Hiring Interim HC's - Becoming a trend? Minnesota, Illinois, now USC??

[Kiyoat Husker]

Just wondering what you all think about these HC decisions this year.

With Minnesota, they are essentially sans-Athletic Director. So that is a factor. Also they have one of the school's best recent recruiting classes to hold together. Claeys just fired two assistant coaches, so apparently he means business. Will be interesting to watch.

With Illinois, Yes, Cubit has had some surprising success, but is it sustainable? They only are giving him a 2-year contract. Sounds pretty non-committal. To me, it seems like a punt given the number of good jobs open this year. Weak.

USC????? I have no idea what they are thinking. I know a coaching search is risky, but YOU'RE USC! They could basically have the pick of the litter with the LSU job off the table. Puzzling.

 

[huskerfan92]

I know a lot of people are freaking out about USC hiring Helton, but personally I think it's the right move. He's now their 4th different head coach since 2010, they need some sort of stability over there. If he doesn't pan out, they can fire him without much risk since he has a very low buyout. Plus in this market who were they going to get? They reportedly reached out to Jack Del Rio and Chip Kelly and both said no thank you. Sure it's an underwhelming hire, but so was Pete Carroll when he was initially brought in.

 

[Danimal]

I know a lot of people are freaking out about USC hiring Helton, but personally I think it's the right move. He's now their 4th different head coach since 2010, they need some sort of stability over there. If he doesn't pan out, they can fire him without much risk since he has a very low buyout. Plus in this market who were they going to get? They reportedly reached out to Jack Del Rio and Chip Kelly and both said no thank you. Sure it's an underwhelming hire, but so was Pete Carroll when he was initially brought in.

Pete Carroll did a decent job as a NFL HC, I wouldn't say he was an underwhelming hire.

I would have grabbed Tom Herman in a heartbeat. The guy is a star in the making.

As far as the other hires go:

Claey makes more sense. While this season Minn has struggled some overall they have built something there and Claey was the guy acting as HC in the many instances when Kill was out. I can see where you'd want to keep what Kill had going, especially since with the staffing changes Claey shows he's committed to doing what it takes to improve.

IMO Cubit was a lazy hire that showed they somewhat accept mediocrity. He did do a competent job of holding things together but nothing special, it's not like they made a bow., and the guy did little at Western Michigan. Half their recruits are 2*'s, not much in terms of recruiting to save. Hell ISU and Central Florida quickly nabbed the Toledo and Bowling Green coaches, giving either guy a try would have been better than standing pat.

 

[huskerfan92]

I know a lot of people are freaking out about USC hiring Helton, but personally I think it's the right move. He's now their 4th different head coach since 2010, they need some sort of stability over there. If he doesn't pan out, they can fire him without much risk since he has a very low buyout. Plus in this market who were they going to get? They reportedly reached out to Jack Del Rio and Chip Kelly and both said no thank you. Sure it's an underwhelming hire, but so was Pete Carroll when he was initially brought in.

Pete Carroll did a decent job as a NFL HC, I wouldn't say he was an underwhelming hire.

I would have grabbed Tom Herman in a heartbeat. The guy is a star in the making.

As far as the other hires go:

Claey makes more sense. While this season Minn has struggled some overall they have built something there and Claey was the guy acting as HC in the many instances when Kill was out. I can see where you'd want to keep what Kill had going, especially since with the staffing changes Claey shows he's committed to doing what it takes to improve.

IMO Cubit was a lazy hire that showed they somewhat accept mediocrity. He did do a competent job of holding things together but nothing special, it's not like they made a bow., and the guy did little at Western Michigan. Half their recruits are 2*'s, not much in terms of recruiting to save. Hell ISU and Central Florida quickly nabbed the Toledo and Bowling Green coaches, giving either guy a try would have been better than standing pat.

At the time Carroll was hired there was a lot of scrutiny. He was thought to be USC's 4th or 5th choice, and was expected to fail. If you watch the new 30 for 30 "Trojan War", they go into detail about the reaction from fans and the media about the hire....Mike Riley even gets a mention in the documentary.

I agree with grabbing Tom Herman, he should be #1 on every school's list right now. However, he does run a spread system while USC insists on sticking with their west coast offense.

 

[Stumpy1]

USC missed the boat on Orgeron, who was the interim when Kiffen got let go and it blew up in their face with Sark. Orgeron had that team playing great and the kids loved him. I had read that he made it fun for the players to be there and that he was a complete 180 from how Kiffen coached. Heard that Helton is the same way and the players love him. I can see this working out good for USC.

 

[StPaulHusker]

I think you could make the case for Illinois and USC. Bill Cubit and Clay Helton did a pretty admirable job stepping into bad situations.

I think Minnesota made a mistake in hiring Claeys so quickly.

 

[Redux]

USC could have finally landed their guy to replace Pete. Definitely not the big name hire the fans wanted, but the players seem to have responded well and he couldn't be more excited about the challenge.

Minnesota had the right idea, in house was the only way to go since Kill was responsible for bringing them back into the fold in the league. Was he the right guy though?

Illinois also may have lucked into a great hire. Bill Cubit had the Fighting Illini performing better than Beckman would have this year.

 

[brophog]

I don't know if we can call it a trend, yet. With so many openings, so many of them being very early openings, and a few having problems further up the administrative ladder....well, we were bound to see at least a few interim hires.

Plus, it's really, really hard to evaluate personnel in this manner. It's not uncommon for really successful head coaches to not be so successful before or after a particular job. It's easy to assume you can just throw money at a job and get anyone you want, but how often is that really the case? Every once in a while there is a guy available that most will agree is a can't miss (and he actually succeeds) but there are so many examples where that's not the case. Nobody is so big they are entitled to successful head coach after successful head coach. The best most programs can hope for is to, upon hitting pay dirt, keep the one they got!

 

[StPaulHusker]

USC could have finally landed their guy to replace Pete. Definitely not the big name hire the fans wanted, but the players seem to have responded well and he couldn't be more excited about the challenge.

Minnesota had the right idea, in house was the only way to go since Kill was responsible for bringing them back into the fold in the league. Was he the right guy though?

Illinois also may have lucked into a great hire. Bill Cubit had the Fighting Illini performing better than Beckman would have this year.

Minnesota has lost 4 recruits in the last week. 2 since Claeys fired 2 offensive coaches. I think he is in over his head and Minnesota will be lucky to win 3-4 games next year