While finding the right coach is never easy, timing may help if BC makes a change this offseason. Due to recent coaching changes at other schools, very few elite jobs will be open this fall. For the first time in a long time, BC may be able to bring in an established name.
The supply and demand dynamic of college coaching is fairly unique. If you consider college and NFL assistants, there are literally more than 1,000 qualified coaches for 120 positions. And if you narrow the scope even further, there are only 60 jobs among the five power conferences. The industry is full of hyper-competitive guys looking to get their shot. That is why you still see people risk taking career killing jobs (like Al Golden going to Temple). Everybody wants a chance to be in charge. But if a school like BC doesn't want to take a flyer on an unproven or lessor known assistant, they usually have to wait in line. Because once a good coach gets a good job, he's not going to move unless the next job is clearly better. That pecking order comes into play when BC is looking for a coach at the same time as a power program.
Look at last season as an example. Both Ohio State and Penn State filled openings. Pretty good Pac 12 jobs at UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State all made new hires. UNC -- despite unresolved NCAA issues -- snagged an experienced coach. Plus there were a half a dozen other BCS conference openings filled this past offseason. If BC had made a change then, we probably would have competed for many of those same candidates and lost out.
But the mass changes the past two college football offseasons has created a new hiring cycle. Fewer elite football schools will be making a change this year. Look at the Hot Seat Ranking. What potentially open job is that much better than BC? Tennessee for certain. Maybe Cal. Texas Tech, Oregon State and Indiana may offer more money, but I think we offer a better "fit" for some coaches.
We feel the need to apologize for what BC is as a football school, but a shrewd coach will know what it can be. They see that TOB and Jags won at BC and know that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to win here. Heck, even Spaz has two winning seasons and is over .500 for his career. BC offers low expectations in a low pressure media environment. While not sitting in Florida or Texas, BC has access to decent recruiting territories. You can get enough talent to compete in the ACC. Recruiting is more restrictive than it might be at most BCS schools, but there is a flipside benefit to that. BC kids in general are coachable and hard working. Stanford and Baylor are the most recent examples that with the right guy leading the charge, you can sell academics and recruiting successfully.
The drawbacks to BC...we know them already: facilities, potentially meddlesome AD, smaller fanbase, obstacles to elite recruits, and money. Even though I think BC would pay more for an established name, we are never going to have the highest paid coach in the ACC. Rarely will our coach be in the top half of ACC salaries.
But none of those issues are insurmountable. If a coach wins, better facilities and money will come (see Coughlin, see TOB). Gene's reputation is for being Coach Flip, but I think a rough season from Spaz will neuter some of his power related to football. An established coach will demand more freedom.
Then there is the stepping stone issue. Once a guy wins at BC either other people come calling or the place starts to feel small. That's not going to change. What I hope does change is BC's approach. Let a new guy come in and win. We don't need a lifer or the next TOB. Just leave BC in a better place, give us some exciting football and keep close ties after you're gone. Call it the Tom Coughlin model.
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6 comments:
Didn't Tom Coughlin recruit the players who gambled on BC games?
Let's talk about the upcoming season and our players.
This other stuff is giving me heartburn.
Its not out of the realm of possibility that we may need to find a Spaz replacement sooner, rather than later. It may even come about that Spaz goes now, especially if somebody does some reporting on the alleged Rogers fist-fighting incident.
If that happens, I assume GDF, if he survives, will turn to Martin as the "interim" or his first choice for permanent HC. The interviews being given and the comments being made seem to be setting up Martin to take over. This gives GDF "continuity. They'll have to keep the almost all new staff. GDF hates to conduct searches and is really bad at it.
I wonder what the over/under would be on Spaz being HC against Miami?
This would allow GDF to survive and have all new people in place; i.e., a kind of rolling transition.
lenny, I would lay off the red wine before commenting :~)
No way Spaz is dismissed before the 2012 season. The Rogers thing is a big nothing.
The Rogers thing could be much bigger, if someone goes all "Woodward & Bernstein" on it. Sports reporting careers have been made on less.
One witness on the record would break the dam and it would all come out. It would be interesting to know if anyone got paid something based on keeping quiet?
As to the red wine, "...we ain't had that spirit here since 1975...". [grin]
Lenny -- the operative word is 1975. There might have been investigaticve journalists back then, but there are none now. And there certainly are virtually zero 'sports investigative journalists' ha!
Fear not, no one is 'investigating' the Rogers-Spaz spat. NO ONE CARES.
perhaps a few more lines from your song will shed some light;
"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
And in the master's [BOT]chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast [GDF]
Last thing I [BC alum] remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before [BC pre GDF]
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave! "
Spaz checked out long ago, but he has never left.
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