Who Lurks?

Now for a look at the open jobs in college football…the potential candidates…and who I think the school SHOULD hire. Now… who I think the school should hire is a combination of money available, booster support, type of candidate (current coordinator, former/current head coach) and roots to the region.


Arizona State: They owe Dennis Erickson 750k next year. Which is pretty much nothing. ASU is finally coming out of the red because of the massive tv rights agreement that the Pac 12 just signed. (note that I’m amazed that Gene Smith gets a huge pass for all the giant things he has screwed up… ASU’s budget for 10 YEARS… the Ohio State football scandal) ASU won’t go back to the Boise State well again with Chris Peterson… they also are probably looking for a solution in the 1.5 to 1.8 million per year range. Rich Rod would have been a great fit here too, but their brothers to the south jumped all over him. June Jones makes some sense here… Larry Fedora is probably the better coach though. Houston’s Kevin Sumlin would be a home run of a hire. You could look to keep it in the family with bringing back an ASU assistant… but this is a program that needs a name. they NEED to sell tickets. Hiring a current (and successful) head coach would be big for them. Dennis Erickson was a nice hire, so Lisa Love (athletic director) can make it happen. Fact is, she has to as this is her 2nd time around for hiring a football coach. Most athletic directors don’t get to hire a 3rd coach in the same major sport and live to tell how it ends up.

My hire: Kevin Sumlin. Like I said, it would be the home run hire that the program needs.

Penn State: Oh, where to start with this one? Seriously… where do you start? Do we even know who is making this hire? Once that gets officially ironed out, you have to figure out who wants to take the job. Nobody wants to follow Joe Pa, much less deal with the scandal… you’re not going to get an established head coach to come here. I thought Al Golden would be the perfect fit… clearly he’s not going anywhere for a while. Which is not great news for the ACC because he’s a legit coach at a program that once (if) everything gets cleared up, will do just fine. I don’t think they’ll hire anyone with anything Penn State on their resume. Not sure that’s a good thing either as this FEELS like a hire that should be done with the Penn State family in mind, but I don’t blame them for going the other way either. I think they need to look for a guy with some big 10 roots, some knowledge of the area and a younger than average guy who isn’t afraid to come in and make a name for himself. Keep an eye out for a guy like Mike London from UVA too… I could see this being very appealing to him.
That being said, my hire would be Paul Chryst from Wisconsin. Younger than average… great coordinator that has a lot of respect in the conference. I don’t think he could turn down an opportunity like being the head coach of Penn State.

Washington State:What? You think Paul Wulff is going to be coaching there next week? Please… Yes, I know we’re not going in any particular order with these… just roll with it.
First off, nobody wants to be in Pullman on purpose. I’ve been there… too many times to want to remember. It is not an awesome place to be. Might be a great place to go to school because you are barely in the united states. Seriously… cell phones barely work there. It is brutal. I said it last time, I’ll say it again… just go hire Mike Price again. But you can’t do that… did you know that in 14 years at Washington State Mike Price was only 5 games above .500? Yea, not exactly an award winning performance. Sure he had some great memories, and for the good people of Pullman, that helps them sleep at night. But he’s not the answer. If Washington State wants to pay someone more than 600k per year (really, that’s where they are currently at), then they could land someone decent. But if they want to continue to be the worst program in the Pac 12, well… then call up Drew Bledsoe and see if he’ll come hang out for a while. At least the fans will have something to talk about. It doesn’t help that Boise State is winning and they have almost as terrible facilities. See, it isn’t so much that the head coach makes 600k… it that your assistants, the people that truly run the program, aren’t getting paid squat. THAT is really the problem.

I keep reading that Mike Leach is in play here. That would be the best thing to ever happen to that program. That being said… I doubt he works for 600k… double that and you have a chance at landing the mad scientist. Then you could have something…. At some point you have to try… and that’s who I’d roll with. Hire Mike Leach. Turn him loose (not too loose though) and see what you have. At the very least you should get to a bowl game more than twice a decade or so… right? If not, at least Mike Leach talks a big game and people notice him. There are worse things than putting your program in the news… unless you’re touching little boys. (just saying)