OT: Buffalo (UB) hires Lance Leipold from UW-Whitewater
Not officially official but several rumors are out and a presser is scheduled. Lance Leipold was one of the names that was getting brought up on the board from time to time. Well Buffalo is taking a shot with him. I have to imagine it's very rare to make the DIII to FBS leap.
SI article: Link
November 30th, 2014 at 9:40 PM ^
This guy is basically Eric Taylor. No way he would ever be a serious consideration at a school like Michigan, success and all.
November 30th, 2014 at 9:52 PM ^
Who here wouldn't take Coach Taylor?? What he did with Matt Saracen was exceptional.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:24 PM ^
nah... Leipold worked at Wisconsin and Nebraska in the past. He's got legit FBS experience. He ran Whitewater like a MAC level program, taking in lots of transfers and kids who weren't academically eligable at low end FBS programs. This is not Bob Stitt who coached at Harvard once 15 years ago and has won all of two conference titles, We're talking 6 years of P5 conference expierience and 5 national titles.
November 30th, 2014 at 9:41 PM ^
November 30th, 2014 at 9:43 PM ^
November 30th, 2014 at 9:44 PM ^
I suppose technically the MAC is "FBS"...
November 30th, 2014 at 9:45 PM ^
So you're telling me there's a chance.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:20 PM ^
Leipold actually has results to back up his genius on the field. Trophy cases worth. Stitt's claim to fame is WVU and Clemson (did anyone see that Fly Sweep usage against USCjr yesterday?!?!?) using his fly sweep in games and teaching engineers to play football at Mines.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:23 PM ^
November 30th, 2014 at 10:28 PM ^
he doesn't really do that well at Mines to be honest. He goes about 8-3 every single season and has only won two conferece titles. The Jim Tressel comparisons people make are completely invalid.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:46 PM ^
Agree with most of what you say about Stitt. However, Mines is a darn good school academicly and he's had way more success then just about anyone who has coached at Mines for any significant amount of time.
Agree though that he isn't a guy who should be any where close to Hackett's radar.
November 30th, 2014 at 11:49 PM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 12:22 AM ^
if Stitt were that well respected, why has he not made the RichRod transition to D1 OC yet? He's claimed to be open to it. You'd think someone other than Tim Murphy at Harvard would have wanted to tap dat brain.
December 1st, 2014 at 12:59 AM ^
if he doesn't have complete control meaning HC doesnt' meddle with his offense.
December 1st, 2014 at 12:41 AM ^
he's a guy who has no FBS experience in his playing or coaching career. His only experience higher then D2 is two years as the OC at Harvard. Maybe someone takes a stab at him as an OC, but i don't think to many power 5 conference schools are going to take a chance on him as HC.
November 30th, 2014 at 11:15 PM ^
Dumb and Dumber?? Anyone? I was trying to be funny because OP mentioned how rare the jump from DIII to DI is. If I only knew how to insert gifs, I could be swimmimg in laughs right now.
November 30th, 2014 at 9:55 PM ^
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November 30th, 2014 at 10:15 PM ^
Ok, you heard it here first. Pellini was fired today so that Nebraska could get Leipold before he signed a contract with Buffalo. This is just pure speculation on my part, but I'm basing it on this post from one of the Mods at Cornnation.com who had this to say about Leipold (before the news about Buffalo making a play for him broke):
David: He’s built a juggernaut at DIII Wisconsin-Whitewater. He’s taken that program to the national title game six times, winning five times. Again, with that program building thing, he’s done it. This would be a much higher level, of course.
He’s a Nebraska native, so that connection is easy to make, he’d know what he’s getting into here and what the environment he’d be stepping into would be. He’s only 50, so the age is about right, if that’s something you’re concerned about. The other connection is what intrigues me the most, however. Whitewater is Eichorst’s alma mater. Eichorst was an all-conference defensive back at Whitewater in the late 80’s and was a team captain in ‘90. Leipold was just breaking into coaching with Whitewater at the time. He didn’t coach Eichorst, but they’d certainly be familiar with each other.
This one is my darkhorse candidate.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:21 PM ^
since UB is expected to announce the hire tomorrow...
November 30th, 2014 at 10:19 PM ^
Should be interesting to see how he'll do making this jump from DIII football. He built a powerhouse at UWW. I hope he does well there.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:21 PM ^
I actually kept a tally of CC threads because it became such a sensation for a while - if anyone is at all interested, there were actually three threads either devoted to or mentioning him as someone Michigan should at least consider. I don't think the jump from DIII to Power 5 in FBS is feasible myself, but DIII to a mid-major should create an interesting platform for Leipold if he can build a contender at Buffalo.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:30 PM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 12:36 AM ^
Stanford was 1-11 at the time and could take the risk on a "home run or bust" hire which Harbaugh looked to be. Either he'd have a high chance of replicating the San Diego success or it was all a D2 farce.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^
Any Bugs Bunny reference gets an upvote from me.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:53 PM ^
If he can build a winning program there, then he can do it anywhere.
November 30th, 2014 at 10:53 PM ^
November 30th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^
he can show off his dad's superbowl rings to recruits
November 30th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^
November 30th, 2014 at 11:01 PM ^
LOVE THE HIRE! Give him 4-5 years and we'll be hearing about him again being able to move to a P5 school.
December 1st, 2014 at 6:10 AM ^
These types of hires don't always work. Bobby Hauck was a great coach at Montana and moved up to UNLV where he only won 2 games in 4 of his 5 seasons. He's stepping down now. It's hard to win at these lower level FBS programs (that really should be FCS programs)
December 1st, 2014 at 12:14 AM ^
then on to a low ranking P5 before finally settling at a big time program in 10 years or so. He'll be a good one, just nowhere near qualified for a Michigan-level yet.
December 1st, 2014 at 12:33 AM ^
Leipold is 50. Don't think there is a 10 year timetable for him.