Interesting information on Miami coaching search (Harbaugh and others)
December 16th, 2010 at 10:18 AM ^
That is a great job to have. If this guy can get the recruits in the "State of Miami" like the old days with Schnellenberger and later Jimmie Johnson, he'll win at a high level. He is known to be a good football coach and he's proven it.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:23 AM ^
When Schnellenberger took over, Florida State was also just getting started under Bowden, which meant that Florida was the only real football school in the state, and even then, they weren't a major player in the SEC. In the late 70s, there was football talent in Florida, but it wasn't the focus on recruiting like it is today.
Schnellenberger could schedule exactly like he wanted to, could operate without little in state pressure, and probably found it easier to overcome antiquated facilities (though they weren't that far behind the standard back in the late 70s and early 80s) because the facilities arms races of the past ten years hadn't begun yet.
Today, everyone in the nation is recruiting Florida, or at least trying to. Florida has won two national titles it the past five years and is perhaps the premeire program in the nation. While Florida State has slipped, Jimbo had a pretty successful first year, and you'd think they'd continue to trend up. Plus, the state has now four more FBS schools that are in the state, with one playing in a BCS conference. UCF has an on campus stadium. Plus, Miami is a small, private college that does have decent academic standards, when they decide to enforce them for athletics (which they seem to pendulum swing on whether they will or won't).
In the end, Stanford (small, private college in fertile recruiting state with marginal fan interest with new stadium and great facilities) to Miami (small, private college in a fertile recruiting state with marginal fan base, an off-campus pro stadium and otherwise mediocre facilities) would be a lateral move.
December 16th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^
Florida's population in 1970: 6.7M In 2000: 16M (Source: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Florida)
I'm sure there was plenty of in-state talent in 1970, but that was before the massive influx of people into the state to take service industry jobs.
Compare those to Michigan's numbers for '70 and '00: 8.9M and 9.9M
December 16th, 2010 at 4:31 PM ^
Heaven's waiting room.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:48 AM ^
Recruiting was never Randy Shannon's problem. He was consistently drawing lots of 4 and 5 stars, esp. from Miami's traditional feeder Miami Northwestern. He just couldn't get those 4 and 5 stars to play well consistently.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:18 AM ^
Harbaugh's lack of interest helps to confirm the conventional thought that he will be coaching at Michigan or in the NFL next year.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:46 AM ^
Or the most conventional thought that he will be coaching Stanford.
December 16th, 2010 at 1:12 PM ^
If his goal is to coach Stanford next season, he's going about it strangely, doing next to nothing to dispel the rumors. This is a pretty fiery guy we're talking about. If his intentions were truly to stay at Stanford long-term, don't you think he'd be a little ticked off about all the reports?
December 16th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^
I'd say him coaching at Stanford next year is anything but the conventional thought.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:20 AM ^
Interesting to hear about Dan Mullen's ego. You would think that someone who hasn't had a head coaching gig anywhere better than Mississippi State would be a liitle more humble.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:32 AM ^
People who are successful divsion 1 BCS football coaches have to pretty hard driven type A people likely to fit what would be called a CEO personality in a Briggs-Meyers testing situation. Not surprisingly, they are likely to have big egos as a rule.
December 16th, 2010 at 1:07 PM ^
Well maybe he DID invent the game. Afterall, how would you feel if you invented football as Mullin perhaps did and weren't getting any credit for it?
December 16th, 2010 at 10:22 AM ^
Interesting comments about Mullen.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
One trustee said Connecticut's Randy Edsall was impressive but ``we were more comfortable with Al. And he beat Connecticut.''
LOL at this as a criteria given the circumstances.
December 16th, 2010 at 12:34 PM ^
Criteria is plural. Criterion is the singular form.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
If I was hiring a football coach, a big ego would not be a disqualifier.
No surprise really about Harbaugh. He knows he will likely have have enough options that he can pick and choose a good fit.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:33 AM ^
More outgoing than Jimmy Johnson. The U should be interesting.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:33 AM ^
Interesting dig at Florida. I think a lot of people would consider Muschamp to be a "star", but apparently those at Miami feel differently.
I think Miami may end up regretting the comment about Edsall at the end. I can't believe that they publicly admitted that age was a factor in considering Edsall.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:52 AM ^
Anonymously sourced so it's not all that public.
Coaching burnout is becoming common enough that you can't blame administrations for subtle age discrimination. I remember when we hired Rod I said "He's ten years younger than Les Miles? Sweeeeeeet."
December 16th, 2010 at 10:57 AM ^
Probably not. They had legitimate, non-age related reasons for selecting Al Golden instead of Randy Edsall. If you're sniffing lawsuit, you're incorrect.
That's nothing but bulletin board material.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:21 AM ^
I'm not "incorrect", but rather my thought definitely wasn't complete. I was actually commenting on the fact that it's borderline unbelievable that they would actually admit that age was a factor, even in the presence of other non-age related factors, because of the apperance of an aged-based preference, which would be enough to give them headaches (and cost them a good bit of money) in defending up to SJ, at the very least, with the right plaintiff (i.e. who would be interesting in pursuing such a claim). Basically, all I am saying, is only bad things can come from publicly admitting that.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^
people hate lawyers. The Miami guy speaks the truth (something people actually want to know) and potentially gets sued. That's why we always get boilerplate answers like, Golden was the most impressive candidate, blah, blah, blah...
December 16th, 2010 at 11:48 AM ^
JBlaze -
In the olden days (and by olden days, sometimes this still happens), people were overtly NOT hired because of their race, their sex, their age. That is why Title VII, Title IX, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Section 1983 exist and are needed.
Don't hate lawyers, hate the people who have required lawyers to take such a central role in enforcing justified federal laws.
Example: there was enough smoke around Charlie Strong's non-hire at Auburn to know that his race, and the race of his wife, were at least contributing factors in his non-hire. Now, would you prefer that the AD make these reasons explicit? And if he did, don't you feel a lawsuit would be appropriate for such a backroads reason to not hire a qualified candidate?
In those situations, it's better we get boilerplate, because it frightens me that people in power still hold such disgusting opinions.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:54 AM ^
Yeah, no kidding. The situation typically plays out that people "hate lawyers" for things like this. Until they find themselves in a situation where they need the protection of the law that they are complaining about or they find that there is something in the law that they find out actually benefits them. Much of the ADA is a prime example of this.
December 16th, 2010 at 8:57 PM ^
I am surprised that the snub of Turner Gill wasn't mentioned along with the Charlie Strong example. That being said it probably goes a lot deeper than what an AD feels or even a board of Regents or Trustees. Without knowing any kind of specifics about what goes on at Auburn I would be willing to bet that it is more about booster donations and support than it is the feelings of actual employees of the university.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^
Don't they have some infrastructure issues for football (stadium, facilities, etc)?
December 16th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^
cracks me up. i had to go through that training once and it is such a load of crapola.
but, not a bad post
December 16th, 2010 at 1:04 PM ^
Oh, Elno, you're such a J.
Edit: No offense, intended, of course. I'm an I and sometimes have difficulty navigating social situations like this ;-)
December 16th, 2010 at 12:07 PM ^
Edsall's age is anything remotely actionable, even if Edsall were inclined to pursue a legal remedy. If Miami had hired some obviously unqualified 28-yr old punk, an age discrimination claim would have a bit more beef behind it. But like I said, I'm not a lawyer.
December 16th, 2010 at 12:24 PM ^
If you were responding to my post with this, you're missing the point. The point is not that it's a suit that would be won, but rather it's a suit that could be made. Which means time and expense. All based upon a comment that really serves no purpose and has no value.
December 16th, 2010 at 9:21 PM ^
Dammit, I'm really starting to feel old when college FB coaches are my age. I guess Farve is the only one close in the NFL now too.