignorant, rookie mistakes like we've seen at CU in the past. I get why most of us automatically go to the thought that CU will do whatever stupid or incompetent thing we can think of, but I don't think it's fair to the people currently running the show.
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I'm not implying that at all btw. Just often I hear people say "we should look at so and so as his offense (or defense) is so good". Just need to scratch the surface a bit and the FL guy seems to have a lot of rep for a guy with only 2 years experience under a Defensive HC. That's all.
 
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Durkin would bring a sorely needed recruiting edge along with a career clearly on the upswing. Would be an impressive hire IMO.
 
BuffLuKe said:
Would it take a mil to get Durkin?
Click to expand...

Most likely. (All the numbers I'm getting are from USA Today's coach database). Durkin is making 500k at Florida. Mark Snyder (the guy A&M would like to have him take over for) was making 708k. If Dad Pants goes to the Raiders, you gotta think the Aggies are gonna offer Durkin somewhere in the neighborhood of what they were paying Snyder. I don't think Durkin is worth that kind of money-If you don't think Will Muschamp had a heavy hand in the defenses at Florida, especially after Dan Quinn left, you're kidding yourself. While coming out of nowhere to grab Durkin would definitely turn some heads, I'd feel better if we let Michigan and A&M fight over him, especially considering his former boss was a defensive minded head coach.

Here's a thought-I scrolled through that database, and found that Pete Kwaitkowski at Washington is making 485k. I gotta think we can top that figure easily. What about going that direction?
 
Fair point, but I'd argue throwing that type of money at a Pete Kwaitkowski from UW would just as impactful, if not more so. He has been Chris Petersen's coordinator since 2010. Hiring a DC away from another Pac 12 school has to open eyes on the recruiting trail. I'd feel much better throwing highest paid assistant in the Pac 12 money at him than Durkin. (That is currently Mike Norvell at ASU-makes 900k per USA today) If you don't think Muschamp has had a big part in the UF defenses the last few years, you're kidding yourself.
 
Who has a list of assistants that make a mil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Buffnik said:
Bohn's no longer in charge. I trust that we have a professional as AD now and I'm not going to stress out that he (or MacIntyre) are going to make ignorant, rookie mistakes like we've seen at CU in the past. I get why most of us automatically go to the thought that CU will do whatever stupid or incompetent thing we can think of, but I don't think it's fair to the people currently running the show.
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Nik, I have seen your comments here and on Rivals regarding the knee jerk reaction of fans to assume RG and HCMM are inept or have the same failings as our prior staff and administration.

I do agree with you, of course. BUT, there is one point here that to me hasn't been discussed enough as a justification for concern that HCMM may be too loyal.

Many lower-tier HC when they move to a B5 conference and get a salary pool competitive at that level, realize they need to surround themselves more with B5 level coaches. I saw Sparkles is certainly doing that in FL as opposed to bringing all his staff from CSU.

When HCMM did not do that, and instead brought 90% of his staff from SJSU, many of us expressed at that time, concern (I feel was legitimate on the surface anyway) that HCMM was not upgrading his staff to P12 level, where only a few had prior B5 experience (and one of those, Baer, had appeared to be kicked out of the B5 club a few years earlier and was on his way down).

This left an impression on some of us that perhaps he is too loyal b/c with those salaries he could have, and I think should have, upgraded his staff immediately, especially Baer, and PAC-level recruiters. But, at least now we can all feel happy that he is not too loyal that when performance is not there, he creates a soft landing and moves on and is going after top tier replacements.

It is possible he wanted to give everyone a legit shot to prove themselves before getting rid of them and maybe he told them that when they made the move to CU. The only really questionable thing to me now is Neinas since there has not been any whispers yet that he is on his way out. We all know we need some bad ass recruiters on this staff and we just lost one that showed lots of promise.
 
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Here's who I want for the next DC:

1. I want HCMM to have realized this year that he needs a better overall scheme to defend the zone-read dual-threat offenses that are running up 50 points on many defenses. HCMM has shown some willingness to adapt and blaze a trail, as he did when he hired Lundgren out of obscurity. That offense looks nothing like what HCMM would have been used to at UTjr, the NFL, or at Duke. This is one of the things I liked about him in the first place. So first and foremost, I hope HCMM has decided he needs a new bold system.

2. The new DC is the architect of the new system. He knows how to do this. Period. I hope HCMM has identified that to implement that new system he will bring in someone who is the architect of what he wants to do. And the new DC hires a staff to do it.

3. With HCMM's urging, there's a couple recruiters in that new D staff that can help the whole staff.
 
LaRussa's leaving makes crystal clear sense to me now (it was a bit confusing at first I admit).

By firing Baer, HCMM effectively fired the entire Defensive Staff. Their future here may involve the opportunity to re-interview for their job, or it may not.
 
I like your thought about the entire defensive staff effectively being fired. I would really like to see a big shake up on the D staff and I think a D coordinator who could bring his own guys would be great.

its really awesome we are going into spring ball with some new energy. It is time for our D to match the improvements we've seen in our O.

buffaholic said:
LaRussa's leaving makes crystal clear sense to me now (it was a bit confusing at first I admit).

By firing Baer, HCMM effectively fired the entire Defensive Staff. Their future here may involve the opportunity to re-interview for their job, or it may not.
Click to expand...
 
Was UW's D all that great? Anecdotally, I don't remember being wowed when we played them. I do like the idea of poaching inside the Pac. Is the UW guy the best choice for that?
 
It would be an awesome hire actually, just not happening. Washington was very good on defense this year.
 
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