The 10 Commandments of a college football coaching search:
I. Do not freak out if you haven鈥檛 hired a coach. 蜜柚直播 hired Dick Tomey on January 13, 1987. His predecessor, Larry Smith, was hired on April 16, 1980. They became the two most successful football coaches in school history. Now that 16 players have been signed in 蜜柚直播鈥檚 Class of 2018, don鈥檛 stop turning over rocks just to beat someone鈥檚 clock.
II. Do not pay your search firm 鈥渆xpert鈥 unless he has fully examined North Dakota State coach Chris Klieman, who is 54-6 and has won three of the last four FCS national championships. Klieman is affordable; his buyout is a mere $150,000. No, it will not be a Big Bang press conference winner, but my goodness, he must be doing something right. Beau Baldwin, now Cal鈥檚 offensive coordinator, was the Klieman of his day at Eastern Washington. Give him a call, too.
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III. Do spend time getting to know Philadelphia Eagles special teams coordinator David Fipp. He has coached under Tomey, Chris Ault, Rich Ellerson and Chip Kelly. Fipp, 43, is a former starting safety at 蜜柚直播, teammates with Tedy Bruschi. His head coach at Philadelphia, Doug Pederson, last year said Fipp will 鈥渟omeday be a head coach in the NFL.鈥 His top kick returner, Kenjon Barner, told The Athletic last month that Fipp鈥檚 鈥済oing to be a head coach. 鈥 Guys love playing for him. I love that dude. He鈥檚 special. When you have a coach like him, you鈥檇 do anything for him.鈥 Are special teams coaches qualified? On Monday, it was reported the 蜜柚直播 Cardinals are interviewing Atlanta Falcons special teams coach Keith Armstrong for their head coaching vacancy.
IV. Don鈥檛 buy it if a hot prospect says he鈥檒l need four or five years to turn things around in 蜜柚直播. Baloney. I would accept a one-year contract for a mere $100,000 to coach 蜜柚直播 in 2018 and guarantee the Wildcats would be bowl eligible. If I couldn鈥檛 produce a 6-6 record, I鈥檇 give back the $100,000 and scrub the ancient restrooms at 蜜柚直播 Stadium for a year, no charge. 蜜柚直播鈥檚 鈥18 schedule is so inviting that the next coach will be 5-0 the day he walks into his office for the first time.
V. Do make sure the next coach doesn鈥檛 buy a vacation home on a golf course in Georgia or somewhere near the Mason/Dixon Line. This is the Pac-12. Make it work here or at least in within the conference鈥檚 footprint. In July of 2016, Rich Rodriguez conducted his annual preseason staff retreat from his spiffy resort home in Georgia. About 20 staff members had to fly across country to do what could鈥檝e been done in, say, Pinetop or Flagstaff. What a waste of $20,000 or more. Remember when 蜜柚直播 was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, ranked No. 1 in 1994? SI published a photograph of the UA coaching staff on their preseason retreat. It was on Mount Lemmon.
VI. Do not expect a lifer. Get a guy while he鈥檚 hot and running on renewable energy. The shelf life of a Power 5 college football coach is about six years. The Pac-12鈥檚 current head coaches have been at their schools for an average of 3.4 years. And remember this: in the AP鈥檚 2007 Top 25 preseason poll, in which RichRod鈥檚 West Virginia Mountaineers were ranked No. 3, such status was fleeting. Of those 25 head coaches, 24 no longer coach at those schools. The holy names of 2007 鈥 Joe Paterno, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Bobby Bowden, Phil Fulmer 鈥 have either retired or been fired. The stock of many others from that Top 25 declined quickly: Houston Nutt, Bill Callahan, Karl Dorrell, Dennis Franchione. The only man still on the job at his same school is TCU鈥檚 Gary Patterson. The average stay at each of those Top 25 schools from 2007 was 5.6 years.
VII. Don鈥檛 get flummoxed by a coach鈥檚 鈥渟ystem.鈥 These things evolve and so must a coach. When RichRod arrived at 蜜柚直播 in 2012, the UA鈥檚 spread offense and speed-it-up system was without peer in the Pac-12. 蜜柚直播 ran 1,082 plays that season. That was even more than the lightning-quick Oregon Ducks (1,058). Since then, as 蜜柚直播 stubbornly did not change, the league lapped the Wildcats. In 2017, 蜜柚直播 ran just 908 plays. That total was sixth in the league, behind even stodgy Utah (953 plays) and UCLA (932), which was a dumpster fire.
VIII. Do insist that your next coach drive the short seven miles to Pima College and introduce himself to PCC football coach Jim Monaco. In the last three years, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Oregon State signed Pima College football players. 蜜柚直播? Zip. RichRod never even talked to Monaco. Not once.
IX. Don鈥檛 underestimate the appeal of 蜜柚直播 football. In the past few days, former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, ex-UCLA/Washington/Colorado coach Rick Neuheisel and former Tennessee coach Butch Jones have aggressively reached out to prominent UA donors in attempt to get involved in the coaching search. Maybe it鈥檚 not good timing for those men, but they know it鈥檚 possible to be a winner at 蜜柚直播.
X. Don鈥檛 hire someone who doesn鈥檛 appreciate the power of recruiting in the Polynesian culture. 蜜柚直播 hasn鈥檛 had a Polynesian assistant coach since Joe Salave鈥檃 was let go by RichRod in 2012. As of Monday, the Pac-12 had 16 coaches/recruiting coordinators of Polynesian ethnicity, including Salave鈥檃, who is Oregon鈥檚 associate head coach. 蜜柚直播鈥檚 next football coach must be more resourceful than to blow off any segment of the recruiting world.
OK, that鈥檚 it. Now go forth from the football wilderness and work on those 14,000 empty seats at 蜜柚直播 Stadium.