Can anyone tell me how the whole coaching search thing works?

[mjmartin1970]

I guess I'm a little ignorant about how the whole coaching thing works so I'm asking for a little information, but in the past what I've noticed is that...

1. Coaches usually are/are not fired until after the end of the regular season, even if the team goes to a bowl.

2. If the team goes to a bowl, and Interim HC is usually invovled.

3. A new HC may be named before the bowl. However, they usually are coaching there own team or an assistant coach somewhere else -- do they usually leave that team or finish out?

4. You CAN'T wait until after the bowl season because recruiting will go into the tank.

So, my guess is that the AD of the school probably is contacting potential candidates through their agents before the end of the regular season so he has a real short list. Do you think TO is doing that now?

 

[VA Husker Fan]

I don't think there is a normal route.

I've seen coaches fired mid season and leave, and a few stay til the end (like Bunting at UNC last year, and Bennett at SMU this year).

Obviously we've seen a fired coach not coach the bowl game. I can't recall a fired coach who stayed for a bowl but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened.

Most schools want to get a new coached named ASAP so they can start recruiting. Urban Meyer stayed on to coach Utah in a big bowl after he accepted the Florida job, didn't he? But Mack Brown was not on the sidelines for UNC's bowl game after he took the Texas job in December. Carl Torbush took over as interim head coach, then the interim was soon dropped. In another spin, two years later Torbush was all but fired. Word leaked that he was out at the end of the year. The team rallied behind him, beat rival NC State and begged for him to stay, and he got another year.

Can't remember specific instances, but it seems like assistants will almost always come on board right away, though they may go back for their old team's bowl game if the team wants them. I'm sure there have been variations of that as well.

I would guess most ADs have a short list ready in case they decide to fire a coach due to performance or other reasons, health or personal reasons cause the coach to resign, or they take a job elsewhere. I would also guess that Osborne's list is much more up to date then the Florida or Ohio State's AD's list, since Tressel and Meyer are very unlikely to leave anytime soon.

I've read other people's speculations on how an AD sends out informal feelers to other coaches and I don't know how that works. But when you see a new coach hired almost immediately after a firing, you would think the selection, negotiating and decision making didn't happen overnight.