I hope nobody is confusing our coaching turnover the last couple years for having coaches on staff that are highly sought after. Coaching turnover is part of the game these days. I'd love nothing more than to have Nebraska in a position where we are losing coaches because they are highly sought after. I want to be worried every year because our D Coordinator and O Coordinator are being considered for head coaching gigs at major programs. It will be a while before we are there at this rate.
I don't think anyone is saying that. If you look at the coaches who've left, they left b/c of various issues. And they didn't really go on to take promotions. Well, except for Carl, who I wish good luck to, btw.
But maybe that's Bo's plan? Maybe he's making a conscious decision to create a young and inexperienced enough staff that he won't have to worry about big programs coming calling? If that's the goal, I think its naive. Success will create that in today's game no matter what you do so why not try to get there as quick as possible instead of making every position a learning project? Our head coach is a learning project...I don't think we need it all the way down the line.
Even though it may appear like that's happening, I'm very doubtful that that's Bo's masterplan--to put together a staff of seemingly mediocre credentials in order to avoid cherry picking. Bo, like any coach, wants to put together the best staff he can muster. And by "best" I mean guys who share Bo's coaching philosophy and he is comfortable working with, in addition to being good coaches.
Or, maybe it isn't by design but rather it's the best Bo can do. Maybe he doesn't have enough skins on the wall himself for a big name coordinator to want to come work for him. When you get to that level and can pretty much demand whatever money you want (within a few hundred grand), things like who you'll be reporting to have to come into account. It's easy for us to sit around and think we should just be able to go pluck big name coach out of wherever we want, but maybe it's not that easy. If you're a big name who's hoping to get to the head coaching level (which most of the best ones are), would you rather work for an unproven Bo or a proven Saben, Miles, Meyer, etc? You already consider yourself to have a very good handle on your side of the ball (offense or defense) so you're now looking for someone who can mentor you on being a head coach as that's your ultimate goal. You're not getting that with Bo.
Yeah, I think this is the case. Try as we might we just are not going to outdraw or outbid teams like Alabama, Florida, Texas, etc. From the perspective of the top DCs in the nation NU is probably not one of the top ten schools to hook up with. Don't get me wrong--Nebraska is a top tier program among the 100+ cfb schools. But probably someplace near or even outside the top ten, when you factor in all the considerations (salary, facilities, recruiting, history, existing coaching staff, etc.)
With regard to Bo being able to handle the head coaching and D Coordinating positions, there is no doubt this can be done. But I think it all comes down to how prepared you are to handle both. In my opinion, a young, first time head coach who's trying to learn being a head coach does not need and can't handle being a coordinator on top of it. If they're doing it, something is going to suffer (probably BOTH...learning to be a head coach and being an effective coordinator) and it will just take that much longer to get where they want to be. Ask Jason Garrett how that's going with the Cowboys. And he's an Ivy League, career student of the game. Jimmy Johnson could handle it. Jason Garrett (and Bo) are a ways off from being there yet IMO. They are simply in over their head trying to handle that much and it shows. Just because I know how to juggle does not mean I'm able to juggle knifes while hopping on one wheel of a unicycle through a ring of fire.
Bo can handle both. Even when Bo does hire a DC, or promote from within, he will have a strong say in what kind of defense we put on the field. This, in fact, may affect the sort of big name DCs who would give NU a serious look.
