George Clooney

He doesn’t really know how play the position yet. He neither understands their playbook yet nor can he get separation coming off the LOS. Like any receiver in a Jimbo offense, you probably shouldn’t expect him to become a key target until their third year, or maybe late in their second year.

They aren’t moving on from Franklin. They have a risk-averse AD, and their ‘22 recruiting shows no signs of tanking after a hot start this summer.

I completely forgot about Hugh Freeze on my list. He’d probably fit in at #3 on the unobtainable list (AD won’t sniff him because of his personal issues). He was really turning Ole Miss into something special, and every ‘Bama fan I know is stirring in their seats at the thought of Tennessee hiring him.

Also, I have no inside info on this, but I think Urban’s arachnoid cyst issue would not prevent him from coaching again. However, his daughters and wife clearly don’t want him coaching because they’re understandably concerned about it since they’re family. He’d have Texas winning 11+ games a year as soon as there were even two NFL prospects on the o line.

Early on, I thought James Franklin was the best realistic non-Urban option, save for maybe Cristobal. Kelly clearly has reformed ND for good since their disastrous ‘16 season, but I think that’s his last job. Franklin has really yanked this season, so that removes him from consideration. They just don’t care anymore, and my Scarlet Knights might get a big W against them this year. I think Lane Kiffin would be an extreme boom or bust hire. He is one of the best offensive minds in the sport and has fully embraced analytics to his benefit in situational football. However, he would only boom if he could keep hiring elite DCs one after another. Their defense is horrid (to be fair, they have minimal talent), so he’d need a cutting edge guy like Venables (though many have caught up) to field conference title caliber teams. I think he would absolutely kill it in recruiting in Austin. He’s also 1000x times more likable than Herman. A pretty good (though a bit snake oil salesman-like) Twitter follow is Dave Bartoo @cfbmatrix. He has a “coach effect” metric that’s pretty good and seemingly good efficiency metrics, but I think his coordinator metrics are pretty bad. Anyway, whenever Herman is fired, he’ll dole out some free opinions on who is/isn’t a fit. Fwiw, he (like Connelly’s SP+) was calling Herman’s success in ‘18 complete smoke and mirrors. He also gave Scott Frost the worst coach effect rating of any first year coach ever back in ‘18, and look what’s happening now. Anyway, I think the obtainable hires rank as follows: 1. Urban 2. Cristobal 3. Fickell (assuming Marcus Freeman tags along) 4. Kiffin 5. Tony Elliott 6. Campbell 7. Tom Allen (FSU should’ve hired him because he knows Florida like the back of his hand) 8. Fleck (recruiting is clearly an issue) The unobtainable hires rank as follows (not including guys like Saban/Dabo for obvious reasons): 1. Kelly 2. Mullen 3. Venables 4. Whittingham

I think you’re right about his daughters not wanting him to coach anymore. I think one of them has a young child, and they’ve essentially told him not to coach because they’re afraid the stress would kill him.

I agree with @texasstrong12 that Franklin is the most proven choice if Meyer says no. There are several things to like and dislike about his program in State College so far. One thing to like is their evaluation and development of players. They’ve had 17 players picked in the past three drafts, and they’ll likely have about six more picked in ‘21. He made a great hire at DC in Brent Pry. He’s had mixed results at OC, and assuming Ciarrocca works out, he’d be 2/4 there. He hasn’t quite locked down PA in recruiting, and that’s especially evident in the ‘21 class because they’re only going to get 1/10 of the state’s top prospects. I think he’s like Mack in terms of just coaching football. He isn’t like him off the field in recruiting and dealing with boosters because he rubs a lot of people the wrong way. However, it’s not so bad that it negatively affects the trajectory of their team; it just limits their ceiling. Additionally, they’ve had drug issues up there. From what I can tell, it’s not a huge issue because the worst players have been caught with is LSD (and I think it was just two players, but I could be wrong). One thing he handled really well was the 2016 offseason with respect to team leadership. He could tell before camp that several players in the locker room didn’t respect him and the team captains, and he put his ego aside and just listened to them in order to gain their trust back. I’d really like to see him leave PSU because it’d possibly make Greg Schiano’s job easier, but the Rutgers job is difficult no matter what so it’s not like it’d actually help.

You think the B1G is devoid of offensive imagination? Have you ever watched Minnesota, Purdue, or Indiana in the past few years? Slowly but surely, teams up there are retiring their old offenses. Both schools in Michigan are adapting, though neither has been successful yet. Nebraska runs a spread option offense. I get that a lot of their games are tough to watch, but don’t just assume nothing has changed since like 2012 up there.

Petersen isn’t even an option, but Smalls went on to commit to them anyway. The rumor is that Cristobal pushed the racist angle hard, but UW overcame it because their staff wasn’t actually racist (shocker). Cristobal is kind of the antithesis to Mullen in that he has a killer instinct in recruiting, for better or worse.

You’re right about his game management, but their offense isn’t his. It’s changed fairly significantly from John Donovan to Moorhead to Ricky Rahne to now Kirk Ciarrocca. Also, I’m not sure that Mullen is actually better than Franklin. Mullen seems to have an issue of keeping underwhelming assistants for too long (Grantham, Greg Knox, and Ron English), and he’s worse at communicating than Franklin. That being said, Franklin needs a huge year this year so that their ‘22 class matches their ‘17-19 classes.

Naturally, Herbig is threatening to already start on one of the best defenses in the nation at Wisconsin. They nail LB evaluations almost as well as OL evals up there.

Chryst is a Wisconsin lifer. He’s an alum, and it’s his dream job.

After looking into it, Tanner Morgan will likely declare in ‘21 so that’s another. Boye Mafe is a stud DE for them who will also likely get drafted. Giant OT Daniel Faalele (6’8” 400 lbs.) would likely get drafted as well. Chris Autman-Bell has an outside shot in addition. Corners Coney Durr and Benjamin St. Juste could get drafted with good seasons. Again, I’d like to see a year or two more of Fleck but he and his staff can definitely evaluate and develop at multiple positions.

I really like Franklin’s draft development. I don’t like that school but he and his staff really know how to evaluate. However, their recruiting is taking a tailspin for no apparent reason. Also, his in game coaching (especially at the end of games) might be worse than Herman’s. I want to see how they do this year and if that bumps their recruiting up again, and if not then he’s probably ruined his trajectory for good.

I love Fleck but you’re right. Ideally you want to see where Minnesota is after the ‘22 season/draft to really know who he is.

Great post. A lot of posters here don’t like Mario, but you could tell all the way back in 2001 at Rutgers that he’d be a star.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think Petersen ever coaches again. He seemed really disillusioned with recruiting and the sport in general (maybe due to Cristobal getting in the mud in recruiting on the west coast). You want to hire a guy with at least 5 years of experience, and Fleck fits that. I’m first and foremost a Rutgers fan unfortunately, so I know all about Schiano’s coaching tree. Cristobal and Fleck started to become great coaches under him as did Jeff Hafley, who’s now at BC. Hafley is too inexperienced to even be considered, but I think he’s a future star. It’s especially important to consider a coach’s draft record if they’re coming from the G5 (God forbid). Look at Herman’s abysmal draft record of guys recruited under him at UH and compare it to successful G5 to P5 coaches in the past decade. Brian Kelly, Matt Rhule, Fleck, Campbell, and a bunch more got more guys they recruited into the draft than that of Herman 4 years later at UH. It can be misleading though because guys like Charlie Strong can produce 10 (I think) draft picks in ‘15 and still be bad coaches. Fleck is a star in this profession, but I’d first like to see how many guys from his first three classes (‘17-19) get drafted. Bateman is for sure one of them, but I haven’t dug enough to see who their other ‘21 prospects are.

Yeah I’m really interested to see just how well he’d perform if/when he takes another job. I think (successful) experience is the most important thing to consider for the inevitable next hire. Herman came in with just two years of head coaching experience, and that’s not enough if the guy comes from outside the program.

Right, I should have said that it wasn’t UT-related. I’m just interested in seeing if he can knock off some of the better SEC teams.

@texifornia How do you like Kiffin so far? It seems like he has the offense running pretty well given the limited practice time.

We’ll just have to wait, but I really think Day will be at least as good as Dabo if he doesn’t have NFL aspirations. He seemingly makes great hire after great hire at every assistant position, and the media guys I trust laud him constantly. In addition, he understands recruiting and is better at it like 10x that of Helfrich. Look around the country and you’ll see that great ADs nail coaching hires regardless of the coach’s experience/accolades. Stricklin at UF nailed the Mullen hire, Gene Smith nailed the Day hire, Rob Mullens nailed the Cristobal hire, Gene Taylor (very underrated) at KSU seems to have made a great hire in Klieman. If CDC is really in those guys’ class, then he’ll also make a great hire.

Urban has had an outstanding career, but ADs at high-profile programs hire great up and coming coaches all the time. When Steve Patterson and Mike Perrin are in charge of hiring a head coach, it’s likely going to be a bad hire. If CDC is truly a top 10 AD, then he’ll hire a great coach. Everyone knows he’s been good so far, and I think he’ll eventually hire a great coach like he’s done a few times already.

Does the football board understand that coaches other than Urban Meyer exist? He’s obviously had a great career but his team in ‘18 responded much better to Ryan Day for a reason. Who knows, maybe there’s a chance that someone like Mario Cristobal gets tired of the Pac 12 front office and university presidents holding his team back, so he looks east. It’d be premature this year, but I think Jeff Hafley at BC is a future star head coach and moves up quickly. Everyone mentions Fleck, but I think he’d be more expensive than any other realistic option. Obviously there are tons of other options, but the Urban tunnel vision on that board is just strange. I get that it’s full of simpletons/drunk guys, but it’s still stupid.

I think Franklin wants their boosters to drop more bags, but I’ve heard they don’t really get along with him well so they don’t have a good system in place. Also, a bunch of players up there hear from former teammates/former players from the area about how much they like the south so the SEC schools have an even easier time recruiting players from DMV/PA/NJ.

Ohio St leads for him. Elijah Robinson can land any player in Greater Philly, but Reading isn’t in his wheelhouse so this is just a desperation offer.