TonkaSker

On 10/7/2022 at 9:46 AM, Red Five said:

 

I know Brohm went to Louisville, but a BIG/SEC coach is not going to voluntarily leave for a mid-tier ACC/Big12/PAC job. 

About that

Notes from today's Split Zone Duo

- Agent pool has discussed Rhule, Monken, and Patterson more than others, although there are others.

- Terms that keep coming up for candidates are "organization" and "discipline"

Discussed at length that this has been a quiet and professionally operated search. It's probably not a coincidence that those three names belong to three coaches that you can feasibly vet/interview/hire before year-end. Based on how the search has operated, it's likely that it will continue past Iowa and we'll hear the names of sitting head coaches at that time.

Not much new, but it's nice to hear that Trev is probably one of/the most respected AD in the marketplace.

4 minutes ago, huskerpower22 said:

 

You should trust Trev, he has not given you a reason not to. Besides, this has been on every level an amazing coaching search. We are 60+ days in and no one has a clue. Even when the hire is made we cannot judge the hire until year 2. I know I am anti-pessimist but its true. One could never a have a meaningful relationship with anyone if you always think they are going to cheat on you. You have to give it a chance.

This has been the consensus coming out of agent/coaching circles. 

The stadium atmosphere is BAD. 

I've been to about 8 P5 stadiums in the last two years in addition to ours and I could barely believe how bad the stadium experience is.

It's one of the quietest I've been to recently. Results matter, but there's no reason for it with 86k.

The music is also ridiculous. They'll play 8 seconds of three different songs back-to-back. It's totally discombobulating

29 minutes ago, talaricohusker said:

Can’t get enough of this guy 

Isn't this guy just a nurse in wisconsin? Saw a big thread on another board but I can't find it again

34 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Senior Day this weekend.  Will be interesting to see who walks.  

 

Can't come back - Manning, Martin, Vokolek, Bando, Hixon, Drew, Mauga-Clements, Tannor, Kolarvic

1 year left (would be seniors this year w/o free Covid year) - Thompson, Grant, Palmer, Washington, Anthony, Nouili, Williams, Wynn, Reimer, Mathis, Nelson, Brown, Clark, Johnson, Newsome

 

Also, it will be interesting to see what the new coach does with the 1 year left crew.  Honestly, I would be VERY selective, probably tell almost all to go somewhere else.  If you want to flip the culture, you need an infusion of new players.

Guys I see coming back

NFL (for better or worse)

Transfer out

20 minutes ago, Farms said:

Interesting that they think Mickey is a real candidate for ASU.

My understanding is that it's a little past speculation, but I don't see him getting the job over Derek Mason or Kenny Dillingham who are both local to AZ and more qualified.

Some info on other openings per Split Zone Duo:

Colorado is going after Tom Herman and there's mutual interest. if they get a no then they'll likely hire Bronco Mendenhall. I feel like Tom could do better.

Arizona State has run a really poor search and has Mickey at 1A. AD may still get fired, which seems odd to me because they've already wasted a ton of time. Apparently the guy set up a meeting with a search firm and ghosted them? Odd. Sounds like Derek Mason is also in play here, then Kenny Dillingham gets a call.

Auburn is Lane's if he wants it, which is the only real question at this point. 

Georgia Tech is kicking the tires on Brent Key as full-time. Bill Clark is supposedly interested in this one.

UAB belief is that UAB already hired someone full-time but agents don't seem to know who it is. Not Dan Mullen. Tyson Helton keeps coming up. Apparently swung at Tom Herman. Went after Clay Helton last year. Sounds like they'll probably do better than Tyson but we'll see. "If you're texting 'you up?' to Tom Herman and Dan Mullen you don't land on Tyson Helton".

USF is just starting so there's not a lot of chatter. The circumstances are there for Jon Gruden to return to coaching (lol) but it would only happen if boosters took over the athletic department.

Hot Seats

WVU: $20mm buyout and the money is available. Needs another win to survive, maybe two.

Stanford: If Shaw goes it happens on his terms. The issues here aren't his fault and the administration needs to figure it out before anyone's interested. Regarded as the hardest job in the P5. There's probably only 100 kids in the country that qualify academically and you're still competing with ND, Michigan, etc. No NIL, no portal. Yikes! Mike Bloomgren is supposed to be heir apparent but he hasn't even made a bowl at Rice. Derek Mason and Jim Clawson also interested, somehow.

Tulsa: Retaining Montgomery probably, but Eric Morris (OC Wazzu) and Incarnate Word HC G.J. Kinney are in play as is Matt Wells. 

Texas State: Spav might stick around but they have serious athletic department issues. Need a McGuire/Traylor hire.

UTEP: Dimel sticks around if they bowl and <50% he does if they don't. 

Navy: Better beat Army! Ken is in a David Shaw situation and Navy is also facing similar perception issues in coaching circles.

Mizzou: Apparently they're confident based on recruiting but people are skeptical. A lot of WTF in agent circles about the extension/raise.

Louisville: Should have pulled trig in September because wins have made it complicated. 2/3 down the stretch keeps him around.

Syracuse: People were chipping in for the buyout before the season so the money is there but he's probably safe unless they lose out. 

Bowling Green: Nobody likes him but he's alive. Coaches were being vetted 2 weeks ago but he keeps getting away with it.

Ohio: Hot seat prior but he's getting extended.

Arkansas St: Looking at next year if they don't bowl. 

Iowa: Keep an eye on Iowa! 

Memphis: Needs to win out.

UL-Monroe: Bowden might step into the AD job as a way to leave. Supposedly the hardest AD job in the FBS.

"Really important they make a bowl game" - Rice/UNLV/FAU.

1 hour ago, runningblind said:

I will input my completely uneducated guess on page 509 and say it's gonna be one of these four:

Matt Cambell

Mickey Joseph

Mike Locksley

Bryan Harsin

 

If you made me handicap it, I am saying either Mickey Joseph or Matt Campbell.  Campbell may have verbally agreed to it last December.

Woof

6 minutes ago, M.A. said:

I’ll still contend that this is between Rhule and Stoops. Dave Doeren would be good. He’s an underrated coach. I’m not sure how well Leipold recruits here. I have reservations with Monken. Patterson doesn’t seem to jive.  Campbell is a no for sure. 
 

if it’s between Rhule and Stoops we should be stoked. 

I’ve heard Doeren wants back into the Midwest and Nebraska would be a great fit. Guy’s put a lot of OL/DL into the league and has scraped a good season together with a true freshman QB. A lot of teams would fold if the starter went down. 

I’ve also got reservations with Monken but I can overcome them. Guy’s got a great philosophy and he’s not bringing the triple with him, so it would probably play well in the Midwest 

Was gonna post a rundown of SZD but @Red Five beat me to it and now I can't delete it!

18 minutes ago, Red Five said:

 

He's had 2 winning conference seasons in 10 years.  .400 conference winning percentage.  He has finished in the top 25 twice in 10 years.  He also plays only 8 conference games/year in the easier side of the conference.  He has 4 wins built into his schedule each year (3 cupcakes + Vandy).

 

Yes, that is much better than Nebraska the past 8 years.  But that doesn't make him a "great coach".

There's a bit more to it than the overall record. Guy took over a team that went 0-8 in conference and hadn't had a winning conference record since 1977. Since getting the program stabilized he's had a solid conference record. I don't mean to cherry pick, but it's an unprecedented string of success. 

Also won 4 straight bowl games which is something you only see great coaches do. I'm not saying the guy's Nick Saban, but he's a great coach that's won at one of the harder places to do it, historically.

32 minutes ago, sho said:

 

Quick google search,  because I remember hearing/reading about it when it first happened.  It flared up and died almost as quickly.  Not sure how reliable this tweeter is but, there was some definitely some  chatter on message boards stating that a meeting with TA and Bieniemy took place.   

 

I re-read the quote from Moglia, you're right, he doesn't say Chadwick was contacted.  I infer he, or his people, had been contacted, but no reports of it.

The only difference between the platinum board and here is that you pay $9.99/mo for it. 

8 minutes ago, Red Five said:

 

Agree to disagree.

That's fine, but I'll make a case.

Kentucky football has (4) 10+ win seasons: 1950, 1977, 2018, 2021. It's a hard place to win and he's made it consistently top-25.

Kentucky had never recruited in the top-5 in the SEC until last year, because of Stoops who's a great recruiter and because of his staff, who are also great recruiters.

Stoops convinced boosters to support NIL for football despite it being one of the premier basketball schools, so he's obviously a good fundraiser.

You can look at this season and say it's disappointing but the entire sample speaks for itself. They're also still 6-3, which I would crawl through glass for at this point. Mickey is great, but there are probably four Mickeys on Stoops' staff as far as elite recruiting and proven development go. Guy's got a network.

Just now, sho said:

 

I know Eric Beiniemy was contacted.   That was discussed early on, after Frost was fired.   Not sure if it was to get input (TA said he was going to reach out to a lot of people and get feedback) and I believe it was Joe Moglia that tweeted out that Chadwich had been contacted as well.  So now we are down to 8 contacted that aren't on the list.  

Source on Bieniemy? I haven't seen that confirmed anywhere. He hasn't been listed on any of the actual reports.

And Moglia isn't reliable. If that were true it would have been confirmed by someone in media, not the guy's buddy. He never said that Chadwell was contacted by nebraska. His words were "linked to the job" in response to Chadwell's name being on all the lists immediately following Frost getting fired.

Back to 10

3 minutes ago, HuskerNation1 said:

 

I would move Deboer to Tier 1 and put Stoops in Tier 2 or 3. I also would also move Patterson up.  He has the longest and most consistent head coaching record at the P5 level.  

DeBoer has two full years of FBS head coaching experience and has an extremely experienced QB, which covers up a lot of gaps in coaching. I want to see a larger sample size but I can agree based on his record at lower levels.

Stoops is a great coach and is having a tough year with Levis banged up. Tier I/II fringe probably but I'd err on the side of Tier I since he knows how to run a big time program well.

Patterson has shown to be extremely resistant to change from a program standpoint and feasted on exploiting weaknesses in the air raid. Not sure his scheme would translate. My disqualifying fact about Patterson is that in 21 years at TCU he didn't fire a single assistant. His last four years at TCU ended 7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 3--5. Guy's toast

2 minutes ago, Hayseed said:

But maybe there are ten guys who were contacted who are not on that list?

Yeah sure, but how am I supposed to know who they are? Lol

Just now, TGHusker said:

So of those confirmed contacts, my preference is in this order:

Rhule

O'Brien

Doeren

Leipold

Monken

Patterson as one of the above's DC

Hard to poke holes in that but I think Doeren is coaching his tail off this year. Seems written off by a lot around here.

Ton of expectations, starting QB goes down, and they're still extremely competitive after giving a true freshman a week to figure it out.

Give me Doeren and MJ Morris with three more years of eligibility.

I wanted to update the matrix i put out a couple weeks ago. Left to right is most to least, so there is an order.

Some obvious candidates removed or absent as I don't see them coming whatsoever. I'd say theres a >1% chance any of these guys would say yes if asked.

32 minutes ago, Nebhawk said:

Why hasn't the name Willie Fritz been thrown out there for conversation?  WE have named about every coach that has done something in the last 10 years, but him?

I like Fritz. He was 1/3 finalists for Kansas last year. Guy I’d like to see get a shot in the P5 if it isn’t here. 

1 hour ago, Red Silk Smoking Jacket said:

 

Weren't those just reporters throwing crap against the wall like all of us are? I don't think they know anything more than anyone else.

there’s a difference between reporting and editorial that a lot of people lose sight of during coaching searches because there’s a lot of overlap. 
 

I can say with a high degree of certainty that report was legit. There’s been contact between those guys and someone involved with the search committee. Has there been an offer? Probably not, but it’s probably the first real piece of news. 

Feldman and a few other guys make a living breaking news, not speculating. Like I said, he probably knows more than he’s confirming here but he doesn’t want to put up too much smoke and ruin the search process for Trev and not get the scoop. 

Seems like a lot of people glossed over the list that was on footballscoop and confirmed by Feldman on Saturday, which was Rhule, Patterson, Bill O'Brien, and Jeff Monken.

One thing all these guys have in common: it's not surprising that any of them are looking for work and their employers won't drive up the price.

Rhule: Unemployed

Patterson: Currently rehabbing his image as an analyst

Bill O'Brien: Saban school for wayward boys

Monken: Interviewed at Kansas and Illinois this past offseason

If someone were to leak, say Leipold to this job it would raise serious red flags to KU's admin and drive up the price. This is the case with any sitting head coach not named Monken, who's been released to interview for other jobs in the past. It would be bad business for anyone interested in scooping this job to ruin their relationship with their NU source this early on, so it's likely to assume that Trev has a longer list than those four and Mickey. 

5 hours ago, huskerfan74 said:

What do you guys think about Liberty’s Hugh Freeze? I am also afraid to ask about Gus Malzan since he is coaching UCF and we know what happened last time we hired UCF’s HC. We were vodoodolled.

freeze cant even handle criticism from randoms on twitter. He would last five minutes at Nebraska before embarrassing himself

Here's my take on the status of every candidate:

These could get announced before EOY:

Mickey: Win this weekend and we might be talking about removing the tag sunday. Two more wins this year and it seems like a lock. Might happen sunday if we beat Minn.

Rhule: Definitely spoken. Out of the running at Auburn which means he's either coming or not coaching. He's supposedly in Ireland enjoying his buyout.

Urban: Tick tock. Not sure why he'd want to make things harder on himself by taking a job closer to NSD. Don't see him choosing us over Auburn if he wants to coach.

Monken: Trev's son goes to Army so it might be a consultation deal. Monken has tried getting out of Army for a few years (was a candidate at Kansas/Illinois) and the chop block rules have all but killed the triple, so I'd be surprised if he didn't take a low-level P5/G5 job this offseason. 

Patterson: Probably just feeling things out or consulting. He's not getting any more smoke here than he is at ASU.

Petersen: Not happening. Boise and UW have opened since he left UW and he isn't leaving that area. 

If it's any of these, we won't know until Nov 27th+:

Aranda: No idea what to make of these rumors but I feel like it's a lot of wishful thinking. Makes just as much sense as it doesn't. 

Bielema: No smoke right now.

Leipold: OUT, per Bishop and Petersen.

Kleiman: OUT, per Bishop and Petersen.

Campbell: OUT, per Bishop and Petersen.

Kiffin: Would be jeopardizing the Bama job he wants if he takes this one. Would also be extremely cost inhibitive since there'd be a bidding war with Auburn.

52 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Drops a few names.   And I swear to god if we hire Jeff Monken I'm done with the team.

 

I totally understand the sentiment but Monken is a great coach. "Wait until he gets Nebraska's resources" is a cliche but at Army you can't even practice five days a week. If a player that goes to your school ends up in the NFL it's because they had a freak growth spurt. It's hard to grade these guys due to the circumstances but Monken has like half of Army's bowl appearances all time.

He's a guy I'd rate higher than Mickey, especially if his cousin Todd comes on as OC out of Georgia. Hopefully it doesn't get to that point and we don't have to have these conversations. Guy will eventually get a shot at a school where you can build an actual roster and he'll be great, but I'd rather it not be here. Philosophy, teaching, development, guy's got an incredible record and reputation. I'm excited to see what he can do at a P5 school where his linemen can be 6-6 320.