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Official CU Head Coach Search Thread - Primetime

I can promise one thing. It’s going to be an over the hill former HC who nobody else wants.

Bill Obrien and Ed O, while big names, feels like les miles at Kansas.
 
One thing from the footballscoop podcast on the CU search-they mention there are sitting P5 coaches who have been in their jobs a long time and might be open to a change. This is a job that these types of guys look at and say "Yeah, I'd have a quiet conversation with Colorado. Maybe there's a fit there."

I think I know who one of these guys might be.
Kyle Wittingham for sure
 
I can promise one thing. It’s going to be an over the hill former HC who nobody else wants.

Bill Obrien and Ed O, while big names, feels like les miles at Kansas.
Ed O no way, but I could probably squint my eyes and find a way to not hate O’Brien if it came to that.
 
CU is not in a place to be THAT picky. Goodness.

Give me a proven coach, with a history of building a program up from scraps. Preferably one that has done it with institutional limitations.

No first time HC, no former Buff.
Um, lol, nah. Dan Hawkins, mike macintyre ring a bell? They took us to two bowl games in 10 years. In today's age, most successful coaches don't go the urban meyer and nick Saban route. Dabo, Kirby smart, mike gundy, Kirk ferenz, Lincoln Riley, bob stoops, jimbo fisher, Kyle wittingham.... prior head coaching experience should not be a deal breaker for us. If we want to be national contenders again, we can't exclude half of the candidates out there because "they don't have experience."

Give me someone who is hungry to prove themselves and can either a. recruit or b. call a good game on either side of the ball (both would be nice). I could give a crap about a history of building a program from scraps.
 
CU's biggest issue is that they tend to refuse to accept credits earned at other institutions, except when required by the state (aka juco credits from in state schools are required in most cases to be accepted). This has been a long standing issue, going back 20+ years.
In 2004 my daughter transferred from the University of Washington back home to CU. She was entering her sophomore year. CU took every credit. She was a biology major and perhaps the course structure was the same. I don't know.
 
The bar is so low for me I just don’t want a NFL WR coach and when they say their name my first reaction isn’t “Who is that?”

With all due respect his correct title is - Assistant NFL Head Coach (for 72 hours)
 
I can promise one thing. It’s going to be an over the hill former HC who nobody else wants.

Bill Obrien and Ed O, while big names, feels like les miles at Kansas.
Ed O at CU will never happen, but it would be the funniest thing in the history of organized sports on Earth. Like Netflix special funny. Like the Coen Brothers meet David Cronenberg bizarro funny. Must See sports....
 
Rick has been pretty quiet with the past two coaching searches, but Mark Johnson saying CU must get a coach with P5 HC experience concerns me
 
Rick has been pretty quiet with the past two coaching searches, but Mark Johnson saying CU must get a coach with P5 HC experience concerns me
That's probably too limiting, but the list of guys with that on the resume is pretty high quality this year.
 
Rick has been pretty quiet with the past two coaching searches, but Mark Johnson saying CU must get a coach with P5 HC experience concerns me
Pretty sure this was the rumor with Rick the last two hires about wanting a guy with HC experience, but he did still hire Tucker and justified it by mentioning the high level of his experience. He also seems to favor defensive-minded HCs, but dropped that last go around for a guy who was building his retirement home and coached here in the 90s. The list of guys RG has seemed to heavily consider in the past is pretty concerning, as I actually think he's proven quite limiting in terms of the scope of his searches with all of his qualifiers. Of course, he does play things close to the vest so I'm only going off so much. Basically I'd be extremely surprised if he seriously considered a P5 OC with no HC experience, which is a shame because we're god damn boring and there are good candidates there.
 
While I would love Herman as the HC, realistically I do not think he will be at CU. I believe CU needs young skilled minds with big recruiting chops. This would be my best scenario currently:

HC: Ryan Walters
OC: Bobby Petrino or Troy Taylor
(doubtful if he would leave Sac State to come audition for a P5 HC position taking the OC at CU but this would be the best scenario)
DC: Donte Williams (If Colorado is truly looking to reestablish its recruiting pipeline to the Los Angeles area, Williams would be a smart choice. He's one of the more established names in the SoCal recruiting scene and has brought in talent to Oregon and now USC. Williams, 40, also served as interim head coach at USC last year after Clay Helton was fired and interviewed for Fresno State's head-coaching vacancy. He was retained by new coach Lincoln Riley and has overseen a playmaking secondary early this season. The Los Angeles native worked at Arizona and Washington earlier in his career and has spent all but one year in the Pac-12 footprint)
DL/Associate Head Coach: Oscar Giles - Prior to Giles’ first recruiting class at Texas in 2018, the Longhorns had the 25th-ranked class in the country. They followed up this performance with rankings of third, third and eighth from 2018-20, respectively. Hired during the Tom Herman regime, Giles was retained by Steve Sarkisian and is a big part of building recruiting classes for the future. CU would need to add Associate HC to his title.
WR Coach/Lead Offensive Recruiter: Lonnie Galloway (NC State WR Coach) Galloway was one of the main contributors to 2020 and 2021 classes that both finished in the top 14 nationally. Two of UNC’s three classes immediately prior to his arrival finished outside the top 20, even with the signing of QB Sam Howell. Galloway’s WR group finished 12th in the nation in total offense and included third-round pick Dyami Brown.
RB Coach: Brian Callahan (currently the Running Game Coordinator at Minnesota) Callahan was brought on board in P.J. Fleck’s first season as the Gophers’ head coach. Their three classes prior to his addition finished 63rd, 46th and 59th. Two of the next three seasons, Minnesota finished in the top 40 in recruiting and added first-round pick Rashod Bateman. Five of Callahan’s OL group were recognized as All-Big Ten honorable mention or better, and several are expected to be drafted in 2022.
DB Coach: David Lockwood (currently at Appalachian State) ranked as the 37th best DB coach in all of college football and doing so at App State, and an excellent recruiter on top of being a top shelf level DB coach. Upgrade to the P5 level and give him the Lead Defense Recruiter title.

Bob Lopez and Chandler Dorrell have to go - A solid Dir of Player Personnel would be Ed Orgeron

Thrown in 20+ solid transfers and with this staff bringing in top 10 recruiting classes, CU is competing for the FBS Championship by year two. Plenty of reasons this would not happen but if there is a dedication to win, putting together a staff like this is reminiscent of what Coach Mac did, focusing on recruiting coaches with talent at their position. Hiring the likes of this staff could turn things around for RG and his tenure/legacy (Dorrell could become just a blip sandwiched between MT and this staff). Again, not saying this will occur, but this would be my choice for a staff that could literally return the Buffs to Dominance almost immediately.

Donte Williams is the gem - he is listed as the #1 recruiter in the nation - moving him from USC DB coach to DC gives us a great shot and there is always Walters to help support the Defense if Williams is not quite ready for the jump to a full time DC role.
 
Pretty sure this was the rumor with Rick the last two hires about wanting a guy with HC experience, but he did still hire Tucker and justified it by mentioning the high level of his experience. He also seems to favor defensive-minded HCs, but dropped that last go around for a guy who was building his retirement home and coached here in the 90s. The list of guys RG has seemed to heavily consider in the past is pretty concerning, as I actually think he's proven quite limiting in terms of the scope of his searches with all of his qualifiers. Of course, he does play things close to the vest so I'm only going off so much. Basically I'd be extremely surprised if he seriously considered a P5 OC with no HC experience, which is a shame because we're god damn boring and there are good candidates there.
If rumors at the time are to be believed, RG got close on Ryan Day (OC with no HC experience) before Urban abruptly retired, and he was close on Sark (OC with previous HC experience) before the world’s worst Plan B (former P5 HC). And he’s also hired Tucker (DC with no HC experience other than NFL interim), and MacIntyre who was a G5 HC with experience as NFL and P5 assistant.

So if I can say anything about RG, he doesn’t seem to have a “type”.
 
If rumors at the time are to be believed, RG got close on Ryan Day (OC with no HC experience) before Urban abruptly retired, and he was close on Sark (OC with previous HC experience) before the world’s worst Plan B (former P5 HC). And he’s also hired Tucker (DC with no HC experience other than NFL interim), and MacIntyre who was a G5 HC with experience as NFL and P5 assistant.

So if I can say anything about RG, he doesn’t seem to have a “type”.
RG didn't hire MacIntyre, though he actually fit both of those things, and I've never believed the Day rumor, he didn't fit with the other candidates and there was no reason for him to consider us, no one in the national media mentioned him either. All of the finalists mentioned back then were very similar besides him: Tucker, Aranda, Mason, Lake, and Lupoi. Pretty certain he specifically mentioned both HC experience and wanting a defensive guy for that search. I think his focus on the last search became HC experience over anything, and that was how we ended up with Sark as a rumor and then Calhoun and Bielema types and then there was that whole thing where we'd expanded our search to Harrell and Grinch right before hiring KD. Bruce Feldman had mentioned both of these things about George in his coaching candidate articles back then and it's not surprising to see the HC thing pop back up to me.
 
So if I can say anything about RG, he doesn’t seem to have a “type”.
What I've gleaned from his actual words are that when push comes to shove he goes based on the "feelings" he gets in the interview.

Essentially the opposite of having a plan with actual metrics that he measures candidates against.

He might have a few broad criteria to somewhat narrow the field, but those are checkboxes, not actual criteria.

He's a 1970s baseball scout who judges based on if they "look the part" rather than measurable data.

He'll present data to justify his decision, but that's post hoc justifications, rather than stuff he actually looked at before making the decision.

(This is why he was blindsided by the real numbers that showed regression over KD's career (and Sanford's for that matter) - he looked at top line and said "yeah that supports the feeling I got in the interview," and called it good.)
 
RG didn't hire MacIntyre, though he actually fit both of those things, and I've never believed the Day rumor, he didn't fit with the other candidates and there was no reason for him to consider us, no one in the national media mentioned him either. All of the finalists mentioned back then were very similar besides him: Tucker, Aranda, Mason, Lake, and Lupoi. Pretty certain he specifically mentioned both HC experience and wanting a defensive guy for that search. I think his focus on the last search became HC experience over anything, and that was how we ended up with Sark as a rumor and then Calhoun and Bielema types and then there was that whole thing where we'd expanded our search to Harrell and Grinch right before hiring KD. Bruce Feldman had mentioned both of these things about George in his coaching candidate articles back then and it's not surprising to see the HC thing pop back up to me.
My mistake on MacIntyre, but I think the Day rumors were pretty credible at the time - to the point he was allegedly seen with RG and Carl in Boulder if I’m not mistaken. Then Urban abruptly retires so Day can take over? That’s too incredible a coincidence for me.
 
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