Well, here's a shot at a 1st post.
To put my cards on the table, I started the season as a BOliever, believing that coach Bo had been unfortunate enough to have a good defense OR a good offense, but not both in the same year. I had expected this year to be somewhat different as it looked like the pieces were in place to have both a decent defense and a decent offense at the same time. Unfortunately, after the Wisconsin game I became less enamored of the Bo Pelini staff. After that game, I suspected we would end up losing out, which we should have if Iowa had been just a little bit smarter about not punting directly to our hot shot punt returner. Tom Osborne's words at the firing of coach Bill Callahan started echoing in my brain.
It isn’t just a matter of wins and losses; it’s how you do it... If you lose a fairly large number of games by a significant margin and you have fairly good players, which I think we do, then I think there are some systemic issues. I think the players were treated well. But there was something wrong evidently.Tom Osborne 2007
So, although I did not favor firing Bo, I understood it and do not oppose it. I also said WTH when I heard through the new coach would be. Will
I have seen a significant amount of angst on the part of some fans along the lines of, "I thought we were going to use vast resources and get 'experts'on the coaching staff (to paraphrase ADSE and HCMR) but so far all we've got are some Oregon State coaches and an Oregon State commit flip.
This an upgrade?"
I would simply offer this. I think it is unreasonable to expect the new coach to put together a staff over a weekend by offering positions to people he probably doesn't know that well. What I would expect him to do is bring a few of his old staff along, ones that he is comfortable with either from a coaching standpoint or recruiting standpoint or both. I would expect him to make offers to a few select players that he has already recruited that he feels may fit at the new place and then quickly evaluate the current commits to see how they fit with what he wants to do. I would expect him then to spend the major part of the week recruiting until the dead period starts again prior to the bowls. At that point, I would expect him to reach out to other coaches that he would like to bring on board that have not been on his previous staff. I think it would be foolish for him to hire an assistant without having the opportunity to take a look at their body of work and interview them to see how they "fit." Hiring several assistants without adequately vetting them 1st seems like a recipe for disaster to me.
My $0.02. No. I don't have any coaching experience above youth level softball and baseball, but I have been involved in hiring decisions and I know that it is just as important that the staff works well together as it is that they have skills. If either one of those ingredients is missing, the product tends to suck.
