How would Nebraska conduct coaching search?

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

OWH

 

NU Football: How would Nebraska conduct search?

BY RICH KAIPUST

WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

 

LINCOLN - Nobody knew that the University of Minnesota and Tubby Smith were talking. Technically, they were not.

 

Wink-wink.

 

"I'm proud to say that until the day before we hired Tubby Smith that nobody knew we were going to hire Tubby Smith," Minnesota Athletic Director Joel Maturi said.

 

The Golden Gophers used a search firm, or "headhunter," to initiate contact last January with the agent for Smith, then head basketball coach at Kentucky. Maturi had ensuing conversations with the agent. He honored the unwritten rule that you don't bother a coach while he's still coaching.

 

Until the time the hire was made March 22, it had been kept out of the newspapers. Smith was never asked about any connection between himself and the Minnesota job. Maturi is sure that it would have broken down had word leaked and Smith been put on the spot.

 

Maturi said the confidentiality made retaining a search firm well worth it.

 

"I assure you," he said, "that Tubby Smith would not be basketball coach at Minnesota if we hadn't used one."

 

The World-Herald interviewed three major-college athletic directors who have used search firms to approach football or basketball candidates. All agreed that the biggest plus was that it left no visual evidence of the two sides meeting or paper trail of the sides talking.

 

"You've got to have a little secrecy," said Lee Fowler of North Carolina State. "Different athletic directors do it different ways, but you don't contact the other coach directly without some interest being established first."

 

It's relevant because it could be a possible route chosen by Tom Osborne at Nebraska, if the interim athletic director decides against keeping head coach Bill Callahan. Osborne reiterated through NU spokesman Randy York on Tuesday that his evaluation won't conclude until after the Nov. 23 regular-season finale at Colorado.

 

"Tom has made it clear that he has not contacted anyone about the head coaching position," said York, the Huskers' associate athletic director for communications. "We have not and will not comment on details of our coaching staff evaluation, or anything that may or may not be connected to it."

 

North Carolina State's Fowler could have been asked if he had approached Jim O'Brien last November and honestly said he had not. O'Brien eventually left Boston College to take over the Wolfpack football program.

 

Gene Chizik initially could have been asked if he had been contacted by somebody from Iowa State last November and replied no. The Texas co-defensive coordinator a few weeks later was hired as the Cyclones' head coach.

 

Call it dirty work nobody ever sees. Conversations nobody ever hears.

 

"So many people now are working with search firms," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "The search firm calls the coach and talks to him, basically off the record. In our case, Gene came to me immediately to say he'd been contacted by a search firm. And in some cases, they're not even mentioning the school."

 

Athletic Director Jamie Pollard declined a request to discuss how Iowa State carried out its search and if the nuts and bolts of it started before or after Dan McCarney announced his resignation on Nov. 7. Chizik eventually interviewed the day after Texas' regular-season finale and took the Cyclones' job the next day.

 

Chuck Neinas of Neinas Sports Services said there is no template for the search process.

 

"It depends on the institution, the structure, who's involved," said Neinas, who said he has not been retained by NU or Osborne, an old friend. "I just roll with the punches and do what they want me to do."

 

Neinas said athletic directors come to him with a list. His job is to augment it with others, maybe throw in a name or two of somebody the A.D. never thought might be interested or available.

 

"A misconception of most fans is that these firms are hiring the people," Fowler said. "They're really just facilitating what's going on. They're just there to knock down some barriers."

 

Athletic directors who spoke with The World-Herald said preliminary work by search firms is to gauge interest and gather information: What area of the country would the candidate work in or not work in? What type of contract would interest him? What sort of buyout is involved with his current contract?

 

Fowler said when the process is "up and running full speed," the headhunter is making a lot of the calls and accepting applications. The A.D. and candidate might not even talk until the latter stages. Nothing will happen on campus, either. Too risky.

 

Both Fowler and Minnesota's Maturi, who recently have hired both football and basketball head coaches, said the process isn't foolproof. It can be gummed up by trustees, regents or faculty wanting a piece of the process, high-profile boosters wanting to make some calls.

 

"The more people that get involved," Fowler said, "the better chance you guys (news media) get word of rumors."

 

Fowler said there have been times a university has asked a search firm to make some contacts, then decided it can't find somebody it would be happy with and stuck with its current head coach.

 

"That's another advantage of having somebody out there testing the waters for you," he said.

 

In general conversations, Maturi had two people tell him last winter that they thought Tubby Smith might be ripe for a change. By coincidence, the head of the search firm he hired - Dan Parker of Atlanta-based Baker-Parker and Associates - was a Georgia graduate who knew Smith, a former Bulldogs coach.

 

"I had many conversations with his lawyer/agent, as did the search firm," Maturi said. "Some people might question the legitimacy of that, but you would never be able to get anywhere if you didn't have that."

 

Because of Smith's track record, Maturi felt no need to make calls on him, further helping him cheat the rumor mill. It wasn't the same with Minnesota's football hire, Tim Brewster, a Denver Broncos assistant who had never been a head coach.

 

Fowler used a search firm in finding O'Brien as N.C. State football coach. He bypassed search firms in hiring Sidney Lowe as basketball coach.

 

"The only reason I didn't in basketball," Fowler said, "was having been in basketball, and having chaired the (Division I) committee, I knew coaches and could get to them and find out who's there.

 

"Now, basketball took me 33 days. Football took 12 days."