The Illinois Football Coaching Search

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#776      
Clausen has been held back at Wake for 2 reasons:
1. Small private Baptist college in the middle of the bible belt that is very fond of telling people about their standards, both academic and uppitiness. This has significantly limited his recruiting pool there, but he nevertheless has recruited & DEVELOPED incredibly for his system.

2. COVID/opt-outs/Transfers – That offense this year was going to be NASTYYYYYYYY (and I hate Wake, trust me). But when you have Jaimie Newman transfer to Georgia before opting out, all-world WR Sage Surratt opt (bc NFL...), and their best RB opt out midway through the season, it is going to be rough.

Honestly speaking, getting a coach like Clawson would be a huge coup for JW & the Illini, you would just need to give him 3-4 yrs of time. His extended meshpoint would dive defenses nuts.


Since you seem to know about ACC or at least Wake, I’m curious as to how you see Doeren as compared to Clawson? On paper at least it appears Doeren would be more desirable. He has better overall and conference records, and NC St routinely has a higher ranked recruiting class.
 
#777      
Since you seem to know about ACC or at least Wake, I’m curious as to how you see Doeren as compared to Clawson? On paper at least it appears Doeren would be more desirable. He has better overall and conference records, and NC St routinely has a higher ranked recruiting class.
I think that is a tough one and I am trying my best to be realistic & objective about it.

At NCSU, Doeren has shown that if he perceives a weakness on his team, he will fix it. He showed that when he hired Drinkwitz (with no prior connection) and later Beck to be the OC. He also did this by firing Huxtable and installed a 3-3-5 with Gibson. Recruiting has generally been good, but Mack Brown at Orange County Community College (aka UNC) has come back with a vengeance and really done a lot of negative recruiting against NCSU. Doeren hasn't beaten the top ranked teams consistently, but more often than not, it has been competitive. I think he has done a great job with development too. His major weakness is maximizing his team however. There have been a couple of games where if you win, you go to the next level and he has had a couple WTF loses (I AM LOOKING AT YOU WAKE!!!).

Clawson maximizes his team, top to bottom. Part of that is the Wake culture of mandating freshman take their redshirt year. Not everyone has that luxury in P5. Again, I think recruiting-wise, Wake is handcuffed, but it is respectable. I cannot emphasize enough how solid of a program he has built and his development is on point. Lastly, the extended mesh RPO offense he runs is just stupid how well it works. The mesh point is for like 3 full seconds, OL blocks it beautifully, and the QB almost always makes the right read. Defense has been pretty respectable (his DCs have a habit of going to better jobs, Notre Dame being one of them).

I think if Clawson was given some better horses to work with, that program would be comparable to the Fickell Cincinnati teams.
 
#778      
Jim leonhard
Lance Leipold
Jeff Monken
Luke Fickell
Bret Bielema
If those are the 5, then I throw Fickell out because if he turned down MSU, he will turn down Illinois. No chance.

Monken with the triple option huge risk here. It’s too out of the box. Lovie was out of the box too. I think Whitman makes a conventional football hire this time.

Leipold, he’s 56 with no experience in Power conference football. So doubt it’s him.

That leaves Leonhard or Bielema. I think it’s one of those guys that get it. IMO can’t go wrong with either one but the safest bet is Bielema. At this point I’ll be very surprised if it’s not Bielema. Too much smoke coming from there especially with the way he pulled out of the Southern Miss job at the very last second. Have to believe he didn’t take that job bc something better came along like Illinois.
 
#779      
Interesting, CYE, but Leipold at 56 has ten years to build the program with his loyal staff and then retire, with his successor being someone on the staff. We could have a pretty decent program and 15 or more years of stability. Speculation, but it is appealing to me.

I'm not sure what appeals to JW.
 
#780      

altenberger22

South Carolina
Why not someone who has won and learned from the best? Was an assistant coach at Alabama from 2013--17. Also assist coach and offensive coordinator at both Clemson and ASU. Was a winning head coach and Sun Belt conference head coachh of the year in 2019 and possibly this year and his teams score points. I loved Mike White at Illinois and i want someone that learned from the best like he did and puts points on the board and people in the stands.
Thinking this must be Billy Napier. If so, I agree, and I put him in my top 4.

He was perhaps in the final 3 at South Carolina before they hired Shane Beamer. If I recall correctly, he has over 10 years of coaching experience at Clemson and Alabama combined. He's also a former all-conference QB at Furman and the son of a head coach. Yes, his teams score points too!

I didn't surface his name earlier because of his lack of Midwestern ties. Despite that, I notice you reference Mike White, above --- and Mike had no midwestern ties either. Even today, Mike talks about Champaign-Urbana like it's some type of foreign land!
 
#782      

Deleted member 29907

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I am convinced that the only thing we Illini football fans like more than a nice, exciting head coaching search is coming up with new ways to misspell peoples' names.
Or, correcting people who misspell peoples' names. If you think of these as conversations/discussions rather than essays... you'll sleep better. ;)
 
#783      
If those are the 5, then I throw Fickell out because if he turned down MSU, he will turn down Illinois. No chance.

Monken with the triple option huge risk here. It’s too out of the box. Lovie was out of the box too. I think Whitman makes a conventional football hire this time.

Leipold, he’s 56 with no experience in Power conference football. So doubt it’s him.

That leaves Leonhard or Bielema. I think it’s one of those guys that get it. IMO can’t go wrong with either one but the safest bet is Bielema. At this point I’ll be very surprised if it’s not Bielema. Too much smoke coming from there especially with the way he pulled out of the Southern Miss job at the very last second. Have to believe he didn’t take that job bc something better came along like Illinois.
Fickel felt MSU had too many issues surrounding all the assault charges and rape charges against players and admin cover ups.
 
#784      
Jim leonhard
Lance Leipold
Jeff Monken
Luke Fickell
Bret Bielema
Leonhards been a great dc, can he recruit or build a staff? Wouldn’t be upset if hes the next hc honestly.
Liepold and Monken would be solid hires, doubt monken runs a triple option, believe when he interviewed for mizzou last year he said he would change his style.
Would fickell come here? Mich st’s in the tougher east vs Illinois in the west could that help?
Bielema has the resume, failed at Arkansas but many guys go to the sec and fail, happens every year. Could easily build the best staff of all the names on this list too.
 
#785      
I’m cool with the Wisconsin DC being the guy but man I hope he has an offensive guru coming in for oc.

Serious question: How many defensive coordinators stick as head coaches these days?

I think someone said it earlier in the thread and I agree now, college football is more about aggressively scoring the ball now than playing solid defense and ball control offense. The latter generally seems to appeal more to defensive guys.
 
#786      

Deleted member 747671

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I worry about Monken actually being able to change his offense. The triple option is who he is and what’s he’s pretty much always coached. That would be like if Wisconsin hired leach and told him to grind it out on the ground.
 
#787      
I’d almost worry more about his dc. Leonhard is arguably the best dc in the country. I assume he wouldn’t call the defense since this would be his first time as HC. He’ll need to trust a new dc to be as good as he is.

That’s a good perspective I hadn’t thought of. Honestly idk if I’d want him if he wasn’t calling the defense.
 
#788      
I worry about Monken actually being able to change his offense. The triple option is who he is and what’s he’s pretty much always coached. That would be like if Wisconsin hired leach and told him to grind it out on the ground.
I agree and cant argue its just a snap of a finger easy to switch from the wishbone to a spread option attack like weve been running with iw. There not the same and I get that but its not as bad as leach trying to run Wisconsin style football lol plus hes the hc so if he finds an oc worth a darn to run the offense he’d be fine no? Same boat as many guys letting other people run dc or oc as they run the program. He worked under paul johnson so curious what style he’d adjust. But Georgia southern and army aren’t exactly powerhouse programs so the triple option works there, but at a p5 program? Ga tech worked for a bit but its not the 1970’s no more. So I would assume he’d adjust to a different modern running style. Maybe something like costal carolinas off, rpo/pistol looking style.
 
#789      

Deleted member 747671

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That’s a good perspective I hadn’t thought of. Honestly idk if I’d want him if he wasn’t calling the defense.
I mean it can be done. He can call the defense. That would just be a lot on his plate for a first time HC with only a few years of coaching experience
 
#790      
That’s a good perspective I hadn’t thought of. Honestly idk if I’d want him if he wasn’t calling the defense.
If he could get Inoke Breckterfield (not sure spelled correctly) or/and Bobby April to join the staff with either being DC, that would be nice. Be more curious what type of O he prefers.
 
#791      

redwingillini11

White and Sixth
North Aurora
In all the concerns people have made about Jeff Monken, I haven’t seen anyone mention recruiting. Obviously recruiting to a power 5 program is much different than to a service academy. But idk, do they even have recruiting in a normal sense for Army? I can imagine that the cited pluses are experience recruiting young men to come to school even if it means joining the army, and having national contacts.
 
#792      
In all the concerns people have made about Jeff Monken, I haven’t seen anyone mention recruiting. Obviously recruiting to a power 5 program is much different than to a service academy. But idk, do they even have recruiting in a normal sense for Army? I can imagine that the cited pluses are experience recruiting young men to come to school even if it means joining the army, and having national contacts.
Yes and no. It’s definitely not the same but we have offered an army committ thats on our 247 list hayden reed. So its not like they don’t recruit anyone. But I do understand your concern on monkens recruiting potential.
 
#793      
Who? There's no coach out there with the resume that Bielema has. 3 Rose Bowls in the conference you want him to coach in. I feel like some of you people just don't want to hire a Rival coach for personal tastes. I don't care about any of that. I want to win. Would you take Fitzee? i would. Fleck? You bet. Would you say no to those coaches too?
I suppose that many of us just don't believe he can win. It would take 5 years for him to build a program, maybe, to where it is now. Compare apples to apples when comparing coaches. Not sure if you can, though. There are very few coaches that believe in his simplistic system of offensive football, anymore.
 
#794      
Just asking....

What do people here think of Mark Helfrich. He was successful at Oregon....
 
#795      
If those are the 5, then I throw Fickell out because if he turned down MSU, he will turn down Illinois. No chance.

Monken with the triple option huge risk here. It’s too out of the box. Lovie was out of the box too. I think Whitman makes a conventional football hire this time.

Leipold, he’s 56 with no experience in Power conference football. So doubt it’s him.

That leaves Leonhard or Bielema. I think it’s one of those guys that get it. IMO can’t go wrong with either one but the safest bet is Bielema. At this point I’ll be very surprised if it’s not Bielema. Too much smoke coming from there especially with the way he pulled out of the Southern Miss job at the very last second. Have to believe he didn’t take that job bc something better came along like Illinois.
1. A lot easier to Win in the B1G west than East regarding Fickell (still think it's a long shot)
2. Monken isn't married to the triple option and has said so many times.
3. Leipold has won every where he has been and has a connection to Josh
 
#796      
In all the concerns people have made about Jeff Monken, I haven’t seen anyone mention recruiting. Obviously recruiting to a power 5 program is much different than to a service academy. But idk, do they even have recruiting in a normal sense for Army? I can imagine that the cited pluses are experience recruiting young men to come to school even if it means joining the army, and having national contacts.

Recruiting at a servoce academy is incredibly difficult. You have to find football prospects willing to commit to serve 4 years after the grad and there are size restrictions.
 
#798      

AirNeezy

Orange Krush '13 -'14
Fickell would be the dream option obviously.

Regarding people dismissing Scheelhaase out of hand, Pat Fitzgerald was a 32 yr old LB coach when he became the head coach and now NW probably has a lifer who has had significant success and kicks our *** every year. Just saying that it's not always a ridiculous idea to take a long shot on what could be a rising star when your program is increasingly stagnant/mediocre/downright bad.
 
#799      
1. A lot easier to Win in the B1G west than East regarding Fickell (still think it's a long shot)
2. Monken isn't married to the triple option and has said so many times.
3. Leipold has won every where he has been and has a connection to Josh
No love for the Lewis guy? Maybe just no connection at all to Josh, so not really seen as an option?
 
#800      

MoCoMdIllini

Montgomery County, Maryland
Fickell would be the dream option obviously.

Regarding people dismissing Scheelhaase out of hand, Pat Fitzgerald was a 32 yr old LB coach when he became the head coach and now NW probably has a lifer who has had significant success and kicks our *** every year. Just saying that it's not always a ridiculous idea to take a long shot on what could be a rising star when your program is increasingly stagnant/mediocre/downright bad.

Wasn't Pat Fitzgerald already on the staff when their HC died suddenly?

Checked. Yes, he'd been a position coach at NU since 2001 under Randy Walker.

So this wasn't a "grab a young guy from another staff" situation. More of an unexpected succession.
 
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