The lack of recruiting is big. Here in socal there's tons of top notch talent.....And the best have been leaving for Alabama, OSU, Georgia, Oregon, etc. Alums have been really upset about that and expect USC to successfully recruit most of those players.
Coach O hit the jackpot with Brady and Burrow; his record outside that one year has been underwhelming given the talent he's had access to
Not the "good" kind of CEO though. I'd put him in the same league as Elizabeth Holmes. Tries to look like a visionary, winds up looking like a moron.
about the only equivalent, that I can think of off the top of my head, of a P5 team hiring a guy , outside the organization , with ZERO HC experience, is ND hiring Gerry Faust.
Didn't Vanderbilt just hire an up-and-coming ND assistant to be their HC?
Well let's set the scene properly, Campbell was 32 and had just two years experience as a coordinator. He was definitely promising, and Beckman and Thomas very much wanted and intended for him to be Beckman's OC, and didn't anticipate Toledo would hand the reins to someone that young. Toledo made the right choice and the rest is history.
Thomas did interview Chryst, but the real move he should have made was Pat Narduzzi who he knew well from their time together at Cincinnati, who wanted the job, but Thomas apparently felt he had to get someone with head coaching experience. And wound up in a marriage in which neither party had confidence in one another from day 1.
Gary Moeller says hello as well
More of a Tommy Boy kind of CEO, except without the kind heart and the everything turns out great ending.
Lots of assistants have been hired as Power Five head coaches. I believe the question is whether a Power Five team has ever hired a non-Power Five assistant straight into a head coaching role. Gerry Faust was a high school coach, which is a whole other kettle of fish.
I'd put a top-15 Cincinnati team's DC well above an OC from MAC Toledo, though I understand the point. Ultimately, people would have been beside themselves firing Zook and bringing in a 32 year old guy with no head coaching or coordinating experience at the P5 level. It could have worked out, but it would have been an incredibly tough sell. Unless that person was Nate Scheelhaase, as some clamored for him to get the job this time around...
The Scheelhaase clamor was more or a reaction to feeling we missed on Campbell. He is training under him and Illinois is home. I would not be entirely unhappy if/when McDonald leaves to try and hire Nate as a OC/coach in waiting type of guy.
Robert Zuppke (who our field is named after) was the Champaign HS coach before taking the job at Illinois....
That was more common back in the olden days. Harry Combes was hired straight from Champaign HS to coach the b-ball team.
yea, back when ANYONE could be on the team Fr-Soph year if you showed up -- and they wore soft leather helmets.
I don't think I've ever been nominated for that one
This is spot on. My dad played nosetackle on the Freshman team after he left the Marine Corps at the end of WWII. When I was little, I was like, “Whoa, you played nose tackle for the University of Illinois?” He was like, “Umm, to be clear ... for the FRESHMAN team.” I still have his leather helmet though. And because, unlike my dad who was part of the Greatest Generation, I was an idiot, so I generally used said leather helmet to drunkenly headbutt doors down when I went to U of I.
lol.................ahhh, those college memories
He was probably paid $25 per game. Even adjusted for 2021 dollars, I’m guessing a bit less than BU’s new deal.
