Seven Coaches to Consider

[husker rob]

Seven more coaches for your consideration

BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

Sunday, Nov 18, 2007 - 12:39:25 am CST

Tom Osborne says he’s still evaluating. Everyone else keeps prognosticating.

 

It’s become the recent hobby of many in the state — trying to guess who will be the next football coach at Nebraska.

 

Of course, that little game of predictorama revolves around the rather major assumption that Osborne is going to dismiss Bill Callahan as head coach shortly after Friday’s Colorado game.

 

We do know that the interim athletic director will meet with Callahan and his staff on Saturday. It’s anticipated an announcement about the future of that staff will come shortly after.

 

But the only thing certain right now is that speculation and rumor are going to dominate in the days that follow.

 

If it does come to looking for a new coach, Osborne has offered clues about what would catch his eye.

 

On Oct. 30, during NETV’s “Big Red Wrap-up,” Osborne was asked to explain the criteria he would consider in any evaluation of a coaching staff.

 

“First of all, you’re looking for sound people,” Osborne said. “Are they good people with good character?”

 

Experience and ability to motivate would be key, he said.

 

“You have to know the game, and the coaches we have now know the game. I don’t have any question about that part of it.”

 

Added Osborne: “Sometimes you can know X’s and O’s, but you still have to be able to get players to really want to play for you. To play hard and play hard all of the time.”

 

So what coaches out there might catch Osborne’s attention?

 

Bo Pelini and Turner Gill have had their names bandied about a great deal. Husker Extra examined both of their coaching histories in a story on Nov. 8.

 

This time, we look closely at seven other popular coaching names, evaluating their pros and cons.

 

No. 1: Brian Kelly, Cincinnati head coach

 

Kelly, 46, came into this season, his first at Cincinnati, with a 137-51-2 record as a head coach.

 

He won two Division II titles as head coach at Grand Valley State. The Lakers were 41-2 in his final three years there.

 

Kelly then spent three years at Central Michigan, guiding a previously dormant program to nine wins and a MAC championship in his third year.

 

Why is he worth a look: He’s won everywhere he’s been. You could draw comparisons between Kelly and Jim Tressel, who coached in a lower division before Ohio State hired him.

 

Kelly made the Division II playoffs in six of the 13 seasons he coached at Grand Valley State.

 

He transformed Central Michigan and had Cincinnati (8-2) ranked No. 22 entering this weekend.

 

“We’re going to win a championship here right away,” Kelly told reporters in his first press conference as Cincinnati’s coach. “We have a five-minute plan here.”

 

The Massachusetts native runs the spread offense. His most impressive victory this year is probably a win over South Florida.

 

Cincinnati came into the weekend ranking 18th in scoring offense and eighth in scoring defense.

 

“He’s a salesman, is what he is,” Grand Valley State coach Chuck Martin told ESPN.com. “Whether it’s Grand Valley State or Central Michigan or Cincinnati, he has kids believing they can move mountains. His No. 1 strength is offense. His No. 2 strength is how good he is politically at getting people to believe in his program. He sells it door to door, which not a lot of coaches will do.

 

“I remember at Central Michigan, somebody asked him how long the rebuilding cycle would be. He said, ‘About 10 seconds.’ ”

 

Reason to have doubts: The son of a Boston politician is yet to work in an environment like the one that surrounds Nebraska football, where every move is put under the microscope.

 

No. 2: Chris Petersen, Boise State head coach

 

Petersen, 43, has been the head coach of Boise State since 2006, leading them to an undefeated season and a BCS win over Oklahoma in his first season.

 

Before that, he was an assistant at Boise State, Oregon, Portland State and Pittsburgh.

 

While offensive coordinator at Boise from 2001-05, he was twice nominated for the Frank Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant.

 

Why he’s worth a look? Coming into this Saturday, he has a head coaching record of 22-1.

 

As offensive coordinator at BSU, his teams averaged 41.3 points per game.

 

Want creativity? Just look at last year’s Fiesta Bowl and Petersen will show it to you. Any college football follower can easily recall Petersen running a Statue-of-Liberty trick play on a two-point conversion to beat OU in overtime.

 

Before this weekend, his Boise State team ranked fourth in scoring offense in the country.

 

His defense ranked ninth nationally in total defense and 18th in scoring defense, despite a game in which the Broncos gave up 67 points in a four-overtime victory over Nevada.

 

In an interview with College Sports TV, Petersen said: “… I know a lot of people kind of pride themselves on having this humongous playbook, having all these plays going into a game. We don’t — we narrow it down so these kids can manage it and learn it and execute it.”

 

Reason to have doubts: Obviously, Petersen showed that he could take down Goliath on a given night last year. But many of his wins have come against WAC-conference foes.

 

As Dan Hawkins, former Boise State coach has found out, winning in the WAC does not mean you’ll immediately win in the Big 12. Dirk Koetter, who also succeeded at Boise State, struggled to win when he left for Arizona State.

 

No. 3: Bud Foster, Virginia Tech defensive coordinator

 

Foster, 48, has been a coach at Virginia Tech since 1987. Before that, he was an assistant at Murray State from 1981-86 under Frank Beamer.

 

Why he’s worth a look: Foster’s Virginia Tech “Lunch Pail” defenses are almost always among the best in the country.

 

In 2005 and 2006, the Hokies led the country in total defense. He received the Broyles Award in 2006 as the country’s top assistant.

 

Foster became Virginia Tech’s defensive coordinator in 1995. Since then, the Hokies have seven times been in the top 10 nationally in total defense.

 

The Virginian-Pilot asked Foster at the end of last season why he thinks no one has given him a shot as head coach yet.

 

“I’ve tried to answer that a lot of ways, a lot of times,” Foster said. “Maybe the timing’s not right. I just don’t know. It baffles me.”

 

One reason, perhaps, as he told the Washington Post last year, is “there’s a push to hire offensive guys.”

 

Foster’s agent, Bob Latinville, told the Virginian-Pilot that there are coaches who will tell you Foster is the best X’s-and-O’s guy around.

 

But because schools tend to try to hire guys who have already been head coaches, sometimes coordinators like Foster get lost in the commotion.

 

“There are programs that all they need is the right injection of excitement, energy and attitude,” Foster told the Virginian-Pilot. “I know what I can bring to the table, as far as leadership, motivation, organization and who I could bring as a staff. If somebody wants to hire a guy to direct their program in the right direction, I can bring that. I learned from the best.”

 

Reason to have doubts: Foster looks like a great hire, but would you hire him over guys like Kelly or Petersen, people who have already worn the head coach’s headset?

 

No. 4: Will Muschamp, Auburn defensive coordinator

 

A Georgia native, the 36-year-old lettered four years as a safety for the Georgia Bulldogs (1991-94).

 

After college, Muschamp quickly rattled off assistant jobs at West Georgia, Eastern Kentucky, Valdosta State, before hitting the big-time and becoming a coach for LSU and Nick Saban in 2001. He became the team’s defensive coordinator a year later and the team won the national title in 2003.

 

He followed Saban to the NFL in 2005, serving as an assistant head coach for the defense of the Miami Dolphins.

 

In 2006, he took the job as defensive coordinator of Auburn.

 

Why he’s worth a look: An excitable defensive coordinator in that Bo Pelini mode, Muschamp has been leaned on heavily by coaches like Nick Saban and Tommy Tuberville.

 

His 2003 defense was a big reason why LSU won a national title that year.

 

And his Auburn defense is about as stingy they come. It only gave up 21 touchdowns in 2006, ranking eighth nationally in scoring defense. Going into this week’s play, the Tigers ranked 11th in the country in total defense.

 

“He’s one of the brightest young coaches in the country, and I think he would make a tremendous coach for somebody,” Saban said, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “He’s one of the best I’ve ever been around.”

 

Reason to have doubts: There’s no arguing that Muschamp’s a ball of fire on the sidelines. The YouTube clips are out there to prove it.

 

“Look at him on Saturday,” Auburn’s Quentin Groves told the Times Free Press. “He will have dry-erase marker all over his face, and he’ll have blood somewhere on his hand because he’s already broken a board.”

 

While such an attitude can benefit a defensive coordinator, is he ready to be the cool-headed CEO of a football program? He might need to prove he can get it done as the head guy at another school before getting his shot in a BCS conference.

 

No. 5: Jim Grobe, Wake Forest head coach

 

Grobe, 55, proved himself as an assistant coach at Marshall and Air Force before landing the head coaching job at Ohio in 1995.

 

He left the Bobcats in 2001 for Wake Forest.

 

Why he’s worth a look: Anybody who can make Wake Forest respectable in football can obviously coach a bit.

 

In a basketball town, Grobe got the locals jazzed about football last year, guiding the Demon Deacons to an ACC crown. The 11-win season was capped by an Orange Bowl victory.

 

Grobe’s work earned him several national coach-of-the-year awards.

 

“When people used to see Wake Forest on the schedule, they used a pen to mark down a ‘W,’ ” Grobe said. “We’re at the point now where we at least make them use a pencil.”

 

The Demon Deacons were 26-63 in the eight seasons before he got there. Since he’s been coach, not counting Saturday, Wake Forest has gone 43-39.

 

Grobe has shown great flexibility in his coaching, capable of switching his offensive schemes on the fly to best serve the talent around him.

 

Ohio was one of the worst football programs in the country when Grobe took it over. The Bobcats hadn’t won a game the season before he became head coach.

 

But Grobe brought respectability to the program, leaving there with a record of 33-33-1.

 

According to The News & Observer in Charlotte, N.C., Wake athletic director Ron Wellman heard about Grobe from East Carolina AD Mike Hamrick.

 

“He said, ‘If you are ever in the market for a football coach, you need to take a look at Jim Grobe.’”

 

Reason to have doubts: The way he’s rebuilt two programs is admirable, but is he the right guy to come to a program where they expect about 10 wins every year?

 

Also, with Grobe being 55, you wonder if Nebraska will be looking for a younger hire.

 

No. 6: Paul Johnson, Navy head coach

 

Johnson, 50, came up as an assistant at Georgia Southern, Hawaii and Navy.

 

He returned to Georgia Southern in 1997 as head coach, going 62-10 in five seasons and capturing Division I-AA national championships there in both 1999 and 2000.

 

In 2002, he made the jump back to major-college football, taking over as head coach at Navy.

 

Why he’s worth a look: He’s another proven winner, and he’s done it by running the triple option.

 

After a 2-10 season in his first year at Navy, Johnson’s teams won at least eight games in each of the last four years. There were also two bowl wins in that time.

 

“We don’t have a playbook,” Johnson told the San Diego Union-Tribune before his team’s bowl game two years ago. “I found that if you have playbooks, they end up on eBay and everywhere else.”

 

Johnson’s offense doesn’t need more than a few plays to confuse defenses and put up huge yardage totals.

 

Navy is on its way to leading the country in rushing for the fourth time in Johnson’s six seasons.

 

Hmmm … Sounds kind of familiar to folks around here.

 

Yes, some critics will argue that Johnson’s run-oriented offense is not balanced enough to work at a school in a major conference.

 

To those critics, Johnson might tell them that his offense’s formation could just as easily produce a high-powered passing game if it had the right personnel.

 

“In fact, this could possibly be the best passing offense ever,” Johnson told the Union-Tribune. “Because when you run the option, it limits what (defenses) can do coverage-wise, and you can get all kinds of one-on-one matchups.”

 

So why does hardly anyone run the triple option?

 

“I think there’s a couple of reasons: One, I don’t think they understand it,” Johnson said. “I think they see it and hear ‘option’ and think that’s 3 yards and a cloud of dust, which couldn’t be further from the truth.”

 

Johnson’s success has generated a lot of speculation about him moving locales. Last year, North Carolina State reportedly had an interest in him.

 

“Paul Johnson has the best job in the country,” Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk recently told the Baltimore Sun. “What fans do is speculate on a position in a desperate program. But the fans are the last to know. Any athletic director who has his act together does not share with any one what he’s thinking about his next hire.”

 

Reason to have doubts: While Johnson’s offense has rolled over foes, his defense has often gotten flattened this year.

 

Coming into this weekend, opposing teams had already scored more than 40 points against Navy six times this year.

 

Do you look at a guy whose team gave up 59 to Delaware and 62 to North Texas?

 

No. 7: Gary Patterson, Texas Christian head coach

 

First, and maybe the toughest thing for Husker fans to accept, is that Patterson, 47, played for Kansas State.

 

After his playing days, he worked his way up as an assistant at schools like Tennessee Tech, UC Davis, Cal Lutheran, Pittsburg (Kan.) State, Sonoma (Calif.) State, Utah State and Navy.

 

He got his break in 1996, when he was given the chance to prove himself as a defensive coordinator at New Mexico.

 

In 1998, he became the defensive coordinator at TCU, taking over the head coaching duties there in 2000.

 

Why he’s worth a look: Coming into this season, Patterson had put together four 10-win seasons in the past five years.

 

He’s made eight bowl games in his nine years as a coach at TCU, and his team won 11 games in three of the last four years.

 

Patterson sported a head coaching record of 54-20 entering this season and was 12-6 against teams from BCS conferences.

 

From 2005-06, Patterson’s TCU teams were 4-0 against Big 12 teams, including a victory at Oklahoma.

 

Last year, the Horned Frogs ranked second in run defense, total defense, and third in scoring defense.

 

Known for his strong defenses, Patterson was reportedly on Minnesota’s and Miami’s list of potential candidates last season.

 

In October, TCU athletic director Danny Morrison told the Dallas Morning News, “I’ve said often, what would surprise me is if he’s not on somebody’s list.”

 

Reason to have doubts: The timing might not be right for Nebraska to look at Patterson. Despite his past success, he’s not having a great year. Coming into Saturday, his team had a 5-5 record.

 

Hiring a guy who just went .500 might fail to initially excite what has been a dejected fan base.

[Atrain15]

Even though i think he would never leave Georgia. I would put Mark Richt as my #1 head coach that I want to come here. He is from Omaha maybe there is a chance.

[Huskerette]

Thanks for posting this.

 

Out of these seven choices, Brian Kelly looks the most promising. But at this point I'll be happy with anyone BUT Callahan.

[RedDenver]

I didn't realize Bud Foster was only 48. He's got to be considered towards the top of the list having coached under Beamer with strong D and special teams.

[hack]

seven coaches and no bogasm by the LJS.

 

hmmm.

[Wharf Rat]

Bo Pelini and Turner Gill have had their names bandied about a great deal. Husker Extra examined both of their coaching histories in a story on Nov. 8.

 

They rated their own story - Bo & Turner

[BIGREDIOWAN]

I really like the sound of Brian Kelly.

[General Blackshirt]

Muschcamp, and Foster are sounding intriguing to me..

[REDSTEEL]

Yes, some critics will argue that Johnson’s run-oriented offense is not balanced enough to work at a school in a major conference.

 

To those critics, Johnson might tell them that his offense’s formation could just as easily produce a high-powered passing game if it had the right personnel.

 

“In fact, this could possibly be the best passing offense ever,” Johnson told the Union-Tribune. “Because when you run the option, it limits what (defenses) can do coverage-wise, and you can get all kinds of one-on-one matchups.”

 

So why does hardly anyone run the triple option?

 

“I think there’s a couple of reasons: One, I don’t think they understand it,” Johnson said. “I think they see it and hear ‘option’ and think that’s 3 yards and a cloud of dust, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

I'm liking this guy more and more the only problem is that he looks like a plumber.

 

I have no problem with anyone T.O. names as head coach as long as his intials are no longer BC.

[Husker stuck at kstate]

Don't think Richt is leaving Georgia because he has a pretty good situation there. And i don't know how much he gets paid, but i don't know if dr.tom would shell out the bucks for him. And i really doubt Brian Kelly will leave cinncy after one year. If he is so big on selling the system and stuff, would he really leave so soon?

 

Don't get me wrong i like both of these guys and would love to have them, i just don't see it happening. Im still a paul johnson guy...that is if he/we can bring in the right defensive cordinator for him.

[huskerbatt52]

I'd never thought of Foster before. I'm surprised he hasn't already gotten a shot at an HC gig.

[REDSTEEL]

Don't think Richt is leaving Georgia because he has a pretty good situation there. And i don't know how much he gets paid, but i don't know if dr.tom would shell out the bucks for him. And i really doubt Brian Kelly will leave cinncy after one year. If he is so big on selling the system and stuff, would he really leave so soon?

 

Don't get me wrong i like both of these guys and would love to have them, i just don't see it happening. Im still a paul johnson guy...that is if he/we can bring in the right defensive cordinator for him.

 

No one really thought Richt was coming to Nebraska, it was Kevin Kugler on 1620 who started that rumor.

[Danimal]

Foster is a hell of a coach. It is weird that is his name doesn't come-up more, not even for an average job like a Minnesota. I'd imagine somebody would pull their head out of their ass and hire him sometime. His D isn't on-top that much by accident, losing him could be devastating to Va Tech.

 

Kelly would definitely be a money hire. Wouldn't surprise me if Mich makes a play for him given his championship history at two schools in the state.

 

I love Peterson's offense, it is very well-balanced and gets the most out of talent. It has been money every year. Gotta be impressed with the Fiest Bowl, schooled Stoops.

 

I like Muschamp but would rather have Bo since we saw what he quickly did with our boys before and the way he got a pissed-off team together for the bowl.

 

Grobe is a good coach but he already shot-down Bama when they were interested. May want to stick with his baby and retire from there a local hero.

[HUSKER 37]

I really like the sound of Brian Kelly.

NI_XyHV4dmU

[huskered17]

I really like the sound of Brian Kelly.

 

 

 

He seems to be the only one that has a defense and can put up some points on offense. The rest are all defense or all offense. That's the problem we have now.

 

GBR!!!