Who are your top 3 picks,after Clark obvi, jrake? Sorry if you've already stated it somewhere
let's do this in reverse. how did seth LittreLL get on gene taylor's radar? if i had to guess, it's the same way that every coach gets on every AD's radar: by "turning around" a bad program at a lesser school. this is how every fan base and i suspect most AD's begin their coaching search. and short-term win-loss record, i promise you, is the absolute worst way to evaluate a coach.
again, seth LittreLL has had a nice record at UNT. good for him. but he entered the CUSA when there were six and possibly seven other schools in a 13-team league that were total trainwrecks. if you play five or six games against awful teams - on top of a couple cupcake or fcs schools in the non-con - odds are good that you'll have a pretty decent record at least occasionally.
last year, it was lane kiffin's turn.
the year before, it was jeff brohm and bobby wilder's turn.
the year before, it was doc holliday's turn.
this year, it was bill clark's turn.
next year, it will be someone else's turn.
all you must do is play a bunch of bad to mediocre teams in coin-flip games, win some home games against truly inferior teams, have a few breaks go your way, throw in some variance (it's a 12-game schedule for crying out loud) and boom, you're turned around a program. it's not that hard. and it's a total freeroll. when you take over a winless or 1-win team, it's not like you can do worse. and usually a new coach will require a larger commitment to the program than the old coach got before taking the job. so you often have low expectations that can only be exceeded; a larger level of support from the administration (otherwise you wouldn't take the job); and you get breathing room from patient fans who know it'll be a process.
i consider seth LittreLL's time at UNT to be a proverbial 'discovery stint.' turner gill's was at buffalo. then KU hired him and he failed. al golden's was at temple. then miami hired him and he failed. darrel hazell's was at kent state. then purdue hired him and he failed. jim mcelwain's was at colorado st. then florida hired him and he failed. and the list goes on.
the coaches who seem to succeed after taking the 'next step' are those who have proven themselves for a prolonged period of time at one school, or at multiple lower-tier schools. chris petersen was at boise state for 10+ years before taking the washington job. dino babers led eastern illinois to the FCS playoffs and then took bowling green to 10 wins before turning around syracuse. brian kelly won national titles at grand valley state, then turned around central michigan, then took Cincy to back-to-back BCS bowls and
then got the Notre Dame job. i could go on and on with the successes and failures.
i don't have the necessary info to actually know who would be a good or bad hire. obviously if i was an AD, i would be leveraging my contacts - coaches, fellow ADs, etc - and trying to find out which coaches are rough ridin' geniuses; which coaches are turning in poor records but would actually perform much better if they had easier schedules, more support, better assistants, etc. nobody wanted david cutcliffe when he was 21-40 through five years. oh wait, that's not true. duke wanted him! they kept him. why? because they had the capacity to look beyond record and realize that this guy was super competent and knew how to build a program.
i guarantee you there are a dozen david cutcliffe's wallowing around CFB right now; coaches who would look a lot smarter in a more favorable situation. chris creighton at EMU might be one of them. but he'll never get a look. AD's fixate on "turnarounds" and highly deceptive win-loss records and performance across a small sample of games (often between 25-50 games), then go from there. and then, as has been the case roughly 50 times in the last three years, they're on the market looking for a new coach because the previous one failed.
if you made it this far, i would double dino babers' salary and bring him to k-state. he's the second-lowest paid coach in the ACC, he's won at three different places, he's coached in the big 12, he's energetic, has a great system, and is the right caliber of candidate for this job.
seth LittreLL would be a nice hire for tulsa.
