Is age a factor for a National Championship coach

Submitted by readyourguard on

I was reading the article from Pat Forde on the Coaching Carousel and as he described Stoops, I started to think about the age of championship coaches.  Stoops won his title at OU in 2000 at the age of 40.  Forde described how Stoops (and Ferentz) aren't living up to the standard they set for themselves earlier in their career.  As we embark on a coaching search in the next month or so, should the AD consider a candidate's age (not in a discriminatory kind of way, though)?  In the last 20 years, 15 of the 22 title holders accomplished the feat by age 54, 3 in their late 50s (55-59), 3 in their 60s, 1 in their 70s.

The 22 coaches and their age

13 - Fisher - 48

12 - Saban - 62

11 - Saban 61

10 - Chizik - 49

09 - Saban - 59

08 - Meyer - 44

07 - Miles - 54

06 - Meyer - 42

05 - Brown - 53

04 - Carroll - 53

03 - Saban - 53 / Carroll - 52

02 - Happy Easter !! - 50

01 - Coker - 53

00 - Stoops - 40

99 - FSU - Bowden - 70

98 - Fulmer - 48

97 - Lloyd - 52 / Osborne - 60

96 - Spurrier - 51

95 - Osborn - 58

94 - Osborn - 57

**********************

Candidates:

Harbaugh 50

Mullen 42

Miles 61

Schiano 48

Stoops 54

etc.

HipsterCat

November 13th, 2014 at 12:41 PM ^

Age is a factor in how long they may continue to coach, other than that a good coach is a good coach.

Championships in college are basically a crapshoot (compared to the NFL) of getting the right team and playing the right schedule (especially now with the committee) and then either winning out or having the chips fall juuuuuuust right that you get into the playoff. 

ChiBlueBoy

November 13th, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^

How do you look at age, and consider it, but in a non-discriminatory way? We like old people, we just don't hire them for this job?

Looking at the list, I see a range starting in mid-40s (because it takes a while to build up a resume). I don't see anything suggesting that being in your 60s should keep you from the  job.

m1817

November 13th, 2014 at 2:19 PM ^

Looking at it from another perspective, if you are an older coach, how much longer would you want to kiss up to high school recruits and to have your livelihood depend on the performance of a bunch of 18-23 year olds? Especially if you have the alternative of being a TV commentator making a six figure salary for two-three days work per week from August to January.  You could be the college football version of Jonathon Livingston Seagull - fly in, shit over everything, and fly back out again.