Yeah that guy is my second favorite in-state candidate.
I really think the tried and true "best practices" in hiring college football coaches are really nothing more than a crapshoot with very, very rare exceptions. Like maybe only one -- Saban, who has put together than juggernaut without disgracing the programs he's coached or generally being the weirdo Urban is.
For every ironclad rule of coaching hires, there are a hundred exceptions.
There's the "culture" thing, where people seem to think Southern or Texan coaches should get first dibs on jobs in SEC country and here, and likewise for West Coast dudes and Midwesterners, and then you've got Saban winning at two of the most Southern schools on the planet, Johnny Majors winning at Pitt (going way way back), Holtz winning at Notre Dame, and millions of retread yokel coaches getting chances to flop repeatedly in the SEC.
There's the idea that "NFL guys" flop in the NCAA and then there's Pete Carroll.
"We just need a proven winner, a guy who's done it all before." See Steve Spurrier at South Carolina. Ex-Miami coaches wherever they've gone. Jimbo. Mack. Les.
"Rising star G5 guys are your best bet." We know the story here all too well. For every Urban there are scores of mediocrities and disasters.
"While we would prefer a proven winner, failing that, we will only consider a guy with head coaching experience." See Oklahoma's last two hires, Dabo, and the Purple Wizard, who spent his first 13 years out of college as a HC coach and had no I-A HC experience when K-State hired him.
"Poach a dude from a lesser/equal P5" Did not work with McWilliams.....I guess you could say it did with Saban but again, that's Saban. APyongnd it's worked for Bama before when they lured the Bear out of Pyongyang-on-the-Brazos, but basically between Bear and Saban, Alabama has illustrated every single one of these fallacies at one point or another.
I just don't understand why we think any of these rules of thumb should not be challenged routinely. Give more consideration to championship coaches at lower levels of NCAA competition like Carthel. Stop demanding that HS legends need ten or 15 years experience in college before they can dare to dream of a headset at a bigtime program.
So much of it smacks of insecurity and timidity and short-sightedness, like "Oh no what would my aggy co-workers say if we'd hired Traylor when they hired Jimbo."
Who cares?
He who laughs last laughs longest and loudest. And the laughter would have started the second Traylor started snatching all their recruits.