As I wrote in the caveats, he is lacking the most important thing - success at a Big 5 school in a HC role.  Which in an alternative scoring system could be weighted twice.  But that would have killed a John Harbaugh score... or heck a Bob Stoops pre Oklahoma if he were a candidate.  This scoring system also helps coaches who have been coordinators and head coaches at high profile jobs.  He has done both and been successful at both.  That should be rewarded. 

No system is perfect scoring.

Here is my writeup on him if you have never heard of the name.  As titled "Too soon to evaluate".

Also if this was a Florida blog or a USC blog he would not score as well on a lot of the other line items.  But for a Midwest school he is a very high level candidate.

• High level success as Wisconsin's DC (two top 20 rankings in 3 years as defensive coordinator)... in his mid 30s.
• 2 great years at Northern Illinois as a HC: 23-5.  That is Urban Meyer at Bowling Green like.  Offensive rankings at Northern Illinois were also top 20 every year, and defensive rankings decent for a non power 5 school.
• Wisconsin and Northern Illinois gives him Midwest HS relationships like very few coaches out there who are viable candidates.  Those relationships are 8 years old now - other than Narduzzi and Bielema no one else has that sort of long term stickiness in the Midwest on the list.
• He is 42 years old
• He has no dirt on him
• From all accounts his demeanor is very positive
• Cultural fit seems well suited

If... big if... he has NC State as a 9-3, 8-4 type team in 2015/2016 he will be a very very hot candidate for any Big 10 job.  For example if Bo doesnt work out and Doeren does well at NC State in the next 24 months, he could be the next Nebraska coach - and be there for 2+ decades if successful. 

If he does nothing with NC State he will then just be a guy.  Too soon to tell.

Yes, he is just not familiar to Michigan fan, many of which want Narduzzi.  Doeren has a lot more going for him than Narduzzi at this point ... way more HC experience...and 6 years younger.  But since UM fan doesnt follow Wisconsin football at the level of MSU or OSU....or Northern Illinois football at all, they don't know him.  I do find it weird people bring up Chryst who has been ho hum as a HC in 3 years and no one mentions Doeren.

As for your parallels I would not say he is at Urban lebvel pre UF.  He and Urbz are similar in the Bowling Green to NIU experience.  Urbz then went on to Utah and did great things.  So NC State is Doeren's Utah.  If Doeren had pulled off the upset vs FSU rather than a close loss everyone would be talking up Doeren nationally.  But losses get forgotten and after being demolished by Clemson and not having high profile games the rest of the way he will be off the radar. 

I will be watching his progress next year closely.  If he has a good year (8-4ish) and can knock off either Clemson or FSU in 2015 I think he gone.  If I were Illinois I'd be watching him very closely if he does anything with NC State.

As written above Meyer was judged post Florida, Kelly post Cincinnati, and Strong post Louisville.   Not at current jobs.  Meyer was a free agent who had listed ND, OH, and UM as his 3 dream jobs.  Kelly was a long time GVSU coach. 

Yes not apples to apples.  Doeren took over for Kill and had a better plate set up for him than Urban had at BG.   What Urban did is in a class of his  own IMO with such quick success at BG and Utah.  Only Kelly sort of has that track record at CMU and Cincy.  I am not saying they are identical coaches or have identical success - but 23-5 is pretty damn good for 2 years.

I think people are looking for a unicorn here if they are going to piss on 23-5. Urban was unique in what he did.  I looked at Bo's record at Miami (40-17-3) and the way people hammer any coach for more than 2-3 losses at any level when evaluating candidates, he would have been laughed at if I listed him as a candidate nowadays.

haha yes, sorry for the typos - I have Dan Mullen on the mind with all the talk about him.

Those are also important things to me which is why I cannot evaluate any NFL coordinator well. You have no idea how any of his skill sets translate to the NCAA.  And like you the top group of line items are more important to me but... when I read a lot of comments on these boards it seems a lot of people are looking for a lot more than the football side and emphasize those things more because "this is Michigan".

I didn't rank Mullen as elite as a football coach.  I gave him a 3 on the top line "Success in Big 5 NCAA HC".  A guy like Harbaugh or Urban got a 5.  I generally agree with you - a year ago Mullen would have been a 2 as he had 5 years of ho hum wins.  His defenders will say "you can never win at Miss State and so and so."  But we are seeing programs come from nowhere nowadays to be successful, its different than the old days when the big programs hoarded all the players.

You are preaching to the choir, when I wrote my Mullen piece a few weeks ago his only major win in 6 years was LSU and that LSU win was suspect due to how young the offense is..this could be a 8-4 LSU team not a 10-2 type.  But he is doing well since and now has a very impressive team from what I have seen that should be a 10-2 team at worst.  A year ago at this time he was 4-6 in his first 10 games ... in his 5th year.  It is interesting how perceptions can change quickly.

If I weighed something, I'd get questions about why I didn't weight another thing.

For my personal preferences I'd weigh these as the top ones

• Success at Big 5 HC
• Success at mid tier HC
• Player development
• Recruiting
• Don't have major football allegations in your past

Probably in that order.  I think if you do those things you win.  And it solves a lot of "personality" issues.  You can be a prickly guy but if you win people don't fuss about it.  Saban is not warm and cuddly.  But Michigan fans seem to want an ambassador for all of college football PLUS the great coach part.  I am more ok with a guy who runs a clean program and just wins.  If he is not super personable and is a control freak... I am fine with it.  Saban is that sort of guy.  Jim H is similar.

And as stated obviously if Jim or John Harbaugh show up at your door as a HS coach it will be impactful but right now John has been out of the college ranks for a very long time and has little to no recruiting resume.  I am sure he would do well but I have no track record to go off of.

Narduzzi to me is a not a serious candidate.  He has zero HC experience.  He is a coordinator whose head coach was a coordinator on the same side of the ball - meaning his side of the ball's success could be far more due to the HC then the coordinator.  That's the same issue with Herman from OSU.  Urban is an offensive guru, and Dantonio is a defensive guru.  So their coordinators who focus on the side of the ball the HC is already a guru is suspect to me.  That said, they are both in the Midwest, both at rivals and both people a lot of people in te fanbase know and throw out as candidates.  So I listed them.

Mcelwain in 3 years has a Boston College win as his great achievement.  He has not been in the Midwest in nearly a decade.  If he was a coordinator at Georgia rather than at Alabama I dont think 1 person would mention him as a candidate.  That doesnt mean he wont eventually be a great coach - but it reminds me of all the coaches associated with Brett Favre over the years who got major cred and good jobs due to coaching him.  Alabama is good because of Nick Saban.  All these other guys around him are satellites - until one of them goes to a mid major and at least dominates at that level it is hard to associate them with great success.  Whittingham and Patterson had great success at a mid major - so did Sumlin, Kelly, Meyer, Doeren, and Graham.

Doeren is not a serious candidate for Michigan at this time since it is too soon to judge him.  But in many ways neither is Mark Stoops but I think if UM fails on their top targets they might go after Mark Stoops.  What does Mark Stoops currently have over Dave Doeren... on paper?  His last name. 

I graded Brian Kelly post Cincinnati when he would have been available to UM - not inclusive of his time at ND.

Schiano I honestly have not looked into much at the NFL level other than a superficial look at his record with Tampa.  Mostly I looked at his Rutgers days. 

Interesting question on RR.  On paper he actually was very attractive for high level success at WVA. 

Now I do penalize the Big East because it was not a great conference so i called it a Mid Tier rather than a Big 5 (back then it was the weakest of the Big 6 - not that it matters for the total point total) but here is a stab at  RR post 2007.  I dont remember any dirt on him so if I am wrong one can penalize.

I just threw a "3" for recruiting because I have not studied how RR recruited but he grades pretty well for non Big 5 HC success and he was a pretty damn good coordinator at Tulane/Clemson.  Cultural fit and Midwest footprint are penalized although WVA is right next to Ohio so maybe his footprint could be a 3 instead of a 2.

Thanks good point and thanks for listing his rankings there since I am more familiar with the other candidates as coordinators since most of them happened more recently.  Looks like he was the OC at OK State, then went to be a TE coach at Dallas then came back to be the HC.  With his rankings as OC I'd probably drop a 2 instead of the current 0 for coordinator - nothing inspiring but he did have the role.