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Your top coaching candidates

Sportsfan101

Well-Known Member
Mine are (in no order):

Eric Bienemy: Assistant Head Coach for the Vikings, has coached at Colorado, was recuriting coordinator at UCLA. He may be young and without a lot of experience, but he has fire and I believe could recruit LIGHTS OUT. A high risk, high reward pick.

Mike Belotti: Currently unemployed. Long-time head coach at Oregon so has high-level Pac 10 experience and has won at a place that is very similar to Colorado. Probably doesn't have massive upside and has had off-field issues with respect to his buyout as Oregon AD, but a very good coach that could turn Colorado into an above-average to very good program.

Troy Calhoun: Head coach at AFA. Former offensive coordinator for Houston Texas and Wake Forest. He would bring an old school option offense with him, which I really like to watch. Probably not as dynamic a personality as Belotti or, especially, Beienemy, but a hell of a coach that has had success everywhere he goes and has moved up the coaching ladder. May be difficult to pry him from AFA -- he is an AFA grad and has mentioned that AFA is his "dream job."

Other possibilities: Bill McCartney (maybe as "advisor" to Bienemy?); Gary Patterson (much more likely if we were going to stay B12); Kevin Sumlin (see Gary Patterson); Charlie Weiss (why not?); Dave Logan (just kidding!)
 
Belloti or Mac. Maybe Embree.

Would love to have embree and EB back as assistants not sure about EB as HC though.
 
Belloti or Mac. Maybe Embree.

Would love to have embree and EB back as assistants not sure about EB as HC though.

I think EB with Mac serving as "advisor to the head coach" (or something similar) would be killer. I also think Alfred Williams should get into coaching -- he'd be an amazing recruiter. Anymore, I'm not sure how much coaching the head coach really does -- he is more of an ambassador, recruiter, and overseer than anything else.
 
Mike Bellotti 116-55 at Oregon. 4 10 win seasons only one losing season. 12 bowl appearances with a 6-6 record.
 
against EB straight to HC. huge mistake IMO, given where the program is right now.

i'm also mostly against another "back to Mac" hire....as unpopular as that may be. I give Embree an interview and if he nails it, he nails it. but, that's my "nostalgia" limit. Embree also has Pac 10 ties...which is not a bad thing. While i'm not a fan of Chuck Long or Carl Torbush, I do like the bigtime BCS experience Turner Gill gave himself at KU. Compare to Hawk's junior circuit "ahead of the curve" Boise mojo guys...and our two learn on the job OC's.

I'd rather have Calhoun than EB. we need experience, experienced coordinators, discipline. Hire a recruiting coordinator with a fat ass Rolodex in Cali and Texas.
 
Belotti, Venables, June Jones (although he's not available), will muschamp (i think he makes more now as an assistant than we can afford)

It's got to be someone with some asshole qualies, with experience.
 
Does CU have to select a coach with West Coast ties or can that be forgotten as long as several of the coordinators have them?

Sumlin would be an interesting choice but his ties are Texas based.
 
1. Belotti

2. Al Golden from Temple

3. Andy Ludwig, OC at Cal

4. Larry Fedora

5. Dave Christensen

6. Dwayne Walker

7. Ron English
 
Does CU have to select a coach with West Coast ties or can that be forgotten as long as several of the coordinators have them?

Sumlin would be an interesting choice but his ties are Texas based.

not entirely, he was at Wazzou and Wyoming as an assistant as well. Minnesota and Purdue, too. He was born in Indy. but, yeah, he's mos def made a name/home for himself Lone Star style after time at ATM, OU, and now HC at Houston.
 
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1. Belotti

2. Al Golden from Temple

3. Andy Ludwig, OC at Cal

4. Larry Fedora

5. Dave Christensen

6. Dwayne Walker

7. Ron English

i like all of these. Christenson, wait and see, but i like how Wyo finished the year and they were respectable in Austin. i like Fedora a lot, but his guys didn't do much against S. Carolina....but, then again, neither did UGA.
 
Oregon has 120 points in 120 minutes. Who is their OC again? I think he should be in the mix!
 
1. Belotti

2. Al Golden from Temple

3. Andy Ludwig, OC at Cal

4. Larry Fedora

5. Dave Christensen

6. Dwayne Walker

7. Ron English


If this list represents our coaching search list, shoot me now. :wow: Not one of these names excites me in the least. I had to watch Ron English as D Coordinator of my beloved Wolverines -- he was bad. Dwayne Walker didn't get the UCLA job over Skippy and can't coach NMS to a 3 win season. 'Nuff said. Dave Christensen has zero ties to Colorado or California and has only been a lower level HC for 1 year. He's out. Larry Fedora has no ties to Colorado or California and hasn't won big at USM. He's out. Andy Ludwig is OC for an offensive minded coach, which always makes you wonder whether he's the one coaching or whether it is Tedford. He's out. Al Golden has no ties to Colorado or California (he hasn't coached west of the Mississippi) and hasn't won at a level above the MAC. Belotti would be OK, but he's the only one of the bunch that I wouldn't slit my wrists over.
 
If this list represents our coaching search list, shoot me now. :wow: Not one of these names excites me in the least. I had to watch Ron English as D Coordinator of my beloved Wolverines -- he was bad. Dwayne Walker didn't get the UCLA job over Skippy and can't coach NMS to a 3 win season. 'Nuff said. Dave Christensen has zero ties to Colorado or California and has only been a lower level HC for 1 year. He's out. Larry Fedora has no ties to Colorado or California and hasn't won big at USM. He's out. Andy Ludwig is OC for an offensive minded coach, which always makes you wonder whether he's the one coaching or whether it is Tedford. He's out. Al Golden has no ties to Colorado or California (he hasn't coached west of the Mississippi) and hasn't won at a level above the MAC. Belotti would be OK, but he's the only one of the bunch that I wouldn't slit my wrists over.

what sort of "market" do you think we command....right now? maybe we'll get Nick Saban or Jim Tressel. btw, it's not a lot but it's also not nothing....Fedora was an assistant at AFA for Fisher at least a year.
 
against EB straight to HC. huge mistake IMO, given where the program is right now.

i'm also mostly against another "back to Mac" hire....as unpopular as that may be. I give Embree an interview and if he nails it, he nails it. but, that's my "nostalgia" limit. Embree also has Pac 10 ties...which is not a bad thing. While i'm not a fan of Chuck Long or Carl Torbush, I do like the bigtime BCS experience Turner Gill gave himself at KU. Compare to Hawk's junior circuit "ahead of the curve" Boise mojo guys...and our two learn on the job OC's.

I'd rather have Calhoun than EB. we need experience, experienced coordinators, discipline. Hire a recruiting coordinator with a fat ass Rolodex in Cali and Texas.

Agree 100%. No way can we afford to gamble on EB making a great HC out of the box when he's never been a coordinator. Not with the challenge the new coach is going to face. I get that he's fiery and he bleeds black and gold. But he's never been a HC. He's never drawn up a game plan. And we are hiring a head coach, not a head cheerleader. We need to be judging candidates based on proven head coaching ability, or at the very least, proven ability to run an offense or a defense. Period.

I could get interested in Calhoun, but I tend to agree with Leash that he's probably not going to want to leave AFA. I'm also not sure he's a good fit in Boulder. Guys like Venables would appeal more if we were staying in the Big XII, but I don't know how much they've recruited California, which is going to be key to us going in to the 12Pac.

A couple names that would be intriguing to me might be Andy Ludwig, who is the OC at Cal, before that was OC at Utah (actually he was OC at KjSU during the offseason for a couple months after leaving Utah, then Tedford came in and stole him away) or Mark Banker, DC at Oregon State, who has been looked at for some HC jobs a few times, but has followed Riley from Oregon State to the Chuggers and back again. Don't know enough about them to say they'd be great candidates, but they might both be worth a look.
 
If this list represents our coaching search list, shoot me now. :wow: Not one of these names excites me in the least. I had to watch Ron English as D Coordinator of my beloved Wolverines -- he was bad. Dwayne Walker didn't get the UCLA job over Skippy and can't coach NMS to a 3 win season. 'Nuff said. Dave Christensen has zero ties to Colorado or California and has only been a lower level HC for 1 year. He's out. Larry Fedora has no ties to Colorado or California and hasn't won big at USM. He's out. Andy Ludwig is OC for an offensive minded coach, which always makes you wonder whether he's the one coaching or whether it is Tedford. He's out. Al Golden has no ties to Colorado or California (he hasn't coached west of the Mississippi) and hasn't won at a level above the MAC. Belotti would be OK, but he's the only one of the bunch that I wouldn't slit my wrists over.

Well, since you trashed my list, who's your ace in the hole? And be realistic, Butch Davis, Nick Saban, JimTressel aren't coming here.
 
what sort of "market" do you think we command....right now? maybe we'll get Nick Saban or Jim Tressel. btw, it's not a lot but it's also not nothing....Fedora was an assistant at AFA for Fisher at least a year.

I'd rather have someone like Calhoun, like Bienemy, like Charlie Weiss (seriously), like Les Miles after he gets canned.

Other names: what about Kyle Shannahan? He's on the fast-track to an NFL head coaching gig, but we may be able to land him. Steve Mariucci? Gus Malzahn? Kevin Sumlin (lack of CO/CA ties concerns me, though)?


Bobby Bowden (kidding -- but he did want to continue coaching, right?) Heck, I'd rather have Mike Leach than Larry Fedora.
 
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Well, since you trashed my list, who's your ace in the hole? And be realistic, Butch Davis, Nick Saban, JimTressel aren't coming here.

Butch Davis ain't coming here for a variety of reasons. He wasn't going to be considered when we got rid of Barnett, and now with the NC violations popping up all over he's certainly not going to get hired here. Things might be slightly different than 2005-2006 in Boulder, but not that much different. The new hire is still going to have to be scandal free.
 
If this list represents our coaching search list, shoot me now. :wow: Not one of these names excites me in the least. I had to watch Ron English as D Coordinator of my beloved Wolverines -- he was bad. Dwayne Walker didn't get the UCLA job over Skippy and can't coach NMS to a 3 win season. 'Nuff said. Dave Christensen has zero ties to Colorado or California and has only been a lower level HC for 1 year. He's out. Larry Fedora has no ties to Colorado or California and hasn't won big at USM. He's out. Andy Ludwig is OC for an offensive minded coach, which always makes you wonder whether he's the one coaching or whether it is Tedford. He's out. Al Golden has no ties to Colorado or California (he hasn't coached west of the Mississippi) and hasn't won at a level above the MAC. Belotti would be OK, but he's the only one of the bunch that I wouldn't slit my wrists over.

You seem to emphasize ties to california and colorado? Why is that important? When CU hired Mac he had no ties to Colorado and his recruiting area for Michigan was Florida. A good recruiter and coach will get it done. Urban Meyer had no ties to Florida when he took over there. Ditto for Nick Saban at LSU. I think the ties you are talking about are totally unimportant.
 
I'd rather have someone like Calhoun, like Bienemy, like Charlie Weiss (seriously), like Les Miles after he gets canned.

Other names: what about Kyle Shannahan? He's on the fast-track to an NFL head coaching gig, but we may be able to land him. Steve Mariucci? Gus Malzahn? Kevin Sumlin (lack of CO/CA ties concerns me, though)?


Bobby Bowden (kidding -- but he did want to continue coaching, right?) Heck, I'd rather have Mike Leach than Larry Fedora.

how old is Kyle Shanahan.....maybe 30 at most? he played with Chris Simms IIRC. Calhoun, I look at. not a fan of retreads. Malzahn, maybe. Mooch, no semi-retirement gigs.

Miles is a disaster waiting to happen. i have OK State family and they said Miles' Cowboy teams were thugs....and while maybe some thug is good....they say the whole town of Stillwater breathed a sigh of relief when Gundy ran a lot of those guys off muy pronto. Terrible fit in Boulder, imo. and you can probably kiss that stellar 2.6 team GPA goodbye is Lester comes to town. in principle, don't care who it is, hiring a guy who just got canned....is something to avoid. i'd rather try something new.

after reading his wiki page this AM. Jim Donnan! OC at Oklahoma in the mid 80's, built Marshall into a mid-major power and won 40 games in 5 years at UGA. 4-0 in bowl games. kidding, but the guy seemed to get a lousy deal from the Dawgs. and: he won 40 games in 5 years instead of losing 40....like our guy.
 
You seem to emphasize ties to california and colorado? Why is that important? When CU hired Mac he had no ties to Colorado and his recruiting area for Michigan was Florida. A good recruiter and coach will get it done. Urban Meyer had no ties to Florida when he took over there. Ditto for Nick Saban at LSU. I think the ties you are talking about are totally unimportant.

Quality post, now that i've given it some thought. Besides, the HC doesn't to as much direct recruiting as we like to think, they add people to the staff to do that.

The thing that bugs me right now is that I would love to head back to the Coach Mac tree, but I think we've already gone through most of the branches.....
 
I'd rather have someone like Calhoun, like Bienemy, like Charlie Weiss (seriously), like Les Miles after he gets canned.

Other names: what about Kyle Shannahan? He's on the fast-track to an NFL head coaching gig, but we may be able to land him. Steve Mariucci? Gus Malzahn? Kevin Sumlin (lack of CO/CA ties concerns me, though)?


Bobby Bowden (kidding -- but he did want to continue coaching, right?) Heck, I'd rather have Mike Leach than Larry Fedora.
Calhoun is a pretty good coach, but you have to wonder how much of his success is because they can, in essence, over recruit and have more AC's than non-service academy guys.

Mariucci? I suspect there is a reason he's been on the shelf so long.

Davis? Not. Gonna. Happen. Ever.

Miles, I like the guy, but he's overrated. Definitley light years better than what we have now though.

Sumlin won't come here, wife did not like Boulder, reportedly, that's why he had a cup of coffee with GB and left....

Malzahn? Dude is deep south and would not fit in Pac 10 ball.

Kyle Shanahan? Why not just promote CH, it's the same principle.

Weiss? Really, he couldn't win at ND with all that talent but you want to give him a try here?

Leach, IMO, is a great coach, but he'd be one "fat little GF" comment away froma feminist riot in Boulder.
 
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